wfn.org | NCCCUSA - Sao Paulo Ecumenical Process in Americas

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Contact: Carol J. Fouke, NCC 212-870-2252
Internet: carol_fouke.parti@ecunet.org

NCC4/30/97    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ECUMENICAL PROCESS LINKING THE AMERICAS AND CARIBBEAN
MARKS 11TH YEAR, SETS JOINT PRIORITIES THROUGH THE YEAR 2000

 SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, April 28 ---- A growing ecumenical "process" that
include s North American denominational mission agencies and nearly120
projects, most of
 them in Latin America and the Caribbean, marked its 11th year by setting
joint priorities for work to address critical human needs in the Americas.

 One hundred delegates, including 64 from projects, met here April 26-28
under t he auspices of the Committee on Latin America and the Caribbean
(CCLA) of the Na tional Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
(NCC), a coordinating bod y for U.S. mainline Protestant and Orthodox
mission in the region.

The priorities they set include engaging in struggles for peace, justice,
human rights and democratization, and pursuing alternatives to the dominant
"neo-liber al" model of economic globalization, which, delegates said, is
swelling the rank s of the "excluded" in their countries.

 But the meeting was as significant for how it "looked" and "felt" as it
was for
 the priorities that were set.

 There was virtually no sign of the wariness evident when the process was
initia ted in 1986 at a meeting between the CCLA's "Northern" funders and
directors of cash-poor "Southern" projects.  (The process draws its name,
the "Sao Paulo Proc ess," from that meeting's venue - Sao Paulo, Brazil.)

 Instead, in Costa Rica, representatives from both "North" and "South"
participa ted as equals around a common table.  And the assembly looked
much more like the
 diversity that characterizes the Americas - men, women and children;
laity, nun s and clergy; indigenous people; Americans of European and
African descent; main line Protestants, Roman Catholics, evangelicals and
Pentecostals; some well off and others who struggle to feed, clothe and
house their families.

 "In 1986, there was a lot of tension between North and South," observed
the Rev
 . Oscar Bolioli, who directs the NCC's Office on Latin America and the
Caribbean
 .  "The North played the role of being the 'owner' who takes initiatives
and mak es decisions. The power dynamic now is we make decisions together.
In 1986, pro jects were separate and competing for money at the national
and continental leve l.  Now projects are working together and supporting
each other."

 Indeed, the words "relationship" and "solidarity" were heard much more
frequent ly at the Costa Rica meeting than the word "money."  In fact, the
Sao Paulo Proc ess - which started with 65 projects funded through the CCLA
- now embraces 98 f unded projects and another 20 not funded through the
CCLA.

Delegates described the Sao Paulo Process primarily as "a space...an open
place of reflection and exchange in defense of life, a space of dialogue,
exchange, ed ucation and solidarity," and resisted formalizing a structure.
Between quadrenn ial "evaluations" like the one here, process participants
hold regular national and regional meetings.  In some places, the "space"
is "more of a movement or ne twork with more definite programs and more
defined aims."

The Costa Rica gathering had the "feel" of a family reunion.  People
laughed and
 cried together.  They celebrated lives redeemed and mourned lives lost to
viole nce, including the violent end to the standoff at the Japanese
Embassy in Peru.
 They partied and prayed together, sang and shared the Eucharist together.

 "I feel strengthened and encouraged," declared Hortensia Vargas, a Roman
Cathol ic Sister of Charity and nurse serving in a Chiapas, Mexico,
hospital in the hea rt of the armed conflict.  "Most valuable to me is the
identification among all these churches.  We have the same objectives and
our hearts are beating with the
 same love.  We are trying to see a Christian solution to our problems."

 "We know more about each others' realities than we did in 1986," Mr.
Bolioli sa id.  Much of the Costa Rica meeting was devoted to "situation
reports" from both
 North and South.  "Case studies" touched on the worsening spiral of
polarizatio n and violence in Mexico, systematic violation of human rights
in Colombia, pove rty and famine in Haiti, children's struggle against
violence in Peru, Guatemala n war widows' efforts to survive, and the
particular discrimination that affects
 indigenous people and people of African descent in Brazil.

Offering a perspective on the North American reality was Peggy Hutchison,
Associ ate General Secretary for Global Network and Ecumenical Relations
for the United
 Methodist Church.

The strong U.S. movements of solidarity with Guatemalans, El Salvadorans
and Nic araguans buffeted by war in the 1970s and 1980s have given way to
individualism and a loss of interest in Latin America and the Caribbean,
she said.

"In the United States," she continued, "we see more unemployment, more
racism, m ore poverty, fewer rich and more poor.  We have to be fully aware
of our own rea lity, and of our responsibility within this reality.
'North' and 'South' need t o connect their struggles against unemployment,
racism, poverty and harsh immigr ation laws."

Later in the meeting, the Sao Paulo Process' North American Region - until
now p rimarily a forum for administrative decision making - pledged to set
goals for w ork together on these issues.

 Among full delegates to the Costa Rica meeting were five adolescents from
acros s Latin America and the Caribbean.  All are leaders in work with
"children at ri sk" - including children living in the streets, working,
abused at home and by t he authorities and those drawn into prostitution to
"sex tourists."

 "In 1986, the Sao Paulo Process included only one project working with
street c hildren," Mr. Bolioli said.  "Now we have 20, plus two more for
adolescents.  No w children are part of the meetings and have space to
speak out and influence th e decision making."

 Dr. Jung Mo Sung, a Roman Catholic theologian and professor in Sao Paulo,
Brazi l, described the dramatic differences in values and worldviews in
traditional ag ricultural societies, under industrialization and in the new
globalized economy and information age.

The neoliberal market's "paradigm of plenitude of consumption" - a paradigm
that
 has "won the heads and hearts of a majority of people, including in our
churche s" - needs to give way to the "Pentecost paradigm," he said, which
"is to strive
 for the acceptable minimum of dignified life for all and a society where
everyo ne can fit.  Above that, whatever we can do is fine."

 Bishop Will Herzfeld of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, with
headqu arters in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A., who chairs the NCC's Church
World Service a nd Witness Unit, led the consultation's three Bible studies
on the theme of shar ing.

^From the beginning of Jesus' ministry, Bishop Herzfeld said, Jesus "spoke
to the
 marginalized, disenfranchised and dispossessed.  He proclaimed sight to
the bli nd, hearing to the deaf, healing for the wounded and liberation for
prisoners.  And he declared a "Jubilee" providing "for this kind of sharing
among all people
 ."

The Rev. Dr. Rodney Page, an NCCCUSA deputy general secretary and executive
dire ctor of the Council's Church World Service, expressed his confidence
that "the s eeds we have planted, are planting and will plant together will
reap a bountiful
 harvest of compassion, hope, unity, renewal and justice for all God's
children.  "

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