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Note #8115 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Presbyterians forming Colombia network
04075
February 11, 2004

Presbyterians forming Colombia network

Group will meet before ecumenical conference in Washington

by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE - Presbyterians will meet next month in the Washington, DC, area
to form a mission network to support Colombian church leaders.

	The gathering will take place on March 5, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., at
the Doubletree Hotel-Crystal City in Arlington, VA.

	That is one day before the start of an "Ecumenical Advocacy Days for
Global Peace and Justice" event at the same hotel. The second-annual Advocacy
Days gathering will run through March 8, and will include tracks on Africa,
Israel/Palestine, Korea and Latin America, and address critical issues
including nuclear disarmament and Jubilee and economic justice.

	The Latin American track will focus on Colombia. One of the keynote
speakers is the Rev. Milton Mejia, executive secretary of the Presbyterian
Church of Colombia, who has received death threats from opponents of his
human-rights work. (See related story, "In the Valley of the Shadow.")

	After several days of preparation time devoted to lectures and
small-group activities, participants will meet with U.S. Congress members and
their foreign-policy staffs.

	The theme of the gathering is "I Will Feed Them With Justice," a
reference to Ezekiel 34:16: "I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the
strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but
the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice."

	To register for the ecumenical event, visit www.advocacydays.org.

	Mejia will attend the Presbyterian Church (USA) mission network
gathering to strategize with Presbyterians.

	To register for the Presbyterian meeting, email Vennie Constant, the
Worldwide Ministries Division's program assistant for ecumenical and mission
partnerships, at vconstant@ctr.pcusa.org.

	The Rev. Jo Ella Holman, the PC(USA)'s associate for ecumenical and
mission partnerships, said the Presbyterian Church (USA) intends to create
the "nucleus" of a mission network to Colombia during the gathering.

	While some of the registrants already have partnerships with
Colombian presbyteries - such as Winnebago and Miami Presbyteries - any
Presbyterians who are interested in working on Colombian issues are welcome,
Holman said.

	Holman noted that individual Presbyterians have visited Colombia in
delegations representing Witness for Peace and the Presbyterian Peace
Fellowship.

	"The situation in Colombia is so volatile and deep, and the
Presbyterian Church of Colombia has asked us to accompany them in this time,"
she said.

	A mission network, Holman said, will allow Presbyterians to implement
strategies for long-term involvement and to coordinate planning.

	Advocacy Days is sponsored by a range of churches and faith-based
coalitions, including Church World Service, Bread for the World, Churches for
Middle East Peace, the Episcopal Church USA, the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, Lutheran World
Service, the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, the PC(USA), the Reformed
Church in America, the United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church
General Board of Church and Society, and the Washington Office on Africa.

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