wfn.org | ALC News Noticias Feb 22 2004

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

ALC NEWS SERVICE
E-mail: director@alcnoticias.org

ALC HEADLINES:
NICARAGUA: Women against corruption sweep municipalities and courts
ECUADOR: Roitman emphasizes the magic of the Dead Sea scrolls
BRAZIL: Political scandal has impact on Universal Church
CHILE: Bishop Gutierrez received Methodist Order in emotional ceremony

NICARAGUA
Women against corruption sweep municipalities and courts

By Trinidad Vasquez
MANAGUA, February 17, 2004 (alc).  Militants from the Federation of Women 
from the Countryside, support by the Association for Development (APD) 
marched through the streets of the municipalities of Nueva Guinea and San 
Jose, armed with brooms against corruption and swept the Municipal offices, 
the courts and the offices of the water and electricity firms.

The demonstrators, accompanied by students and representatives from civil 
society, were led by the delegate from the Pro-Denominational Alliance 
Council of Evangelical Churches (CEPAD), Arsenio Alvir.

When they passed by the offices of the mayor, the courts and the Spanish 
electricity firm Union FENOSA, the Enacal water company and other 
institutions, they swept and shouted no more corruption or increases in 
the water, electricity or food costs.

The families of Nueva Guinea, 300 kms southeast of Managua, who could not 
participate in the march, placed brooms on their doorsteps to support the 
march. San Jose de Masatepe is 65 kms south of the capital.

The February 11 protest was also aimed at judges for delaying justice. 
Criminal Judge Eduardo Carrillo said that there is no delay in his courts 
and was pleased about the clean up in the court.

Jose Martinez, delegate of the Catholic Church, called on citizens to 
support this type of civic protest, to demand transparency from public 
officials in the administration of state resources and the payment of taxes.

We must not tire, we must continue demanding our rights and protesting all 
injustices, said Martinez.

He pointed out that even a former official from the now defunct National 
Guard, Nicanor Velasquez, participated in the march. He called on the 
population to strengthen the Civil Society Commission that has been 
struggling since last year so that the local and national government be 
more transparent in how it invests the budget.

The demonstrators asked that the CEPAD office receive the complaints about 
the public service, justice rulings and places of ill repute. In San Jose 
de Masatepe, professor Eduardo Jerez recalled that the population can also 
sweep up corrupt government officials and politicians by not giving them 
their vote in the next municipal elections.

German Ramos, Leader of the Pentecosal Corner Stone Church called on God to 
make justice shine in the face of so much evil and violence.

ECUADOR
Roitman emphasizes the magic of the Dead Sea scrolls

By Manuel Quintero
QUITO, February 18, 2004 (alc).  The true magic of the Dead Sea Manuscripts 
is that these parchments give us back memory, said Rabbi Adolfo Daniel 
Roitman.

We will not find magic or esoteric recipes in the style of Nostradamus, but 
they do represent an extraordinary contribution to the inter-religious 
dialogue of our time, said the Jewish expert who was born in Argentina. 
Since 1994 he has been curator and director of the Shrine of the Book of 
the Museum of Jerusalem.

With his warm humor and remarkable knowledge, Roitman captivated the 
audience that attended the seminar to hear about the scrolls.

The majority of historians believe that there material is the most 
important: I am sure mine is, he said, bringing more than one smile as he 
referred to the exceptional material under his care.

In the first part of the conference, held Feb. 17 in the Pontifical 
Catholic University of Ecuador, he spoke about the importance of the 
manuscripts as a documentary source to understand a critical period in 
Israels history, that coincides with the origins of Christianity.

None of the Rabbinical scriptural sources, the historic narrations of 
Flavio Josefo, disperse material in Greek and Latin literature, the New 
Testament writings were original from the era, which is why the discovery 
of the scrolls changes the history of knowledge, he said.

He then referred to the community of Qumran and said they have essentially 
conserved its library  - the Dead Sea Scrolls - buildings and objects and 
even a cemetery with 1,200 tombs. The ideal for any investigator, he said.

The community of Qumran was sectarian and monastic, he said, and their 
preferred Biblical texts were Deuteronomy, of which they found 27 copies in 
the scrolls, the psalms, with more than 30 copies, and Isaiah, with 18 
copies, each complete with a longitude of 7.35 meters.

It was a community with a rich liturgical life. Among the non-Biblical 
manuscripts they have found 300 prayers and a strong eschatological 
orientation, manifested in their preference for the prophecy of Isaiah, he 
said.

Qumran was destroyed by the Roman army in the summer of the year 68 when it 
had existed for nearly 150 years and when the consolidation of primitive 
Christianity was underway.

According to Roitman, this makes it possible to establish some points of 
contact and influences about a movement, Christianity, which has its 
origins in Judaism.

For example, there is a clear parallelism between the figure of John the 
Baptist and some of the practices of the community of Qumran.

John preached in the desert, he practiced Baptism with water and preached 
about the end of the times. Members of the community were isolated in a 
type of monastic life in the desert, emphasized Baptism as purification. 
For example, they found 10 Baptismal fonts in the ruins of Qumran. 
Moreover, they also emphasized an eschatological reading, he said.

According to Roitman, it is also likely that Jesus himself received some 
influence from the community of Qumran, in particular regarding his ideas 
about poverty and divorce.

In any case, one of Jesus phrases that confused experts for a long time 
can now be understood in the light of the teachings of the community of 
Qumran, he said.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said You have heard that it was said, 
Love your neighbor and hate your enemy (Matt 5:43) The first part of the 
saying love your neighbor can be found in Leviticus (19, 18) but the 
expression hate your enemy is not found in the Scriptures, said Roitman.

However, in a manuscript called Rules of the Community, new members of 
the Qumran sector were called upon to love all the sons of the light and 
to hate the sons of the shadows. It can be presumed that Jesus had this 
doctrine in mind when he gave the Sermon on the Mount, he affirmed.

The great tragedy is that we Christians and Jews forget that Jesus was 
Jewish, said Roitman, upon concluding his speech and calling on people to 
create a new language after 2,000 years of misunderstanding.

BRAZIL
Political scandal has impact on Universal Church

BRASILIA, February 20, 2004 (alc). The most serious political crisis faced 
by the President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva government, involving Waldomiro 
Diniz, had a direct impact on the Universal Church of God this week, which 
opted to separate Bishop Carlos Alberto Rodrigues from his parliamentary 
and Church functions.

The IURD Council of Bishops announced in a note dated February 18, that it 
was separating Rodrigues from his position as coordinator of the 
parliamentary bench and from his responsibilities as bishop for ethical 
reasons.

Rodrigues, elected on the Partido Liberal ticket of Rio de Janeiro, will 
also no longer be spokesman for the IURD in the National Congress.

IURD founder and leader Bishop Edir Macedo confirmed on his program Talk, 
I hear you broadcast by the Red Record television net, that Rodrigues had 
been separated from the positions. Macedo mentioned a report from the daily 
O Dia that points to Rodrigues as being responsible for appointing some 
officials from the Rio de Janeiro Lottery (Loterj) when Diniz presided this 
entity between 2001 and 2002.

According to O Dia, the wife of the former palace advisor, Sandra, worked 
in the offices of Congressman Rodrigues. The IURD does not approve of 
gambling.

Last week, the magazine Epoca broke the worst political crisis confronted 
by the Lula government when it published a recording in which Diniz, as 
president of Lorterj, allegedly negotiated resources for the electoral 
campaign with Carlos Augusto de Almeida Ramos, known as Carlos Cachoeira, a 
person with gambling ties. Diniz was aide to Lulas chief-of-Staff, Jose 
Dirceu.

Diniz allegedly allowed Cachoeira to alter the results of Lorterj. In 
exchange, he requested money for Rosinha Garotinhos electoral campaign, at 
the time a candidate for Benedita da Silvas Brazilian Socialist Party and 
for Geraldo Magela, governor candidate for the Federal District on a 
Workers Party ticket, as well as a small percentage for his own pocket.

Diniz is not a member of the PT and was fired when the scandal broke on 
Friday, Feb. 13 the day the PT celebrated its 24th anniversary.

Rosinha Garotinho denies having received money and said that Diniz was not 
authorized to negotiate for her during the campaign. Her husband, then 
governor of Rio Anthony Garontinho, named Diniz as president of Loterj.

Benedita da Silva became governor of Rio de Janiero when Garotinho resigned 
to run as president and maintained Diniz in his position. Magela also 
denies receiving money for the campaign from Diniz. Benedita da Silva has 
not commented on the case as she is outside the country.

President Lula announced that the Federal Police and the Comptroller 
General would investigate these cases, which involve the main advisor of 
the Civil House and friends of Minister Dirceu.

The opposition is calling for the creation of a Parliamentary Investigative 
Commission to ensure an independent investigation. The PT government, which 
has always defended transparency and ethics in public management, did not 
support the creation of such a commission.

However, it is in favor of a probe to investigate all the campaign funds 
for all political parties but said it should not be restricted to the 
so-called Waldomiro Scandal.

Legislators have already met the requirements to form a commission to 
investigate the Bingos in the country. Former educational minister 
Cristsvam Buarque, signed the request.

President Lula traveled to Rio Grande do Sul to inaugurate the Grape 
Festival in Caxias do Sul. Both he and minister Dirceu, who offered his 
resignation that was not accepted, try to down play the issue. In the 
economic sector, the dollar gained, the stock market was steady and the 
national country risk rose 18 percent over the course of the week.

The head of the Catholic National Bishops Conference Geraldo Majella said 
that the Waldomiro Diniz case is extremely serious. He did not refer to 
the creation of a parliamentary commission but demanded that the case be 
investigated and the responsible punished.

The vice president of the CNBB, Antonio Celso de Queiros did not comment on 
Dirceus participation, stating that the ministers trajectory inspires 
confidence. He said at any level an authority is subjected to being 
surprised by the illegal action of one of his subordinates. He becomes 
responsible if he does nothing once the illegal act is confirmed.

CHILE
Bishop Gutierrez received Methodist Order in emotional ceremony

SANTIAGO , February 20, 2004 (alc). The advantage of these tributes is that 
there will be nothing left to say the day I leave this earthly life. On 
that day I do not want any speeches or sermons. Only hymns that take a 
message of joy and selected music, biblical phrases and brief prayers, said 
Chilean Bishop Isaias Gutierrez upon receiving the Latin American- 
Caribbean Methodist Order.

The distinction was granted by the Evangelical Methodist Council of Latin 
America and the Caribbean (CIEMAL) in recognition his service as president 
of the institution from 1991 to 2003. The award was given during a worship 
service held last Sunday, Feb. 15, in the First Methodist Church of Santiago.

The Methodist bishop of Brazil and president of the Executive Committee of 
CIEMAL, Paulo Lockmann emphasized in his sermon that Gutierrez served the 
Lord with humility. He said that, similar to the Apostle Paul, Gutierrez 
had moments of tears and testing, in particular in times of political and 
social crisis, but he always remained faithful, helping the Churches in 
these circumstances.

He emphasized that Gutierrez was bishop during the government of Gen. 
Augusto Pinochet and said that he felt like one of Gutierrez disciples.

Upon voicing his gratitude, Bishop Gutierrez gave thanks to God for 
granting him the privilege of serving Him. He also gave thanks for Alicia 
an admirable wife who has accompanied him during these 49 years of 
Christian ministry, and for the wealth that his children represent: 
Ricardo, Roberto, Eduardo, Cristina and Enrique and for the joy of being 
grandparents to Diego, Gabriela and Paula.

The Lord called upon me to travel the world as of 1972, visiting Ethiopia, 
Egypt, Cyprus, the Holy Land, Germany and Spain, he said. These have been 
32 years of incessant trips, despite the doctors orders, he said.

He recalled that his mother and father discovered the Gospel through the 
Methodist Church, four years before he was born, in Curanilahue, province 
of Arauco.

Ever since the General CIEMAL Assembly in Piracicaba (May 2003) I have been 
receiving emotional tributes, he said. Among others, he referred to the 
First Church of Concepcisn in August 2003; the Church of La Florida in 
Santiago; the General Assembly of the Methodist Church of Chile in Iquique 
and in National Congress of Methodist Men of Chile, as well as in visits to 
Brazil and Uruguay, he noted.

And now this recognition from CIEMAL, with phrases so beautiful I thought 
they were talking about someone else, he said. In truth, he added, it 
should be me who pays homage to all of those who have allowed me to serve 
at their side because without you my work would have been meaningless and 
would not have shown the fruits the Lord has permitted.

With CIEMAL, he said, I have occupied different positions since 1981; which 
is to say 23 years of sharing. Regarding the Latin American- Caribbean 
Methodist Order he recalled that he presided the Commission that created it 
but that he was thinking of leaders like Eduardo Gattinoni and Bishop 
Federico Pagura.

I have felt close to this beloved friend (Pagura) in the song We have 
hope that I asked for, as an expression of unity, as we have been united 
in the difficult years of the military dictatorships, making our voices 
heard in favor of peace, liberty and respect for human life, underlined 
Gutierrez.

The Latin American -Caribbean Methodist Order was created in the VIII 
General CIEMAL Assembly held in Piracicaba, Brazil, in May 2003. It is 
granted to people within and outside the Church, for their commitment to 
Evangelism, to theological teaching and Christian education, to community 
service, defense of life and its values, ecumenical and inter-religious 
relationships and the direction of Methodist or Ecumenical bodies.

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