wfn.org | ALC News Service Noticias March 7 2004

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

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

ALC HEADLINES:
CUBA: CLAI and WCC analyze collaboration on the road to Porto Alegre
CUBA: The Haitian crisis and other problems in the region motivate CLAI 
declaration
BRAZIL: Murder of Doraci Edinger is the most painful episode in the life of 
the IECLB
ARGENTINA: Councilman calls for The Passion movie to be declared of 
municipal interest
NICARAGUA: New wave of Haitian refugees

CUBA
CLAI and WCC analyze collaboration on the road to Porto Alegre

By Manuel Quintero
HAVANA, March 1, 2004 (alc). The World Council of Churches trusts that the 
celebration of the IX General Assembly will be significant in the search 
for a new vision for the ecumenical movement in Brazil and other Latin 
American countries, said Marta Palma, Latin American WCC Secretary.

She made the comments during a panel discussion held during the CLAI board 
of the directors meeting, aimed at sharing information about the event and 
underscoring the areas of cooperation involving the Latin American Council 
of Churches in the process leading up to the assembly. Pastor Hector 
Mendez, member of the WCC Central Committee and Guillermo Kerber, from the 
International Relations Office, accompanied her.

In recent months the Methodist Churchs decision to not participate in the 
Fraternity Campaign organized by the National Council of Christian Churches 
(CONIC) of Brazil demonstrated the difficulty that some Churches have 
regarding Catholicism, in particular in the Pentecostal world.

According to Palma, the new WCC Secretary General, the Rev. Sam Kobia, is 
particularly sensitive to regional and local realities and is very 
interesting in hearing what Churches in Brazil and Latin America think and 
receiving their contributions regarding the Assembly.

Pastor Mendez referred to the theme of the Assembly God, in your grace, 
transform the world, selected from more than 30 themes proposed by WCC 
member churches and said it was the theme most strongly proposed by Latin 
America.

It is now up to us to debate the connotations of this theme in each 
context and the specific contribution we can make from Latin America, said 
Mendez.

The themes will be developed in a series of sub-themes revolving around 
three fundamental axis: the transformation of our lives, of our Churches 
and of our societies. The suggested sub-themes must be considered and, if 
necessary, modified, by the Churches said Palma.

Life in community, discipleship and prayer, mission, testimony, healing and 
the charismatic movement, the environment and genetic manipulation are some 
of the issues to be addressed in the process leading up to the assembly and 
in the assembly itself.

Kerber, who coordinates the office on Impunity and Reconciliation for Latin 
America and the Caribbean, underscored the importance of holding the WCC 
meeting on Latin American soil.

The celebration of the VIII Assembly in Harare in 1998 led to greater 
awareness of the problems affecting the region, such as the need to 
accompany situations of conflict more closely, the search for peace and the 
campaign to battle AIDs, he said.

The assembly could be an opportunity to once again place Latin America on 
the WCC and the ecumenical movements agenda, said Kerber.

The IX Assembly will be held in Porto Alegre, in southern Brazil in 
February 2006. The program will include moments of prayer, Bible studies, 
workshop and reflections about the challenges raised by national and 
international reality.

There will be three official liturgical moments each day and the different 
confessional families represented at the assembly will have the opportunity 
to celebrate liturgies according to their tradition.

Some 4,000 people are expected to participate in the event that will 
include workshops and exhibitions about different aspects of the life of 
the Churches and their testimony in the midst of diverse situations and 
contexts in the world.

A plenary about Latin America and a liturgical celebration, to be jointly 
elaborated by CLAI, the WCC and the national Brazilian committee will make 
it possible to raise the main concerns and the clamor of the Churches on 
the continent.

Leading up to the Porto Alegre assembly, one of the most important tasks 
for CLAI and the WCC will be to discern the most pressing challenges in the 
present century and incorporate them in the process leading up to the 
Assembly, said Palma. Another common task will consist in contributing a 
broader discussion about the ecumenical movement.

CUBA
The Haitian crisis and other problems in the region motivate CLAI declaration

HAVANA, March 2, 2004 (alc). The dramatic situation in Haiti, a country 
racked by extreme poverty, armed conflicts and the crisis in governance 
were emphasized in a statement from the Latin American Council of Churches 
(CLAI) board of directors, meeting in this capital from February 27 to 
March 1.

We are pained by the absurd fratricidal bloodshed that brought down a 
government that betrayed the hopes of the poorest, said CLAI in a letter 
addressed to Latin American and Caribbean Churches Monday.

President Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned as president of Haiti in the 
early hours Sunday and sought exile in the Central African Republic, while 
the president of the Supreme Court Boniface Alexandre assumed the 
government and called on the international community to send in 
peacekeeping forces.

CLAI, that represents more than 100 Evangelical organizations and Christian 
groups in Latin America and the Caribbean voiced its rejection of violence 
as a mechanism to solve political differences and support the call of 
Haitian Churches for a negotiated, peaceful resolution that would avoid 
greater bloodshed.

It called on the Caribbean Community of Nations (CARICOM), the OAS and the 
United Nations to guarantee the disarmament of former military factions 
that lead the 2001 coup and to ensure internationally supervised 
legislative and presidential elections.

It also called on Churches, cooperation agencies and the international 
ecumenical community to send humanitarian aid and to intercede before 
governments to find lasting solutions to the crisis and to pray for a time 
when the Haitian people can enjoy peace with justice.

The message to the Churches affirmed that it is imperative to restore the 
right of the Haitian people to democracy and self-determination and 
requested that the embargo on economic assistance be lifted as it submerges 
the vast majority of the Haitian population into the most terrible poverty.

We appeal to the Churches of the Dominican Republic and other nations in 
the Caribbean so that they extend their Evangelical hospitality to those 
who are obligated to abandon their homes and flee the country because of 
the violence, it added.

The Letter from Havana, approved by the CLAI board of directors, also notes 
that in the year since their last meeting in Sao Paulo Brazil, the 
Caribbean region has been the scene of dramatic crises and timid signs of 
hope.

In recent months the tenacious and valiant battle on the part of Puerto 
Ricans to return peace to Vieques culminated.  A US government decision to 
no longer use the island for Navy operations, opened a new and promising 
chapter in the history of Puerto Rico: Children will not longer be awakened 
by the roar of the canons.

However, in the Dominican Republic, a government marked by inefficiency and 
corruption has lead the country to its worst economic crisis in decades.

The governments myopia generated a climate of uncertainty and desperation 
last January that lead to a general strike, a foreshadowing of what may be 
a social explosion with grave consequences. We are in solidarity with 
Evangelical Churches who have joined their voices to those who call for a 
profound change in the policies that increase unemployment and external 
dependency and contribute to a greater deterioration of the already 
exhausted social services.

On the other hand, we celebrate the emergence and consolidation of the 
Ecumenical Network of Colombia. This is a visible result of an ecumenical 
process after the IV CLAI Assembly held in Barranquilla in 2001.

Our Churches in Colombia have been uniting to be a prophetic voice in a 
context marked by an increase of actions on the part of the State that, in 
its aim to eradicate endemic violence of the past centuries, could place 
respect for human rights at serious risk, it said.

CLAI also expressed its concern for the political polarization and the 
deterioration of social conditions in Venezuela. We call on Venezuelan 
Churches to be agents of forgiveness and reconciliation, in particular as 
the National Electoral Board is about to determine whether or not a 
referendum will be held regarding President Hugo Chavez.

We rejoice in the fraternal re-encounter with Churches on the beloved 
island of Cuba.  Fifteen years have passed since the CLAI Board of 
Directors met in Cuba. In that lapse, the Cuban nation has lived through 
one of the most critical periods in its contemporary history and has found 
the energy and the will to continue forward with its historic project.

We express our sincere Christian solidarity with Cuban Churches in their 
efforts to offer living, efficient Evangelical witness in a society that 
struggles, in particularly adverse conditions, aggravated by the economic 
embargo and US government hostility, to construct its own road to 
independence and social justice.

In a region where desperation grows everywhere, we have been comforted by 
the conviction that the God of Life still works where violence and death 
seem to reign. In a region plagued by the evils of the system that threaten 
and destroy life, we are strengthened by the testimony of many Christians 
who live a just and kind life, guarding the blessed hope and the glorious 
manifestation of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, concluded the La 
Havana Letter.

BRAZIL
Murder of Doraci Edinger is the most painful episode in the life of the IECLB

PORTO ALEGRE, March 4, 2004 (alc). The murder of Doraci Edinger is an 
extremely painful episode in the life of the Evangelical Church of the 
Lutheran Confession of Brazil (IECLB), but her activity alongside poor 
communities in Mozambique was also a dignified page in the IECLBs history, 
said Walter Altmann.

Altmann, pastor president of the IECLB, made this statement in a collective 
interview held in the denominations headquarters in Porto Alegre. The 
Lutheran leader expressed his solidarity with her relatives. My first 
pastoral attention was dedicated to them upon my return from Mozambique, 
he said.

The death of Doraci Edinger did not only plunge the IECLB and the Lutheran 
Evangelical Church of Mozambique into mourning but the entire family of 
Lutheran Churches around the world, as well as other Churches with whom we 
have ecumenical relationships, said Altmann.

The fact that Sister Doraci lost her life serving the Kingdom of God may 
be a weak consolation right now, but it will become an increasingly 
stronger consolation as the days go by, he said.

Altmann said that the Nampula police have established that she was murdered 
Saturday Feb. 21, between 8:00 and 8:30. Nothing was taken from her 
apartment. The aim of the crime was to eliminate her. Why?, asked Altmann.

He said, I am convinced that the immediate objective of the murderer or 
the author of the crime to keep her from meeting the president of the 
Church on February 24. The murderer or author of the crime knew or presumed 
that she was going to tell me something serious; something they believed 
should not be brought to my attention under any circumstances. 

Altmann emphasized that the IECLB, the Lutheran World Federation and the 
Brazilian government are demanding that the crime be fully clarified, 
including the author and the motive. He said that the investigations being 
carried out in Nampula have the essential elements for this clarification.

Bishop C.M. Molefe of South Africa and Ester Antonio Cossa of Maputo will 
attend her funeral, in representation of the IELM.

ARGENTINA
Councilman calls for The Passion movie to be declared of municipal interest

ROSARIO, March 5, 2004 (alc). Evangelical Churches from this city in 
northern Argentina supported a councilmans bid to have Mel Gibsons movie 
The Passion declared of municipal interest. The movie is due to premier in 
Argentina next April.

Councilman Jose Bonacci also proposed that the movie be exonerated from 
paying municipal taxes so that the tickets can be cheaper and a higher 
number of people will have the opportunity to see it.

I hope that my peers understand that 90 percent of people from Rosario are 
Christians, said Bonacci. He noted that his project is aimed at promoting 
artistic and cultural education and specified that the movie of the last 12 
hours of Jesus life is based on writings from the Holy Bible.

The initiative will be analyzed in municipal commissions as of next week. 
In order to be discussed in the Municipal Council it must be signed by six 
of 11 members of each commission. I do not know if it will prosper in a 
council where half the members do not coincide with the religious roots of 
90 percent of people from Rosario, he said.

The Confraternity of Christian Leaders and the Network of Evangelical 
Churches in Social Action of Rosario expressed their total support for the 
initiative

General coordinator Pastor Carlos Ahuban told the daily La Capital that the 
movie about the final hours of Jesus Christ is a more real, as opposed to 
Hollywood reading, that describes an atrocious death. The violence that 
Gibson reflects is much more real than what we are used to but the 
emotional charge surpasses the spiritual and surely will touch our soul

Consulted about the strong criticism from some sector of the Jewish 
community, Ahuban said the Jewish community is highly sensitive but as the 
director said, his Catholic faith is opposed to anti-Semitism.

NICARAGUA
New wave of Haitian refugees

By Trinidad Vasquez
MANAGUA, March 5, 2004 (alc). The first Haitian refugees began to arrive 
March 4: 100 to Cuba, more than 70 to Jamaica and 350 to the Dominican 
Republic, according to a report from Blanca Fonseca, UNHCR (UN High 
Commissioner for Refugees) representative in Nicaragua.

This new wave of people fleeing Haiti is a consequence of the violence acts 
that took place in recent days in this Republic, located on the western 
side of the La Espaqola Island in the Caribbean. The eastern side is 
occupied by the Dominican Republic.

FONSECA, a delegate of the evangelical Pro Denominational Alliance Council 
of Churches (CEPAD), which represents the UNHCR in Managua, said that the 
organization reminded the governments of the elementary human right to seek 
and enjoy asylum and reiterated its call that all states should receive 
those who were forced to flee.

Hope Hanlan, American director of the UN agency for refugees, reiterated 
the UNHCRs call February 13, asking governments to respond humanely and 
receive any arriving refugees. While UNHCR hopes efforts to end the 
violence will succeed as soon as possible, the agency also has a 
responsibility to be prepared for any possible outflow, she said.

UNHCR hopes and expects that states will respond humanely and in line with 
the 1951 Refugee Convention for those who are forced to flee," Hanlan said. 
"Obviously, not everyone who leaves a country is a refugee, but those who 
are forced to flee must have access to international protection."

"UNHCR is maintaining close contact with all the countries in the region to 
assure them we are willing to help them cope with any arrivals of Haitian 
refugees, as well as to develop contingency plans and offer advice and 
expertise," Hanlan said.

She said that personnel and emergency experts have been sent to the 
Dominican Republic, to Jamaica and they are discussing sending some to Cuba.

Puerto Rican Pastor Paulo A. Jiminez said in Managua that his Church, 
Disciples of Christ, is collecting aid from Churches in the United States 
and Canada to send to Haitm, where more than 130 people died in 
confrontations that ended in the overthrow of former President 
Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

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