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Note #8294 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Winning colors
GA04004
June 26,2004

Winning colors

Peruvian fabrics set mission theme, make for vibrant Assembly

by Committee on Local Arrangements

RICHMOND, June 26  The 216th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church
(USA) has been gift-wrapped in vibrant, colorful fabrics crafted by a handful
of hard-working women in Peru.

Banners, pulpit drapes, exhibit-booth tablecloths, staff members vests and
tote bags for Assembly participants are all made from native Peruvian
blankets called mantas, which feature distinctive, bold stripes and geometric
designs woven in fields of neon red, yellow, green, blue, purple and white.

Manta ribbons also will identify the more than 2,000 local volunteers on hand
to welcome the more than 3,500 Assembly participants.

In years to come, this will be remembered as the manta Assembly, predicted
Patricia B. Valentine, the vice-moderator of the Committee on Local
Arrangements (COLA), which represents the Presbytery of the James.

The manta mania began when a Virginian attending last years General Assembly
in Denver showed Valentine a multicolor tote bag and suggested that it might
be just the thing for the 2004 meeting in Richmond.

Valentine liked the idea from the beginning. Not only was the manta item
attractive and colorful  it also represented a Presbyterian mission in Peru.

Presbyterians Ruth and Hunter Farrell began working in Lima, the capital, in
1998, devoting their time, imagination and faith to campaigning for freedom
and social justice for the needy people of Peru. They were among the
organizers of Grupo Mano, a cooperative of five seamstresses in Lima who make
manta products for sale in the United States.

Grupo Mano is one of several such artisans co-ops in Peru, all part of a
larger constellation of economic-development and political-action
organizations, the Joining Hands Network. The group includes 15 Peruvian
churches, non-governmental organizations and community groups trying to
improve the lives of Perus poorest people.

The Grupo started as a dream and a simple prayer request, missionaries Ruth
and Hunter Farrell wrote in their Christmas letter in 2003. An innovative
and remarkably successful Fair Trade Bridge has been built, linking eighty
Peruvian artisan families who were living on less than one dollar a day with
a growing network of churches in the United States.

Families from Peru and the central Andes Mountain region now earn twice or
three times as much as before, the Farrells wrote, and the artisans  most of
them indigenous women, many mobility-impaired  also benefit by having their
dignity restored. This is all possible, they said, because fair trade seeks
justice, rather than charity, for the poor.

One woman from the mountains told the Farrells that the program enabled her
for the first time to feed her children properly and access adequate medical
care for her family.

Grupo Mano products are sold in the United States through fair-trade events
sponsored by Presbyterian churches and other organizations.

The Global Marketplace at this years Assembly will feature Peruvian mantas
and other fair-trade products from around the world.

The traditional Peruvian manta is made of alpaca wool, but those available at
the Assembly are made of acrylic fiber, and thus are washable.

About one ton of tote bags were shipped from Lima to Richmond this spring.
The bags, specially designed for the General Assembly, are broad and deep,
lined with cloth, and have a rigid bottom and pockets inside and out.
Carrying straps made of webbed fabric loop around the bottom of the bag to
accommodate the commissioners workload.

The theme of this years 216th Assembly, That All May Have Life in
Fullness, is from the Gospel of John. Valentine said the mantas embody the
theme.

The essence of being Presbyterian is the centrality of scripture and the
sacraments of Baptism and Communion, she said. The faith exhibited in those
two elements is extended by outreach and mission. She said mission projects
like Grupo Mano and the Fair Trade Bridge  in Peru and in other countries
around the globe  advance the cause of justice by helping the poor achieve
economic self-sufficiency.

It was the goal of our Committee on Local Arrangements to include a mission
component in our hospitality and worship, she said.

The Presbytery of the James, the division of the church acting as host to the
General Assembly this year, came to view the mantas as a key element of
planning for the nine-day event. It has been one of the great driving
enthusiasms of this whole effort, Valentine said. When we say manta,
everybody gets excited. This is transforming activity.

For more information and manta photographs, visit the Mission Connections
page on the PC(USA) Web site:
www.pcusa.org/missionconnections/profiles/farrelh.htm

This story and many others may have photos, media, video clips that can be
found at http://www.pcusa.org/ga216.

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