wfn.org | Bolivian Church Leader Calls for Holistic Approach to

["Frank Imhoff" <frank_imhoff@elca.org>]

Bolivian Church Leader Calls for Holistic Approach to Indigenous
People's Issues 
LWF Challenged to Intensify Theological Reflection on Ongoing Work

LA PAZ, Bolivia/GENEVA, 17 August 2004 (LWI) - Bolivian church leader
Humberto Ramos Salazar has great expectation that the Lutheran World
Federation (LWF) will sharpen its focus on Indigenous People's issues,
as this is a major concern for millions of people in Latin America, and
for the region's indigenous churches.

"I am glad the member churches at the Assembly mandated the LWF to
prioritize the struggles of Indigenous People in a holistic way, as the
rights of our people constitute a major task and challenge for our
churches," Ramos told Lutheran World Information (LWI) in an interview.
The president of the Bolivian Evangelical Lutheran Church (IELB) was
referring to the Message from the July 2003 LWF Tenth Assembly, which
cited Indigenous People's concerns as priority for the LWF.

In many Latin American countries, Indigenous People are struggling for
their land rights, language, culture, and access to education,
employment and health care, noted Ramos who is also moderator of the
Conference of Bishops and Presidents (COP) of the 13 LWF members
churches in Latin America. Affirming these struggles, as a concern of
the Lutheran communion, he challenged the LWF and its member churches to
give visibility to Indigenous People in a holistic way. 

The IELB president pointed out that Latin America's major concerns,
namely economic globalization, external debt, and land ownership, have
an even greater impact on the region's Indigenous People, "as this group
has always been marginalized even in the respective national
constitutions." The LWF is challenged to intensify theological
reflection on the experiences of Indigenous People in order to deepen
focus on ongoing and new work among such communities worldwide. 

He stressed the need to make good use of the gift of diversity among the
over 62 million Lutherans in the 136 LWF member churches in 76 countries
worldwide. "It is possible to be an Aymara indigenous and Lutheran,"
said Ramos, Aymara himself, who has been head of the predominantly
indigenous IELB since 1999. The Lutheran church has 18,000 members in
the predominantly Roman Catholic country of eight million people. 

Concerning other issues in the Latin American region, the COP moderator
said the different challenges churches have to deal with call for
strategic networking in order to share experiences and resources. He
cited diakonia and its significance, which was a key topic at this
year's COP meeting in Sao Leopoldo, Brazil. Diakonia can indeed be a
very risky challenge, he noted, and gave the example of Brazilian woman
missionary Doraci Edinger who was murdered in Nampula, Mozambique in
February this year. "Doraci paid with her life," Ramos said. (448 words)

[The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran
tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now has 136 member
churches in 76 countries representing 62.3 million of the almost 66
million Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on behalf of its member
churches in areas of common interest such as ecumenical and inter-faith
relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human rights,
communication, and the various aspects of mission and development work.
Its secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the LWF's information service.
Unless specifically noted, material presented does not represent
positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various units. Where the
dateline of an article contains the notation (LWI), the material may be
freely reproduced with acknowledgment.]

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Editor's e-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org