wfn.org | ALC Noticias November 28 2004 Peru Brazil Argentina Columbia

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

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

---------------
CONTENT

PERU: Forum on "Church and Public Impact"
BRAZIL: LUC Assembly promotes communication between two Lutheran Churches
ARGENTINA: Women scorned in media, says Dafne Sabanes Plou
COLOMBIA: Reformed Churches reject neoliberal model
CHILE: Kobia visits torture center and attends Pentecostal worship service

----------
PERU
Forum on "Church and Public Impact"

LIMA, Nov 26 (ALC).  During a forum on Church and Public Impact Nov. 25-27 
representatives from non government organizations agreed on the importance 
of having a vision of the country and reaching consensus in order to 
achieve greater impact in development policies in Peru.

The forum, organized by the Regional Advice and Services Center (CREAS), 
the Communication Studies Institute (IEC) and the Ecumenical Services 
Coordinator (CESE) of Brazil, sought to exchange public advocacy 
experiences from Churches in Peru, to contribute to the construction of a 
strategy to strengthen citizen participation and to evaluate how sectors 
linked to Evangelicals Churches have been contributing to the nation's 
development.

Federico Arnillas, executive secretary of the National Social Development 
Conference (CONADES) spoke on the panel "Church, Civil Society and its 
Public Impact." He was accompanied by Roxana Garcia Bedoya, executive 
secretary of the Working Group to Combat Poverty and Rafael Goto, director 
of the Christian Promotion and Services Center (CEPS) and secretary general 
of the Evangelical Church of the Pilgrims.

Arnillas said that CONADES is an open meeting space for union and civil 
society organizations that seek to find common ground and possible 
synergies with other social actors such as the State, political parties and 
multi-lateral agencies in order to have an impact based on proposals that 
are possible to implement.

There is a need for a program and a purpose as it is not possible build on 
a foundation of protests, he said.  Protests should bring forward an issue 
and force a State response, but a true impact strategy should be based on 
proposal with a vision of the country, an ethical foundation, a scale of 
values such as defense of life, promotion of justice and solidarity.

In Peru, he said, a general climate of mistrust has been created. The 
relationship among social sectors is more influenced by suspicion and 
confrontation than by building levels of trust. People mistrust everything.

The profound wounds of the 1980s and 1990s (terrorism, hyperinflation, 
corruption) canceled the idea of a future for many. We are a society with 
unresolved traumas, he affirmed.

Garcia Bedoya lauded the participation of Churches in the working groups to 
combat poverty and said that 10 percent of the groups, at a provincial and 
district level are official Church representatives. Other people who are in 
charge of working groups also come from Churches, but do not formally 
represent them.

Churches, said Bedoya, have the challenge of significantly contributing to 
the battle against poverty and must do so with an ecumenical attitude that 
is tolerant and values plurality.

She warned, however, that society's trust in the Churches could lead them 
to stop participating in the search for their problems. People may come to 
believe that citizen participation is no longer necessary.

Rafael Goto emphasized that the Evangelical population has grown 
considerably in Peru and this makes it more representative but also 
increases its responsibility to influence society. We are no longer a 
marginal Church and we Evangelicals are obligated to become social actors 
and builders of citizenship, he said.

The ecumenical leader emphasized the participation of Evangelicals in 
different spaces in the public sphere and said that the most important is 
the place the National Evangelical Council has is in the National 
Governance Accord.

-----------
BRAZIL
LUC Assembly promotes communication between two Lutheran Churches

SAO PAULO, Nov 22 (alc)- During an assembly held November 20-21 in Sao 
Paulo the Brazilian branch of Lutherans United in Communication (LUC) 
agreed to promote communication between two Brazilian Lutheran Churches.

In Brazil there is the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession of 
Brazil (IECLB) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil. The assembly 
was attended by 22 communicators from two Churches, members of LUC. One 
session was devoted to presenting work and activities in the communication 
field developed by the two Churches.

LUC resolved to promote work carried out by communications in networks from 
the two Lutheran Churches and to hold three regional events next year.

During the Assembly's inauguration, LUC- Brazil Coordinator Pastor Heitor 
Meurer called on those present to raise high the flag of communication. 
Meurer is a member of the Lutheran World Federation's Communication 
Committee and an IECLB pastor.

Journalist and university professor Edelberto Behs offered a conference on 
the architecture of the news, emphasizing that journalists are the 
architects and must work to promote the Christian utopia of the Kingdom of 
God and in the construction of hope for a world that is submerged in 
desperation.

IELB secretary general Rony Ricardo Marquardt announced that next year his 
Church will set up a press office and in 2006 it will address the issue of 
communication in its National Convention.

The president of the IECLB Nation Communication Council Armando Pedro 
Maurmann said that in his Church 16 of 18 synods have newspapers and the 
smallest has a print run of 3,000.

Caroline Strussmann, IECLB presidential advisor, emphasized the 
manifestations of the Church in the country's political and social life.

The president of the Latin America and Caribbean Communication Agency (ALC) 
Pastor Joao Artur M|ller da Silva invited Lutheran journalists to 
participate in a competition that the agency will promote in 2005 in order 
to celebrate the 10th anniversary since its founding.

On November 20, LUC assembly participants visited Christ for All the 
Nations (CPTN) that supports the IELB in spreading the Word through radio 
and evangelical literature. It also broadcasts the "Five Minutes with 
Jesus" program that is retransmitted by 250 stations.

-------------------
ARGENTINA
Women scorned in media, says Dafne Sabanes Plou

BUENOS AIRES, Nov 23 (alc)- The absence of women's voices in the mass media 
is accompanied by the fact that women and their public actions garner  5 to 
15 percent of all air time and print space on a daily basis.

This situation was emphasized by Dafne Sabanes Plou, Argentine Methodist 
communicator, former president of the World Association for Christian 
Communication (WACC) - Latin America region and the Latin America and 
Caribbean Communication Agency (ALC) during a panel organized by the Women 
and Gender Justice Pastoral Commission of the Latin American Council of 
Churches (CLAI).

In her speech, entitled "Communication, media and the construction of 
women's citizenship", Sabanes said that research also shows that women 
appear in the media much more frequently as victims and if they are asked 
for an opinion or comment, they tend to respond as "ordinary" women and not 
as experts.

Women's capacity to have an impact as social protagonists and to intervene 
and influence in life and public questions is undermined by the information 
that is published on a daily basis. The image of the world projected by the 
media is one in which women barely exist, despite representing half the 
world population, she said.

Given the major influence the media have in current day society, said 
Sabanes, the new roles that women have assumed must be recognized so that 
the active role they have in society is seen and heard and they begin to 
integrate the daily life we perceive and hear.

Much has been said about the use of women's bodies as objects in
advertising and we also face a situation where the real problems confronted 
by women are also used, such as on "talk shows" when painful and even 
tragic situations are trivialized.

Moreover, the media discourse about masculine superiority in determined 
areas, such as in the political space, tends to take on a manipulative tinge.

During debate in the Argentine Congress about the Quota Law in 1991, said 
Sabanes, researcher Judy Chaneton proved that the media portrayed women as 
invaders in the Chamber of deputies, where men had exercised an 
unquestionable power for decades.

At no point did the media refer to the 29 interventions that legislators 
made in this parliamentary debate, where they defended women's right to 
full political participation, she added.

More recently when Elisa Carrio inaugurated the Hanna Arendt political 
formation institute, journalists emphasized that the former presidential 
candidate had changed her "look," by losing weight, dying her hair and 
dressing more fashionably.

Soledad Alvear and Michella Bachelet, pre Presidential candidates in Chile 
say that the first questions journalists ask them are how they are able to 
be mothers and ministers, who does their house work, who is in charge of 
their wardrobe and whether or not Chile could be governed by a women. Male 
ministers are never asked these questions.

The Beijing Action Platform, nearly 10 years ago, lobbied the media to 
present women's discourses and knowledge without prejudice or stereotypes, 
because they have a right to participate in public conversation as subjects 
of information and as actors in the political, economic, social and 
cultural fields.

In order for this to take place, women must enter the debate, both within 
and outside of the official spheres. Women must also construct public 
opinion, as took place during the debate on the Reproductive Health Law in 
the city of Buenos Aires, where the population supported the progressive 
proposals spearheaded by the women's movement, confronting fierce 
opposition from conservative sectors, including the Catholic Church.

There is a need to construct an integral vision of the exercise of 
citizenship on the part of women, women capable of generating ideas, 
proposals and initiatives for common good, in order to sustain the struggle 
for equal opportunities, social inclusion and respect for the principles of 
equity and gender ! justice, concluded Sabanes.

The Gender and Power panel was coordinated by Pastor Judith Van Osdol, of 
CLAI's Women and Gender Pastoral Commission, in order to inaugurate the 
16-day World "On the Wings of a Dove" campaign, of the World Council of 
Churches (WCC) to combat Violence Against Women.

-----------------
COLOMBIA
Reformed Churches reject neoliberal model

CARTAGENA, November 22 (ALC).	"To promote study, reflection and action in 
our Churches and communities, to raise awareness and therefore to be able 
to unmask this economic model (neoliberal) that seeks to take God's place 
in the world and in our awareness," said representatives from the Reformed 
and Presbyterian Churches in the Caribbean Region and in El Salvador at a 
recent event in Cartagena.

The event, held in this city on the Caribbean coast from November 3-7 was 
attended by member Churches of the Alliance of Presbyterian and Reformed 
Churches of Latin America (AIPRAL) as well as representatives from member 
Churches and those related to the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI) 
in Colombia.

The Cartagena Declaration of the International Faith and Economics Event 
added that Churches agreed to participate in joint actions with social and 
grassroots movements that seek to construct alternatives to make an 
alternative, fair economic model possible that cares for creation and 
protects the weakest.

The document says that "illuminated by the Word of God and moved by the 
Power of His Spirit," we have seen the threat and danger facing God's 
creation and the suffering of millions of human beings.

This economic model, it adds, demands that all governments and cultures 
fulfill the law to make real their promises of unlimited wealth and declare 
war on all peoples who do not submit to the model.

In our region, the model is imposed through the implementation of the Free 
Trade of the Americas Treaty and Free Trade Treaties, which further degrade 
labor rights and labor conditions, it stated.

This model, it adds, accelerate the destruction of the environment, puts 
the life and health of peoples are risk, validates and deepens the 
privatization of social services, causes the breakdown of small and middle 
sized companies and the de-industrialization of countries.

In the face of the aims of this model we affirm that God is the Lord of 
Creation and the Lord of life, said the Declaration.

Event participants agreed to adopt the declaration of the World Reformed 
Alliance, expressed in the Alliance for Economic Justice and Life on Earth 
document, approved at the 24th Assembly in Accra, Ghana, last August.

In order to resist the model and keep alive the hope of abundant life that 
Jesus promised and began, we also join the Ecumenical Alliance that is 
promoting a Week of Global Action for Fair Trade, to be held April 10-16, 
2005, said the document.

Meeting participants included the Presbyterian Church of Venezuela. The 
Boriquen Presbyterian Synod of Puerto Rico, the Presbyterian Church of 
Colombia and the Reformed Church of El Salvador.

The United Evangelical Church of the Dominican Republic, the Lutheran 
Evangelical Church of Colombia, the Mesoamerican Christian Community, the 
Methodist Church of Colombia, the Anglican Episcopal Church in Colombia and 
the Colombian Ecumenical Network also participated in the meeting.

---------
CHILE
Kobia visits torture center and attends Pentecostal worship service

By Sara Ossa

SANTIAGO, Nov 22 (alc) During World Council of Churches (WCC) General 
Secretary Samuel Kobia's visit to Chile, November 19-21, he visited a 
detention and torture center used during the dictatorship and gave a sermon 
at the Pentecostal Church of Curico.

In Villa Grimaldi, now called Park for Peace, Kobia was accompanied by the 
Rev. Eduardo Cid, secretary of the Latin American Council of Churches for 
the Andean Region (CLAI) and a committee of representatives from different 
Churches.

Cid said that the terrible story behind the walls of Villa Grimaldi, where 
so many terrible atrocities took place, sparks strong feelings and "make us 
even more anxious for peace among the children of the same people."

Kobia said he was "very impressed with the Chilean people's capacity for 
resistance." He underscored how the country had been through difficult 
times but is now recovered and is perhaps one of the strongest economies in 
Latin America. The WCC general secretary also said he was impressed by its 
memory of the past. "Our visit to this place has marked me deeply," he said.

On the other hand, on November 19, Kobia attended a worship service in the 
Evangelical Pentecostal Church of Chile, in Curico, 193 kilometers south of 
Santiago and preached a sermon about chapter 21 of the Book of the
Apocalypse.
This Church, lead by Bishop Ulises Muqoz, is the most numerous in the 
region and has been affiliated to the WCC since 1961.

Kobia said that in contrast with this world, "so fragmented by violence, 
injustice, poverty," the Holy City will be the "big house designed by God, 
where everyone fits, where there is a place for all citizens, there is 
respect."

Kobia said he felt very impressed by those who identified him as a 
"Pentecostal son," because "his father in Kenya belonged to the Foursquare 
Church," said Bishop Muqoz.

Muqoz voiced gratitude for the ecclesiastic policy developed by the WCC and 
CLAI "which in recent years has made a significant approach to Pentecostal 
Churches."

In Villa Grimaldi, two former inmates Rodrigo del Villar and Hernan Plaza, 
who survived the military regime, welcomed the Rev. Kobia and gave him a
tour.

Del Villar said that the place was nearly entirely destroyed by the 
military. "The soldiers through that if they destroyed the buildings, they 
would destroy the memory."

Kobia paid homage to the list of disappeared whose names are known. The 
list is still not closed as some disappeared remain anonymous as there were 
no witnesses to their stay in Villa Grimaldi.
-------------------------------------
Latin American and Caribbean News Agency
P.O. Box 14-225 Lima 14 Peru
Tel. (511) 462 0189  Telefax (511) 463 2496
E-mail: director@alcnoticias.org
http: //www.alcnoticias.org