wfn.org | ALC Noticias Feb 12 2005 Columbia Cuba Argentina Brazil

[George Conklin <gconklin@igc.org>]

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

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CONTENT

COLOMBIA: Catholic bishops in favor of humanitarian exchange
CUBA: Presbyterian Church elected new board
ARGENTINA: "Canibalism" of hegemonic culture denounced
BRAZIL: Lutheran women propose creating mutual support groups
Brazil: Church launches Fraternity Campaign and announces creation of Peace
Ombudsman

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COLOMBIA
Catholic bishops in favor of humanitarian exchange

By Amparo Beltrán

BOGOTA, Feb 11 (ALC). Colombia Catholic Bishops declared that it is time to
silence the guns in Colombia and spoke out in favor of a humanitarian
exchange of people kidnapped by the guerrillas for subversives who are
currently in prison.

The 78th Colombian Bishops' Assembly took place January 31 - February 5 and
focused on analyzing the current situation in the country.

Against a backdrop of the armed conflict wracking Colombia for 40 years,
Bishops called on the FARC (Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia) to
silence their guns and offer sincere gestures of wanting peace.

The bishops declared that they are in favor of the humanitarian exchange
and said that there must be efforts made on both sides.

Msgr. Pedro Rubiano, cardinal and president of the conference indicated:
"It is time for legislators to define a juridical framework that makes
possible the restoration of relationships broken by conflict and that they
contribute a truth, justice and reparation law to the country."

The social thinking of the Church recalls that the victims of the conflict
cannot be forgotten, said the Bishops. It is time to reach a humanitarian
agreement that will serve to release all the kidnapped and initiate a
process of negotiation and peace between the Government and the FARC.

The Episcopal Conference also condemned the forced displacement emerging
from the conflict. Colombia has the highest number of displaced people in
Latin America and the second highest in the world, after Sudan, it said.

We must study how to solve this problem and give security to people and
families who have been forced to flee their land and seek refuge in big
cities to avoid persecution and death, said the Bishops.

The final document insists on defending life, in a country where the cost
of living rises daily and the value of life declines, it stated. The
Bishops emphasized aspects such as abortion, homosexual marriages and the
defense of the traditional family, but approved scientific investigation in
the area of biology and health, above all to find solutions to AIDs.

The bishops pointed to the importance of sexual education, but under
Christian principles as they do not accept the excesses that people are
reaching and which do not benefit people or society, the document said.

Another aspect they emphasized was attention to the elderly. "Care for the
elderly, above all when they go through difficult times, should be a
central focus for all the faithful."

Finally, they proposed that the collections carried out in this time of
Lent be used to help the victims of the Tsunami in Asia.

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CUBA
Presbyterian Church elected new board

HAVANA, Feb 8 (alc) - The Reformed Presbyterian Church of Cuba held its
national synod last weekend in the city of Sancti Spíritus, founded in 1514
by Diego Velázquez and located in central Cuba, where Bartolomé de las
Casas preached his famous Sermon of Repentance in defense of indigenous
people in Latin America.

Delegates from Presbyterian Churches of Korea, Puerto Rico and the United
States participated as well as national delegates.

The meeting took place Feb. 4-5 and ended with the election of a new board
that will lead the Presbyterian Church for the next two years.

The new moderator is the Rev. Héctor Méndez, currently pastor of the First
Presbyterian Reformed Church of Havana and a member of the World Council of
Churches Central Committee.

Mendez is well known for his ecumenical trajectory, as he has held the
presidency and other positions in ULAJE (Latin American Union of
Evangelical Youth) in the 1970s and 1980s. Later, he was secretary of the
CLAI Board of Directors (Latin American Council of Churches) from the
meeting in Huampaní, Peru (1982) to the Assembly in Concepción, Chile (1993).

He is accompanied by the Rev. Carlos Camps as secretary general, the Rev.
Carlos Piedra as vice moderator and Presbyter Abel Machado, as treasurer.

The Synod received working reports from the past two years and looked to
future work, in particular regarding an analysis of a pastoral for the
Cuban people.

The Presbyterian Reformed Church in Cuba became an autonomous Church in
January 1967. Up until then it formed part of the Presbyterian Church of
the United States. It currently sustains, together with the Methodist and
Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Theology Seminary in Matanzas.

In the ecumenical arena it forms part of the WCC, the World Reform
Alliance, is a founding Church of CLAI, of the Caribbean Conference of
Churches, of AIPRAL (Alliance of Presbyterian and Reformed Churches of
Latin America) and the Cuban Council of Churches. It maintains fraternal
and working relationships with many Churches around the world and has been
characterized by its ecumenical vocation.

In the closing message, Pastor Mendez warned about the danger that
"regionalism" represents to the Church, which does not make sense in a
small country like Cuba where the Church is one, he said.  Similarly, he
pointed to the temptation of establishing a division among "old" and
"young" pastors and called on the body to work closely together to take
advantage of everyone's dynamism and experience.

Among the challenges for the future, Mendez pointed to the need for a
re-encounter with evangelism. In the same way he mentioned the need to
strengthen the work of stewardship to consolidate the economy of the
Church. Discipline was another theme mentioned by the new moderator, who
emphasized the need to develop a spirit of self-discipline in the Church,
in order to educate people who have recently joined the Presbyterian Reform
Church of Cuba and constitute 60% of the current faithful.

He also emphasized the importance of Church unity, which does not mean
uniformity but rather being capable of working and serving as a united
Church regarding the mandate of Jesus Christ and a word of hope for the
Cuban people in the midst of the current world problematic.

"We are," said Mendez at the end of his sermon, "A Church that has been
maintained by the grace of God, we live by the grace of God and we look to
the future under the grace of God." He concluded, underscoring that God's
Grace will be the dominant note in the next two years in the Cuban Church,
similar to in the World Council of Churches assembly to take place in Porto
Alegre, in February 2006.

When asked by ALC about the main contribution of Cuban Presbyterianism
within a context of world Presbyterianism and the ecumenical context,
Mendez said "We are a small Church, we don't have a great deal to
contribute in material terms. However, we can contribute our treasure: Our
Christian testimony and the spiritual depth of our Church."

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ARGENTINA
"Canibalism" of hegemonic culture denounced

COLONIA BELGRANO, Feb 8 (alc). Pastor Blanca Armand Pilón denounced the
"cannibalism" of the current hegemonic culture, as it molds the
relationship among human beings as one that must be marked by "competition,
aggression, machismo, sexism, racism and discrimination."

Pastor Pilon spoke during the opening worship service of the 42nd
Assemblyof the Waldensian Evangelical Church of the River Plate (IEVRP),
meeting in  Colonia Belgrano, Province of Santa Fe, Argentina, February
5-9, this month.

Pilon said it is necessary to look at the gestures and words of Jesus, as a
counterweight to the culture of cannibalism "so that tenderness dignifies
the ideologies" and transforms society, returns dignity to people and
encourages the creativity that is born from faith and solidarity.

A total of 170 delegates from Waldensian Churches from Argentina and
Uruguay attended, as well as guests and representatives from ecumenical
bodies in the River Plate, the United States, Germany, Brazil and the
moderator of the Waldensian Church of Italy, Pastor Gianni Genre.

The synod looked at four thematic issues: Life of Faith, Institutional
Life, Stewardship and Finances, Testimony and Services.

The administrative aspect of the Church, analyzed by the group that looked
at Stewardship and Finances, is not fundamentally a problem of money but
rather a question of faith. "What vision do we have of the Church for the
next years?" asked delegates.

The IEVRP seeks to be self-financing as close to 30% of the budget is
covered by funds from abroad. On the other hand, the service work of the
Church has grown, given the social needs affecting the populations on the
two shores of the River Plate.

They also debated ethical problems that do not receive enough attention
from society, such as the laws on the defense of reproductive life, sex
education in the schools and bioethics.

At the inauguration of the Synod a Toba Group from Fortin Lavalle, in Chaco
sang in the Toba language. The IEVRP has been working with Toba people from
the province of Chaco for the past eight years.

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BRAZIL
Lutheran women propose creating mutual support groups

SAO LEOPOLDO, Feb 8 (alc). Lutheran women from the Southern Cone proposed
that their Churches create mutual support groups, meeting around specific
realities and training people to orient these groups.

Another Church is possible based on Biblical reflection and pastoral
advice, using women's reality as a foundation, said Brazilian Pastor Elaine
Neuenfeldt.

Together with Pastor Anete Roede, both from the Evangelical Church of the
Lutheran Confession of Brazil  (IECLB), Neuenfeldt advised the meeting of
Women in the Church and Society (MEIS) of the Southern Cone, meeting in Sao
Leopoldo February 1-2 after the closing of the World Social Forum.

In the Forum, this group, in collaboration with other institutions,
organized a workshop on "No to gender violence - recreating relationships
of peace." Gender violence, explained Pastor Neuenfeldt takes place among
men and women, among women and among men.

According to the World Health Organization, 10 to 34 percent of women in
the world are abused by their partners or people they are close to. In many
cases, religion is used to legitimize gender relationships based on violence.

On January 30, during the World Social Forum, the Lutheran World Federation
(LWF) launched the document "Churches say no to violence," translated into
24 languages. The document responds to the challenges of the Decade of
Ecumenical Solidarity with Women, carried out from 1988 to 1998.

The president of the IECLB, Pastor Walter Altmann, the MEIS Coordinator for
the Southern Cone, Vera Roth and the head of the Women's Secretariat from
the Evangelical United Lutheran Church of India, Vidhya Rani participated,
among others.

The MEIS had the support of the LWF and brought together in Sao Leopoldo,
representatives from the Lutheran Churches of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and
Uruguay. There they elected the new MEIS-Southern Cone Coordinator, Chilean
Lorena Alsaro, who replaces Brazilian Vera Roth.

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Brazil
Church launches Fraternity Campaign and announces creation of Peace
Ombudsman

BRASÍLIA, Feb 10 (alc) The President of the National Council of Christian
Churches of Brazil (CONIC), Methodist Bishop Adriel de Souza Maia
inaugurated the 2005 Ecumenical Fraternity Campaign and announced the
creation of a Peace Ombudsman.

This Ombudsman will coordinate, with Churches and civil society, activities
against violence and discrimination, will receive denouncements about these
events and will promote solidarity action. "We also want to become more
active participants in the federal governments Disarmament Campaign," said
Souza Maia.

This is the 41st edition of the Fraternity Campaign and the second that is
ecumenical, promoted by Churches that make up CONIC. The first Ecumenical
Fraternity Campaign took place in 2000 and demanded "a new millennium
without exclusions."

The theme of the 2005 Campaign is "Solidarity and Peace," under the slogan
"Blessed are the peacemakers." Given the existing violence in society the
aim is to extend the action to Christian Churches to reach all those who
want peace in Brazil, said the General Secretary of the National Bishops
Conference (CNBB), Odilo Pedro Scherer.

"As followers of Christ we have the mission to promote and defend peace. We
believe in a God of Peace and in Jesus Christ, the prince of peace," he
affirmed.

At the inauguration of the 2005 Fraternity Campaign, the president of the
CNBB, Msgr. Geraldo Majella Agnelo, read a letter sent by Pope John Paul
II, granting his blessing.

The CONIC is made up of the Catholic Churches, the Siraca Orthodox Church
of Brazil, the Christian Reform Church, the Anglican Episcopal Church, the
Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession, the Methodist Church and the
United Presbyterian Church.
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