wfn.org | ALC News Service - May 22, 2005

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

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

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

BRAZIL: Methodist University grants honorary doctorate to Argentine Theologian
SWITZERLAND: Churches are growing more swiftly in the South, said Letter
from Athens
PERU: Peruvian theologian analyzes progress of the theology of prosperity
BRAZIL: Symposium emphasizes importance of living in harmony with nature
COSTA RICA: Lutheran Churches in Central America defend right to life

---------
BRAZIL
Methodist University grants honorary doctorate to Argentine Theologian

SÃO PAULO, May 21 (alc). José Míguez Bonino, one of the most influential
Protestant theologians in Latin America and a former member of the
Constituent Assembly of Argentina received a honorary doctorate on May 17,
granted by the Methodist University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The doctorate was granted as a recognition of the significant contribution
made by Dr. Miguez Bonino to theological education, the ecumenical cause
and the defence of human rights in Latin America, said UMESP authorities.

During the event, presided over by Dean Davi Ferreira Barros, the dean of
the Theological faculty Rui Josgrilberg, said that Miguez is one of the
emblematic figures of Latin American Protestantism, who together with other
individuals has been capable of interpreting the signs of the times, of
identifying with the aspirations of the people and articulating a
reflection and praxis in a way that is coherent with the demands of the
Gospel and current times.

In voicing his gratitude, Bonino said that he was not alone in his work as
a pastor and theologian and said he owes his trajectory to his brothers and
sisters in Latin America with whom he has lived and learned. "God put them
in my path and as I receive this doctorate I feel that I am not alone but
that they are also receiving this homage," said Miguez, who suffered a
cerebral vascular accident in 2003 that has kept him from academic and
pastoral activities.

In his long ecumenical trajectory, the 81-year-old Bonino was dean and
rector of the Evangelical Theology Faculty of Buenos Aires, today the
Evangelical Institute of Theological studies, Professor of the Union
Theological Seminary in New York, of the Latin American Biblical University
of Costa Rica, the Protestant Faculty of Strasbourg as well as a pastor in
diverse Methodist congregations in Buenos Aires.

He was one of the founders, in 1961 of the Church and Society Movement in
Latin America (ISAL), co-president of the World Council of Churches and
member of the Faith and Constitution Commission of the WCC. He was the only
Latin American Protestant observer at Vatican II, founder and co-president
of the Permanent Human Rights Assembly in his country. His work in this
field, in the era of the Argentine military dictatorship in the 1970s,
earned him international fame and he was invited to join the Honorary Jury
of the Nuremberg Council for Human Rights (Germany),

Josgrilberg emphasized that when democracy returned to Argentina, Miguez
did not flee from his political responsibility and was elected a member of
the National Constituent Assembly in 1994.

The Argentine theologian is the author of numerous books including: La Fe
en busca de eficacia, El Rostro Religioso de América Latina, Espacio para
ser hombres, Polémica, Diálogo y Misión,	y Haciendo Teología en una
situación revolucionaria. His latest book was Poder del Evangelio y Poder
Político where he analyzes the growing participation of Evangelicals in
politics.

The granting of the honorific title was part of the 2005 Wesleyan Week,
held May 16 - 20. During the week a series of conferences were held about
"Life, Mission and Pluralism: Challenges for the Methodism Today;" and the
computerized Theology Faculty library was inaugurated.

----------------------
SWITZERLAND
Churches are growing more swiftly in the South, said Letter from Athens

GENEVA, May 20 (alc).  A letter from participants at the World Council of
Churches (WCC) Conference on Mission and Evangelism recognizes that the
centre of gravity of world Christianity has moved from the Northern
hemisphere to the South and East.

"We stand now at a particular moment in the history of mission. While the
centres of power are still predominantly in the global North, it is in the
South and the East that the churches are growing most rapidly," stated the
letter.

According to 2004 data from the Encyclopaedia Britannica, of the 2 billion
Christians in the world, 1.246 billion are in Africa, Asia, Oceania and
Latin America and 821 million are in Europe and North America.

This growth is "a result of faithful Christian mission and witness, said
the letter signed by Ruth Bottoms, George Mathew Nalunnakkal and Jacques
Matthey, leaders of the Evangelism and Mission conference that took place
in Athens from May 9 - 16.

The Conference, attended by more than 600 people from 100 countries in the
world and different Churches, including the Catholic Church and many
Pentecostal Churches that are not members of the WCC was held under the
slogan "Come Holy Spirit, Heal and Reconcile."

The letter recognizes the need for Churches to promote reconciliation in
the world, between
East and West, North and South, and between Christians and people of other
faiths.  "We have become painfully aware of the mistakes of the past, and
pray that we may learn from them," it stated.

It warns that "we have become conscious of our own tendency to reinforce
barriers by excluding and marginalising on grounds such as race, caste,
gender, disability" and calls for solidarity with marginalized people, in
particular indigenous communities and displaced people.

The statement mentions the pain caused by the division among Churches and
"the inability to overcome the barriers that prevent us from celebrating
together the most healing and reconciling of sacraments, the Eucharist -
the Lord's Supper."

The declaration concludes with a vision of what Church communities should
be. "God calls us to be a community of hope.of reconciliation and healing
that bears witness to the Gospel in word and deed," it stated.

"God wants a community that offers young people leadership roles; that
opens its doors to strangers and welcomes the marginalised within its own
body; that engages with those who suffer, and with those who struggle for
justice and peace; that provides services to all who are in need; that
recognises its own vulnerability and need for healing; and that is faithful
in its commitment to the wider Creation," it concluded.

---------
PERU
Peruvian theologian analyzes progress of the theology of prosperity

By Fernando Oshige

LIMA, May 18 (alc). A disenchantment with political parties, a loss of
utopias, the hegemony of a single economic model and poverty, have led may
Evangelical believers to gullibly opt for Prosperity Theology (PT), said
Peruvian Pastor Martin Ocaña.

According to Ocaña, a professor from the Southern Baptist Seminary of Peru,
the lack of solutions and loss of hope has meant that many sectors of the
Churches, in the context of the economic, political and social crisis in
Latin America, preach prosperity theology.

This theology offers an individualist and immediate solution to poverty,
while liberation theology conceives this solution as the fruit of a long
term struggle against social injustice and exclusion.

People want to leave poverty behind often without caring how they do so and
prosperity theology takes advantage of this legitimate wish and orients
people based on its perspective, said Ocaña, who spoke Monday at the IV
Regional "Citizenship and Solidarity Economy" course, convened by the
Southern Cone Lay Centres Network.

The so-called Prosperity Theology which has emerged over the past 20 years,
promoted by some Evangelical ministries in the United States, skilfully
placed itself in the current social and political panorama, said Ocaña. Its
emphasis on material prosperity and on earthly things meant that
Christianity, at least the Christianity they push, is inoffensive to the
system.

PT teaches that material prosperity is the greatest evidence of God's
blessing. However, that prosperity is only for those who are faithful to
God and guard His spiritual laws. It also teaches that material prosperity
is given to Christians for their earthly enjoyment because they must become
accustomed to a life style on earth that will be greater and eternal in heaven.

In the face of the growth of the PT sectors, Ocaña lamented that leaders
from "historic" Protestant and Evangelical Churches have not reacted but
rather consider this theology to be "inoffensive."

"I would recommend that these leaders inform themselves and carry out field
work about the issue or at least watch enlace TV (channel based in San
Jose, Costa Rica) that transmits anti-biblical and even heretical messages,
via satellite, 24 hours a day and which many faithful from their churches
consume."

Ocaña, author of the book "Los Banqueros de Dios," believes that it is
urgent to articulate an alternative theology to PT, with a solid foundation
in the Sacred Scriptures and with an emphasis on human well being as
opposed to prosperity.

Human welfare is an integral concept, that involves social justice,
satisfaction of human needs, health, work, while PT reduces everything to
the economic, although its apologists deny that, he said.

---------
BRAZIL
Symposium emphasizes importance of living in harmony with nature

By Micael Vier B.

SAN LEOPOLDO,  May 18 (alc). When he spoke about the theme "The life of the
cosmos: self organization and chaos" German physician and philosopher
Günter Küppers emphasized the need for people to learn to live in harmony
with nature, diminishing the devastating impact of industrialization on the
planet.

Küppers and biologist Thomas Michael Lewinsohn, professor from the
University of Campinas spoke Tuesday in the International Symposium
"Inhabitable Earth: a challenge for humanity;" promoted by the Valle dos
Sinos University (UNISINOS) which concluded May 19.

Lewinsohn said that the "actions of human beings on the earth is very
aggressive" and he called for an environmental policy that contemplates
preserving remaining species in habitats that are still intact.

According to Lewinsohn, Brazilian biodiversity groups together close to 2
million species, of which barely 10 percent is catalogued.

According to Profesor Küppers, who teaches in the University of Bielefeld,
Germany, it is not possible to predict the short term consequences of
fighting nature, as there is little information about environmental
stability. It is necessary to monitor them, he said.

Regarding the need to reduce C02 gas in the atmosphere, as stipulated by
the Kyoto Protocol. Küppers said it is not possible to predict the social
harm that this reduction will cause, although he recognized the problems
caused by the gas. "It is not easy to establish a policy that contemplates
the world in which we want to live," he said. Not overloading the
atmosphere is an option but it is not enough, he said.

The German professor argued that even the appearance of new species in the
environment, to the detriment of others, constitute a dynamic of nature.
Küppers affirmed that every imbalance tends to be regulated through
compensation, which is a logic of cause and effect.

Lewinsohn recalled that there is an infinity of living species to be
discovered and that areas of major diversity demand immediate preservation
policies. Among the main reasons for the loss of species on the planet, he
mentioned overexploitation (hunting, fishing, logging), the alteration of
habitats and environmental destruction.

According to Lewinsohn, there will be improvements regarding the
conservation of environmental resources if society breaks the impetus of
the logic of economic exploitation as a criteria to resolve its problems.
-----------------
COSTA RICA
Lutheran Churches in Central America defend right to life

SAN JOSÉ, May 16 (alc). In a communique addressed to "The people and
governments of Central America," Lutheran Churches from the region demanded
that international treaties be fulfilled that guarantee the right to life
and health and which have been ratified by all governments in the region.

The statement was signed by the Costa Rican Lutheran Churches (ILCO), Faith
and Hope of Nicaragua (ILCE), Christian Lutheran Church of Honduras (ICLH),
the Salvadoran Lutheran Synod (SLS) and the Guatemalan Lutheran Church
(ILUGUA).

Participants in the Regional HIV and AIDS consultation of Lutheran Churches
in Central America, non government national and international organizations
and people living with HIV and AIDs, met May 9 - 13 and spoke out against
the ratification of the Free Trade Agreement between the US government and
the Central American government due to the excessive protection it grants
the commercial interests of pharmaceutical companies.

We remind governments of the region that they have the primary
responsibility to ensure and protect public health and that this
responsibly should be reflected in the negotiations, the statement said.

We raise our prophetic voice against the effects of the Treaty that deeply
affected the quality and life expectations of our brothers and sisters who
live with HIV and AIDs, it added.

The statement concluded by calling on all men and women of good will, all
Churches and other organizations to join this just demand.
-----------------------------------------
Latin American and Caribbean Communication Agency (ALC)
P.O. box 14-225 Lima 14 Peru
E-mail: director@alcnoticias.org
http://www.alcpress.org