ALC NEWS SERVICE E-mail: director@alcnoticias.org
---------- CONTENT
BRAzIL: Assembly awakens expectations and caravans begin to mobilize COSTA RICA: Elected Evangelical Pastor thanks voters MEXICO: Presidential candidate for the PAN opens lists to Evangelical leaders PERU: Ombudsman speaks out in favor of Adventist student UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: US Evangelical Churches remain silent regarding Bush
-------- BRAzIL Assembly awakens expectations and caravans begin to mobilize
PORTO ALEGRE, February 10 (ALC). A few days
before the inauguration of the IX World Council of Churches Assembly in this capital, expectations are rising among congregations, groups and ecumenical and social bodies in Brazil.
From Belem, state of Para, 3,854 kms from Porto Alegre, two busses will leave tomorrow with Lutheran, Anglicans, Methodist and Catholic pastors and lay people who will participate in the world event to be inaugurated February 14.
Holding the Assembly on Latin American soil will be a differential framework in Church-society relations, in terms of respectability and visibility, said Methodist Bishop Luiz Virgilio Batista da Rosa, of Porto Alegre.
He said that he hopes that the event raises the awareness of Church leaders in order to impel ecumenical actions. ?In the end the demand for Church unity is an imperative of the Gospel and not the institution,? he added.
The president of the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil (IECLB) Walter Altmann trusts that the Assembly will deepen the ecumenical commitment and will herald new times of cooperation among Churches.
?The ecumenical movement is going through a
delicate moment, with theological tensions and debate. This is a new scenario to which the WCC is adjusting,? he said.
?We hope that the WCC Assembly will nourish the groups that are already ecumenically linked and will be an incentive for new groups and initiatives,? affirmed the advisor for the Ecumenical and Religious Dialogue Commission of the National Bishops Conference (CNBB) the Rev. José Bizon.
The meeting of the international ecumenical body should bring ?many lights for us Brazilians so we can emphasize solidarity, rejecting all aggression and irreverence in the world? added Bizon.
For the official delegate for the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil (IEAB) to the IX Assembly, secretary general Christina Winnischofer, ?an event with so many issues on the agenda, with people from all over the world, is going to be very enriching.? Winnischofer said that Anglican congregations are very excited about the event. ?They are living this period before the Assembly as if the event had already begun,? she said.
The IX WCC Assembly will bring together 4,014
participants, 45% women and 55% men and 15% of the total participants are young people. There are 691 delegates with the right to vote, including 279 lay people and 412 pastors. The event will bring together representatives from 347 Churches from 110 countries. Two hundred journalists, 139 from outside the country, are registered to cover the event.
-------------- COSTA RICA Elected Evangelical Pastor thanks voters
SAN JOSE, Feb. 11 (ALC). Guyón Massey, a 61-year old pastor from the Vida de Pacto Church in this city who was elected a legislator in last Sunday's elections went to several radio stations to thank his voters.
Massey who ran for the National Assembly on the National Restoration party ticket is a leader with a great deal of experience in the Costa Rican Church. He is president of the Organizing Committee for the festival of preacher Luis Palau, to be held in mid-March.
One of his first tasks, he said during a Latin American Council of Churches' event, will be to stop a Health Ministry initiative that seeks to limit the use of Evangelical churches. The debate is set for next May.
The Christian Alliance of Evangelical Churches of the Argentine Republic (ACIERA) saluted the election of Pastor Massey and said that he is a man who has worked tirelessly for Church unity, holding positions of high responsibility in the Evangelical Alliance of Costa Rican Churches.
Pastor William Magaña, of the grassroots radio station Estero Visión, affirmed that at least 10 other Evangelical representatives were elected which he interpreted as a "clear plan from God that Costa Rica be lead by believers."
However, not everyone in the Evangelical world has a favorable opinion of Massey. Jonathan Pimentel, dean of the Baptist Theological Seminary of Costa Rica said that he "condenses the attitudes and discourses of Evangelical leaders linked to TV Enlace canal 23", a subsidiary of the TBN Christian Television Channel.
Pimentel said that the ethical focus of Massey's discourse is in reality "moralist" and based on a position that is "anti-abortion, homophobic and about libidinal repression."
He questioned his ambiguity about the Free Trade Agreement, "as this is an issue that polarizes the country. It would appear that his participation in the Assembly is aimed at guaranteeing the continuity of his party, which could imply his support for the FTA in exchange for concession to Evangelical Churches or federations," he said.
---------------------------- MEXICO Presidential candidate for the PAN opens lists to Evangelical leaders
MEXICO CITY, February 9 (ALC).The presidential candidate for the Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) Felipe Calderon Hinojosa announced that he would include Evangelical leaders on his lists for the federal districts of Chiapas and Tabasco, demonstrating that he is ?committed to freedom of religion in the country.
The candidate, who considers himself to be a
Catholic conservative, met this Wednesday with representatives from several Christian denominations. His political coordinator Josefina Vasquez Mota explained to El Universal that ?it is not a vote swap? after the Evangelical representatives indicated that they could not guarantee a significant block in Calderon?s favor.
The Christian leaders took advantage of the
meeting to express their concern about the cases of religious intolerance registered in some parts of Chiapas, one of the poorest areas in the country, where Evangelical Churches are showing a significant growth in their number of faithful.
Delegates from the Assemblies of God, the National Baptist Convention, the Lord of the Center Church, the Christian Family Center and from Christian Cellular Groups participated in the meeting.
The leader of the Social Encounter political
group Hugo Erick Flores was positive about the PAN candidate?s invitation to the Evangelicals and said it is necessary to incorporate Christian groups into local and federal congresses given ?the number of members they have at a national level.
Last week the PAN candidate said during a meeting with leaders from the Catholic, Evangelical, Anglican and Orthodox Churches that should he be elected he will fully respect religious freedom.
Calderón Hinojosa said his government would help Churches obtain mass communication media, religious education in schools, military evangelism, religious assistance in hospitals and penitentiaries and would even lift restrictions that barred ministries from making political expressions.
------ PERU Ombudsman speaks out in favor of Adventist student
LIMA, February 9 (ALC). In a historic ruling, Peru?s Ombudsman spoke out in favor of an Adventist university student who was denied the right to freely practice his religion in the private university he was attending.
Lawyer Marco Huaco Palomino, legal advisor on the case and specialist in cases of freedom of religion and conscience said that the San Martin de Porres University did not allow student Carlos Carpio to observe Saturday, a holy day for the followers of Judaism and some Christian confessions like Seventh Day Adventism, stating that he stood to lose his professional studies.
On January 27, the Ombudsman determined that the university establishes that each professor, without affecting their standards of professional formation, can adopt exceptional measures or treatment for students who are unable to meet the academic and general administrative regime for religious reasons.
This is the second case about the right to
observe religious days where a public body has made an official statement. The first case involved a case where the Constitutional Tribunal ruled in favor of a doctor from the social security system in 2001.
The sentence was viewed in a positive light by specialists in human rights and constitutional law and set a precedent in terms of Peruvian justice, recognizing the right to conscientious objection as a new fundamental right.
Dr. Huaco, author of a recently published book about religious freedom said that this ruling represents important progress toward a regime of full religious freedom in Peru and is ?evidence of the need for a Religious Affairs Law that will develop religious freedom according to the Constitution and international human rights treaties.
---------------------------- UNITED STATES OF AMERICA US Evangelical Churches remain silent regarding Bush
By Carlos Pinto
LOS ANGELES, February 9 (ALC). US Evangelical
Churches have spoken out against the war in Iraq, abortion and same-sex marriages remain and yet they remain silent in the face of the "cruel, racist and anti-Biblical" migratory policies impelled by the George W. Bush government, which have a particular impact on Latin Americans.
According to Eduardo Romero, a researcher into Evangelical issues, Christians have "assumed a surprising silence" regarding the abuse against immigrants, despite the fact that the Judeo-Christian traditional has always identified with the mandate to help the stranger.
"It seems unusual that when the hated Berlin wall fell, this was applauded by Christians but now that same Christian population with its silence applauds the inhuman, racial segregation policy that President Bush imposes, raising a wall on its southern borders," he said.
He said that the silence of Evangelical Churches converts them into accomplices of a policy that mistreats immigrants and fails to recognize that they are God's children who have an inherent right to respect and a dignified treatment.
Romero added that the Biblical mandate is to care, protect and defend the weakest. Bush's migratory policy on the other hand takes an aggressive stance regarding those who wish to enter the United States to work and earn their daily bread.
Romero said it was contradictory that US
Evangelical Churches are opposed to abortion but close their eyes and remain silent in the fact of policies "of terror that attack the human life of the immigrant population" which are dictated by the Republican Party and President Bush, he said.
It is not enough "to talk about defending justice in a romantic manner" and then to remain silent in the face of "acts of cruelty, marginalization and aggression against people who are willing to do work that US citizens do not want to do."
"Racism is still very present in the North
American political and social system, a position that contradicts Christian faith. However, the Church maintains a shameful and anti-Biblical silence that makes it an accomplice to these positions that contradict the example of Jesus Christ to love our neighbor," he concluded. --------------------- Latin American and Caribbean News Agency (ALC) P.O. Box 14-225 Lima 14 Peru Tel. (511) 242 7312 - E-mail: director@alcnoticias.org http: //www.alcpress.org