ALC NEWS SERVICE E-mail: director@alcnoticias.org
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CONTENT
PERU: More Evangelical candidates to participate in April 9 elections PERU: Pentecostal theologian calls on Churches to forge a discourse about political issues URUGUAY: Pastors analyze the issue of installing cellulose plants ECUADOR: Theological forums in 20 countries to preceed V CLAI Assembly COLOMBIA: Death threats persist against Evangelical Pastors in Buenaventura
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PERU
More Evangelical candidates to participate in April 9 elections
LIMA, Mar. 30 (ALC). More than 100 evangelicals are running in Peru's April 9 elections, up from 57 that ran in the 1995 elections, 35 that ran in 2000 and 30 in 2001.
According to the paper Protestante launched March 30, of these candidates 90 percent are unlikely to win although several are running for the second time. Under new regulations in Peru in order to win a congressional seat a party must obtain at least 4% of the vote nationwide or have five elected Congress representatives.
Tito Perez, director of the paper, said that one novel thing in this election is the fact that three evangelicals are running for president and vice president.
Humberto Lay, pastor of the Emmanuel Bible Church is running for president for the National Restoration Party while Pastor Marco Alcalde and missionary Juana Avellaneda, of the Assemblies of God and the I am Church respectively are running as vice presidents for the party Democratic Reconstruction.
National Restoration and Democratic Reconstruction, parties with a religious orientation, concentrate the highest number of Evangelical candidates but there are also would-be congress representatives in "secular" parties like APRA, Andean Rebirth, Alliance for the Future, Peru Now, Democratic Front, the Nationalist Union for Peru Party and in the Decentralization Alliance.
According to Perez, the candidates in religious parties are pastors, leaders and lay professionals known for their Church work while evangelicals running for secular parties are better known for their social and political work in their communities and grassroots organizations.
This situation, he said, obligates evangelical candidates from parties with religious orientation to concentrate on Churches and evangelical events as they are not as well known in the community.
Evangelical candidates in secular parties, however, seek the vote of evangelicals and non believers as they are well known for their social work in the community.
Perez said that only three evangelical candidates have congressional experience: Juana Avellaneda (Change 90, 1990-1992), Miguel Quicaña (Change 90-New Majority, 1995-2000), and Walter Alejos (Peru Possible, 2001-2006).
However, he underscored the trajectory of candidates like Maria Sumire, a member of the Evangelical Methodist Church, a well known leader from Cuzco with experience as a leader of peasant farmer organizations. She is running for Congress on a Nationalist-Union for Peru ticket, whose presidential candidate is frontrunner Ollanta Humala.
He also pointed to Felícita Quispe, member of the High Aposento Church, a leader of the Glass of Milk Program and Mothers' Clubs who is running for Congress for Democratic Reconstruction and Manuel Rosado, a member of the Church of the Nazarene, a political leader from the Amazon and president of the Association of Nazarene Professionals who is running for APRA.
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PERU
Pentecostal theologian calls on Churches to forge a discourse about political issues
By Fernando Oshige
LIMA, Mar 30 (ALC). Pentecostal theologian Darío López Rodríguez raised the need for Churches to have an opinion about issues of national concern and to promote the faces of representative Evangelicals before society.
"Today we do not have a discourse about the public agenda and we must build it in a coherent fashion that is pertinent to the reality of the country and with a solid Biblical foundation," he said.
The Church should offer orientation about a fair economic policy that reflects the kingdom of God; about a prison policy that respects human dignity; about the defense of human rights and on issues such as abortion, HIV/Aids from an inter-disciplinary perspective and not just from the religious angle," he added.
This discourse, said Lopez, should be collectively forged and should be supported by a serious commitment in the struggle for social justice, the affirmation of democratic values, human dignity, reconciliation and peace.
"With this foundation Churches can hold discussions with other actors from society, from their religious perspective," he underlined.
Lopez is pastor of the Church of God
(Pentecostal), a doctor in theology, former secretary general of the Association of Evangelical University Groups of Peru (AGEUP), current vice president of the National Evangelical Council and the author of several books.
The Pentecostal leader emphasized the need to construct or support public Evangelical faces, leaders who generate currents of opinion and whose influence transcends Church frontiers.
In this task of constructing public faces, he said, it is necessary to respect the plurality of options within the Evangelical community.
At the same time, he challenged Churches to forge models of responsible citizens in order to ensure that "the improvised, the ingenious and the ambitious who accommodate and re-accommodate themselves, depending on each electoral situation" do not break into politics.
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URUGUAY
Pastors analyze the issue of installing cellulose plants
MONTEVIDEO, Mar. 29 (ALC). The conflict generated by the installation of two cellulose plants in the Uruguayan city of Fray Bentos, on the border with Argentina, was addressed by a group of Catholic priests and Evangelical pastors who met with business representatives and people from both countries, at the invitation of the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI).
The meeting took place March 24 in the Evangelical Waldesian Church of Cologne (Uruguay) in order to dialogue about the situation that threatens to divide both nations and has created conflict in four towns on both sides of the Uruguay River: Gualeguaychú and Colón, in Argentina, and Fray Bentos and Paysandú, in Uruguay, only separated by international bridges.
"The first thing we do is recognize that in the name of God we are responsible and stewards of his Creation (.) we should and we have to be in favor of common good. We invite the Churches to join us to generate spaces for dialogue and critical spaces of reflection that help us to critically read the facts," said a declaration from the event.
The meeting recommended that Argentine and Uruguayan governments in particular and the members of MERCOSUR (Common Southern Cone Market) consider dialogue and the dissemination of truthful information as tools to overcome the conflict in the Gualeguaychú - Fray Bentos zone.
At the same time, it proposed that they take the necessary measures to clean up and protect the Del Plata hydraulic basin and that they generate a legal environmental framework that guarantees sustainable development in MERCOSUR.
The religious leaders and neighbors asked that a commission be formed in the framework of MERCOSUR made up of qualified people in the management of natural resources who are sensitive to local needs, who will monitor investment policies and their environmental impact in the region's populations and eco-systems.
Next April 8 a new meeting will be held on the Gualeguaychú - Fray Bentos and Colon - Paysandú bridges as a demonstration of integration between both nations, organized by the Evangelical and Catholic leaders from both countries.
On March 11, the governments of Argentina and Uruguay agreed that the work of the cellulose plants would be paralyzed for 90 days in order to initiate a dialogue to resolve the conflict. This allowed people to lift the road blocks that had been in place for more than 40 days and had closed off the route to the trucks that took material to the plants.
Spain's ENCE and Finnish BOTNIA signed investment agreements with the Uruguayan government to build two cellulose factories on the banks of the Uruguay river, taking advantage of the eucalyptus forests in the area.
The populations of Gualeguaychú and Colon have been opposed to these factors since 2003 due to the environmental damage they will cause the air, water and land in the region.
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ECUADOR
Theological forums in 20 countries to preceed V CLAI Assembly
QUITO, Mar. 28 (ALC). Some 42 theological forums and five regional consultations will be held this year in preparation for the V Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI) Assembly to be held in the city of Buenos Aires in February 2007.
According to the CLAI board, meeting in Tegucigalpa, Honduras from March 5 -11 the importance of these activities, which in the case of the forums will involve 20 countries, make it possible to view the most important ecumenical event in Latin America with optimism.
To advance with Churches in biblical and theological reflection, to see a new ecumenical reality, to be a meeting space among Churches and the interest of 30 new Churches to enter CLAI "fills us with joy and responsibility," according to a statement from the international body.
On the Honduran situation the statement said that the "people do not experience the hope of change despite the fact that a new government has taken power." It also expressed concern about the problem of violence and youth gangs.
We ask God that the new government, which lives between a dependence on foreign domination and the control of a few power hungry families, could convert the slogans of the electoral campaign into acts of justice and peace, it said.
The government's proposal to create a Religious Affairs Office sparked concerns in CLAI that this may be an attempt to have political control over the religious arena or could be a space to receive perks and benefits without a vision of the integral reality of the country.
However, CLAI said it has confidence in the position of Honduran Christian Churches regarding the current challenges. "We are happy to see an Evangelical / Protestant Church that has grown. It is impressive to see its presence in the marginal and poor sectors," it said after stating that together with this growth it has understood that social responsibility means and changes in the life of the society.
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COLOMBIA
Death threats persist against Evangelical Pastors in Buenaventura
BOGOTA, Mar. 28 (ALC). Some 10 pastors in the port city of Buenaventura on the central Pacific coast received death threats in recent days according to Apostle Wilma Rueda, coordinator of an Apostolic Network of Churches in Colombia who said that the intimidation has gotten worse after the murder of two pastors in this area.
Rueda told the South America IMPACT network in a telephone interview that in recent days, at the end of an Apostolic event celebrated in this city "persistent death threats have increased that include the widows of the murdered pastors."
Last March 15 Pastor Alfredo Orozco, of the New Beginnings Christian Church was murdered when he left his home. Two weeks earlier, Pastor Oscar Muñoz of the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church was also shot by unknown assailants.
"It is outrageous because they do not explain the reasons behind these murders," said Rueda after adding that the Pastors do not address the issue of violence in their sermons and do not speak out against those who have taken up arms. "These are the dark forces of the shadows that have turned against the pastors of the city," she said.
Entire pastor's families have fled to different cities in Colombia in a bid to escape the violence given the serious nature of the threats and the events in Buenaventura, a city three hours from Cali with a population of 300,000, the majority Afro-descendents.
The Peruvian apostle Samuel Arboleda, president of the South America Apostolic IMPACT network who visited the zone called for a huge front of intercession and solidarity in favor of the pastors and their families in Buenaventura and other similar points in Colombia.
"We call on all groups of intercession to join uninterrupted chains of prayer and fasting," he said after demanding that international bodies that protect human rights in the region and Colombian government authorities exercise pressure against these groups so that they "cease their acts of crimes against humanity and to protect the threatened pastors and their families."
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