wfn.org | LWF president promises support for debt cancellation

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

       in Latin America
Christian Krause visits member churches in El Salvador, Nicaragua,
Suriname, Brazil, Argentina

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador/MANAGUA, Nicaragua/GENEVA, 16 April 1998
(alc/lwi) - The president of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), Bishop
Christian Krause, has promised the churches in Latin America and the
Caribbean the federation's support for obtaining a cancellation of debts by
the Jubilee Year 2000. Speaking in the Nicaraguan capital, Managua, the
second stop on his pastoral tour of visits to LWF member churches in Latin
America and the Caribbean, he said, "Everyone should collaborate so that
the incoming millenium is not only celebrated with fireworks, but with
actions that favor the excluded."

Krause's three-week trip began April 3 in El Salvador. On 15 April, he
arrived in Porto Alegre, Brazil where, among others, he met with president
of the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil (IELCB),
Huberto Kirchheim. Besides El Salvador and Nicaragua, Krause also visited
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Suriname. He will conclude his trip by
participating in the Conference of Bishops and Presidents (COP), at which
all Latin American LWF member churches are represented, in the Argentinian
capital, Buenos Aires.

Among persons with whom the LWF president met in El Salvador were refugees
who have returned from Honduras, at which time Krause recalled his
long-standing relationship with the Salvadoran people. He had already
travelled in the region 15 years earlier, during the civil war, in support
of Salvadoran refugees and displaced persons in Mesa Grande, Colomuncagua
and Honduras. In the Las Minas community in Chalatenango he visited
returned Salvadoran youths whom he had baptized as children during his stay
in Honduras 15 years ago.

Bishop of the Salvadoran Lutheran Synod, Medardo E. Gomez Soto, expressed
appreciation for Krause's visit as a sign that the LWF president has not
forgotten El Salvador, even now that the war is over, and is continuing to
support efforts toward peace and reconciliation there.

In both Nicaragua and El Salvador, Krause acknowledged the role of women:
"In Salvadoran refugee camps in Honduras I saw that the foundation and the
leadership of communities rested on women, strong women, women who are
leaders," he said. But he is concerned about current developments. Now that
the civil war is over and life is back to "normal" it is difficult for
women to continue to be leaders as traditional culture relegates them to
their traditional role, he said. The LWF president mentioned that during
his visit to Nicaragua he had met a great many women who are suffering,
there too.

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Lutheran World Information
Editorial Assistant: Janet Bond-Nash
E-mail: jbn@lutheranworld.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/