wfn.org | New mission context urged for U.S., Latin

["Disciples Off. of Communication"<wshuffit@oc.disciples.org>]

American churches
Date: May 20, 1999
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: Clifford L. Willis
E-mail: CWillis@oc.disciples.org
on the Web: http://www.disciples.org

99b-39

	INDIANAPOLIS (DNS) -- The church needs to 
"ground God's
mission in a completely new context today," said 
the head of a Latin America ecumenical body. 

	What the Rev. Israel Batista proposes are new 
relationships culminating in "jubilee 
communities" aimed at establishing solidarity and 
reconciliation between churches of the North and 
South. Batista is general secretary of the Latin 
American Council of Churches (CLAI).

	He and the Rev. Walter Altmann, president of the 
CLAI board, were guests for a  May 14 dialogue on 
church mission and church unity. The event was 
sponsored by the Latin America and the Caribbean 
office of the Christian Church (Disciples of 
Christ)/United Church of Christ Common Global 
Ministries Board.  

	Despite a growing world movement to declare a 
"jubilee" that forgives the enormous foreign debt 
now crippling poor countries, for Batista, real 
jubilee concerns the change of political and 
social systems as well. He said that change 
involves not only reconciliation, but 
restitution. "You cannot have reconciliation 
without restitution."

	Jubilee is a "new moral and ethical paradigm" 
that dignifies human beings, said Batista. 
"Jubilee is a movement from possessions to 
solidarity; from reconciliation to restitution, 
and from death to life." 

	The church, according to the CLAI executive, 
needs to move beyond normal tensions to embrace 
technological advancements while affirming the 
past. He advocated, for instance, "combining new 
technologies and collective memory."

	He also cautioned against rampant localism, 
adding that "small is not always beautiful." Yet 
the most effective alliances, he said, are "built 
on the catholicity of the local faith community. 
The unity of the church is a gift of God to 
humanity through local churches."

	The church, according to Altmann, must grow 
beyond the current "spiritual" understanding of 
unity into a new form based on testimony and 
service. "Ecumenism and mission is not a 
contradiction," said the CLAI chairperson, but 
"two sides of the same coin."

	According to Altmann, the church's unity is 
centered on one mission -- alleviating human 
suffering. "When one member of the body suffers, 
the whole body suffers," he said.  

	"The way of ecumenism is the way of the cross," 
said the Rev. Robert K. Welsh, president of the 
Disciples Council on Christian Unity. "In pain 
and in suffering is the promise of 
resurrection."

	This kind of unity, according to the Rev. 
Carmelo Alvarez, allows churches to "do ministry 
in a pluralistic, wounded society plagued with 
fragmentation and individualism." Alvarez teaches 
church history at Christian Theological Seminary, 
Indianapolis.

	"There is an enthusiasm for mission in our 
congregations that someone keeps saying ‘no' to," 
said the Rev. Pat Spier, president, Disciples 
Division of Overseas Ministries. The 
institutional church, she cautioned, "may be part 
of the problem  . . .  by setting rules that 
impede the movement of the Spirit."

	Unity must "be in double directions," according 
to the Rev. Oscar Bolioli, secretary for Latin 
America and the Caribbean with the National 
Council of Churches in New York. "We need to 
listen to each other.

	-- end --