wfn.org | ALC NEWS SERVICE July 13 2003

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

ALC NEWS SERVICE July 13 2003
E-mail: director@alcnoticias.org

ALC HEADLINES:
ECUADOR: Evangelicals pay tribute to economist Salgado
EL SALVADOR: Lutheran Bishop defends Christian participation in politics
USA: UBS Video The Life of Jeremiah receives award for excellence
PERU: Victor Arroyo analyzes struggle for religious equality
CHILE: Census indicates that Evangelical population is concentrating in south

ECUADOR
Evangelicals pay tribute to economist Salgado

QUITO, July 7, 2003 (alc). Evangelical Churches pay homage to economist 
Wilma Salgado, manager of the Bank Deposits Guarantee Agency (AGD) for 
having collected money from powerful people who owed banks that went under 
in 1999 in order to return money to people who lost everything in their 
savings accounts.

The homage, convened by the Ecuadorian Evangelical Confraternity (CEE) and 
the Christian Center for Political Reflection, took place in the Lutheran 
Adviento Church in Quito on July 1 against a backdrop of enormous 
symbolism, emotion and warmth.

The liturgy was presided by Felipe Adolf, host of the event. The Ecumenical 
Fraternity Choir was responsible for the signing, which included a song by 
Argentine singer Fito Paez "Who said everything was lost? I come to offer 
my heart.

Pastor Jose Falconi gave the homily. The temple was filled with leaders, 
pastors and lay people from Evangelical Churches, Catholic Churches, 
politicians and friends of the Christian Forum on Political Reflection.

A jewelers scale was placed in the center of the temple. On one side cards 
were placed as different people read bad news from the press: increase of 
poverty, $88 million paid for foreign debt in Ecuador, horrendous jail 
conditions, increasing gap between rich and poor, young people committing 
suicide etc. The plate gradually reached the table.

Later, other guests read Bible texts related to poverty, justice and placed 
cards on the other side. The scale slowly lifted until it was perfectly 
balanced.

Pastor Falconi emphasized the work of Salgado in collecting debt from the 
nations powerful and said that it was a transcendent fact for Christians, 
that it renewed peoples faith in honesty and the battle in favor of the 
poor and impoverished in the country.

At the end a card was placed with the name Wilma and the scale tipped to 
the good side.

The president of the CEE, Pastor Estuardo Lopez read an act recognizing 
Salgado in the name of all member Churches and organizations and gave a 
visibly moved Salgado the written recognition.

Salgado said she has been surprised by the support she has received from 
such a wide range of sectors and people, something that has given her 
strengthen to continue to collect from the major debtors of the closed bank 
and to not cease until she returns the money to people who lost their
savings.

In this mission, she said, faith in God and the spiritual support is very 
important and asked them to continue praying for her and the difficult 
mission that President Lucio Gutierrez has given her and that she is able 
to carry out thanks to the team that she is working with.

EL SALVADOR
Lutheran Bishop defends Christian participation in politics

SAN SALVADOR, July 10, 2003 (alc).  Jesus Christ participated in social 
life, offering opinions, orientation, criticism and taking the Word of hope 
to those who clamored for Gods blessing and even to those who complained 
about his teachings, said the Bishop of the Lutheran Church of Salvador, 
Medardo Gomez.

As a result, Church participation in public affairs is not only legitimate 
but also necessary in these times that so need the light of the Gospel, 
added the Lutheran leader in a pastoral letter entitle Faith and Citizenship.

While he did not mention it directly, the Pastoral letter refers to 
criticism sparked by the f fact that Lutheran Pastors Roberto Pineda and 
Ricardo Cornejo publicly supported Schafik Jorge Handal, Frente Farabundo 
Marti de Liberacisn leader who is a presidential candidate for March 2004 
elections in El Salvador.

After indicating that different sectors and organizations, which accompany 
political leaders, invite Churches for spaces of prayer and worship, he 
said that the Lutheran Salvadoran Church is grateful for this marvelous 
opportunity to ask for an honest and true commitment to serve our neighbor.

Citizens organized in all political parties have and are within their 
rights to ask Gods blessing through the pastors or priests of different 
Churches. Pastors have the duty to heed this call without being partial to 
a determined political party, affirmed Bishop Gsmez.

We recognize the right that all citizens have to participate in the 
political option of their choice, he said, adding that pastors are called 
to accompany this process and to demonstrate all of Gods love.

All Churches are called to carry out a practice of Faith and Citizenship, 
to orient and strengthen social harmony and thereby contribute so that the 
signs of the Kingdom of God be visible for all men and women of good will, 
added the Pastoral.

Finally he said that it is worthy of recognition that now all political 
parties require a divine blessing but it is also a recognition that we are 
human and we need Gods strength to take on the mission to serve our 
neighbors as we are called by the Holy Gospel.

USA
UBS Video The Life of Jeremiah receives award for excellence

NEW YORK, July 10, 2003 (alc).	The Life of Jeremiah video from the 
series Heroes of the Faith produced by the United Bible Societies (UBS) 
received a 2003 APEX Award for Publication Excellent, awarded annually by 
Communications Concepts.

Communications Concepts is a US secular organization dedicated to 
evaluating and recognizing the excellence of publications developed by 
professional communicators in 11 areas of communication including written 
media, videos, web pages, multimedia and another 105 categories.

The animated video about the life of Jeremiah was recognized in the 
Special Purpose Video and Electronic Publications category. This is the 
fifteenth year the awards have been granted.

There were more than 5,000 entries and in the video category there were 
more than 100.

The video about the Life of Jeremiah is the third in the Heroes of the 
Faith series produced by the UBS: The development of these videos has been 
possible thanks to the Oportunidad 21 program and the Colombian Bible
Society.

Members of the jury included John De Lellis, editor and director of 
Concepts, Christine Turner, editor and collaborator with Writing that Works 
and the Business Communications Report and Paul Fisher, a journalism 
professor from the University of Missouri.

Another film in this series The Story of Paul received an APEX award in 
1999. The video The story of David ahs received three recognitions. In 
2001 it received APEX 2001 and in 2002 it receive the Gold Crown Award, 
first for Best international video and the Bronze Crown Award for Best 
Video for Children.

International Christian Visual Media (ICVM), an organization that analyses 
new videos offered on the Christian market each year, granted the Crown 
awards. ICVM is a consortium of producers and distributors that include 
organizations such as World Wide Films, the division of the Billy Graham 
ministry.

Fifteen illustrators participated in the production of the Jeremiah video 
and all the other videos in the series, as well as the taping and 
production personnel. Comunicaciones Latinoamericanas of Ecuador also 
worked on the animation. The Paul, David and Jeremiah videos have been 
dubbed into Portuguese. The story of Paul and David are also available in 
English.

Another two titles complete the series Heroes of the Faith: Peter and the 
doubt and Peter, Fisher of Men. These two videos were highly successful at 
the annual Expolit 2003 exhibition in Miami.

Complementary material has also been produced such as coloring books, 
comics, pens, balloons, t-shirts, erasers. In Audiocassettes, the USB has 
another 15 titles in this same series.

PERU
Victor Arroyo analyzes struggle for religious equality

By Hugo Livano
LIMA, July 11, 2003 (alc). Peru, at the beginning of the XXI Century is not 
only plural in the cultural but also the religious aspect.

The hegemony held by the Catholic Church no longer exists and currently 
there is a growing pluralism. However, legally the state only recognizes 
non-Catholic religious confessions as civil associations, something that 
violates the principle of equal opportunity and fails to guarantee 
religious freedom.

This situation was described and analyzed in a presentation by Sociologist 
Victor Arroyo Cuyubamba, executive secretary of the National Evangelical 
Council (CONEP) in the Evangelical Church and the Struggle For Religious 
Freedom Forum, organized by the Communications Studies Institute and the 
John A. Mackay Social Studies Institute last June 30.

Arroyo outlined what Evangelicals should do to ensure a regime of religious 
equality in Peru and said that the process to democratize society is 
indispensable, as it is related to justice, pluralism, tolerance and the 
co-existence of different perspectives, opinions and beliefs.

There is also a need to clearly establish the non-confessional nature of 
the State, he emphasized. Only a non-confessional state can effectively 
guarantee that no one faces discrimination for his or her beliefs.

Evangelicals, said Arroyo, need to understand that the privileges of the 
Catholic Church do not only derive from constitutional articles and will 
not be suppressed by simply changing them. Key is the Concordat, which has 
the category of an international agreement between states.

Arroyo emphasized that the social action of Evangelical confessions is 
fundamental in the struggle for religious freedom, which means working from 
and through the institution. There is a need to work on a law of 
constitutional development that clearly establishes religious equality.

According to Arroyo, the struggle for religious freedom has involved 
different sectors of civil society, including Evangelical Churches.

Constitutional reform over the years in terms of the Church-state 
relationship demonstrates that the process has been long and difficult.

In this framework, he explained, the social conduct of Evangelical Churches 
has not been uniform. On the one hand, some sectors want political 
authorities to recognize individual rights such as freedom of conscience 
and freedom of religion for all. This is partly due to the fact that 
Evangelicals have been a religious minority and they seek to legitimize 
their presence in Peruvian society.

Others are motivated by a desire to obtain the same privileges that the 
Catholic Churches receives from the State under the application of the 
concordat: subsidies, tax breaks, etc. For this sector of Evangelical 
Churches modifying the Constitution or changing the legislation would 
resolve the problem.

There is a third sector of Churches that have gradually become involved in 
the struggle for religious freedom from a perspective of citizen awareness. 
Religious freedom is a question of equal opportunities and the experience 
of individual and social rights. It does not involve a mere legal 
modification but also the construction of a democratic culture.

Finally there is a sector that points to the quantitative increase of 
Churches.  Here the struggle for religious freedom is based on measuring 
strength and sharing power. This sector says it has been called to be the 
head and not the tail which is in line with the charismatic style of the 
leadership in its communities.

Arroyo said that this dispersion must be taken into account in order to 
avoid possible schisms in the bid to conquer rights. There is a need for 
strategic unity in which personal agendas are put aside for the common 
good, he said.

In tracing the history of this struggle, Arroyo noted that for liberal 
sectors, religious tolerance was the battle horse of the XIX Century. 
Liberals, radicals and anti-clerics knew how to take advantage of the 
situation, he said.

The 1860 Constitution stated: The nation professes a Roman Catholic, 
Apostolic religion. The state protects and does not permit the public 
exercise of any other religion. However, unlike the 1839 Constitution it 
distinguishes between public and private exercise, inferring that such 
practices were permitted behind closed doors.

On November 11, 1915 Congress approved the reform of the 1860 Constitution 
and suppressed the part that stated, Does not permit the public exercise 
of any other religion. This marked a new stage regarding religious 
tolerance in the country. Two factors contributed to achieve this 
tolerance. On the one hand, an awareness-raising strategy on the part of 
missionaries such as Juan Ritchie and on the other, the fact that liberal 
sectors had also taken on the Protestant cause.

The 1920 Constitution indicated: the Nation professes the Roman Catholic, 
Apostolic religion. The State protects it. This text eliminated regulations 
about other confessions. Moreover, it also established that no one could be 
persecuted for their ideas or their beliefs. However, it did not regulate 
the right to meeting and therefore did not constitutionally protect the 
public exercise of a non-Catholic confession.

The 1933 Constitution introduced another change. Respecting the sentiment 
of the national majority, the State protects the Roman Catholic, Apostolic 
Church. However, it also expressly recognized the right of other religions 
to carry out their respective worship.

However, it lacked a complementary right: Freedom of expression that allows 
a religious confession to disseminate its beliefs and therefore attract 
followers.

The 1979 Constitution expressly guarantees the right to all confessions. 
Art. 2 states that freedom of conscience and religion are a right and 
guarantees non-persecution for beliefs and freedom of public expression, 
with the exception of anything that is morally offensive or affects public 
order

This version substantially modified Church-State relations. The Catholic 
Church is no longer recognized as the religion of the nation or the 
religion of the national majority but rather as an important element in the 
historic, cultural and moral formation of Peru. Therefore Church-State 
separation has been clearly established.

Moreover, the fact that it recognizes that the State can collaborate with 
other confessions implies recognition of the social roots of non-Catholic 
Confessions.

The 1993 Constitution reproduces the 1979 text almost literally, adding the 
states respect for non-Catholic confessions.

It is against this backdrop, which marks progress in terms of religious 
freedom, that Congress has sought to approve Art. 71 of the current 
Constitutional Reform Project, said Arroyo.

 From my point of view, this article, while it does not fully satisfy the 
aspirations of the Evangelical Church is a step forward as it expresses 
that the State recognizes and respects all religious confessions and 
establishes cooperation with them, said Arroyo.

Evidently, in terms of religious equality, the Constitution should clearly 
guarantee a non-confessional, lay state. However, we must also be aware 
that such a regime will be constructed as part of a process, he said.

CHILE
Census indicates that Evangelical population is concentrating in south

SANTIAGO , July 11, 2003 (alc). The largest Evangelical population is found 
in southern Chile, according to an analysis of the 2002 Census published by 
the daily La Tercera.

The data indicates that Talcahuano is the home to the heaviest 
concentration of Evangelicals with more than 50,000. It is followed by 
Coronel, Concepcion and Chillan, the VIII Region, south of Santiago. In 
third place lies Temuco, capital of the IX Region.

The Evangelical presence is so strong that in several cities in the area 
they are the majority, according to La Tercera.

In Coronel there are 23,451 Catholics but Evangelicals number 36,080. A 
similar situation is true in Lota, where more than 70 percent of the 
population identifies themselves as Evangelicals, Lebu, Curanilahue and Los 
Alamos, In Arauco and Contulmo the number of Catholics and Evangelicals is 
very similar.

The fact that Catholics make up more than 70 percent of the population is 
reflected in their strong presence in the biggest cities: Maipz, Puente 
Alto, La Florida and Viqa del Mar have the highest population density of 
Catholics.

While they are few in numbers, Muslims live in northern Chile. In Iquique 
there are 205 and in Arica there are 83, according to the study.

A significant number of Jehovahs Witnesses live in Antofagasta, a city in 
northern Chile. However, the biggest group is found in Puente Alto, Maipu 
and La Florida.

According to the daily, Jewish people tend to concentrate in eastern 
Santiago although there are also groups in Viqa, Temuco and Concepcisn.

Chileans who do not profess any religion tend to live in urban areas and 
regional capitals. Puente Alto reports the highest number of people who say 
they follow no creed. San Bernardo and Concepcisn have a similar number of 
atheists and agnostics. There is also a significant group in the 
Metropolitan Region.

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