wfn.org | ALC News Noticias Dec 21 2003

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

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

ALC HEADLINES:
CUBA: Christmas celebrations underway in Cuba
VENEZUELA: Evangelical Council rejects attacks against Catholic Churches
PERU: Attention

CUBA
Christmas celebrations underway in Cuba

By Josi Aurelio Paz
HAVANA, December 19, 2003 (alc). Christmas celebrations began this week in 
different theatres on the island and the 100-voice Pax de Deux choir held a 
concert in the Amadeo Roldan auditorium, accompanied by the Havana Soloists 
Symphonic orchestra.

The Christmas concert will be broadcast on the Bravo program on Cuban 
television this Sunday night.

The Cuban Council of Churches (CIC) sent Christmas greetings to Evangelical 
congregations and the Cuban public in general

In these days, it stated, when inequalities are becoming more profound 
around the world, some falsely celebrate the birth of Jesus with sinful, 
market opulence. However, Christians on the island prefer to recall this 
important historic event with the humility of the stable that, despite its 
poor condition, knew how to give warmth and life to the Life without limits 
that God grants us through his son.

Regarding what Mary and Josephs pilgrimage would be like today, the CIC 
noted that they would continue their journey on the same gentle and 
labored donkey, out in the countryside and far from the major highways.

The document added that Joseph and Mary would continue looking for the 
same stable as they would not have money for a five-star hotel or hospital, 
guided by the light of the stars that the electric lights of the major 
cities frequently lead us to forget.

The document, signed by the CICs Board of Directors, also asks where the 
Messiah would be born this December.

Jesus would be born in a convulsed Colombia, among the poor who search for 
food in the garbage dumps of Mexico City, in the shantytowns of Brazil, in 
an occupied Baghdad, and among so many South Africans who die daily, 
victims of pandemics like AIDs, it said.

Jesus crib would not be one of those beds for babies that have the 
capacity to tell a childs temperature with simple contact with the 
mattress. Jesus would not attend private schools or have a paid nanny.

Jesus would be born and would be born as a promise, among so many children 
that ask for milk and receive hunger, amongst so much abuse and child 
prostitution that twists and contaminates the human spirit, amongst so many 
shoots of life that are lost in the labyrinths of misery, illness and 
wars, said the CIC.

Pastors will read the statement on December 25 on several radio stations. 
It exhorts people to receive Christmas as a hopeful project of life, 
despite the lacks and limitations that Cubans are suffering and the Church 
alongside them because we have a people rich in spirit, millionaires in 
Cuban essence and full of trust in the better times the Lord reserves for
us.

VENEZUELA
Evangelical Council rejects attacks against Catholic Churches

CARACAS, December 20, 2003 (alc). The Evangelical Council of Venezuela 
(CEV) energetically repudiated recent attacks against Catholic temples and 
against different Catholic individuals, affirming that all human beings, 
created in the image and likeness of God, possess an intrinsic dignity that 
should be integrally respected and valued.

No social, economic, cultural, racial or even religious difference should 
impede us from loving and respecting each other, knowing that God has 
called everyone to serve and share with equal will and with equal love, it 
added.

In a communiqui published December 18, the CEV, as a representative of the 
majority of the Venezuelan Evangelical people, emphasized that this type of 
vandalism, as well as violating the Constitution, further polarizes the 
country.

Several years ago, political, social and material differences began to 
separate us and produce a confrontation among brothers of the same people, 
destroying one of the major values that in the past characterized us: the 
brotherhood and warmth of Venezuela, it said.

Now the religious element further accentuates this terrible division and 
we observe with pain, horror and shock how in recent days individuals and 
physical spaces have been attacked in a senseless, violent, profane 
fashion, it emphasized.

We firmly believe in the dialogue, communication, the healthy manifestation 
our beliefs and respect for all expressions of faith and culture, as one of 
the routes to understanding, national unity, reconciliation of the 
Venezuelan family, affirms the document.

At this time, when we celebrate the birth of the Son of God, we raise our 
clamor to God and our call to each Venezuelan, regardless of their faith, 
belief or political tendency so that Christmas be a manifestation of love 
and the blessing of God in each of the residents of this country, concluded 
the statement.

PERU
Attention

The year 2003 is coming to a close and as is customary ALC will enter a 
short break. We will suspend our service this weekend and resume on January 
12, 2004.

We would like to take advantage of this moment to thank you for your 
support and comments and positive feedback about ALCs work. We will return 
in January with renewed energy and with the same commitment to continue 
serving our readers, the Churches and the community in general.

We would also like to wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas and 
Happy new Year. Peace and Hope for our peoples and success in our ventures.

Sincerely,

Joao Artur M|ller da Silva - President of ALC

Fernando Oshige - Director

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