wfn.org | ALC Noticias Sept 26 2004 Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Guatemala

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

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

----------------
CONTENT

ARGENTINA: 200 Years of Bible Societies Celebrated
BRAZIL : Anglican Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti rejects agreement reached by
other bishops in his denomination
ARGENTINA: Let us pray for the end of this atrocious period said Bishop
Pagura in setter to Bush
PERU: CONEP President identifies challenges of the millennium
GUATEMALA: Demands for justice in the face of numerous murders of women

-------------------
ARGENTINA
200 Years of Bible Societies Celebrated

BUENOS AIRES, September 24 (alc) - Today Mary Jones has different names,
languages and nationalities. We can find her poor and forgotten on the
streets of Calcutta, thirsty for water and hope in Sudan, exposed to danger
in a Sao Paulo suburb or washing car windows on an avenue in Buenos Aires,
said Marcelo Figueroa.

The Secretary General of the Argentine Bible Society (SBA) was referring to
Mary Jones, a young Welsh girl who worked for six years to save up enough
money to buy her own Bible and then walked 40 kilometers to get it. Her
efforts inspired a small group to found the British and Foreign Bible
Society in 1804 to disseminate the Bible.

Figueroa spoke in an act commemorating 200 years of what are now the United
Bible Societies, last September 21.

Today the Bible, or parts of it have been translated into 2,355 languages of
the approximately 6,000 spoken around the world. The United Bible Societies,
present in more than 200 countries, distribute approximately 600 million
scriptures a year.

Figueroa noted that the SBA, founded in 1825, has distributed the Bible in
the indigenous Toba, Mocovm, Pilaga, Chorote, Wichm, Yagahan and Quichua
languages.

The story of Mary Jones, he said, was repeated recently when Adriana and
Veronica, two young Wichis, who live in the province of  Formosa found out
that the Bible was being distributed in Wichi and walked 15 kilometers with
some artisan work, the only thing they had to offer in exchange.

Adriana and Veronica call us, challenge us and give us strength to continue
forward, he said.

He said that the SBA is lobbying so that under Argentina law the fourth
Sunday of September be named the National Bible Day. This proposal is
supported by representatives from both the Catholic and Evangelical
Churches.

During the same ceremony, Salvador Dellutri, president of the SBA,
emphasized that the Bible, as the Word of God in eternity, is always
integrated in time. When we began the XXI Century, he said, we were filled
with hope.

However, the short road we have traveled is showing us that this optimism is
unfounded: intolerance, violence, hatred, death, oppression, hunger and
misery occupy front and center stage.

We are before violence of an international scale. However, the most shameful
and terrible thing is that in some cases the name of Jesus Christ is used to
justify "preventive wars against evil" and they attempt to disguise voracity
under the label of "just war" or, worse yet, "a holy war."

However, together with the openly war-based violence there is another
violence: that of misery and poverty. Selfishness, ambition and materialism
dominate the world scene. Powerful transnational capital impose a neoliberal
model and insist on a universal market, responding to the most unjust and
unfair capitalist interest in human history, said Dellutri.

We are moving toward a future, he said, where 500 million people will live
in opulence while 5.5 billion will sink in hunger and misery.

If the international panorama is not encouraging, what is happening in
Argentina is also extremely serious. We live in a bankrupt nation, marked by
profound social problems and frightening poverty and misery. We live in the
midst of terror, faced with constant insecurity, confused by the imprecise
lines between criminals and public servants, said Dellutri.

Today, theft, death and destruction seem to have overtaken our society. For
this we must turn our eyes and heart to Jesus Christ, because he is the only
one who can give us true life. As Argentines we must call each other to true
repentance. Without this spiritual renewal that will truly change our
conduct there will be no future. Today, we are surrounded by shadows that
frighten us. It is time to stand before God, with our face to the sun, he
concluded.

----------
BRAZIL
Anglican Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti rejects agreement reached by other
bishops in his denomination

PORTO ALEGRE, Sept 23 (alc) -The Anglican Diocese of Recife, lead by Bishop
Robinson Cavalcanti said a decision to send Bishop Mauricio de Andrade to
exercise a "special Episcopal oversight" was "illegal, illegitimate and
unacceptable."

The agreement was made by the Chamber of Bishops from the Anglican Episcopal
Church of Brazil (IEAB) in an extraordinary meeting held in Porto Alegre on
September 16 at the request of the suffragan bishop of Recife Filadelfo
Oliveira Neto, 14 clergy, nine from parishes and six from missions, due to
Cavalcanti's  "intransigent and disrespectful" attitude.

The crisis is rooted in a decision made by the Episcopal Church of the
United States (ECUSA) in July last year to accept the ordination of declared
homosexual Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire. Different Churches
objected to the ordination and a great debate was sparked in the World
Anglican Communion. Cavalcanti is among those who rejected Robinson's
ordination.

At that time, Cavalcanti participated, without authorization from the
Brazilian Church and without the permission of the Episcopal Bishop of Ohio,
United States, in the confirmation of a group of young people in a
congregation opposed to Robison and the US Episcopal hierarchy. The Primate
of the IEAB warned him not to participate in that ceremony but Cavalcanti
responded by saying that "extreme situations demand extreme measures."

The IEAB considered that Cavalcanti's decisions breached norms of the
Anglican Church. "The fact that the Brazilian Anglican Province respects a
decision from the maximum ECUSA body does not mean that we share it. It
corresponds to the General IEAB Synod to debate and deliberate such
material," said Christina Winnischofer general secretary of the
denomination.

The IEAB Bishops' Chamber decreed the special oversight for the communities
and clerics in the Anglican Diocese of Recife "who feel pastorally uncared
for by their diocesan bishop" and named the Diocesan Bishop of Brasilia
Mauricio Andrade to exercise this special supervision.

Not Andrade, or any other bishop will be welcome in the Diocese of Recife,
warned Cavalcanti. In a letter addressed to Primate Orlando Santos Oliveira
he also censured the "disloyal and anti-ethical behavior of the Suffragan
Bishop." He added that the bishops made a political as opposed to legal
decisions and overstepped their bounds when they violated the principle of
diocesan autonomy based on distorted and partial information.

-------------------
ARGENTINA
Let us pray for the end of this atrocious period said Bishop Pagura in
setter to Bush

BUENOS AIRES, set 23 (alc) -  " Therefore, we pray fervently for the end of
this atrocious and scandalous period that humanity has had to endure. ",
said Federico J. Pagura, bishop emeritus of the Evangelical Methodist Church
of Argentina in an open setter addressed to US President George W. Bush.

In the letter, dated from the city of Rosario where the respected Argentine
leader lives, Pagura added "We also pray for the illumining of the
conscience of your people, Mr. President, so that it could finally shake off
the wicked doctrine of "National Security" and the imperialist arrogance
that are increasingly being repudiated by the vast majority of countries."

"We pray that your people, who as a nation have lost the way signaled by
your most noble and visionary statesmen, will soon refuse in a humble,
penitential and definitive way, those policies. Unless, blindly or
stubbornly, they would opt for the extermination or suicide of entire the
human family," added the Methodist Bishop.

"Meanwhile,, Mr. President, instead of persisting in those lies, that have
been made manifest in your presidential election and in your colonial
policies, based in falsehood and terror, I would urge you to turn yourself
honestly to the pages of the Bible," added Pagura, stating that Bush also
claims to be a Methodist believer.

  "Study the history of the true Methodist Movement, to which you claim to
belong to, and remember the inexorable struggle of (John) Wesley, against
slavery, against the love of money and the practice of usury, and in favor
of a genuine defense and transformation of life,  in its personal and social
dimensions," he said.

"Some of us are simple spectators or actors in the  "Third World", or
better, "the South that also exists" (delightful expression of one of our
poets); others, like you are leading figures in some of the most sad,
shameful and bloody pages of that history.  These pages at this stage opened
with the monstrous terrorism that toppled the twin towers in New York, but
have continued with the response of terrorism by the empire you preside over
and represent.," he added.

"Such terrorism already had its precedent in another September 11th.(1973)
in Chile, that put an end to the constitutional government of then President
Dr. Salvador Allende, and thus intensified the chain of bloody dictatorships
in all of Latin America and the Caribbean, that finally immersed us in the
long night of the neo-liberal ideology, with its resulting unemployment,
misery, social unrest, and endless corruption and violence, he said.

"After citing the words of the prophet Habakkuk and Gospel, the Methodist
Bishop noted that the Bush government is characterized by arrogance,
immeasurable ambition, bellicosity and hostility, and religious
fundamentalism. These attitudes have taken you to surround yourself with
false prophets ..while remaining deaf to major prophetic voices in your
country, such as Michael Moore (that genius from the seventh art) and to the
wisest and most respected voices within the church you claim to belong to."

Finally, the Bishop expressed his hope and prayer that "God have mercy on
all of us, and for love of the poorest, the oppressed and excluded of our
generation, who are the most privileged according to the Gospel, may we open
our eyes and truly turn to God, so that we may see His Light, and abandon
our wicked ways, which result only in death and desolation."

------------
PERU
CONEP President identifies challenges of the millennium

By Hugo Livano

LIMA, September 22 (alc) - The president of the Peruvian National
Evangelical Council (CONEP) Pastor Carlos Jara identified the main
challenges confronting the Peruvian Evangelical Church in the new
millennium.

After pointing to the social and technological changes that have marked
recent years, Jara noted that the Evangelical population in Peru has grown
from 6.83 percent to 14 percent over the past decade. Peru has a population
of 26 million.

On the other hand, he said, the Evangelical Church in the world, in
particular in Latin America, in the past 20 years, has made important
progress. The mega-Churches, the radio and television ministry, the theology
of worship, different types of praise, among other things, create a new
panorama that requires a careful analysis.

In Peru, said Jara, who is also national vice superintendent of the
Assemblies of God, we not only have denominational Churches but a high
percentage of independent Churches as well as diverse para-Church
ministries. Parallel to this, modern theological currents have appeared that
also require analysis and definition.

  A proposal for political participation on the part of Evangelicals is also
becoming more solid and there is an Evangelical presence in government
sectors that were previously marked by little or no participation.

  Of the above, said Jara in CONEP's bulletin, we can deduce that the
challenges facing CONEP in this new phase are great and require
re-engineering and working in unity and a strategic plan for the next 10
years.

CONEP must be linked to the Churches to be a part of them and avoid a
situation where we are seen as an isolated and hierarchical institution.
There is a need to update the statutes to make the entry of other Churches
more feasible, to convene national consultations to see the progress of the
Church and future challenges and to regionalize the Council to make it more
representative. We must also continue our struggle for religious equality,
both in the political Constitution and with laws that regulate without
discrimination, said Jara.

The bulletin reports that as part of the process to modernize CONEP the most
recent national assembly named a commission to elaborate a proposal to
reform the statutes, which includes lawyers Jose Regalado and Elias Medina
and Pastors Rafael Goto and Nelson Ayllon.

---------------------
GUATEMALA
Demands for justice in the face of numerous murders of women

By Trinidad Vasquez

GUATEMALA, set 22 (alc) - The murders of close to 400 women in Guatemala so
far this year led Inter-American Human Rights Commission Rapporteur (IAHRC)
Susana Villaran to demand that the government decisively investigate these
atrocious crimes.

Villaran, during a three-day visit to the country met with authorities from
the executive and legislative branch, as well as with religious leaders and
members of non government organizations who form part of a Broad Front to
Struggle for Non Violence against Women.

At its most recent meeting on September 20 the Evangelical Conference of
Guatemala Churches (CIEDEG) also expressed concern about violence against
women. The Central American Evangelical Center of Pastoral Studies (CEDEPCA)
also voiced concern.

Villaran, former Minister of Women in Peru, after hearing the dramatic
testimony of violence in the country called on authorities to step up
investigations and to apply criminal code reforms.

At the end of a meeting with legislators, Villaran said that they had
informed her that the Human Rights and Government commissions had begun an
investigation of the nearly 400 murders of women this year.

If this trend continues, some 700 women could be murdered by the end of the
year, a figure that is of deep concern for Church leadership, said Elizabeth
Carrera de Paz, CEDEPCA coordinator. President Oscar Berger always responds
"we have reports, they are going to be verified, but it goes no further,"
said Carrera.

She added that the Non Violence against Women's Network receives support
from the Government's Women's Secretariat, from Churches and diverse social
organizations, youth groups, unions and the Network of Women Journalists,
because they are among the most affected by crime. The Network of Women
Journalists has marched through the streets of Guatemala with signs that
said "No More Murders of Women."

A history professor commented that organized crime could be behind the
murders in order to detract attention from the political struggle and the
battle against corruption that is increasing national poverty on a daily
basis. These crimes are shocking as the victims are raped and even
decapitated while others receive a mercy shot. We must remember that there
are thousands of former soldiers in this country, said the historian, whose
last name is Guerra.

According to Guerra, an effort has been made to create an ecumenical space,
with Catholic and Evangelical representatives, in order to unite efforts
against these murders.

During the seminar The Right to Communication: a human right, promoted by
the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) in this capital
September 16-18. Ileana Alamilla, from the Center of Informative Reports on
Guatemala, said that the major media do not cover activities of the Women's
Network Against Violence. For example, a recent meeting in which more than
1,000 women analyzed violence and asked the government to investigate and
bring the guilty to justice received no coverage.

Carmen Tzamol, of the Catholic Esclavas del Sagrado Corazon order, said
during the seminar that Guatemala women suffer the consequences of
structural and even military, machista violence. The order, which orients
and trains young women regarding family violence, supports the Network's
initiatives, said Tzamol.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------
Latin American and Caribbean Communication Agency LAC)
P.O. Box 14-225 Lima 14 Perz
Tel. (51 1) 462 0189 - Telefax (51 1) 463 2496
E-mail: director@alcnoticias.org