wfn.org | [ALC] Noticias Oct 3 2004 Columba, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala,

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

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

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

COLOMBIA: Christian Movement for Peace
BRAZIL: Position of Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti breaks down Episcopal
collegiality said lawyer
CHILE: Lutherans propose tax on weapons trafficking and creating a fund
against hunger
GUATEMALA: Central American communicators agree to back WACC actions
URUGUAY: Human chain in defense of work

------------------
COLOMBIA
Christian Movement for Peace

BOGOTA, September 30 (alc) - Catholic and Evangelical entities from
Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and other Latin American countries convened a
"Meeting of Christians for Peace," to be held October 30-November 1 in
Bogota with an eye to creating a Christian Movement for Peace with Justice
and Dignity.

"Our world, our America and our Colombia is groaning with pain, bloodied,
stripped of dreams and drowning, not in a dignified life but in an dreadful
survival, because in their imperialist zeal, some countries have become the
owners of money and power and, with lies, impose their brutal force on the
humble, poor and suffering people of God," said the convocation.

"It seems impossible to change the course of history, we feel like ants
biting a giant. But God fills us with hope because He will struggle on our
side for justice, peace, human dignity and creation. As many Christians from
different religious currents have done throughout history," it added.

Now we want to unite efforts, to unite dreams such as creating a
"Continental Movement of Christians for Peace with Justice and Dignity," to
generate a context that will allow for a broader, more sustained and
operative articulation of diverse Christian experiences in favor of life,
peace, justice and human dignity, said the document.

The meeting will be preceded by a meeting of theologians, 15 from Colombia
and 35 from other countries.

After these two events, similar events will held in other countries on the
continent and participants will work on the conclusions of the Continental
Christians for Peace Meeting, to confront war and the current period of
economic liberation, according to the needs of each country.

The nearly 50 organizations convening the event include: The Confederation
of Religious Guatemala, the Presbyterian Church of Colombia, the Colombian
Ecumenical Network, made up of the Presbyterian, Evangelical Lutheran,
Baptist, InterAmerican Laureles de Medellin Churches, the Methodist Church,
the Archdiocese of Cartagena, the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission,
the Baptist Seminary of Cali and PROMESA); the National Center of Social
Communication, CENCOS of Mexico and others from Ecuador and Catholic bodies.

-----------
BRAZIL
Position of Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti breaks down Episcopal collegiality
said lawyer

PORTO ALEGRE, Set 30 (alc).  The special Episcopal oversight in the Anglican
diocese of Recife, mandated by the primate of the Anglican Episcopal Church
of Brazil (IEAB) Orlando Santos Oliveira, after hearing the Chamber of
Bishops, is legal and has backing in Church cannons, said Lawyer Senomar
Teixeira Junior.

The lawyer, who advises the IEAB, made the affirmation in response to the
Bishop of Recife Robinson Cavalcanti who said that he did not recognize the
intervention as it was not supported by cannon law.

In an extraordinary meeting held in Porto Alegre on September 16 the IEAB
Chamber of Bishops accepted the request of the suffragan bishop of Recife
Filadelfo Oliveira Neto, 14 clergy, nine from parishes and six from missions
who asked for the "special Episcopal oversight" due to Cavalcanti's
"intransigent and disrespectful" attitude.

The tensions between Cavalcanti and the IEAB are 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.

In a clarifying note, published by the IEAB news service, Teixeria Junior
said that the case involving the diocese of Recife is serious and that
Bishop Cavalcanti is "breaking disciplinary commitments that were
spontaneously assumed at his ordination" in a flagrant act of
insubordination, "breaking down the collegiality of the Episcopal
government."

When he did not recognize the alternative supervision, the Bishop of Recife
alleged that the diocese was autonomous.

However, "a diocese in Brazil can only be an Anglican diocese if it is
affiliated and in communion with the IEAB, which is the 19th Province of the
Anglican Communion" said Teixeira Junior.  This means that there is no
possible provincial link with Canterbury in Brazil outside of the IEAB, the
lawyer said.

According to Teixeira Junior those who resist the disciplinary action of the
IEAB will inevitably end up separated from the Anglican Communion.

He said that "resistance to recognizing and fulfilling the IEAB decision,
through the primate, is considered a transgression of the cannons."

----------
CHILE
Lutherans propose tax on weapons trafficking and creating a fund against
hunger

SANTIAGO, set 30 (alc) - Representatives from Lutheran Churches from the
Latin American southern cone, meeting in Viqa del Mar, Chile from September
21 to 24 proposed taxing international weapons trafficking and speculative
capital in order to create a fund to combat hunger around the world.

The meeting was attended by representatives from the Evangelical Lutheran
Churches of Chile (IELCH); the United Evangelical Lutheran Church (IELU) of
Argentina, Evangelical River Plate (IERP, with a presence in Argentina,
Paraguay and Uruguay); Lutheran Church of Chile (ILCH),  Evangelical
Lutheran Confession of Brazil (IECLB), all affiliated to the Lutheran World
Federation (LWF).

The final declaration points to the use of the foreign debt as an instrument
to impose the neoliberal model that increases poverty, inequality and
dependency on a daily basis.

For this reason, they added, they decided to step up their actions in the
framework of the "Lobbying Program on the Illegitimate Foreign Debt in Latin
America and the Caribbean." This means a process of reflection and training
within Churches and actions in national and international media to achieve
the effective recognition of the illegitimacy of the foreign debt.

They specified that, considering the suffering of the people and the need to
open routes to transformation, there is an urgent need to efficiently
confront the problem of hunger in the world.

"For this," said the document, "we support the constitution of a fund to
combat it and in this sense, while we cannot validate the flow of
speculative capital and international arms trafficking, we support the
suggestion that these activities be taxed and these resources be destined to
combating hunger."

It added that they agree with statements from Latin American presidents
before the United Nations Assembly, in the sense that the UN should be
respected as the only body that legitimizes efforts to maintain peace and
world security, as well as to combat hunger and economic inequality.

"We believe that in order to more efficiently reach these objectives, it is
indispensable to broaden mechanisms of representation in the United Nations,
even in its Security Council," emphasized Lutheran Churches from the
Southern Cone.

They said that the globalization process has been accompanied by a profound
worsening of inequality in the world, leading millions of people to suffer
endemic hunger, which is incongruent given the increase of technical,
scientific resources and production in today's world.

They noted that Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, in his speech
before the UN emphasized that "in 1820 the difference between the per
capital income between the richest country and the poorest country on the
planet was less than five times," while today that "difference is 80 times."

Finally, the declaration recalls that as Churches, they are committed to
actively participating in the World Social Forum, which will take place in
Porto Alegre, Brazil in January 2005 under the slogan "Another world is
possible."

They said "we share the conviction that it is possible and necessary to seek
alternatives to the excluding globalization and to unite our prayers, voices
and actions with those of all people and movements for good will that work
for a more just, solidarity world."

--------------------
GUATEMALA
Central American communicators agree to back WACC actions

By Trinidad Vasquez

GUATEMALA, set 29 (alc) - Journalists and Christian communicators from
Central America who participated in the seminar "The right to communication
is a human right," held in this capital from September 15 - 18, agreed to
support actions for a new world communication order impelled by the World
Association For Christian Communication (WACC),

During the meeting, Myrian Horngren, coordinator of the WACC's "Advocacy"
network said that information is increasingly reduced in Third World
countries and globalization also decides what should be said and to whom.
Rich nations are keeping us from informing with freedom and we are losing
our cultural identity. We must break the culture of fear and strengthen the
network of community and participatory radio in the meso-American region.
This constitutes a New International Information Order, she said.

Legal advisor for the National Center of Social Communication (CENCOS) of
Mexico, David Peqa Rodrmguez, said that communication media throughout the
world are a private power that is superior to some public powers. In Mexico
there was a great debate between business men and the state, dominated in
the end by the businessmen, he said.

While the Mexican Constitution guarantees freedom of expression there are
elements in secondary laws that make it necessary to struggle to protect
journalistic sources, which are in danger.

Meeting participants were very positive about the work of community and
participatory media networks, such as ARPAS in El Salvador, the CERIGUA news
agency of Guatemala and the network "Mujeres al Aire," also from Guatemala.

Participants committed themselves to seeking to construct alliances with
other communication professionals both from the private sector and civil
society and to improve their political lobbying capacity in each country in
the region in favor of democratizing communication.

-----------------
URUGUAY
Human chain in defense of work

MONTEVIDEO, set 29 (alc) - When the bells sounded in Protestant and Catholic
Churches on September 22 4,000 people linked hands in the street, joining
the Parmalat plant with the Fundadores Square in the Colonia Suiza,
Uruguay.

This "Human Chain of Hope" was 3.5 kilometers long and congregated nearly
half of the local population.

Participants then marched to the main square where a message was read that
affirmed the will of all sectors and institutions from Colonia Suiza,
together with the workers guild, to not allow the main source of work in the
area to be badly sold or closed. One out of every four people in this city
of 9,000 depend on the Parmalat factory for work.

The mobilization was organized by the permanent working group to defend
sources of work, with the active participation of Pastor Ruben Yennerich of
the Evangelical Church of the River Plate, Catholic the Rev. Edgardo
Rodriguez and Pastor Fernando Rodriguez of the Baptist Church.

The Italian transnational Parmalat suffered a multi-billion financial
collapse last year. As a result, the Italian state assumed the debt and has
put the plants up for sale in several countries including Uruguay,
Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

The objective of the "human chain for hope" was to raise the awareness of
the Uruguayan government to intervene and defend work. Moreover, to ask the
Italian government to be aware that a group of people in Uruguay depend on
the plant for their livelihood.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Your e-mail is wfn@igc.org
In order to unsubscribe send a mail to 
english_weekly_alc-baja@listas.alcnoticias.org