wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] PC(USA) seeks accompaniers for Colombia

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #8554 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

04484
October 28, 2004

PC(USA) seeks accompaniers for Colombia

Church leaders there continue to be harassed, threatened

by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE - Dozens of volunteers are now being sought to serve as
accompaniers with the Presbyterian Church in Colombia (PCI) to curb violence
against its pastors and church workers.

	The PCI has been asking for help for more than six months. During its
September meeting the PC(USA)'s General Assembly Council approved sending
accompaniers under the joint auspices of the Worldwide Ministries Division
and the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program.

	Teams of two or three volunteers will go into the region for stints
of four to six weeks until a full-time mission co-worker is hired to host
mission groups and provide pastoral support for the PCI. The church is
ministering amidst government repression, guerrilla warfare and brutal
paramilitary incursions.

	Colombia is home to what many call the hemisphere's worst
humanitarian crisis.

	Although PCI executive secretary Milton Mejia has repeatedly insisted
that the PCI does nothing illegal, it appears that Colombian authorities are
trying to link the church with Colombia's guerrilla movement. This puts PCI
workers at risk and scares off folks in need who would ordinarily turn to it
for help.

	According to Mejia, the harassment is a way of stopping the church's
human rights ministry.

	After a number of displaced men were arrested and accused of bombing
a department store owned by a prominent Colombian politician, PCI leaders
learned that the church's synod office in Barranquilla is apparently under
video surveillance. Interrogators showed to those arrested video clips of
people entering and leaving the church offices.

	The church also operates a small human rights program in which
volunteer lawyers help displaced people apply for government assistance and
document human rights abuses that forced them off their land. The coordinator
of that program, Mauricio Avilez, was arrested in June and charged with
subversion, which his interrogators equated with human rights work.

	Although the charges are still pending, Avilez was abruptly released
from jail last week.

	Mejia's life was threatened by an anonymous telephone caller who
tried to extort roughly $4,000 from the church - money the caller said should
not be spent on helping the displaced.

	"If we had someone who could leave tomorrow, we'd have them in
Colombia within two weeks," said K. T. Ockels, who directs the Presbyterian
Church (USA)'s Mission Service Recruitment Office (MSRO). "[But] anyone who
goes needs training, unless they've served with an organization like the
Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) or have experience on the ground in
Colombia."

	Potential volunteers should contact the MSRO by phone at
502-569-2530, or by e-mail at msro@ctr.pcusa.org. Applications may be
obtained by using the "One Door" online service at www.pcusa.org/onedoor.
Once there, click on "Search," and then "International Service/Latin America"
to find links to the job descriptions or type
www.pcusa.org/msr/application.htm.

	Volunteers will help the PCI to minister to Colombia's massive
refugee population, which has been displaced by the violence that has wracked
the country for more than 40 years. They will document human rights abuses,
accompany church leaders as they speak with government authorities, and file
reports that help interpret the conflict for the wider church.

	The cost to each volunteer is approximately $2,000 to cover expenses,
including airfare. The PC(USA) will provide risk management insurance and
medical evacuation if necessary, but not standard health insurance, according
to Maria Arroyo, the PC(USA)'s area coordinator for Latin America. The PCI
will provide housing. Fluency in Spanish is preferable and volunteers must be
at least 21 years old.

	"We need someone there yesterday. Really quick," said Arroyo. "The
church is calling us constantly to put someone there. It is urgent. The
church feels very vulnerable, that surveillance of [its ministries] is
continuing."

	"People who apply for these positions need to be mature  and have
self-confidence and a very strong Christian background that is committed to
nonviolence. They also need some knowledge of the situation. They cannot go
if they do not realize how risky this is," said Arroyo. She added that she
has the utmost confidence in the PCI to orient the accompaniers thoroughly
upon arrival in Barranquilla.

	Training for accompaniers is being developed now by the Presbyterian
Peace Fellowship, based on elements of several international accompaniment
groups, including the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), Witness for Peace,
and the Fellowship for Reconciliation. A former CPT accompanier in Colombia
and an active Presbyterian, Charles Spring, will lead the first training in
Washington, D.C. beginning Nov. 11.

	The Peace Fellowship is also recruiting candidates for accompaniment
and raising funds to defray some of the cost.

	Rick Ufford-Chase, General Assembly moderator - who is already
CPT-trained - was in Barranquilla and Bogota in mid-September accompanying
Mejia and other church leaders. He prodded the GAC to get the accompaniment
project under way when he returned.

	Arroyo said the goal is to put a full-time accompanier in
Barranquilla in January and that the denomination will accelerate the
placement process to do so. Ockels said it is a tight timetable.

	The denomination has opened an Extra Commitment Opportunity account
(#051763) to help defray costs for travel and insurance. Donations may be
sent to the Presbyterian Church (USA), Individual Remittance Processing, P.O.
Box 643700, Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700.

	The PC(USA)'s mission service policies clearly state that the church
does not pay ransom if its personnel are kidnapped or held hostage.

To subscribe or unsubscribe, please send an email to
pcusanews-subscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org or
pcusanews-unsubscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org

To contact the owner of the list, please send an email to
pcusanews-request@halak.pcusa.org