Want to be an Accompanier in Colombia?
A note from Linda Eastwood, Coordinator of the Colombia Accompaniment Program ~
The accompaniment program, run by Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, is a joint program of the PPF, PC(USA) and IPC (Iglesia Presbiteriana de Colombia, Presbyterian Church of Colombia). The IPC requested this accompaniment back in 2004, when their human-rights work had led to harassment and threats which had reached a level that was hard to bear alone. We’ve sent volunteer accompaniers in pairs, a month at a time, almost continuously since that request, and the need to continue this ministry of presence and witness was affirmed at a PPF / PC(USA) / IPC week of discernment in Colombia during Holy Week of this year.
Requirements for service as an accompanier include:
• Mature Christian faith
• Commitment to practice non-violence
• Demonstrated faith-community backing
• Ability to raise funds for volunteer service
• Spanish skills strongly preferred, but not required
• 21 years of age and a valid U.S. passport
The training / discernment process is a pre-requisite to going to Colombia as part of this program. I’m pleased to announce that the next training and discernment event will be held October 7th (5pm) to October 11th (1pm), at Stony Point Center in New York. (Also, FYI, the dates are tentatively set for next spring’s training / discernment as March 10-14, 2011. So no harm recruiting people who might not be able to make it in October.)
You can find more information about accompaniment, including the current brochure, a set of “Frequently Asked Questions” and reports from former accompaniers, at the web-page: http://www.presbypeacefellowship.org/two/colombia/accompaniment After reviewing the information there, would you please send me an e-mail letting me know both whether you continue to be interested in the program, and, more specifically, whether you would like to be considered for the October 2010 training and discernment event?
If you do hope to attend the October event – and I would be delighted if you do! – then please send me a completed biographical questionnaire, using the attached form. You should also understand that accompaniers go to Colombia as PC(USA) mission volunteers. You will thus also need to get going as soon as possible on the “One Door” application for Presbyterian Mission Service (Go to One Door at http://tinyurl.com/2cwrz6p to create your online profile, including “supplemental profile information”. Apply to the Short-Term IPC Accompaniment Volunteer position at http://tinyurl.com/247quto ) This all takes a while, especially as you need to get references, but you still have time before the October training. Then, assuming you’re approved, you’ll book your travel to Stony Point. (If you’re flying, information on shuttle services from Newark airport can be found at http://tinyurl.com/23lams4. You’d need to arrive in time for the 2pm shuttle from Newark to Stony Point.) We cover the cost of (simple) accommodation and food, but ask that you pay your own transportation.
I do hope that you continue to want to be involved in the Colombia Accompaniment Program. Human rights workers in Colombia continue to be threatened, and our presence is a source of strength and protection to our friends in the Colombian church. Our accompaniers come back filled with enthusiasm, wonder and gratitude at their experiences with our partners in the Colombian church – and you could too!
Blessings on whatever you do for the furtherance of God’s reign of peace and justice in this world,
Linda Eastwood, Coordinator, Colombia Accompaniment Program
colombia@presbypeacefellowship.org
La Macarena – Stories, Signs, and Smoke
On July 22nd I traveled to La Macarena, a small, isolated town in the Meta department of central Colombia. I was there to listen to the testimonies of community members who had lost family members with no connections to the armed conflict and to see the evidence of a reported mass grave alongside the local military base.
Stories…
It’s the stories that stick with you. After all the press releases, the counter press releases, after the images fade – the stories stick with you.
Yolima told of her life after she witnessed a local paramilitary raping a girl and reported it, against all advice. Three of her daughters, one by one, were disappeared. She was later told they are all in the La Macarena grave, buried as FARC guerillas…
Armando told of how his son disappeared one day. Later, after going to any and all the military installations, he was told his son was in the La Macarena grave, buried as a FARC guerilla…
Jorge told of how he returned home one day from working in his fields, and the military was in his house. He asked about his wife, and they told him to go away. When he returned, he found bullet holes and evidence of sexual assult in his house. Later the military told him his wife was in the La Macarena grave, buried as a FARC guerilla…
Paloma told the story of her son – who was serving his obligatory military service – and was at home recuperating from an injury from that service. One day he went out into town and never returned. His mother went to the military base asking for help. She was told he was buried in the La Macarena grave, buried as a FARC guerilla…
The crowd of over 800 people from the surrounding area was a testament to the anger and pain of these communities, who have long been at the leading, violent edge of Colombia’s armed conflict. The courage and strength of those who stood up to testify publicly was an example of what can happen when people say ” enough is enough.” They gathered that day under the banner of “we are telling the truth,” an act that can be very dangerous indeed.
La Macarena is a small, isolated town in central Colombia, in the region known as the Eastern Plains. But these are very different plains than the high plains of the Texas Panhandle, where I grew up. These plains are covered with an almost impenetrable forest and crossed with alluvial rivers.
And La Macarena bears the scars of Colombia’s 60 years of civil war. In the late 1990′s, La Macarena was part of a swath of land that was ceded to the FARC in preparations for peace talks which would eventually fail. In 2002, the Colombian military re-took the zone, and the the most recent scars began. Because the region had been wholly controlled by the FARC, the military viewed the entire civilian population as guerrilla collaborators (regardless of the fact that the population there had no say as the Colombian government ceded their entire region to the FARC). The ‘re-taking’ of the region proved to be a period of years of violent conflict – with civilians bearing the brunt.
Through those years, the people of the region knew and heard about bodies buried in the mass grave at La Macarena. They described helicopters often coming to the adjacent airstrip and dropping off bodies that would later be taken the the unmarked section of the cemetery. And as the above stories show, they were often told their loved ones were there, buried as combatants in Colombia’s never-ending conflict.
Last October, reports of the “special” section of the cemetery began to emerge in the media. The local mayor confirmed it’s existence and estimated that over 2000 bodies had been dumped there. And while the promised investigation languished, human rights organizations began to listen to, interview, and document the people’s stories in la Macarena.
What makes this fosa común, or common grave, so explosive?
That is because up to now, the mass graves that have come to light in this civil war-torn South American country have been attributed to the paramilitaries.
But the one in La Macarena is located just outside the largest military base in the region: the local garrison of the mobile brigades of the Rapid Deployment Force (FUDRA), which receives U.S. military aid and fights the left wing guerrillas. (from Inter Press Service report – A Cemetery Full of Questions)
Signs…
But it turns out, you don’t need a mass grave to be explosive or damaging to one side or another in this conflict. You don’t need media coverage or international delegations to bring the gravity of the situation home. What spoke to me at the grave site were the little signs placed about the site. Signs with numbers, which were code for the order the bodies were discovered in, and for the approximate date of their burial. While the grave was first publicized in October of 2009, I stood and wondered how there could be so many markers from 2010…
And the whole process of deciphering these signs is a bit like deciphering the violence that has gripped this country – codes and acronyms that all mask the tremendous human suffering that is taking place. Some reflections from that day in La Macarena:
Crosses line the fence leading up to the military base
Here in the fosa común, I am stuck with the tensions in our work as a church. We are a part of organizations that work together to uplift, defend and promote human rights. That includes trips like this, to document past abuses, and to call for public justice as the basis for any lasting reconciliation. The Presbyterian Church of Colombia is called to stand here with Yolima, Armando, Jorge, Paloma, and all those who came to publicly cry out for the truth, and for justice.
But in my role as a Christian, as a part of the priesthood of all believers, I am struck with the need to witness God’s love, God’s healing, and God’s ultimate forgiveness. I am struck with the need to mark the hallowed ground, where we all return to dust, to offer prayers for the dead and for the living – recognizing that the signs are not codes, but each one a life, and thousands of lives are represented here in this unmarked, contested, and obscure patch of earth. In Genesis, Jacob piled up stones to mark the place where he had wrestled with God. In La Macarena, families have lined the fence of the grave with crosses to mark this sacred ground, where a wrestling of humanity is occurring.
and Smoke…
And then comes the smoke. After returning back to Bogotá, I watched the Colombian press closely to see what would come of a visit of a group of internationals and Colombian opposition politicians traveling to a remote site to witness what was called the largest mass grave in Latin America. The headlines below tell the story. A few days after out visit, the then President Uribe also went to La Macarena, but only to promote more military conquest and to denounce our visit (human rights as connected with terrorism – see quotation below); and the story of this mass grave was soon swept up into the war of words going on in July between Venezuela and Colombia. At one point, a Colombian spokesperson called for the International Criminal Court to investigate the presence of guerrilla camps in Venezuela, which was interesting, because one of the main requests of our group was that the same ICC investigate the mass grave in La Macarena. Our request for ICC investigation has not been met so warmly.
So how does this connect to the United States? As it turns out, La Macarena has been an area of special focus for the US-Colombian relationship. As a part of a project known as Integrated Action, the US has significantly funded the Colombian military units in this region. Integrated Action is a step past Plan Colombia, the US’s 10 year effort at drug reduction, military enhancement and state building in Colombia. This newer effort emphasizes the presence of government institutions and guarantees (government in a box) once major conflict has ended. (See the Center for International Policy’s paper – After Plan Colombia for a thorough analysis.) However, the legacy of violence against civilians is so strong, and indeed still runs deeply in places like La Macarena, it is doubtful that the confidence of the population can be rebuilt. Absent a true, transparent, and mutually accepted process of reconciliation, this effort will be one more layer in Colombia’s ever-increasing civil conflict.
There is a narrative that Uribe’s hard-line security policy, known as “Democratic Security” has been a success, no matter the cost. The stories of the victims of La Macarena, the signs of a fosa común, and the smoke surrounding any investigation of human rights abuses all point to a very different conclusion. Security does not come through violence, obscuring the truth, or intimidating persons. The truth will come out.
The site of the fosa común, or mass grave.
New Reports from La Macarena: ( follow the back and forth through the headlines, or go ahead and read the articles,especially the first, for a full picture of the coverage)
Two congresspersons raise the possibility of a mass grave next to a military installation
Colombia denies existence of mass grave
Uribe and Cordoba trade ‘terrorist’ allegations
“The final victory is not far” says President Uribe at Meta Base (use Google Translate for English)
Venezuela: FARC claims are strategy to cover genocide in Meta
President Uribe’s response to the allegations of a mass grave in Meta, El Tiempo 7/26/10
“El terrorismo, en esa combinación de formas de lucha, mientras a través de algunos voceros propone la paz, a través de otros voceros viene a La Macarena a buscar cómo desacredita a la fuerza pública y cómo la sindica de violación de derechos humanos”, declaró Uribe.
“Terrorism is a combination of different forms of struggle. While some of its spokespersons propose peace, others come to La Macarena looking for ways to discredit public security forces and to accuse them of human rights violations.” declared Uribe.
Small News There but BIG News Here
In July, the Presbyterian Church (USA) held its biannual General Assembly to offer direction to the church nationally for the next two years. Over the course of the week committees and the assembly itself discussed various issues, some of which made it into the national news (primarily LGBT issues) and others generating a lot of discussion at least within the church (Middle East, church governance, confessional statements). Inevitably, however, some items barely made the radar – lumped in with “peace and justice” or some such moniker, but not really leaving much impression on anyone apart from those who were invested in the topic to begin with.
One of those issues was a little thing about ending the US Military Base Agreement with Colombia.
This overture passed through and became PC(USA) policy with virtually no discussion. While on the one hand this makes me quite pleased, I am also wondering whether many folks knew what they were doing or what this was about. I am also wondering if anyone in the US church is now going to do any of the actions encouraged by the church whether that be prayer or coming here to monitor the bases and their impact. Will anyone even know this happened?
What I can say is that for folks in the church here, this was big news. Any efforts by the US church to support peace in Colombia always gets a lot of attention here. Thank you letters were sent, praises were lifted, and even now the delegation from Chicago Presbytery is getting a lot of feedback about what happened as a result of their efforts to put this question before the General Assembly.
Given that the Colombian/US Base Agreement is now the volleyball of international relations between Venezuela and Colombia, the resolution could not come at a more appropriate time. It came too late to stop the agreement from being signed, but it certainly does not come too late to lobby against it still.
We will write more about the war of words between Colombia and Venezuela, the base agreement, and more, but for now we too offer our thanks to our church for the gift of support to our sisters and brothers here. If we can help you get the word out in your congregations about what happened at GA and how it could effect life here, please let us know. For us, this is pretty big news.
To read the text of the resolution click on the word “more” below.
I Hate Rabbits
There are some days here in which there is little to do. When we first arrived in Colombia we sat in the Barranquilla office reading the newspaper and meeting people but nor really “doing” a lot in the good old US of A sense of the word. We were prepared for this to a degree. We knew that the Accompaniment Program has counseled folks for years that their presence is what is most important, and after our Young Adult Volunteer years, Richard and I really believe that to be true. Still, three years in wicked heat to sit in an office and read the newspaper? Come on…
Ah, the good old days.
It turns out that if there is “not much to do” then you should count your blessings. Part of the reason that the blog has been dormant over the past month is that there have been an abundance of things to do, and when you work with human rights that is rarely a good sign.
Germán, one of our colleagues, has a saying – “Sometimes the rabbit jumps.” I didn’t really know what that meant, but I nodded my head and looked thoughtful. (This is not an uncommon strategy…) However in the past month, I have seen this rabbit in action and let me be clear – I hate rabbits.
Following the situation in San Onofre, the IPC gathered folks together to talk about ways in which we could respond and continue in solidarity with the remaining members of Finca La Alemania who are still “en la lucha” for their land. Part of our efforts included letters from Gradye Parsons, PC(USA)’s Stated Clerk, and Presbyterian Peace Fellowship to the US Ambassador. Richard and I took a trip to Bogotá to get to know that Presbytery better and together with some of its members we went to the Embassy to talk about this case specifically.
Upon our return though the rabiit kept a hoppin’. Individuals and organizations related to the IPC were named in a threat letter from a paramilitary group that was directed to and also threatened the Washington Office on Latin America. These people and groups were targeted for having signed a letter encouraging the US Congress to pass a bill (HR 1224) encouraging the support of Afro-Colombian and Indigenous Colombian rights. For that they were named “military objectives for being sell-out sons-of-bitches who are blocking the policies of the Colombian government.” This hit home, not only because we knew some of those named, but also because we participated with several hundred other folks in Ecumenical Advocacy Days in Washington, DC in April in which we asked our Congress people to support this very same bill.
And in a meeting to discuss this threat, another person mentioned that s/he had recently been accosted near their home for having confronted someone that s/he found out killed their brother several years ago. For that knowlege, and for displaying that knowledge, their life is now in danger. More letters to the Embassy, efforts to get folks to safety, concerns over what to print and what not to print – all of these things have taken up our time and our mental energy in the last few weeks. And, all have made us think about the commitment human rights workers undertake in their efforts to guarantee people’s lives, if not life abundant.
So yeah, I hate rabbits.
***
PS. In reviewing this post my colleague Germán also noted that he was also less than fond of rabbits that jump out of nowhere and could be going anywhere. “Often times they break things and it doesn’t really upset them…or seem to matter to them at all. The worst is that it seems they like to keep us waiting with anxiety for the moment in which they jump and continue destroying good things that have been done with a lot of effort. And yet, it is not that I really hate rabbits, it is that I AM TIRED of them. We need time to think about how to construct spaces in which even the rabbits can take part…but without destroying the good that many people have been doing.”
Ever the philosopher, and as always, well put. Thanks Germán.
Election Results – Santos in for Four Years
… and that might mean that the current president gets four more years on his agenda…
Juan Manuel Santos won last week’s second round Presidential election in Colombia. Santos is seen as the candidate most likely to continue current President Alvaro Uribe’s policies. While early excitement surround the opposition candidate Antanas Mockus of the Green Party, that didn’t translate into significant electoral support. Santos won 69% of the vote. (Below are two analyses of Santos’ victory, well worth reading)
- from Catalan Photography International
Santos: This Victory is Uribe’s
Many people we know are disappointed in the electoral results. Mockus’ promises of honesty and transparency attracted many in the church looking for a change in direction from Uribe’s security-oriented government, a government that has left a wake of human rights abuses and government corruption.
But in the end, the church reaffirms that it is of no party, no power on this earth. Our hope is not in elections or politicians, but fundamentally it is in the saving power of God. God among us, Emmanuel, chose to change the existing abuses and injustices of his day through an overwhelming love, through a touch to an untouchable, through a meal with the outcast.
Our work as a church continues in this path. A song sung in many churches here chant the words – celebrando, cantando, sonriendo, luchando – por la vida – (celebrating, singing, smiling, struggling – for life) words that define our work and life as followers of Christ, working for the healing of this world. (You can hear the song on the IPC’s Days of Prayer and Action for Colombia video)
San Onofre
Some days you think you know whats going on. Some days, you know you don’t…
Last Thursday, I thought I would have a regular day here in the IPC’s Presbytery offices. But by 10am, I was packing a bag, listening to the story of a murdered Campesino leader, and preparing to go to his funeral. Along with two other pastors from the IPC, we were going to stand in solidarity with Rogelio Martínez Mercado’s family and community as they mourned his violent death and as they cried out for justice.
We were going to San Onofre, a small town near the Carribean Coast, in the deparment (state) of Sucre. The region around San Onofre is primarily held by large landowners now; they mostly raise cattle along with some African Palm. San Onofre is known to Colombians as the site of several mass graves resulting from intense paramilitary activity in this area in the 90′s and early 2000′s. Rogelio and organizations he was working with have been pressing for justice for those killed in those dark times. He was the leader of a group of 52 families that were living and working a farm called La Finca Alemania. They were working to reclaim the land that had been violently stolen from them. The persons behind Rogelio’s murder are not clear, but the threat to the work he and others are doing is.
Funerals are a mixture of public and private. It is a deeply personal time for the family and community of the person lost. Yet here in Colombia funerals are public, often having a procession down a central street. We walked the final kilometers to Rogelio’s funeral in a procession, with the family and friends in very public grief, and with the community gathering in respect and support of a beloved leader. At one point a group of moto-taxis (motorcylists who carry one passenger) led the group, all blowing their horns in salute.
Rogelio’s death has atracted a lot of attention. Rogelio was a community leader, and the work he was leading (of recuperating land that had been stolen from him and others) is very contentious work. While the Colombian governement officially supports displaced campesinos returning to their land, in reality there are many obstacles. Many human rights groups and church organizations, such as the IPC, came to San Onofre to show support for this work. It was an impressive display of solidarity and commitment to the ongoing quest for justice.
Equally impressive were the actions of state actors in San Onofre. When we arrived on Thursday afternoon, the family was having a small prayer service in a house just off the main highway. Several uniformed police came and spoke with the widow. They offered her several things usually offered to victims in these circumstances – protection during the funeral, help with transport, and some money for costs – but there was a catch. She also had to sign a statement holding no persons or entitities of the State responsible for her husband’s murder. When the circumstances are unclear in a murder, it is the state’s responsiblity to investigate and prosecute those responsible, regardless of affilation, rather than seek any exemption from such basic justice.
Also impressive is seeing the apparatus of police power first hand. On that long funeral procession, with hundreds of mourners and a very distraught family, a truck was parked alongside the road with a man filming the procession. After being confronted by mourners, he said he was hired by the police intellegence agency. His defense was striking: ¨But we film all the demonstrations.¨ Here in Colombia films like these often end with the people in them being killed as well.
In contrast, the funeral procession continued on, chanting ¨We believe in life, not in death.¨ Indeed. As the church and other defenders of humans rights continue on here, it is only the hope of life that overcomes death that carries them on. Where death is so present, the Christian story of of an empty tomb, of death overcome, and of a full life in the Spirit become the way of carrying on life and seeking justice.
We do believe in life, not in death. Thanks be to the God of life, who holds us in all of our trials.
I invite you to join in prayer with the family and community of Rogelio Martínez Mercado. We offer prayers for comfort and for memory. We offer prayers for safety and security. We offer prayers for justice and reconcilation. We offer this to the God of all life, who says ¨I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the one who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life… I will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.¨
Related news sites:
Lutheran World Relief – http://www.lwr.org/colombia/rogelio/
Associated Press - Land activist killed by gunmen in Colombia
Amnesty International – Condemns the killing of a humans rights defender
Naming the Wonders of God on Pentecost
Yesterday, for Pentecost I had the opportunity to speak at 9th Presbyterian Church here in Baranquilla. The area in which 9th is located is called “La Ceiba” (a type of tree) and one of the three churches in the city located in barrios populares (lower-income neighborhoods). Richard and I like visiting 9th Church a lot. We seem to know a lot of people there, they are always incredibly friendly, and though the music is loud (always, and everywhere) it is good, well-grounded, and a nice mix of upbeat and reflective.
I have found that my preaching style here is a bit different as I try to involve the congregation more in the sermon. Often there are about 50 people in attendance, so it makes less sense to do a sermon that doesn’t include them. And, since I am still pretty wedded to the printed page when I preach in Spanish, I like to have at least a few moments when we all get to talk a little more together. At any rate, though you aren’t hearing any of this, I hope it “translates”…more or less.
“Las Maravillas de Dios”
Good morning brothers and sisters. First, I want to thank you all very much for the opportunity to be here with you at 9th Church on this Pentecost day. I should also tell you right from the start that I am going to need your help during this sermon, so let’s get started right now.
I like this text in Acts a great deal, and I see a lot in it, but I want to know about what you think. What parts of the Pentecost text catches your attention? What parts fascinate you, and why?
Certainly a great focus in this text is in the part where everyone is speaking in different languages, and when I read it, I always think of a dream I have had since I was a kid. When I was a little girl, I loved the television. Each day I sat
in front of the screen watching one program or another, and even more so on Saturday mornings when cartoons came on from early in the morning until lunch time. I especially loved any program that had people with super-powers because it always made me think about what powers I would want to have (as if this were possible). My ideas about what power would be the best power have changed over the years, but one of them has managed to stick at number one for a while.
Before I tell you all what I chose though, I want to hear what you would choose. What power, or better said, what SUPER-power, would you like to have if you could choose any one?
As for me, I want the power of languages. That is, no matter where I go, or what language the people speak, I would love to be able to understand and talk to them in their tongue, as if it were my own. Wouldn’t that be spectacular? Quite frankly, part of what I like about this text in Acts is that exactly that miracle happens on the day of Pentecost.
How interesting and powerful this experience of the Spirit! What a great blessing to celebrate the diversity and communication between different people! I have no doubt that God wants us all to communicate better, and that what has happened in this text can teach us that difference and variety are not anything to fear but rather an opportunity for people to talk to one another in the language of their hearts. There is much to learn from a lesson like that. But it is not what I am really going to talk about so much today.
I do think the message of diversity and celebration is important, but after reading the text again this week what captured my attention was no so much the moment in which all the people were talking but rather in what they all were saying. They weren’t sharing stories about their youth (like I just did) or discussing what they would eat for lunch. Tell me, according to the text, what were the apostles talking about after the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them? [the wonders of God]
Colombia Election Primer – Part 2
This is Part 2 of our Colombian Election Primer. See Part 1 here.
The Horse Race:
Santos was the strong front runner early in the campaign. Colombia held congressional elections in March, and the conservative parties did very well, taking a majority of seats. (The Congressional elections have also had significant levels of fraud, see here)
In April, Fajardo joined Mockus on the Green ticket, and polls began to show a significant surge. Starting from around 10%, Mockus jumped into the 20′s for a few weeks, and then in May into the 30′s. In April, Mockus announced that he is in the early stages of Parkinson’s Disease, which traditionally would have been a large liability for a politician. Surprisingly, Mockus’s poll numbers continued to rise, even jumped on the news. We attribute this and much of Mockus’ popularity to the Colombian people’s thirst for a more transparent, honest class of political leadership.
Santos numbers have dropped, and the most recent polls have shown Mockus and Santos close to a dead heat, around 35%. The other candidates are all now under 10%. The campaign has been mostly focused on Mockus’ rise.
In general, President Alvaro Uribe factors heavily in this campaign. The candidates are often portrayed by how close they are to Uribe’s policies. Very roughly, on the generally pro-Uribe side, Santos is seen as the closest, then Lleras, then Sanin as the more moderate pro-Uribe candidate. On the other side, Pardo is seen as more moderate, yet critical of many Uribe actions, then Mockus, and Petro as the most critical of most Uribe policies.
The other significant factors are Colombia’s neighborly (or not so much neighborly) relations. Most significant has been the candidates’ stance on the idea of carrying out attacks against the FARC on foreign soil. This occurred in 2008 under Uribe and Santos, and has proven a very large stumbling block between the two countries. In debates, Santos vowed to continued these types of attacks, which led Ecuador to begin processing criminal charges against him for the earlier attacks. Other candidates have shown varying degrees of opposition to foreign attacks, with Mockus and Petro, showing the most emphasis on peaceful relationships.
Our partners, the Iglesia Presbiteriana de Colombia:
Our partners in Colombia are faithful and passionate followers of Jesus Christ. They work for justice, seek peace, and are particularly concerned with the defense of life – which in this context means the upholding of human rights. With Colombia’s history of violence, corruption, and the rise of ‘parapolitics’ – the ghastly combination of paramilitary forces into the official political structure – the IPC seeks a national politics that pursues peace from the unending violence, justice for the thousands of victims and families, and a vision of development and governance that values all persons, not only the traditional elite of Colombian society. They have issued statements warning of an over-reliance on military solutions to societal conflicts, and steadfastly stand for a non-violent end to the conflict in the country. Of course, as a church, they are non-partisan, not supporting any particular candidate, rather speaking up for policies that promote full life and justice for Colombia’s many victims of decades of violence. The IPC is also concerned about the plight of Colombia’s campesinos, or poor farmers, and the desplazados, the persons displaced by the violence, who are often neglected in the national debates yet suffer the majority of the violence and econmoic exploitation. Because Colombia has a long history of violence around elections and of corruption and fraud in the voting process, the IPC is particularly concerned for transparency and honesty in the carrying out of the voting.
Prayers for Elections:
- Pray for candidates, for honesty, integrity, and an openness to the Spirit in their quest to gain the power to govern.
- Pray for the judges and other election workers, that they may work fairly and openly to conduct the business of voting, without intimidation or corruption.
- Pray for the people voting, for courage and wisdom, that they my courageously use their vote without fear or intimidation, and that they my widely use their voice for a country of peace and wholeness for all.
- Pray for Colombia on May 30th and June 20th, but also pray for the country on the days after, for we know that democracy does not only consist of elections, but of a society of accountability and honesty, of respect and peace.
Epiphany Reflections – Clanging Gongs Edition
(A reflection on the upcoming Sunday’s lectionary, January 31)
Psalm 71 and 1st Corinthians 13
Our passage this week from 1st Corinthians is a sacred text. Not in the holy, reverent way, but in the don’t touch that text way. It is the wedding text, mostly because it is a great reflection of the give and take of love in a relationship. But it is so much more…
The Iglesia Presbiteriana knows that the bible is often most powerful when it is read outside of its normal environment. When it is read not from the high pulpit in the church, but rather read in a farmer’s small house, or in the street at a protest against violence against women, or at a Christmas party with tons of screaming kids -that’s when you hear the the bible saying things you don’t hear in church.
Below, the text of 1st Corinthians 13 is placed beside a glimpse of the reality of violence in Colombia. What is love when it lives next to violence? How are we patient and kind amidst the destruction of life on an enormous scale? How is one to live as a full human when faced with raw inhumanity?
And in the passage from the psalms, we find answers that people here offer to these questions:
In you, O Lord, I take my refuge.
Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress.
For you, O Lord, are my hope.
The psalms don’t take away any of the pain or anger or bitterness of life, but they do give one company in those feelings. Through them we know that we are not alone; not the only ones with our eyes toward God as everything else around us seems focused on death, destruction, and denial.
God – Be with me this week, as I seek to see your world as you would have it, rather than as it is. Give me strength and courage and wisdom, and yes, most of all, love, to be who you created me to be. My praise is continually of you. Amen
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
13:1 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant
or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.
For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.
And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
Psalm 71:1-6
71:1 In you, O LORD, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame.
In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me and save me.
Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.
Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel.
For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O LORD, from my youth.
Upon you I have leaned from my birth; it was you who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you.
Prayers
* For the people of Haiti. For rescue, healing, and recovery. Click here for the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance site, with updates and ways to give. Their motto is “Out of Chaos, Hope.” Indeed.
* For the displaced people of Piojó who are trying to regain their footing in a new place. For much needed rain, and much needed encouragement. They have an important meeting today after 2+years of struggling to get ownership of the land they are tilling.
* For the Presbyterian Church of Colombia as they go into their General Assembly soon. Don’t we all need prayers around General Assembly time?
* For the Knauerts. We continue to think of our friends who so suddenly lost their partner and father. Please keep them in your prayers as we do.
* Prayers of thanksgiving for Terry Presbyterian Church in Terry, MT who followed up on their support of John and Paula Ewers to offer their prayers and financial support to us as well. We are blessed and amazed (and proud!) of the Holy Spirit’s work to keep Presbyterians connected.
* For the safe travel of Alice Winters as she returns, and for that of a delegation from PCUSA in January that includes Vice-Moderator Byron Wade. May their travel be uneventful and their experience transformative.
* For us - continued patience, openness, ardor, and curiosity.
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“What is prayer? I make a list. Praise. Gratitude. Begging, pleading, cutting deals. Fruitless whining and puling. Focus. There the list breaks off – I have found my word. Prayer only looks like an act of language. Fundamentally, it is a position, a placement of one’s self. Focus. Get there, and all that is left to say is the words. They come, from ancient times, from the surprisingly eloquent heart, from the gush and chatter of the day’s detail longing to be rendered…” Patricia Hampl, from Speaking of Faith – Approaching Prayer, 12/31/2009
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