Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America

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Solidarity with Presbyterians in Colombia

This article appeared in the December 2008 edition (Volume 24, Number 5) of "Our Common Ministry," a publication of the Presbytery of Chicago. 

August 8-19, 2008, thirteen Presbyterians from Chicago Presbytery visited Colombia. This delegation was organized by the Chicago Presbytery's Congregations in Solidarity with Latin America Mission Team (CSLA) and its ecumenical partner, the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN).  The group was hosted by the Presbyterian Church of Colombia (IPC) where they had the unique opportunity to witness and offer solidarity with people enduring a continuing non-violent struggle for peace amid a 40-year-old violent civil war. 

The group visited sixteen congregations in two IPC presbyteries to share in worship and reflection.  They visited Afro-Colombian communities where they met with indigenous leaders, learning directly from them about their struggles to hold on to their ancestral lands as government and corporate interests have violently and illegally displaced them seeking to steal their territories. Four million mostly rural Colombians have been forcibly displaced from their homes and their livelihoods, fleeing for their lives to urban centers without means or abilities to meet their most basic human needs.  

Since its founding by missionaries in 1856, the Presbyterian Church in Colombia has been strongly engaged in mission and ministry.  With a primary focus on education, the IPC operates numerous schools which for 150 years have reached out to the broader community with a vision of inclusion and social engagement.  Facing what the United Nations calls “the greatest humanitarian catastrophe in the Western Hemisphere”, the IPC has provided human rights training and links to humanitarian aid for the thousands of displaced persons who have flooded into the communities where IPC churches are located. IPC has recently created an office called Diakonia, which documents human rights violations and channels humanitarian aid. 

IPC also is an active participant in the Colombia Ecumenical Network, which brings together key mainline protestant denominations in Colombia with a number of Catholic religious orders to offer accompaniment to vulnerable communities, speak out against human rights violations, and press for a negotiated peace to the longest violent conflict in the hemisphere.  Our prayers for their personal safety and material support to help meet the physical needs are critical. 

The June meeting of the PC(USA) 216th General Assembly approved a comprehensive resolution on Colombia to denounce injustice and bring about a more just, human world community.  They urge further study of the GA Resolution and the implications of irs recommendations.  Members of the delegation are available to help local churches study and find ways of being engaged in supporting this ministry.  For more information, contact Gary Cozette, Program Director, CRLN, at GCozette@crln.org.  In the meantime, keep praying for the people of Colombia.  

Photos:

1-  Youth from Colombia's Coastal Presbytery and Reformed University welcome Chicago Presbytery/CSLA/CRLN delegation to Barranquilla, Colombia

2- Rev. Bernardino Lopez (center), pastor of Cartagena’s Presbyterian church, presents an IPC banner to Oak Park First United Church delegates (left to right) Deb Stracco, Stacy Vojta , Kris Ronnow,  Rev. Mamie Broadhurst, Nick Stracco.

• Click here to see the blog the group kep the first days of their time in Colombia!
• Click here to read articles written by trip participant Alexandra Buck