Newsletters

Date: February 1st 2010

Welcome to the network
by Linda Eastwood and Carol Weaver, 1/23/10

Our first week in Barranquilla has been full of reminders of how "connected" is the IPC (Iglesia Presbiteriana de Colombia, Presbyterian Church of Colombia).

The strength of links to the PC(USA) was in evidence as we tagged along with the delegation of PC(USA) vice-moderator Byron Wade, here for the weekend to show solidarity and to learn more of the local situation. Then there's the friendly and helpful presence of Mamie Broadhurst and Richard Williams, here for three years and working out their role as long-term accompaniers. To cap it off, Tom Milligan, chair of the PC(USA) Colombia Mission Network, turned up on Thursday to talk at a 3-day symposium of the "Red Ecuménica" (Ecumenical Network).

The "Red Ecuménica" is a coalition across many churches – from Catholic to Pentecostal – building ecumenism based not on discussions of doctrine, but on a common commitment to action on behalf of the marginalized (and especially the internally displaced) in this society. Their three foci – advocacy, formation and training in community leadership, and pastoral accompaniment – remind us that we are not the only "accompaniers"; churches here accompany each other, especially when communities are in active resistance to displacement, or are trying to return to the lands from which they have been displaced. Our job, then, is to accompany the accompaniers.

We've had a number of reminders of the human displacement that is at the core of why we're here. The strongest, perhaps, was our visit with the vice-moderator's delegation to a displaced community of 64 families trying to eke out a living on borrowed land near Galapa. With only 400 square meters of drought-affected land per family, trying to survive would be hard enough without their being defrauded of government grants by the very agencies that are supposed to help them. These families were not poor before they were violently displaced. Their leader, José, told us his story of being kidnapped and ill-treated 3 times – by the guerrilla groups FARC and EPL, and by the paramilitaries – before he left his working farm with only the clothes he was wearing.

These people need our prayers, our practical help (through the IPC and Red Ecuménica), and our advocacy. We were strongly reminded of the importance of Ecumenical Advocacy days in Washington; this year (March 19-22) the themes are displacement and immigration, making this a perfect time to advocate on behalf of our brothers and sisters in Colombia.


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