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Thursday October 25, 2007

Churches accompany task of Bolivian Constituent Assembly

Churches accompany task of Bolivian Constituent Assembly

ALC/CLAI, SUCRE, Bolivia, July 16, 2007

The processes taking place in the Constituent Assembly in Bolivia and their main concerns, were Taxi Heathrow Airport the subject of analysis at a seminar and gathering that took place in the city of Sucre on June 27 and 28, organized by the Indigenous Pastoral Ministry of the World Council of Churches (CMI – Consejo Mundial de Iglesias – in Spanish) and the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI – Consejo Latinoamericano de Iglesias – in Spanish).

Assembly members and Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist, Pentecostal and Catholic representatives, along with social organizations such as the Movimiento Interreligioso y Pueblos Indígenas (Inter-Religious Movement and Indigenous Peoples), Suma Jakana, Instituto Superior de Estudios Andino Teológicos (Center for Higher Learning of Andean Theological Studies), Red de Mujeres-Misión 21 (Women’s Network-Mission 21), UMA VIDA Network, all shared in a time of interchange that those present described as being “important for a deepening of the contributions we each offer from our Christian understandings, and also for widening spaces for sharing within the churches, communities and social organizations.”

Among the concerns analyzed were the pluralist national state, the autonomous administrative organization (state, municipality and indigenous), territorial land, economic models, the questioning of the colonial-republican-neo liberal state, religiosity and spirituality.

At the end, it was affirmed that in Bolivia there is a significant presence and growth of the Evangelical churches in the indigenous communities. This makes accompaniment necessary and important, by means of participation as churches on the path toward the strengthening of that presence, through activities for reflection and analysis from the perspective of inter-religious vision and thought.

The gathering with the Constituent Assembly’s commissions and the representation of the Evangelical churches is considered to be an excellent opportunity for broadening what has been achieved, as well as for the informing and results of the drawing up of the text of the new constitution scheduled for next August.

An inter-religious gathering shared with the Assembly members, took place on the grounds of the Colegio Junin (Junin College), which is the meeting place for the commissions of the Constituent Assembly.

The Indigenous Pastoral Ministry of the World Council of Churches and the Latin American Council of Churches, with its Coordinator, Pastor Cristóbal Alejo, and the Ecumenical Regional Center for Advice and Service – Centro Regional Ecuménico de Asesoría y Servicio (CREAS), with its Director, Humberto Shikiya, are the institutions that organized the event. The objective of these gatherings is to walk alongside the processes taking place in the Constituent Assembly, and so contribute to the building of a new political state as seen from the perspective of the Evangelical churches.