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Thursday October 25, 2007

Rev. Nélida Ritchie, obispo de la IEMA [Foto: EEE]
Rev. Nélida Ritchie, obispo de la IEMA [Foto: EEE]

Argentine Evangelical Methodist Church commitment to a more just society

ALC/CLAI, BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, August 22, 2007

The Argentine Evangelical Methodist Church (IEMA in Spanish) has sent a message to the country Taxi Heathrow Airport and to its communities at the end of its XX General Assembly, which took place in the Ward School in the western section of Greater Buenos Aires, from August 17 to 20.

The general theme of the Assembly was the text from Psalm 90: “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the work of our hands.”

According to the IEMA’s letter, a matter of concern given the national and Latin American reality is the transfer of land into the hands of foreign capital, “threatening the conditions for existence of the local communities, especially those of its original peoples. This is aggravated by the recent movements for taking control of water resources, and the increase in production that takes place without consideration for the limits having to do with the preservation of the environment and the people, as a result of prioritizing short term profit.” Nevertheless, the IEMA applauds the increase in the social awareness having to do with these problems.

The use being made of the mass communications media is criticized because, far from making possible a comprehension of what is happening daily and which the people are experiencing, they confuse and fragment reality. “Therefore, matters such as the security of private property, are made to be an agenda imposed over and above other just and equitable social demands,” the letter states.

The letter ends by stating the commitment of the Argentine Evangelical Methodist Church to accompany, “with gestures and actions, all popular initiatives in the struggle toward a more humane economy that makes the equitable distribution of the fruits of productivity a daily reality for all; by its active participation in all actions defending the right to a just and responsible use of the land and the preserving of the environment that the Lord has entrusted to humanity; by its prophetic voice on behalf of all efforts toward a justice that will reveal the corruption and impunity in the judicial, political and economic systems.”