Lenten Prayer Meeting - Celebrating the Life of Oscar Romero

Lenten Prayer Meeting
Wednesday, March 17th
Palmer Theological Seminary
5:55-6:20pm in the Seminary dining room

 

Celebrating the life of Oscar Romero
(August 15, 1917 – March 24, 1980)
What does it mean to live in solidarity with the poor?

LENT is about MAKING SPACE for GOD…
Take a break and spend 15 min. in meditative prayer.
Engage in various interactive prayer stations
OR
simply meditate in candelit silence.

Dinner and a Movie -- December Special Event

Join the El Salvador Partners Mission Group for a special event on Thursday evening, Dec 17th when we'll be attending the premier of the film RETURN TO EL SALVADOR at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute.

The documentary features Ruth and Alex Orantes. Ron and Betsy Morgan have been instrumental in helping shape the project, and Steve Chandler has worked on the production side. Filmmaker Jamie Moffett (Eastern grad and The Simple Way) came to El Salvador in March with the CBC Delegation for an introduction to El Salvador and to film the elections. The website www.returntoelsalvador.com has a number of preview video clips.

Here are the details to add to your calendar –

6pm Meet for dinner at Gullifty's / 1149 Lancaster Ave. / Rosemont, PA 19010

7:30pm Reception at Bryn Mawr Film Institute / 824 West Lancaster Avenue / Bryn Mawr, PA 19010

8:00pm Premier of Return to El Salvador at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute

Please RSVP to Caroline Cargo if you plan to meet us for dinner so we can make a reservation for the group to sit together. You can check out the menu online at www.gulliftys.com. Sandwiches are about $10 and dinner entrees are about $15.

If you can't come for dinner, you can still catch up with us at the movie theater at 7:30pm. Tickets for the reception and screening are $10/each. You can purchase tickets at the door, or click here to purchase advance tickets on-line.

A Prayer of Hope for El Salvador - Nov 2009

In worship at Central Baptist Church today, we joined in a litany of hope for El Salvador, written for the congregation by Kathleen Bailey. This is our community's prayerful response to reports of increasing violence, especially in reflections recently shared with us by Alex Orantes. (See previous post with Alex's reflections that inspired this prayer.)

In this season, we remember the upcoming anniversaries of the martyrdom of the Jesuits, their housekeeper, and her daughter on Nov 16, 1989, as well as the four U.S. churchwomen on Dec 2, 1980. We pray for all who are still today struggling against violence and for those who work to transform our communities into places where peace is a reality.

The full text of the litany is included below. Watch the video here, or click to watch the youtube video of our prayer.



A Prayer of Hope for El Salvador

Leader 1: The Light shines in the darkness,
Leader 2: And the darkness cannot put out the Light!

People: God of Light and Life, no darkness is too deep for your illumination, no wound so grave as to be beyond your healing. O God, your heart beats within us for the Salvadoran land and for its people. Send your Spirit among them to succor, sustain, and comfort those who are uprooted, injured and dying in the terrible wake of violence.

Leader 2: The Light shines in the darkness,

People: And the darkness cannot put out the Light!

Leader 1: We remember the darkness in 1980 when Archbishop Romero was assassinated, and we remember his words, “Justice cannot be killed.” Lord, in your mercy,

All: Hear our prayer.

Leader 2: We remember the darkness also in 1980 when the four church women, Dorothy Kazel, Jean Donovan, Ita Ford and Maura Clarke were assassinated. The night before she died, Ita Ford quoted Romero, saying, “One who is committed to the poor must risk the same fate as the poor. And in El Salvador we know what the fate of the poor signifies: to disappear, to be tortured, to be captive and found dead.” Lord, in your mercy,

All: Hear our prayer.

Leader 1: We remember the darkness in 1989 when six Jesuit priests from the University of Central America, their housekeeper and her 15 year old daughter were brutally murdered. Lord, in your mercy,

All: Hear our prayer.

Leader 2: Now, in 2009, we know the darkness again as we lift up to You in prayer: two old men slain by machetes; a young husband—trying to support his pregnant wife—shot under a streetlight; a fruit-seller shot without mercy outside the gates of the Baptist School in Santa Ana; the pastor of our partner church and our friend, Ruth Orantes, robbed and grieved; and a country once again knowing the fear of daily violence on their streets and in their neighborhoods, a country with one of the highest rates of homicide in the world.Lord, in your mercy,

All:Hear our prayer.

Leader 1: Guide us as we continue to walk with our Salvadoran sisters and brothers. Guide us as we accompany your faith communities who offer places of refuge to the victims of violence in El Salvador.

Leader 2: You do not leave your people to suffer alone, but we know that You stand close, even in the terrors of the night. You bring the light of hope even in the darkness of oppression.

People: And the darkness cannot put out the Light!

Leader 1: In your mercy and grace, transform hearts and minds so that there might be an end to the violence, an end to the menacing, an end to terror, an end to hatred and, finally, an end to killing so that the peace which so many have died trying to birth might be reality.

All: May God’s Light be with us all.

Litany by Kathleen Bailey, member of Central Baptist Church and El Salvador Partners

Salvadoran environmental activists to speak in Philadelphia

The National Mining Table of El Salvador Speaks Out in Philadelphia

Presentation of “The Mysterious Death of Marcelo Rivera” with filmmaker Jamie Moffett

Saturday, October 17th, 4-6pm
Tabernacle United Church / 3700 Chestnut St. / Philadelphia, PA

The Romero Interfaith Center of Philadelphia is proud to invite you to meet members of the National Mining Table of El Salvador, a popular movement of people in El Salvador that has been struggling against the environmental and public health threats posed by mineral mining by foreign corporations. The National Mining Table (or La Mesa Nacional Frente a la Mineria en El Salvador) is being honored in Washington D.C. on October 15 with the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award for their work in making El Salvador the first country in the world to ban gold mining.

Please join us in welcoming Vidalina Morales Gamez, Miguel Angel Rivera Moreno, and William Rondy Castillo Olivoto Philadelphia to share with us the experiences of their communities in Cabañas and Chalatenango, El Salvador, who have declared their opposition to mineral mining development in their communities based on environmental, public health, and human rights concerns.

Additionally, we will be showing the short film entitled "The Mysterious Death of Marcelo Rivera," created by Philadelphia resident and filmmaker, Jamie Moffett. The film shares the story of the disappearance and murder of Marcelo Rivera, a local organizer deeply involved with the struggle against Pacific Rim in Cabañas. Jamie will be present to discuss the film as well as his upcoming feature length film entitled "Return to El Salvador."

"Old Friends and Guerrillas" program at Brandywine Peace Community

Old Friends & Guerrillas: Will El Salvador Turn in a New Direction?

Talk and photo show with Tom Paine Cronin, long-time Labor Leader in Philadelphia and President emeritus of AFSCME DC 47, and John Grant, Veterans for Peace, photojournalist and film maker, who were in El Salvador for the historic elections in June.

Sunday, September 13, 4:30p.m.
Brandywine Peace Community Monthly Potluck Supper*/Program
(*bring main dish, salad, or dessert to share)

Gathering will be held at University Lutheran Church, 3637 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA

For more information, visit www.brandywinepeace.com

Invitation to learn about immigration and the New Sanctuary Movement in Philadelphia

The New Sanctuary Movement
Congregations and Immigration: An Issue of Faith

A series of four discussions
9:30am to 10:30am on Sundays
Sept 13th, Sept 20th, Sept 27th, Oct 4th

Central Baptist Church / Wayne, PA

As part of a Central Baptist Church focus on immigration and advocacy for immigration reform, we begin our fall Adult Learning Community with a four session series organized by leaders of the Philadelphia New Sanctuary Movement. Through presentations, group discussions, videos, and conversations with special guests, we'll be looking at a variety of questions:

• Why is immigration a faith / moral issue?

• Who are the people who are immigrating to the U.S.?

• How do current U.S. immigration laws actually work?

• What would a better immigration policy look like?

• What is the potential for reforming immigration policy under the Obama administration?

• What is the current climate like for immigrants in PA, especially in the Philadelphia area?

• What local advocacy efforts are forming around immigration issues and policy reform?

• What is this “New” Sanctuary Movement all about?

Facilitators for this class will include the current co-leaders of the Philadelphia NSM -- Peter Pedemonti, one of the founders of Philadelphia NSM, lives and works at a Philadelphia Catholic Worker House; Jen Rock, who joined Peter in leadership of the Philadelphia NSM in 2009, works for Habitat for Humanity.

We hope to have several special guests share their personal stories, as well. Faheem is Pakistani, and he and his family were accompanied by Phildelphia NSM when he was detained by immigration and sent to the immigration detention center in York, PA. Eva, who is Mexican, has an equally powerful story to tell.

We are also inviting Mishkan Shalom, a progressive Jewish congregation in Philadelphia that was one of the 19 original Sanctuary congregations in Philadelphia in the 1980s, to talk with us about their decision to become the first congregation to officially affiliate with this New Sanctuary Movement.

Central Baptist Church is located in the center of Wayne, one block south of the train station, near the intersection of Route 30 (Lancaster Ave) and Wayne Avenue. Click here for a map and specific directions. We hope to see you in September!

Invitation to "Postcards from El Salvador" Luncheon

“Postcards from El Salvador”
12:15pm following worship on Sunday, April 19th

Lunch will be provided by
the El Salvador Partners Mission Group

Join us for a slide show and reports from CBC’s delegation

Now that we have recovered from the excitement of our recent experiences in El Salvador, we have started organizing our stories and photos to share in various ways with the CBC community, as well as the Alliance of Baptists and the Baptist Peace Fellowship and others.

We have a lot to tell you about...

• the diversity of the 150 member SHARE delegation, including a large number of high school students from Oregon, college students from Georgetown and American University, a Jewish hunger advocacy group named MAZON, the National Lawyers Guild, and more

• the fascinating elections process and historic FMLN victory celebrations in San Salvador

• advocacy actions before the election and a post-election visit at the US Embassy

• bowling with Nora Pullen and youth from Shekina one night in San Salvador

• a beautifully relaxing afternoon and evening with some of the Shekina adults at a lake in the town of Suchitoto

We hope you’ll join us for lunch and a slideshow presentation on Sunday, April 19th!

--Caroline, Doug, Andy, John, and the El Salvador Partners Mission Group

Thank you from Ruth Orantes and first impressions from Global Baptist Peace Conference

Ruth's thank you to CBC and an initial report from Rome

A few of us gathered on Sunday, February 22, to have a phone conference with Ruth Orantes about her recent experience at the Global Baptist Peace Conference in Rome. She has (mostly) recovered from the 28 hour, complicated travel from Rome to Zurich to Paris to Chicago to Los Angeles, where she is spending a few days with family and members of Shekina who have immigrated to California. She will return to El Salvador this weekend. Ruth plans to send us photos and maybe even a power point presentation about her experience at the conference, but she shared some initial stories about the gathering during our 45 minute phone call from the west coast.

Baptist leaders from 60 nations took part in the events -- “people of all colors, all languages, from all continents.” Ruth was deeply moved by the testimonies of peacemakers from diverse settings in Angola, Morocco, the Republic of Georgia, Bangladesh, Italy, the US, and more. She made many new connections, but also discovered a number of familiar faces in the crowd -- Ruth Mooney (former ABC missionary in El Salvador), Edgar Palacios (a Salvadoran pastor who now lives in Washington DC and is on staff at Calvary Baptist), Gustavo Parajon (Nicaragua), LeDayne McLeese Polaski (BPFNA), and Ken Sehested.

Ruth took part in a variety of training seminars, including a session on Peacemaking Heros (led by Dan Buttry), training in Restorative Justice (led by Marinetta Cannito Hjort, the Baptist Chaplain at American University), and an interesting discussion of bridge-building work between Christians and indigenous religious leaders in Mexico. She was pleasantly surprised to meet a Philadelphian in the crowd – Daniel Hunter, who has led conflict transformation trainings on five continents for various social justice movements.

One of the most meaningful interactions for Ruth came out of a workshop on Rev. Martin Luther King's legacy and his significance for on-going struggles in Latin America. The seminar was led by a Brazilian pastor who had studied in the US. Ruth expects to continue a dialogue with this pastor and they are hoping to find ways to connect their congregations.

Ruth's first and last words in the conversation were an expression of deep gratitude to CBC for enabling her to attend the conference. She sends a big “thank you” to CBC for helping her have access to this kind of experience for personal development and to enrich her ministry.

Conversations with Ruth Orantes at 5:30pm on Sunday, Feb 22nd

Plans are coming together for a phone conference with Ruth Orantes to talk with her about the Global Baptist Peace Conference she attended in Rome. All are welcome to join us for the conversations at 5:30pm at CBC on Sunday, Feb 22nd.

Ruth sent 3 email reports to us during her time at the conference, including this note about the closing worship held in the Waldensian church:

There were prayers in various languages, many songs, profound liturgical actions, and the prophetic preaching of Ken Sehested. We also celebrated communion. It was a deep moment -- people of different colors, with different languages, from different countries and experiences -- with everyone gathered together at the Lord's Table.

Advocacy Training re: Immigration Reform and New Sanctuary Movement

Plan to attend the Advocacy Training Event at Central Baptist Church this Saturday, Feb 21st, from 8:30am to 12:30pm. Breakfast is included.

One of the topics to be addressed in small groups will be Immigration Reform, which we have identified as a focus issue for education and advocacy.

The CBC Board of Outreach has lined up 2 people to present information on immigration issues -- Antony Dugdale, who works with the Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union in Philadelphia, and Peter Pedemonti, who is co-director of the Philadelphia New Sanctuary Movement.

• Take a look at this article for info about the Philadelphia New Sanctuary Movement - http://www.phillyimc.org/en/comment/reply/76978
• And here is the main website for the New Sanctuary Movement -- http://www.newsanctuarymovement.org/
  

The advocacy training general session will be lead by Rev. Lisa Harris from ABC-USA National Ministries. She will address a number of issues including:

• How can we most effectively engage in the advocacy work that our faith calls us to?
• How do we know what legislation is out there? What resources are there to evaluate it?
• Where can we find out who our congressional representatives and who their staff are?
• Is there a new paradigm for citizen participation in the Obama presidency?

The training will also include small group breakout sessions when you will choose from one of several focus areas:

• Healthcare Reform – Dr. Stephen Gambescia, Drexel University College of Nursing and Health Professions
• Gun Violence Prevention – Pastor Dolores McCabe, Eastern University and Millcreek Baptist Church
• Immigration Reform – Antony Dugdale, Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union, and Peter Pedimonte, New Sanctuary Movement
  

Seeds of Hope Benefit Dinner for El Salvador farmers

"Seeds of Hope"
Benefit Dinner and Silent Auction

1:00pm to 4:00pm
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Whitsun Hall at Camphill Soltane
224 Nantmeal Rd. / Glenmoore, PA

Minimum suggested donations: $15.00 for a meal and a handcrafted pottery bowl, $8.00 for the meal only. Reserve your bowl now! Advance tickets and more information are available from Kathleen Bailey, who teaches at Soltane.

Proceeds of the fundraising event will support the SHARE Foundation's microlending project for farmers in El Salvador. See below for details about the food crisis in El Salvador and SHARE's new agricultural program.

At Camphill Soltane (www.camphillsoltane.org), the prevocational students have spent this school year preparing for a Benefit Dinner to support the Seeds of Hope Initiative as a way of adding a practical component to their experience of this year’s academic theme which is World Cultures. The garden class has grown, harvested and preserved herbs and vegetables for the dinner. The cooking class has chosen soup recipes and begun making and freezing soup. The library skills class created tickets and publicity flyers; the pottery class has a goal of creating 200 bowls, and the bicycle maintenance shop is donating a bicycle to the silent auction table.

On March 15, four members of our CBC congregation will be in El Salvador monitoring the presidential elections. We invite you to attend the Soltane Seeds of Hope Benefit Dinner on that day in an act of solidarity with them.

Seeds of Hope
There is an ongoing world food crisis happening before our eyes. Last year, in El Salvador the price of beans jumped from 45 cents per pound to $1.25, nearly twice the price of beans in the United States. The prices of corn and rice have also doubled or nearly doubled. In El Salvador, the combination of international trade policies, the succession of natural disasters such as droughts and flooding, competition for food and bio-fuel and the ARENA government’s dismantling of the agricultural sector for 19 years has profoundly compounded the crisis.

Yet in the face of this unfolding tragedy, a persistent group of small farmers across the Salvadoran countryside are finding local solutions to this crisis so that their families do not go hungry. These farmers are determined to stay on the land and feed themselves and their communities, as they have been asked to do for generations, despite the global pressures that are collapsing local food economies. Now they have turned to the SHARE Foundation for support. In response, SHARE has launched the “Semillas de Esperanza” (Seeds of Hope) Initiative in order to provide farmers with the supplies they need to sow seeds of hope, and to support this burgeoning movement towards food security and food sovereignty.

Salvadorans have been growing corn and beans since before the time of the conquest, so it would be easy to assume that there would be no shortage of these staples, and that Salvadoran farmers could produce enough for everyone on Salvadoran land, at prices consumers could afford. However, generations of land concentration and the more recent onset of economic policies that undercut local producers in favor of international trade (e.g. subsidized corn from Iowa) have made easy access to wholesome food a thing of the past.

El Salvador is literally going hungry – people are unable to feed themselves with what they earn -- and as a nation, more and more foods are being imported because local production is shutting down. Hunger and the resulting migration is proof that the current economic policies have failed to provide sufficient and realistic economic opportunities for poor Salvadorans.

However, the food crisis presents an opportunity. Salvadoran farmers have requested seeds of corn, beans and squash. If we can get seeds into their hands so that they can grow a crop that has increased in demand, we will be supporting both farmers, for whom basic grain production had ceased to be profitable, and consumers, for whom prices of basic grains have more than doubled in the past year. It is exciting to consider the possibility of famers regaining control of local food production so that they and their customers are not at the mercy of the global market.

The Seeds of Hope Initiative provides packages which include native seeds, organic fertilizers, and educational workshops about how to farm organically as a way to become more independent from high priced hybrid seeds and chemical inputs. A package costs $350 and will be offered as a micro-loan, the repayment of which will be used as a revolving fund for planting in the future.

For more information or to make an on-line donation, visit Seeds of Hope on the SHARE Foundation website.

Briefing on Upcoming Elections in El Salvador

We invite you to attend a briefing on the upcoming national elections in El Salvador. The gathering will take place at 7:00pm on Tuesday, January 13, in the Gomez Room at Central Baptist Church.

Jose Artiga, Executive Director of the SHARE Foundation, will be present to discuss the election and SHARE's election monitoring plans for the March 2009 presidential elections.Since the Peace Accords were signed in 1991, SHARE has facilitated a US Observer presence for each national election in support of the communities that SHARE has partnered with in its development, human rights and citizen participation programs. This March, over 100 observers will be a part of SHARE's effort.

Expectations are high that the 2009 elections may finally break the right wing ARENA partyʼs hold on the presidency. The FMLN candidate for president, Mauricio Funes, is a 49 year old TV commentator who has often been critical of ARENA. For the first time in this election, the FMLN has nominated a person who was not a guerilla commandante during the 12 year civil war. Members of our sister churches have been highly motivated to support his candidacy. The attached photo shows Pastor Alex Orantes, from Iglesia Shalom, participating in a public forum with Mauricio Funes recently.

José Artiga, Executive Director of the SHARE Foundation: Building a New El Salvador Today, has over 27 years experience in the United States working on El Salvador and community development issues. After arriving in the United States from his native El Salvador in 1980, barely escaping the death squads, he helped develop the Sanctuary Movement in the U.S. to help other refugees fleeing oppression and violence. He also led the “Going Home Campaign” to provide support to Salvadoran refugees based in Honduras returning to their country.

Please join CBC's El Salvador Partners in welcoming Jose to talk to us about the March 2009 elections.

7:00pm, Tuesday, January 13, in The Gomez Room
Central Baptist Church / 106 West Lancaster Ave. / Wayne, PA 19087

IMPORTANT NOTE: For this evening gathering, enter through the church office entrance located in the back, across from the main post office and public library on West Wayne Avenue.

Click here for directions and parking info.

"ON THE LINE" Video and Discussion led by Michael Heniese

Sunday, November 16th, 7pm to 9pm at CBC
Sponsored by CBC's El Salvador Partners

Unpatriotic…. Anti-American… Terrorist… These words have been front and center in the past months of our US presidential campaigns. What is the role of dissent and protest in a healthy democracy?

Just two weeks after the US presidential elections, the annual vigil and non-violent protests to close the School of the Americas / WHINSEC will take place in Georgia at the gates of Fort Benning on November 21 -23. The protest will be an opportunity for the progressive movement to push once again for the closure of the SOA/WHINSEC and to set an agenda against oppressive U.S. foreign policy, whatever the result of the elections will be.

Join us on Sunday, November 16th, from 7pm to 9pm for a 55 minute video about the people behind the movement to close the School of the Americas, one of the largest nonviolent movements in America today, including reflections by Martin Sheen, Susan Sarandon, Fr. Roy Bourgeois, and others about their activism, the dark side of U.S. foreign policy, and the challenges of protesting since 9/11.

After the video, Michael Heniese will lead a discussion about dissent, activism, patriotism, terrorism, and U.S. foreign policy in Latin America. We will also have information available about advocacy opportunities to finally close the School of the Americas.

Here's a preview of the ON THE LINE video...

Presidential elections in El Salvador

CRIPDES leaders Bernardo Belloso and Jose Heriberto Orellano Franco were recent guest speakers at a forum on El Salvador's upcoming presidential elections hosted by the Philadelphia Romero Interfaith Center.

Revised plans for October meeting -- dinner and elections forum in Philadelphia

We have agreed to a revised plan for regular monthly meeting on Wednesday, Oct 22nd, so that we can attend the US / El Salvador elections forum at Tabernacle United Methodist. (see information in previous post) We think the forum will be especially interesting for those of us who are considering the March 2009 election observers delegation.

5:30pm early dinner and meeting for updates about Salvador Partners at a restaurant in University City near Tabernacle

7 - 9 pm US / El Salvador Elections Forum with Salvadoran guests at Tabernacle

We can certainly work on carpools as needed, and we will figure out specific plans for dinner in a restaurant.

Please send an email to Caroline if you plan to join us in Philadelphia for this event.

US and El Salvador Elections Forum

US & El Salvador Elections Forum
What do the results in each country mean to the other?
Projections, connections, and challenges

October 22, 2008

Tabernacle United Church

3700 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia

7:00 – 9:00 P.M.

CRIPDES leaders Bernardo Belloso and Jose Heriberto Orellana Franco speak about issues in the Salvadoran elections and the polls which show that the FMLN presidential candidate Mauricio Funes leads against the ARENA candidate, Rodrigo Ávila. Also Carol Towarnicky, former chief editorial writer for The Daily News, discusses the implications of the upcoming U.S. presidential election results on the 2009 Salvadoran elections.

Additional guests include:

Emily Carpenter, National Director of the USESSC; and

Jan Morrill, USESSC El Salvador Co-Coordinator, who will be translating.

The Reverend Margaret Sawyer, Associate Pastor of Zwingli United Church of Christ as Moderator.

Background: In 2004 both countries experienced irregularities in their elections. In El Salvador, local US government officials preferred the incumbent and took an active role against the FMLN candidate. Many feel this influenced the election's results.

CRIPDES is the largest rural grassroots movement in El Salvador working in over 300 rural Salvadoran communities.

Presented by Philadelphia's Romero Interfaith Center. To learn more about USESSC and the issues, check out www.elsalvadorsolidarity.org.

March 2009 Election Observer Delegation to El Salvador

Are you interested in joining a delegation to El Salvador? The El Salvador Partners Mission Group is considering a delegation to El Salvador at the time of their presidential elections in 2009. We want to know who might be interested in going.

The dates would be March 10 - 17 for the presidential elections. This might be an observers group going with SHARE or an unofficial "observers" delegation that might be in Atiquizaya with Shalom during the elections.

We have 5 people potentially interested in taking part in the March delegation. Please contact Andy Smith if you are interested.


(Note -- There is also an opportunity to join a SHARE official observers delegation for the mayoral/legislative elections Jan 12 -19.)

SHARE Delegation Mission: Delegates will join other international elections observers to ensure free and fair participation and reporting of the election results, and will meet with members of SHARE partner communities who are advocating for social and economic justice through women's empowerment, leadership development and citizen participation.

More information about El Salvador's 2009 elections and the SHARE election observer delegations is available on the SHARE website.

September series on CBC's Central America Heritage

Join us for a 4 week Learning Community series at 9:30am on Sundays during the month of September when we will be reflecting on Central Baptist Church's relationships in Central America over more than two decades.

Since the mid 1980s, members of CBC have visited Central America--mainly Nicaragua and El Salvador-- well over 100 times.

Twenty years ago, we were responding to calls from Central Americans to accompany them as they struggled with low intensity conflicts inflicted on them by military forces supported by the United States government.
* We stood with Nicaraguans against the Contras who attacked health and literacy workers and civilian communities in an attempt to undo the advances made as a part of the Sandinista revolutionary triumph.
* We became a Sanctuary congregation, joining with 17 faith communities in the Philadelphia area who sheltered Salvadoran and Guatemalan refuges fleeing from civil wars in their own countries.
* We accompanied Salvadoran refugee communities as they returned from refugees camps spread around Central America to reclaim their lands and communities at the close of the Salvadoran civil war.
* Inspired by the faithfulness of church people to the call for justice, we connected with Baptist churches in El Salvador who are attempting to live out the witness of Archbishop Oscar Romero and the many men and women of faith who died because of their commitment to justice in the face of brutal state sponsored terror.

The idea of these sessions is to hear the personal stories of some of the CBC folk who have been a part of this long connection. We want to hear their stories and reflect together on how these experiences feed into our identity at CBC--to hear where we have been, and to ask ourselves what does this rich history have to say about who we are today, and who we want to be tomorrow.

Ron Morgan will moderate the sessions, which will focus on two or three different personal stories each week.

Rutilio Grande anniversary March 12th

This week marks the 31st anniversary of the martyrdom of Fr. Rutilio Grande on March 12, 1977. The assassination of this Jesuit priest who was speaking out against the injustices of an oppressive government was a turning point for El Salvador and a catalytic event in the live of Archbishop Oscar Romero. Read a brief biography and reflection on the legacy of Rutilio Grande on the SHARE Foundation website, including this excerpt from William J. O’Malley, SJ, The Voice of Blood: Five Christian Martyrs of Our Time (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1980):

Increasingly, Grande began to exemplify a new church in El Salvador , committed to awakening in the poor a sense of their dignity and rights as children of God. This was s time when the social contradictions in El Salvador were building to a violent crisis. In this atmosphere, Grande acquired a reputation as a “radical” priest, an enemy of the system. With the bishops facing pressure to “do something” about this troublesome influence, Grande resigned from his position in the seminary and took up an assignment as pastor of Aguilares, a small town near his birthplace. There he established a vigorous pastoral ministry, training lay catechists to insert the gospel message throughout the community. In base communities, peasants studied the word of God and in that light raised critical questions about the sources of their oppression. Grande’s sermons on social justice were infamous among the town’s elite, and once again the pressure mounted on him to have him silenced.



In March 2002, a group from CBC took part in a SHARE delegation to El Salvador for the 25th anniversary commemorations of Fr. Rutilio Grande.

In addition to participating in the march along the road where Rutilio Grande was assassinated and celebration events in the town of Aguilares, we visited with our friends in Santa Ana and Atiquizaya and traveled to the Lower Lempa to learn about a women's shrimp cooperative and other successful rural cooperatives.

Thank you to Andy Smith for sharing these images from the 2002 delegation and the march from El Paisnal to Aguilares. To see more of Andy's images from the 2002 delegation, visit these links:

CBC in El Salvador 2002

Images of El Salvador

Reflections on the School of the Americas protest weekend

Thank you to Kathy Stayton for this report on our experience in Georgia at the School of the Americas protests in Georgia. See earlier post for photos from the SOA weekend.....

It is SO quiet, I realized, though I, Gwyneth Lewis and Caroline Cargo were surrounded by about15,000 other people for the procession organized by School of Americas Watch. We were there to remember the thousands of Central and South American people who have been killed or tortured by men who had training at the U.S. Military’s School of Americas at Ft. Benning, in Columbus, GA. These were testimonies to the brutality that is exported from this training center. We were saying with our bodies,“No more!” The U.S. should not be in the extreme interrogation technique export business!

After a name of one who was killed or disappeared was called from the stage, we lifted our handmade wooden crosses with names of individuals or whole villages who had died and shouted “Presente”. That meant that named person was present with us in remembrance. They will not be forgotten. It took one hour and 45 minutes for names to be called about every 5 seconds before all of us had finally passed by the chain link fence across the road to the School, and erected by the School for this weekend, to place our crosses in it. All this in respectful quiet of thousands.

Respectful, yes, even spiritual, like a procession in a cathedral to honor a loved one, the solidarity among us was palpable. Police and military cameras were focused on us from outside the fences or police tapes that defined our area. Thirteen people chose direct action by either walking around the fence on to Ft. Benning property, or going over the fence. Why? To bring attention of the media of why they are there, to have a chance to give their case in a courtroom, and to express their outrage and their deep commitment to peace in a nonviolent manner. They ranged in age from mid20’s to late 70’s. Hundreds or thousands of Catholic high school and college students were there as were Jesuit priests and Sisters of Mercy and other orders. So was Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America!

This event was the end of a weekend of events—the Convergence of Hope & Resistance. Workshops, plenary sessions, and concerts were offered at the Columbus Trade Center and a nearby Holiday Inn, several miles from the School, now called Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. (WHINSEC) Nonviolence training, from minimal to extensive was offered. Criminal Justice issues, Indigenous values, Struggle for Civil Liberties in El Salvador, Torture Survivors speak, Film screenings, Free Trade, Immigration & US Foreign Policy, Network of Spiritual Progressives, a Theater of the Oppressed – just a taste of the choices of workshops for all of us.

An exciting presentation for us all was one by Rabbi Michael Lerner who, with Sister Joan Chittister, and Cornel West of Princeton, started Network of Spiritual Progressives, a project of the Tikkun Community. With a packed room, he challenged us all to consider their alternative to the status quo which “judges institutions and social practices as efficient, rational and productive to the extent that they maximize money and power. The New Bottom Line, which they advocate, is that institutions and social practices should be judged rational, efficient and productive not only to the extent that they maximize money and power, but also to the extent that they maximize love and caring, ethical and ecological sensitivity and behavior, kindness and generosity, nonviolence and peace.” He then spun out scenarios of the possible.

“A Theater of the Oppressed” caught the attention of Caroline and me. Hector Aristizabal, a psychologist, and a victim of torture in Colombia, acted out his life in a 45 minute drama. Then he took us through some activities that led to express through body motion what torturing would be like and then what we would feel if we were tortured— heavy stuff done effectively.

Plenaries, concerts, southern foods and networking rounded out our time. Our dream is that we could have a van or busload from CBC and other nearby churches to attend next year. Hopefully it will be closed by then; only 6 more votes were needed to curtail the function of SOA in 2006. Your call to your congress people will help. Below are a number of peace organizations their websites that you can check out as you wish. I visited their tables. Check out the Columbus, GA newspaper coverage of SOAW in the church narthex. It was fair and the pictures give a sense of the street theater and the crowd.

Thanks to Caroline, whose parents live about an hour from Birmingham, she met me at the airport there and took me to the Civil Rights Museum in Birmingham. On the way back to Birmingham she took Gwenyth and me to Montgomery and we visited the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial and museum at the Southern Poverty Law Center.

What a privilege for us! We knew we had many supporters back at CBC for this, our first SOAW event. For this I give thanks for us all.

Kathy Stayton

Websites of some peace and justice organizations that participated in the SOA weekend

SOA Watch www.soaw.org

Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA: www.ghrcusa.org

The SHARE Foundation: Building a New El Salvador Today: www.share-elsalvador.org

Veterans for Peace: www.veteransforpeace.org

Witness For Peace: www.witnessforpeace.org

Network of Spiritual Progressives: www.spiritualprogressives.org

Just Faith: www.justfaith.org

Center on Conscience & War: www.centeronconscience.org

War Resisters League: www.warresisters.org

The Indypendent - a free paper for free people: www.us.indymedia.org and www.indypendent.org

Latin America Solidarity Coalition: www.Lasolidarity.org

Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America: www.bpfna.org