Global Ministries

Conflict Transformation and Restorative Justice Between Ex-Combatants, Victims, and Communities

Introduction:

As we end this year of witnessing God´s presence in Latin America and the Caribbean, we cannot avoid feeling in our spirit, mind and will the spiritual strength of solidarity.  Our partners continued embracing the Spirit through receiving pilgrimages, sponsoring workshops and projects, sharing resources in an ecumenical way and confronting the powers that deny the fullness of life.  The Caribbean Initiative came to closure with resources and experiences that will endure not only in the work of the continent but also globally.  The accompaniment of our partners through civil unrest, migrations, and emergencies awakened a divine presence through the experience of contingency.  The Good News were heard and shared in a powerful way. 

Global Ministries is excited to share the opportunity to purchase artisan crafts from around the world while supporting the life-giving work of global partners.

Lectionary Selection:  Mark 12:28-34

Prayers for Colombia:  

Loving God, today we pray for the country of Colombia and our Global Ministries partners there. Laying down weapons of war after fifty years of internal armed conflict is not easy. But you commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves, and the people of Colombia are attempting to do just that through a comprehensive peace accord, signed in 2016. Today we pray for partner churches located in the regions where thousands of former guerrilla combatants are reentering civilian life. Give them courage and knowledge to best know how to minister in these complex times. We pray for our partner organizations, Justapaz, of the Mennonite Church of Colombia and the Peace Commission of the Evangelical Council of Colombia as they implement peacebuilding programs while still facing considerable threat in unstable times. Through the practice of radical love, may we draw near to your kingdom.

Greetings from Bogotá, where we’re 2600 meters closer to the stars. 2018 has proven to be one of the busiest and richest times in my ministry in Colombia. Let me share a couple of the highlights with you.

What a joy it has been to begin workshops on conflict transformation and restorative justice at the Icononzo FARC Reintegration Community. The first conflict transformation workshop was held in Icononzo, Tolima on September 4 and was a great success. We had a total of 16 participants, equally distributed between former FARC guerrilla combatants and civilian “receptor community” leaders. These workshops are being facilitated by the Cafepaz Peace Studies Center in the hopes of helping facilitate as smooth a reentry process as possible for both the ex-combatants and the civilian community they are now joining (many of whom were victims of the armed conflict).

A Call for Hope, for the Caring of Life and Continued Peacebuilding

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” (Matthew 5:9)

JUSTAPAZ is an organization of the Mennonite Church of Colombia, with more than 26 years’ experience accompanying Christian churches, community organizations and victims of the armed conflict, strengthening nonviolent community peacebuilding processes, on which human rights and peace with justice are built.

Lectionary Selection: Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

Prayers for Colombia:

Loving God,

Today we pray for the country of Colombia and our partners in mission there. Guide them as they continue to work for the full implementation of the peace accords that have brought terrible fighting to an end. Encourage them as they prepare for a new presidential administration that has spoken out against the peace accords. Show them a way forward for the peace talks between the government and the ELN guerrilla.

May your compassion, oh Lord, be known through the work of our partners as they minister to the millions of internally displaced persons in Colombia, as they work for the reintegration of former combatants into civilian life and as they speak out for restorative justice and reconciliation even in the midst of ongoing violence. May your healing touch be felt in their lives and seen through their ministries.

We thank you for the witness of Justapaz and of the Peace Commission of the Evangelical Council of Colombia. Watch over them and give them strength as they witness to your peace with justice in Colombia.

Colombians went to the polls this past Sunday to elect their new President. Since Juan Manuel Santos cannot run for another term, the ballots included candidates that represented the wide spectrum of political ideologies in this South American country. As they failed to elect a president on the first round (neither candidate could get the required 50% plus one number of votes to win the first round), two main candidates will dispute the second round to be held on next June 17th. Iván Duque, a right wing conservative, took the largest share of the vote on Sunday with 39%. Gustavo Petro – a leftist leader and former mayor of Bogotá, came second with 25% of the votes. In a close third place, Sergio Fajardo, a more moderate candidate, received 23% of electoral support. It remains to be seen if Fajardo, a former mayor of Medellín, will back Petro in the second round.

The Peace Accords signed in Colombia by the Government of Juan Manuel Santos and the FARC more than a year ago is now in a crisis. Several setbacks, breaches of trust and other situations, for example the imprisonment of one of the guerrilla leaders, put the peace agreement into dangerous territory, just as an ecumenical delegation affirmed its accompaniment on a recent visit to Colombia. Global Ministries as well as the World Communion of Reformed Churches, the World Student Christian Federation, the Cuban Council of Churches and Colombian partner, the Interchurch Dialogue for Peace, visited Dr. Patricia Linares and Dr. Xiomara Balanta, President and Vice-President of the Special Court for Peace respectively, on April 26th, 2018. On its visit, the delegation affirmed the need to fulfill the Peace Accords in every aspect, especially in respect to the controversies regarding the Colombian Civil War, by using its established mechanisms of peace, justice and reconciliation so that the violence that war in the past is not repeated.