The communities that are participating in this first ecumenical accompaniment experience are the La Alemania Cooperative, Las Brisas, Rincón del Mar, and social and human rights organizations of the municipality of San Onofre.
These communities are made-up of people who have suffered forced displacement from their lands, persecution, threats, are victims of murders of family members, and are presently seeking for restitution, justice and protection on the part of the Colombian State.
Four persons are on this first international accompaniment team and come from Mexico, El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic. They will, in two teams, visit, live with, and witness the daily work of the communities and their efforts to build alternatives of life, justice, social organization and hopes. To get to know the members of the team, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH08dI-TWCw&feature=youtu.be).
At the presentation of the accompaniment team, representatives of the member churches in Colombia of the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI), together with leaders of the communities, held a worship service and public ceremony in San Onofre to introduce and dedicate the team members.
Bishop Eduardo Martínez of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Colombia said that with the presence of the ecumenical international accompaniment team, the accompaniment by the churches with the communities that are struggling to recover their rights becomes a concrete reality.
For his part, Milton Mejía, in representation of CLAI, expressed that with the arrival in San Onofre of this group the whole ecumenical family at the global level has its eyes set on what happens with the communities and the social organizations being accompanied in this ecumenical experience.
(This news story was written by the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Colombia (PEAC) communications team.)
Photo: Presentation of members of first PEAC international accompaniment team in San Onofre region of Colombia (PEAC CLAI)
Source: Latin American Council of Churches, CLAI: www.claiweb.org
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Representatives of the communities in San Onofre, Sucre where the ecumenical accompaniment begins, expressed their gratitude to the churches for the presence of the first international accompaniment group, and affirmed that this accompaniment contributes to their protection and the strengthening of the organizational processes in which they participate, seeking for justice and making the peace that all yearn for possible.