Awakening the Conscience of the American Churches

A Call to Solidarity

The Project:

Faith Partners of the Americas proposes, in collaboration with the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI), the Caribbean Conference of Churches (CCC) to prepare a number of church leaders (ten at a time) from Latin America and the Caribbean to come to the United States as teams to:

•  meet with U.S. Congressional leaders and international aid agencies to share with them their concerns about the nature of the relationships between our countries and the often-negative, though perhaps unintended, results for their peoples, and

•  visit judicatory groupings (annual conferences, synods, presbyteries, dioceses, etc.) to share with church leaders here their understandings of our common history and its tragic results for their peoples, even while enlisting support and solidarity from the churches of this country for the situation in theirs.

These teams of church leaders will be chosen and prepared by CLAI and the CCC and their visits in this country will be coordinated by the Washington Office on Latin America [WOLA], and the Latin America Working Group [LAWG].  The period of training (a two-day retreat) would enable leaders from particular countries to speak effectively about the common history of the region and not just of their own country.

There will be at least two teams making visits each year, in order to have an impact on a large number of judicatory leaders throughout the country.

The purpose of these visits would be, as stated above, to enlist solidarity from the churches of the U.S. for the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as to increase mutual understanding between the peoples of the hemisphere.

Responding to expressed concerns of church leaders in the region, the Project in Solidarity will be treating three specific themes: Trade policies (FTAA, CAFTA, etc.), the International Debt, and Human Rights .

Timeline of the Project:

1. Recruit Church leaders—six months
2. Training of teams—two days
3. Time of deputation in the United States—10 days

This cycle will be repeated two times each year , at times that will coincide with sessions of the U.S. Congress and when judicatory groups could receive them. (With regard to the latter, efforts will be made to coordinate with regular meetings of judicatories, but if necessary, judicatories will be encouraged to organize special “Schools on Our History in Latin America and the Caribbean” or to hold special sessions to receive the teams. The heads of communions in the National Council of Churches will be encouraged to facilitate this process.)

Over a three-year period, there will be at least six teams of ten persons mobilized to share the Call to Solidarity with the U.S. churches. If the teams are kept to two persons in each team, this will mean 30 specific teams visiting U.S. judicatory groupings. If each team visits 6-8 judicatory groupings during its 10 days in the United States, this will result in more than 180 judicatory presentations in a three-year period. With significant publicity and effective use of television, these teams can have a most significant impact on the understanding of the American people of our own history and of the need for a change in the way our nation relates to our brothers and sisters throughout the world .

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