Understanding Sought in Central American Forum
Episcopal News Service. April 23, 1987 [87089]
Barbara Ogllby, Editor of Mountain Echo
BURLINGTON, VT. (DPS, April 23) -- "Central America: A Time for Understanding" was the theme of a conference held at the Diocese of Vermont's Bishop Booth Conference Center April 5-7.
A diverse group of people from around the state gathered to hear and discuss all sides of the controversial issues in Central America. The conference was Jointly sponsored by the Hispanic Office of the Episcopal Church and the Bishop Booth Conference Center Committee, and organized and convened by Dean Bruce Jacobson of St. Paul's Cathedral here.
In his opening remarks, the Rev. Herbert Arrunategui, Hispanic Ministries officer for the national Church, said that the conference was not just to talk about issues but to consider how what's happening in Central America affects all our lives. "We hope you will leave this place not with answers to the problems of Central America but a better understanding of the issues," he said.
The first of a series of speakers, Dr. Joseph Kroger, chairman of the Department of Religious Studies at St. Michael's College in Winooski, VT., argued that God takes the side of the oppressed and exploited members of society. Drawing on his experiences as a teacher of liberation theology and a traveler in El Salvador and Honduras, Kroger stated his belief that much of the struggle for Justice by the poor in Central America is not due to the influence of communism but what he called "the activation of a dangerous and liberating memory": the biblical record of God's decisive acts in the world, shown most vividly in the liberating message of Jesus Christ.
Dr. Susan Kaufman-Purcell, Director of the Latin American Program at the Council on Foreign Affairs in New York City, presented the view that it is in the best interests of the United States government to work for the establishment of democratic governments in Central America. Stating she believes that most countries in the area -- except for Nicaragua -- have "the most democratic regimes in history," Kaufman-Purcell argued that a complete United States pullout from the region would mean the "entrenchment of communism on the mainland."
Dr. Guillermo Cochez, Vice-President of the Christian Democratic Party and Congressman from the National Assembly of Panama, called the promotion of democratization in Central America the only way "to achieve peace and undertake tasks of development on a sustained basis." He urged the United States to stop supporting military governments on both the Right (such as his own country, whose military regime, according to a recent article in U.S. News & World Report, may have been a channel for the remittance of "Irangate" money and arms to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua) and the Left (the Sandinistas in Nicaragua). "We do not want you to solve our problems," Cochez said. "What we hope is that you will be faithful to your commitment to human rights and democracy. Solidarity should begin with those closest to you. We are part of the same continent, and we should share your destiny."
Arrunategui outlined the history of stands taken by different bodies of the national Church on Central American issues, including resolutions advocating negotiated solutions to regional conflicts and a nondiscriminatory immigration policy and opposing economic and military aid to the Contras.
Skinner Chavez-Melo, president of the Spanish Hymnal Committee of the Episcopal Church, taught the group part of his Misa Zochipilli, the only Spanish mass based on the Book of Common Prayer, and also introduced some the hymns that are included in Albricias (Good News) a book of 38 Spanish hymns that will be included in the final version of the new hymnal. (Both Albricias and the Misa Zochipilli are available form the National Hispanic Office at the Episcopal Church Center, 815 Second Avenue, NY 10017.)
In a panel discussion on the last day of the conference, James Welch, Editor of the Burlington Free Press, shared impressions gleaned from a recent tour in Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua. The Rev. Andrew Osmun, Rector of St. Luke's Church in Chester, VT., who has visited Honduras in the capacity of board member of the South American Missionary Society, urged conference participants to look beyond the competing ideologies of democracy, communism and pragmatism and ask, "What is the ideology of Jesus Christ?" This question was also raised by Melrose Huff, coordinator of the Interreligious Task Force on Central America in Burlington, who described how people at the Presbyterian Church she attends said they had been "converted" by a family of Central American refugees who sought sanctuary at the church. "It is important to try to communicate on an affective level why we care so much about these people," Huff said. "For us this is not a political issue -- it's an issue of the heart."
In the closing Eucharist, Arrunategui preached on St. Paul's admonition to the Galatians: "You were called to freedom...be servants of one another." "The Christian context of freedom...is not I but the other: the other with a large O and the other with a small o," Arrunategui said. "Over the globe, social, economic, political oppression makes it hard to live humanly, a life in union with God...Millions ask for justice: what is due to them as human persons. And while we theologians must debate about how precisely you relate the search for Justice to the mission of the Church, no Christian dare say that the Church can stand apart form the effort to free the human person for human living."