Nicaraguans Pray That Election Will Bring 'The Peace of God'
Episcopal News Service. March 14, 1990 [90071]
A mud floor. Three walls. A ramshackle tin roof. And inside, 50 jubilant voices were proof of the vitality of Christianity in Nicaragua. The members of the Episcopal church in Chaguitipilla, a small village just outside Matagalpa, and 30 guests representing the Episcopal and Presbyterian observers of the Nicaraguan election, sang and clapped, smiled and wept, prayed and celebrated the Eucharist together.
Cool breezes sneaked through the cracks of makeshift walls carrying aloft the smell of damp earth from the floor of the church and the muffled whispers of little children. A clatter of hoof beats from a herd of cattle passing next to the church served as percussion to the strains of crisp guitar melodies in the liturgy.
"Consider this modest temple your home," said the rector of the congregation, the Rev. Daniel Garcia. "We give you what we have -- our heart, and hospitality -- especially our hospitality to our sisters and brothers who are coming as observers to our Nicaraguan presidential elections," he said.
"We think that you've come because you understand that we stand at a crossroads," Garcia said. "We are used to difficulties, but we forge ahead. And we see you as active in constructing the new peace that we all desire."
Garcia's message of peace was a familiar petition throughout the Nicaraguan countryside. It is a yearning expressed by a people steeped in the Christian tradition, a message that gives a voice to the war-weary faithful who desire to experience the reality of Christ in their midst.
"The elections won't mean anything without reconciliation," said the Rev. Ennis Duffis, during a homily at All Saints' Episcopal Church in Managua. Duffis's sermon elaborated a text taken from the Gospel of Matthew. "Jesus has told us that we must not repay 'an eye for an eye,'" the priest said.
"Our elections offer us the opportunity to live through a most transforming event. But reconciliation will not be easy -- Nicaraguan history has been characterized by 'an eye for an eye,'" he said. "We must move into a new era," he told the congregation, which would later affirm their hope for the future by sharing in the baptism of four children.
"We are asking that everyone pray that this be a free election," said Nicaraguan Episcopal Bishop Sturdie Downs in a private meeting with the Episcopal delegation after the liturgy. "We have seen too much violence." Downs warned that the church in Nicaragua would have to embrace people who do not necessarily agree on political matters. "In the Episcopal Church we have tried to make space for a variety of opinions."
Downs has asked the priests in his diocese "not to express partisan political propaganda in the pulpit" because of the need to maintain the priesthood as "a symbol of reconciliation." Yet, he said that Episcopalians have a right to express their own opinions, and that there are progovernment priests and lay people as well as those in favor of the opposition.
Bishop Downs's description of the Episcopal Church in Nicaragua is an accurate portrait of the whole society. Nicaragua is a nation of deeply religious people who are at odds about the political strategies for change -- but constantly drawn to Christian hope and rooted in a devotional life that undergirds the entire culture.
On the perimeter of the city square in Managua stand the ruins of one of the few buildings that withstood the 1972 earthquake, the Roman Catholic cathedral. It is a powerful visual testament to the faith of a city that has been besieged by natural and political tremors.
In Matagalpa, shops and homes often displayed political propaganda on the outside walls, and within, hung a portrayal of the sacred heart of Jesus or another Christian icon.
Opponents of President-elect Violeta Chamorro charged that her campaign sought to capitalize on the religious emotions of the Nicaraguan people. Chamorro appeared at political rallies always dressed in white and sitting in a mobile, glass, four-sided "chariot" (her detractors called it a "Pope-mobile"). Some have suggested that Chamorro hoped voters might make subliminal connections between her and the Virgin Mary.
Yet whatever the subliminal messages suggest, the future political course of Nicaragua and the success or failure of the 1979 revolution may well be rooted in the life of its parish churches.
In the Roman Catholic parish of Immaculate Conception in the small village of Waslala, two Brazilian nuns nurture social reforms brought about by the 1979 revolution. "We credit the revolution with starting a process that ended a dictatorship and passed power to the hands of the people so that they may make changes in their own lives," said Sister Lodia, who has been working in Nicaragua for nine years.
This aspect of the revolution is mirrored in the life of the parish. "Our method of organization in the parish is to give responsibility to the laity," said Sister Esther, who has worked in Waslala since 1987.
"The celebration of the Eucharist must encompass 'not only the spiritual -- but the whole life of the people," continued Sister Esther. "In the past the church has had a preoccupation with the altar. We must now be interested in health care, production of crops, literacy -- more than merely the altar," she said. "We celebrate the mass as the culmination of the total life of the week."
The nuns reported that this new understanding of the church, sometimes referred to as liberation theology, emphasizes local faith communities rather than the hierarchy of the church. "And those communities are evolving, dynamic -- always moving and working to establish the kingdom of God."
For both women, the transformation has also been a personal journey. "My own conversion (from a hierarchical understanding of the church to liberation theology) came in experiences of working with the poor," said Sister Esther. "Living with poverty would bring out transformation in anyone," she continued.
Now the sisters are actively engaged in projects with the poor that embody this revitalized understanding of the church. They work with parishioners to provide education for the peasants who live in the mountains surrounding Waslala. "We send people who teach reading and writing in places where school teachers have been killed or schoolhouses burned because of the war," Sister Lodia said.
A separate educational program, called "Delegates of the Word," provides occasional workshops for lay people who supply liturgical leadership in remote mountain areas in the absence of the priest. Sometimes the priest is only able to get to remote villages once or twice a year, according to Sister Esther. "In addition to leading the weekly liturgies, the delegates help prepare couples for marriage, and children for their first communion," she said.
The parish also provides a basic health care program. "We educate people about the use of herbal and natural medicines and try to demystify the role of the doctor," said Sister Esther.
The church also offers valuable assistance to the agricultural economy of Waslala. "We educate peasants to consider new methods of planting that will result in higher crop yields. We suggest new crops and provide seeds to farmers," said Sister Esther.
A sewing and clothing cooperative is one of the biggest success stories of the parish. Women from the outlying mountain regions travel to Waslala for workshops where they learn how to make clothing for their families. When they return to their villages, their skills are put to work: in addition to sewing, they teach other women the trade. "This project encourages a sense of self-worth and accomplishment in the women," Sister Lodia said.
The contra war has created an environment of instability for all the people of Nicaragua, including the nuns of Waslala. "War creates a situation like Moses in the desert -- you can never plan very far ahead. You start something, and then you have to turn immediately to another crisis," Sister Esther said. "Everything we do must take the war into account."
The nuns reported that they have seen progress among the Nicaraguan peasants despite the war. Yet, they said that they hope the elections will provide a political climate of reconciliation, one in which needed reforms for the poor can be carried out. "We are hoping for improvements ahead," said Sister Esther. "But so much depends on President Bush," Sister Lodia added.
The nuns said that they hope that the Nicaraguan elections will strengthen social reforms of the revolution that were intended to lift up the lowly and bring an end to poverty. They said that they yearn that the Christian message of justice can be made visible in the everyday lives of the Nicaraguan people.
It is a hope shared by the poor as well.
A group of 66 peasant women and men gathered in a simple classroom near the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Waslala. They had traveled long, some as many as seven hours on foot, to attend special classes to become "Delegates of the Word."
The adult students attended a two-day session so that they might return to their remote mountain homes and lead the Lent and Easter worship services this spring.
In the center of the room volunteers acted out a drama based on the story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead. The purpose of the story, they were told by a nun leading the exercise, is to teach them how to witness to their faith. Two of the volunteers unbound the strips of cloth from the man who played the role of Lazarus.
The nun asked, "What are some of the things that are binding us in our faith?"
"Fear," answered one women.
"The war," said another.
"It is Jesus who takes away all our fear, who gives us the courage to speak about our faith, even though we are simple and uneducated people," said an old peasant farmer.
"In what ways can we show our love for Jesus?" the nun asked. "By caring and doing good things for others" came a response from the crowd.
"By sharing the good news," said another voice.
"And what is that good news?" asked the nun.
"Liberty and freedom and peace" was a reply.
"We have been praying for peace for so long," the nun said. "Let us continue praying that our elections will bring to Nicaragua the peace of God."
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