Throughout many conversations with many people in the
Lutheran Church of Colombia (IELCO), all from various backgrounds and differing ideas
and attitudes, I have learned a few things about how to best accompany the
church from the point of view of the human rights program. I have learned that
without massive buy-in and without the committed support of church members and pastors, the program will struggle to
provide IELCO all that it is capable of.
Because Colombia has a history of holding human rights
language in suspicion (due to ideological posturing and the armed conflict),
the acceptance of human rights within the population, including the church, is
not guaranteed. This means the first step for me in the human rights program is
to gain the confidence of the members, leaders and pastors of the church. Not only gaining their confidence but
also ensuring that the program is theirs, and encourages their involvement, their leadership and their guidance.
After my first year working in this capacity in Colombia, I
had a chance to put the confidence in the human rights program to the test. DIPaz
(Dialogo Intereclesial por la paz; Inter-church Dialogue for Peace), which the
IELCO is a member, finished its verification of the FARC’s
(Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) month of a unilateral ceasefire. This
verification was asked for by the FARC with the government’s full knowledge. After
seeing that with this unilateral ceasefire, Colombia experienced it’s least
violent month in the last forty years, DIPaz wrote a letter to the government and
to the FARC leaders urging them to continue the ceasefire and the de-escalation
of hostilities.
This letter was opened for signatures from all those members
of DIPaz, as well as international supporters of the work of DIPaz. I sent the
letter to every pastor of IELCO to see who would sign their name to this important call to strengthen the peace process. An
overwhelming response came in with a little over half of all pastors of IELCO signing
this letter. This came in as quite an affirmation of the human rights program,
and the trust I have been gaining.
As we are looking into the year ahead, and planning the
activities of the program, this affirmation has been very inspiring!