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Invitation to Join the Days of Prayer and Action for Colombia,
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“Sisters and brothers, please join us in fervent prayer and faithful witness for a sustainable peace in Colombia,” write church partners in Colombia. Every day, our partners in Colombia bear witness to a war in which civilians are the primary victims of threats and assassinations. More than 3.5 million people are displaced, the second largest internally displaced population in the world. Yet thousands risk their lives to heed God’s call for peace by working for justice and an end to war.
KAIROS encourages our members and network to join the thousands of people of faith in Canada, the U.S. and Colombia as we pray for an end to the violence and suffering in Colombia, and act to ensure peace with justice in Colombia. Engage your faith communities in these international days of prayer and action, May 20 and 21. Take a day to remember our brothers and sisters in Colombia in prayer and worship, and then act by asking the Canadian government to take action on Colombia’s humanitarian crisis
In Canada, the day of community action and witness will focus on Canadian policy in Colombia and, in particular, two issues of concern. One is Canada’s support for a dangerously flawed demobilization process with paramilitary groups, a process that is leading to ongoing impunity and human rights abuses as opposed to sustainable and just peace.
The other issue is the lack of federal legislation for Canadian multinational firms operating in the resource extraction industry. This is of particular concern in a country like Colombia where 87% of forced displacements, 82% of human rights violations and 83% of assassinations of trade union leaders in the country occur in resource-rich regions.
To get involved go to www.peaceincolombia.org , the website of the Colombia Steering Committee of the Latin America Working Group. Congregations in both the United States and Canada are asked to register their involvement by e-mailing their name and location to jtrowbridge . Both congregations and individuals may access the many worship materials on the site: you’ll find prayers, liturgies, sample letters and postcards to elected representatives, and tips for holding public witness and educational events.
Community Action and Witness resources for Canadian churches, including sample letters to the Canadian government and background fact sheets, will be posted on the KAIROS website shortly. Also check the Colombia page of the KAIROS website http://www.kairoscanada.org/e/countries/colombia/index.asp for background on our work with partners in Colombia.
Additional liturgical and action resources may be found at http://www.kairoscanada.org/e/countries/colombia/actionResouce.pdf
and http://www.mcc.org/us/washington/days
. You can also check the Christian Peacemakers Team (CPT) website
http://www.cpt.org/colombia/colombia.php
for ongoing updates on the work of CPT and its Colombian partners,
and for additional tools for prayer and witness. A photo gallery
on Colombia is posted on the Mennonite Central Committee Canada
website:
http://mcc.org/gallery/07_03/index.html
For more information, please contact Rachel Warden, Program Coordinator
for Latin American Partnerships, at 416-463-5312/ 1-877-403-8933
ext 242 or
rwarden
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