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Today, the Asia Pre-Assembly Consultation of the Lutheran World Federation started in  Bangkok, Thailand. Close to 100 delegates from many Asian countries and churches discuss current issues. The main theme is the same like the LWF assembly in 2010 “Give us today our daily bread”.

Here is the youth response to the keynote address on behalf of the young delegates presented by Kazuhiro SEKINO (Japan Lutheran Church) Continue Reading »

A blog post by Eva Guldanová, friend from the Slovak republic who currently studies in Chicago, USA.

Review of  ”Unveiled”

Drama play by Rohina Malik

Many of us living in the Northern-Western hemisphere often know Muslims and the Muslim world mainly, if not only, from media – from the many sad news about terrorist attacks all over the world, and wars and violence in the countries in the Middle and farther East. Stories that make us shiver, make us feel that this world is very distant from ours and far behind ours as to its development and culture, stories that make us not really want to meet the other … because what good would we derive from such meetings? The image of the Muslim world in the “developed” Christian world is not a plausible one…one that caries a lot of fear. … fear that is not based on experience which we can trust, our own experience, but on distorted image that somebody from media whom we don’t even know imposed on us.

This image has been rapidly deteriorated after September 11, 2001…

Students, staff, and professors of our seminary – the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and members of the Chicagoan Hyde Park community had one enigmatic evening in the middle of November the opportunity to encounter that world differently Continue Reading »

Passionate About Bananas

“Though hungry [the poor] carry the sheaves; between their terraces they press out oil; they tread the wine presses but suffer thirst. From the city the dying groan and the throat of the wounded cries for God’s help; yet God pays no attention to their prayer”
Job 24:10b-12

On an average day I negatively affect the lives of a paralyzing number of people – people who due to distance, class, or taboo float beneath my radar. This includes the underpaid maker of my clothes, the child soldier fighting in a resource war for the Colton in the cell phone, the hunter in Inuvik whose way of life is vanishing because of my daily carbon footprint, and innumerable others. So why, you might ask, do I choose to be passionate about bananas?

This passion for bananas extends beyond the fact that in high-school I ate one almost every day for breakfast. Whether in a delectable strawberry-banana smoothie, the classic peanut butter and banana on bread, or sliced and topping my special-K and milk, the banana was present. It is perhaps because of the vital role of the banana as a nutritious part of my complete breakfast that this seductive fruit elicits my passion. It was the common place of the perfectly yellow banana in my daily life that gave me the sickening feeling of guilt when I met the slowly perishing providers of my breakfast. I had, like most others, no idea.

I had no idea that this perfect yellow banana became a consumer expectation at the expense of 80,000 Nicaraguans suffering from sterility, birth defects, miscarriages, gastritis, vision loss, kidney failure, mental illness and cancers of the pancreas, skin, lungs and stomach. The cause of this living nightmare is Nemagon, a chemical used to eliminate nematode worms found in the roots of banana trees. These pesky microscopic worms threaten the livelihoods of the big wigs at Chiquita, Dole, and Del Monte. The little worms cause discoloration of the fruit, and in what kind of world would I choose to buy a slightly discoloured banana for my cereal?

Today 800 of the surviving Nemagon workers live in a tent city outside of the National Assembly in Managua. They have been there for over two years: the culmination of a movement that has been struggling against government and corporations for over a decade. I happened upon their encampment last fall with two fellow students curious about the out of place tent city in the middle of Managua’s dusty streets. The people who welcomed us into their community were like no others. Their lives shortened by the effects of Nemagon, the workers have have nothing left to lose. Consequently, they have left their homes, even in some cases children in the care of relatives, to demand health care and funeral costs for the dying.

The number of injustices around bananas is catastrophic. From the expropriation of lands in Latin America by the United Fruit Company in the last century to the stereotype of ‘tropical’ women created by Chiquita banana poster girl, the mass production of the banana has wreaked havoc around the world. But even if the case of the “Nemagon workers” is isolated, none of the horror fades. The chemical Nemagon was used on banana plantations in Nicaragua until 1985, but due to its toxic effects has been illegal in the United States since 1979 – just another painful example of global inequality, perpetuated this time by companies Dow and Shell who manufactured the chemical.

The plight of the Nemagon workers seems insurmountable. They hope to convince Dole, Dow and Shell to come to Nicaragua to meet directly with the Nemagon Directive. (The workers cannot afford to travel to the United States, let alone get visas.) They also wish to receive $200 a month per terminally ill worker, and demand that other affected workers receive some sort of health support in the future. Despite the hopelessness of their plight, the Nemagon workers have given up everything for their battle. Simultaniously, we eat Chiquita bananas with blue stickers reading “Guilt-free Snacking” and “100% Perfection”.

At some point over the last couple of months Job 24 was read to me. The picture that formed in my mind’s eye was the Nemagon workers. Deadly chemical misting over their heads, they carry my breakfast on their backs to their wives, whose bare hands pack the poison-doused fruit. Their dying groan now rises from the streets of Managua and it appears God does not hear it. Oh, but I did. And in all reality God did not send a plague of Nemagon upon the employees of Dole, Chiquita and Del Monte, but God gave me freedom to choose and I chose to eat brilliantly yellow bananas at breakfast for years.

So I am passionate about bananas because they opened my eyes. I now see how by simply choosing this enticing fruit for breakfast I am reaching half way across the world and dashing the hopes of an everyday Nicarguan. After all, the harsh truth is that Dole, Dow, and Shell don’t have to settle the claims of these families and most likely won’t – they can just wait for the rest of them to die.

For more information from me on the Nemagon Workers see: http://www.cordweekly.com/cordweekly/news?news_id=2344

Or seach Revisa Envio for information from the University of Central America

La pre asamblea de mujeres reunió a 45 participantes de todas partes del mundo: obispas, pastoras y delegadas para la 11va Asamblea de la Federación el próximo año en Alemania, cuyo lema es: “Danos hoy nuestro pan de cada día”.
Los objetivos del encuentro eran reunir a las mujeres que participan de forma activa en la vida de las iglesias, con el fin de escuchar sus testimonios, preocupaciones y visiones para fortalecer la comunión Luterana. Reflexionar el lema de la próxima Asamblea de la Federación y cómo estas reflexiones puedan llevarnos a formular políticas y acciones para la 11va Asamblea.
El primer día de la asamblea, Continue Reading »

Denying Our Daily Bread

There is this strange phenomenon that seems to occur among the women of my community. Every Sunday we pray to “give us this day our daily bread”. Taken in the best sense we are praying for the ‘us’ that is the world. However, many of the women and girls proceed to return home to lunch, leave the carbohydrates untouched on their plate, deny themselves lunch all together, or bring it back up immediately after eating.  We middle class Canadian women, completely foreign to hunger and lack of necessity, continually deny ourselves.

The lunch table is an extension of the table we left inside the sanctuary. How is it that the voice saying “my body given for you” is so easily overpowered by the billboards on the way home, the radio commercial in the background, the passing comment that reduces you to your appearance? Not only is the voice of unconditional love echoing through the ages drowned out by the cacophony of manmade expectations, but the same words of love transmitted through the voice of a mother, father, brother, sister, friend, lover, cannot match their pitch.

We are not what is expected of us, we never will be. If it has been formed in our minds that our value lies in being the curve-less skeleton we call feminine, what value do we have when every cell in our body will not allow us to meet this expectation? When our bodies want to expand naturally and round into life-giving potential our only choice is to protest with all our will: to deny the nutrients, to deny the life-giving bread, to watch natural fullness melt away with each tick on the scale, and yet to still see in the mirror a figure which fails to meet the expectation, to feel inside the secrets, the panic, and emptiness, to hear the praise and know the cost, to feel ourselves melt away with each inch from our waists.

And again we come to the table “given for you” the sacrifice of love, we take and eat this one small piece of bread, only to deny the extension of life and love at the next table.

Since Monday, I am part of meeting of Christians from three countries: The Netherlands, Argentina and Cameroon. They are representing discussion processes in their country about what “mission” means for people in their countries. It is really fascnating to hear the different perspectives. Here are some:

This year’s meeting of the LWF council ended on Tuesday. Here are a few important decisions from the perspective of young people. (For a full overview please click here):

New General Secretary

Rev Martin Junge has been elected as General Secretary of the LWF. He is going to assume his responsibilities in the later half of 2010.  Martin is currently area secretary for Latin America and the Carri bean. He was himself youth delegate to the LWF Assembly in Curitiba 1990.

Mennonites

The Council recommends the LWF assembly next year to ask the Mennonites for forgiveness for the atrocities Lutherans called for and committed during the Reformation era. This is a very important process that moves ecumenism forward.

Renewal of the LWF

The council made clear that strong youth contributions belong to a renewed LWF.  It resolved that two members-at-large will be part of the LWF Executive Committee. These probably will be young people. Currently, there is no young person in the LWF Executive committee. Furthermore, the council called for a clear and comprehensive gender and youth policy.

Active against climate change

The LWF council passed a resolution with clear demands for the Copenhagen Summit in December. In addition, the participants of  the council came together in demanding to get down to 350 parts per million Carbondioxide in the atmosphere.

Council_09-Low

(c) LWF/Groetsch

Dear regular reader,

No, for youth participation is not a new topic for you. If read about before in these pages, for example here, here and here. But we want to take the next step.

A LWF Youth consultation from 28 August – 1 September 2009 brought together 10 young people from all LWF regions to discuss youth participation in decision making (the full report is available here in pdf). They discussed the theological reasons for stronger youth involvement in all aspects of the life of the church including decision making from the perspective Continue Reading »

This is a post by LWF intern Tsion Alemayehu:

Putting together a blog is not easy – I realized that when I worked at the new Blog of the Lutheran World Federation/ Women in Church and Society (WICAS). I am an intern in LWF/WICAS desk and I have been working here for eight months now. Tsion Alemayehu is my name and I come from Ethiopia. I studied law for my first degree and right after my graduation I got the chance to work as an intern in LWF/ Geneva and I immediately moved out from Ethiopia.

I know how to use the internet or some programs on a computer, but Blogging is the first time for me. I found it interesting and fun.

The blog that I am working on  is designed to encourage women to post their experience, faith, stories , food justice and a lot more in relation to the Assembly theme of LWF which is “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”. You can find the blog following here.

As a young woman, and also a person who comes from a developing country, I know what food really means for hungry people. Continue Reading »

The BBC is currently conducting a global challenge. They produced short introduction videos about projects around the world. We are all invited to vote for one of them to win the challenge.

In fact, this year there is one of the project where LWF is a partner. It is the “Barefoot college” in India. It trains women from around the world in solar energy engneering. This way, it has a double effect:

  • Renewable energy is promoted which brings people energy while also fighting climate change.
  • Women are empowered and their gifts get recognition in their communities.

If you like the idea, vote for it here.

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