Lent week 1: The creed and the colour and the name won’t matter…
On Ash Wednesday we mark the start of the sacred journey into Lent. It’s also Zero Discrimination Day, when we recognise that all of us deserve to live in safety and dignity, free from persecution.
In Colombia, this vision of a peaceful, equal world seems distant indeed. ‘Colombia has been suffering an internal armed conflict for more than 50 years. Many people have been murdered and communities have been displaced’, says Mara Luz, who leads Christian Aid’s work in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Mara’s team works tirelessly alongside our partner agencies to ensure that those who find themselves in the most vulnerable situations have a safe place to call home. Last year she visited Colombia with our partner, Justice and Peace Commission.
Despite the ongoing conflict in Colombia, Mara remains cautiously optimistic. ‘There is much to be grateful for: the recent peace process, the long conversations in Havana, the international observers, the Nobel Prize and the solidarity of global neighbours over the years of conflict.’
Christian Aid supporters are particularly attuned to the needs of our global neighbours during Lent. Each year, Christian Aid produces a guide for that journey. Count Your Blessings shares stories of hope from around the globe and encourages us to act for a better world. This year’s guide has been inspired by a song written by Stanley Carter for Christian Aid 60 years ago. He understood that we cannot live full and faithful lives in glorious isolation. And so Carter encourages us to ask ‘When I needed a neighbour, were you there?’
Neighbourliness is not a nicety. Committing ourselves to our neighbours across the street and around the globe is a first step to building community, to striving for peace.
In Colombia, there’s much work still to be done. Mara tells how ‘peace has not yet reached every corner of Colombia.’ Afro and indigenous communities are particularly persecuted: their lands stolen; their people killed. At particular risk are the communities around the city of Buenaventura, near the Pacific Ocean.
Mara sees how communities are taking steps to peace. ‘When the Wounan indigenous community of Santa Rosa de Guayacan was displaced in 2010, they designated their new territory a ‘humanitarian shelter’: an area where no weapons are permitted.’ It worked. ‘The Wounan people shared their experience with the Afro communities in Buenaventura city, who now also have two urban ‘humanitarian spaces’, two violence-free zones.’ The Wounan community helped their neighbours, building a better life for all.
The Afro and indigenous communities in Buenaventura have taken huge steps towards peace. But in January 2017, they were struck by horrific injustice. Emilsen Manyoma, a vibrant Afro human rights activist from Buenaventura, was killed with her husband. They were murdered by paramilitary organisations, drivers of much of Colombia’s violence.
Manyoma was the leader of the network of Communities Building Peace in the Territories (CONPAZ) in Western Colombia. For the past 16 years, she brought together Afro and indigenous organisations to fight for social and environmental justice.
Murders like this are far from rare. In Colombia, more than half of the eight million victims of the armed conflict are women. But Emilsen is more than a statistic. ‘She was the link that brought together two communities who are so culturally different. She knew that, for the sake of peace, the creed and the colour and the name don’t matter.
This Ash Wednesday we are invited by the words of the prophet Joel and the reflection from our neighbour Mara to weep, mourn and rend our hearts with those who are sinned against. We pray that all may live in safety and peace.
Let us pray using Mara’s prayer.
Oh God, give us wisdom to see your hand and generosity in all moments of people’s journey, not only the despair during the difficult times of violence.
Oh God, give us the kindness to see your hand acting throughout the communities’ history, not only when the violence tries to separate good neighbours.
Bless all the communities of Buenaventura, the Christian Aid programme in Colombia and our partner Justice and Peace Commission, that they may continue to be a good testimony of all your love to good neighbours.
Amen.
We will be discovering how we can be there for our neighbours across the street and around the world throughout Lent. Download Count Your Blessings for more inspiration.
