Urban Church, Global City: The Flores Neighborhood, Buenos Aires

10/5

With the Flores community

Flores is a Buenos Aires neighborhood perhaps now best known as the home parish of Pope Francis. The Roman Catholic basilica

The Basilica in Flores

is first place I’ve seen statues of modern saints like Pope John Paul II

John Paul II

and Mother Theresa

Mother Theresa

as well as paintings of Francis.

Pope Francis

But there are other churches on the Plaza as well. The Flores Valdensians share in the diaconal ministry of the Methodist Church

La Iglesia Metodista de Flores

that so openly shares its life in every way with the community around it. When more homeless people came to the plaza, the Methodist church resisted the fencing of the plaza. But even after the fence, it has kept it's doors open. The pastor

a visit with the pastor

warmly greets those who have come for food and and joins in the casual conversation, at ease among friends. The open space beside the church is shared by children and sports activities.

An open space to play

Here is a classic example of an urban church whose walls are porous, where there is no boundary between church and community. And the pastor knows well that often ministry is defined buy how you respond to the knocks on your door.  And when the doors are open….so much more so.  

This is truly ministry in context, with a social worker, outreach to children and single mothers, and a market for artisans. The church is navigating creatively the reality of living in a middle class neighborhood which is not comfortable withth people who gather on its plaza. 

A symbol of that ministry is the annual  Christmas Eve service held outdoors in the plaza with. persebre viviente (live manger scene) with members of the  plaza community as the holy family and visitors…Christmas Eve ends with some and then breaking of bread together..

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Perhaps its a sign of the dedication of the Flores community of la Iglesia Valdense

a dinner conversation

that we meet on a night when Argentina is playing for its survival against Peru in a World Cup qualifying match. We gather in their space at CAREF  for a dinner and conversation. 

Even though small in number, the Flores community is young and diverse with a richness of skills and talents and a passion for ministry. It is highly educated with a large number of  current and recent students. There are, for example:

• A young man who has lived in voluntary simplicity and is committed to solidarity with the poor
• A young  woman who describes herself as “an atheist and a theologian”
• A church journalist and communications expert
• Musicians, singers

  

  a song before dinner

• Young professionals
• People who ask serious questions about faith and society

The community has also recently opened  its arms and embraced a woman who has a very complex, challenging and emotionally trying  set of circumstances related to immigration and status.  As she seeks to get her feet on the ground and find an effective strategy, she feels welcomed and accepted as a member of la familia.

This small but vibrant group is attracting young adults from outside the Waldensian tradition, including former Catholics. Not burdened by having to maintain building, there is more energy for an engaged living out of the gospel. There would seem to be a bright and open future for this Flores community. 

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Oh...and the Argentina team is still alive!

Urban Church, Global City: Migration and Refugees

10/5

Meeting with CAREF

You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

Leviticus 19:34, quoted by CAREF

When reflecting on the role of the urban church in the global city, it’s important that the church understand the impact of the trends and themes that are shaping the cities we live in. One of the most important of three themes is the presence and reality of migrants and refugees in our midst. We are living in a time when the largest number of people in history are in the process of moving from one  country to another. Its an important part of our work to learn about the current unique dynamics of this reality in Argentina.

To be a migrant is to seek a better life

In the Flores neighborhood of Buenos Aires are the offices of the Comision Argentina para los Refugiados y Migrantes (CAREF).Four churches came together to found CAREF: Iglesia Evangeica del Rio de la Plata (Lutheran/Evangelical), Iglesia Methodist Argentina (Methodist), Evangelical Discipulos de Cristo (Disciples of Christ) and Iglesia Valdense del Rio de la Plata (Wadensians).

CAREF was founded in 1973, as a non-profit civil association whose main objective, in addition to providing direct services and advocacy, is to promote the rights of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers through the construction of social policies and practices that consolidate their integration in conditions of justice and equity.

Its founding was in response to a flood of refugees from Chile resulting from the takeover by the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. Migration in Argentina (and South America as a whole) has differed from the situation in Europe in that most refugees and migrants have been internal South Americans shifting and changing as various political waves have washed over countries. For example, the junta years in Argentina, the long running Columbian civil war,

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and now the rapidly deteriorating social situation in Venezuela.

Migration and Rights poster

CAREF has also been involved in the global crisis. Last June, CAREF, related to the  the commemoration of the International Refugee Day, issued a document in which it reviewed the history of the problem, launched a strong criticism of Europe and the United States, for being responsible for the crises that generate poverty and expulsion and referred to the role of Argentina and the region, as well as some guidelines on state action against the problem. 

Through a document signed by its General Coordinator Gabriela Liguori, CAREF strongly criticized states that do not take refugees seriously: "Europe receives thousands of refugees and expels them. It establishes agreements of international cooperation with countries of its periphery so that they contain the refugees there. A new genocide takes place, and Europe is not immune ... they insist on separating the economic migrant from the refugee as if fleeing from hunger was not also fleeing from death, as if being a migrant deprived you of the status of a person with rights.

 CAREF also pointed out that it is the European countries themselves, together with the United States, that generate the crises that end up driving people out of their places of origin. However, it is then they who demand the countries, to receive the victims: "it seems that there is no interest in addressing fundamental issues such as peace and the fair distribution of wealth at the global level, but to see how to slow down the impact of their somewhat uncomfortable manifestations of pain in the countries of Europe, "they said. In this they echo the sentiments of a sign I saw last April in Hamburg:  “If you don’t like refugees, stop creating them!”

Hamburg banner

Argentina recently committed accepting to 3000 Syrian refugees for humanitarian purposes. CAREF is clear, however, that simply accepting them is not enough. They note that it is essential that there be a clear local integration policy that guarantees the exercise of the rights of this population: access to language training, clear procedures for the revalidation of qualifications, training for work, decent and permanent housing, inclusion of labor, the exercise of their religion and manifestation of their culture, access to education at all levels and health from an intercultural perspective, favoring ties with the rest of Argentine society.

CAREF reports that Argentina currently has a population of refugees and petitioners, of approximately 5000 people. "Among them are Colombians, Syrians, Ghanaians, Ukrainians, Haitians, Ivorians, Nigerians and Peruvians." As hard as CAREF works to assist refugees in gaining legal status, there s great frustration with both the bureaucratic red tape and lack of budgeted funds for the serious essential work of integration. 

 In our conversation with CAREF, we learned about the abuse of migrants in sweat shops (so too in the United States) and that most agricutural work in Argentina is done by Bolivians. Sex trafficking and narco politics also affect the movement of people.(CAREF has allied itself with those fighting against domestic violence and femicide.) CAREF has also recently produced a major report on the phenomenon of migration to Argentina of people from the Dominican Republic in this century. Especially disturbing is disproportionate presence in the sex industry.

CAREF is a real example of the ecumenical work that La Iglesia Valdense has committed to, both in responding to direct human needs and engaging on the all important policy work needed to support just migration.  The Flores Valdense church meets at CAREF and both staff and lay members participate as volunteers in a special relationship. In the future, it is clear that one important area of work for local congregations will be in the integration process for migrants. And again, the Bible is clear:
You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.


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For a broadly informative …and profoundly moving… overview of the reality of migrants and refugees around the globe, see AI Wei-Wei’s “Human Flow”

https://www.facebook.com/HumanFlowMovie/

Urban Church, Global City: Bahia Blanca

10/2-4

Bahia Blanca

Dinner with friends from Bahia Blanca1. The church

We arrive in time for a cafe cortado and media luna before heading to the Waldensian church in Bahia Blanca. The city feels more like my memories of Latin American cities than Buenos Aires. It's smells. A certain feel to a place. As we approach the church, we see someone has graffitied  a conocer dios tendras  que sufrir--to know God, you have to be able to suffer. Wonder where that came from....?

inspired graffiti

 

We're in the manse attached to the church. Maria gives us a true docent's tour as the church's origins as a Scots Presbyterian church show through. The stained glass windows, atypical of the Waldensians, are from Edinburgh.

from Edinburgh

A Magen David in the  window reveals  a Masonic symbol and she tells us of the former prominence of the Masons in the city's political history. In the church house, much original furniture  remains including a wonderful old piano with attached candelabra.

the old piano

The old Scots legacy remains . 

Thee are stories of the saints of he church. The last pastor raised hopes when he started a youth group and young people came to the church again. His leaving was a blow to the sense of forward movement. They continue to be burdened by building issues and questions about future pastoral leadership.  But much remains:

1. They have in their number lay people with a high capacity for theological discourse and pastoral commitment.

2. New parents have been attracted and continue to come.

3. A solid core of the teenagers who had come to the youth group continue to come and can bring friends.

4. They have added to their number new people from outside the Waldensian tradition, even choosing one to represent them in the weekend work shop. 

5. They are actively engaged in their community, serving on the council called into being by the municipality to bring representatives of a wide variety of faiths together. They are about to propose to the council that Bahia Blanca declare itself to be a city of interfaith engagement and dialogue. ( This council did not hesitate to remove a member who used a public prayer as an opportunity for proselytization

6. The part time pastoral work of Yanni keeps people focused and involved until her next visit.

Despite all the challenges, Bahia Blanca has reason to have hope for the future.

2. The city

I am intrigued to find a city off over 300000 people.  Almost the size of my hometown Pittsburgh  To me it feels much more like a traditional Latin American city. We’re lucky to have a history teacher/student and a professional driver as our guides. 

We see: 

• The train station.

  

  the train station

  Where the city began. Gateway to the south. The train station is being restored but much of Argentina’’s train system is unusable
• The beautiful performing arts theatre with it statue honoring  Italian independence leader Giuseppe Mazzini. A poster about urban renewal in Bahia Blanca has been invaded with an  image of Santiago Maldonado, whose story I will learn and  whose face is becoming ubiquitous as I experience Argentina.

  

  Santiago Maldonado

• The University the South. Silhouettes of women on the sidewalk give witness to the issue of femicida, the murder of women because they are women,.

  

  for victims of femicide

  Argentina is the first place I am aware of to name this lethal phenomenon of domestic violence in a t culture of machismo that feels itself threatened.
• We learn here about the reality of the junta outside of Buenos Aires. The fountain by a Peronist woman artist removed during the junta.

  

  the fountain

  Discovered hidden way and reinstalled. The mosaic portrait of David “Watu” Cillercielo, assassinated student leader.

  

  David "Watu" Cillercielo

  Apparently the rector of the University had given over a list of professors and students who were ‘subversive.” 
• We visit the location of the clandestine army detention center known as “la escuelita”:  the little school.

  

  remembering "la escuelita"

  Special roads led directly from the city to here. A silhouette of a blindfolded pregnant woman recalls the number of pregnant detainees who had their babies snatched from them and delivered to wives of military officers, Handmaid style. The reuniting of children and families over the years has been a complex and painful process. A tree marks the spot near where a torture dungeon stood.

  

  site of the excavation

  Volunteers spent weeks in an archeological discovery process verifying the stories the had been told. Our guide was one of those  volunteers.
• We visit a Malvinas War memorial.

  

  Malvinas War memorial

  Regardless of political ideology, Argentines felt united in this conflict. And the quick and humiiating loss was the beginning of the end for the junta. 
• We visit the port, the major agricultural export center of the country. See the power transfer station, built in Gothic style. By the British, with a carved relief of St. George along the roof line. Large silos for grains, increasingly mono crop soy. 

  

  Gothic electric transfer center

• A museum honoring generations of workers.

  

  workers museum

• La casa del espia where a dispatcher reportedly informed Nazi submarines off shore as to what ships were headed where

  

  Casa Espia

• We stand at the  end of the pier looking at the harbor. There are still fishing boats though changes in the harbor have pushed the fishers further and further out to sea, their work increasingly vulnerable. 

  

  patron saint of fishers

  

  from the pier

• Back at the city plaza, the monument honoring the contribution of the Jewish community to the city on its centenary in 1928, On has to admire the courage and tenacity of the Jewish community to remain all these years through various periods of antisemitic reaction, juntas, nazi immigrants, etc.

  

  honoring the Jewish community

• We visit a traveling  Bible exhibit honoring the Luther quincentennial with a comprehensive lecture by Dr. Renee Kreuger, author and professor at the late lemsented Theology School. Its closing was especially  painful to Waldensians as it was a place that both trained young passports and provided continuing theological education for lay people. A group of Jewish young people has come tonight with their teacher. Even though the Waldensians preceded Luther by centuries, they saw in his movement a place for solidarity so they celebrate fully th beginning of his revolution. 

  

  Dr. Rene Kreuger

The Waldensian church has an impact in the city way beyond its numbers. It is engaged and visible and despite its challenges can clearly claim a future. 

End of the season

10/23

One last game

My baseball season began on a sunny March day in Tampa, Florida with my favorite two teams, the Pittsburgh Pirates playing the New York Yankees. The Pirates teased us for awhile with hope, hung tough through multiple disasters, then vanished as summer turned into fall,  gone by the end of September. My season ended when the Yankees, unexpectedly,  hung on until game seven of the American League Championship season. And then lost.

Up 3-2 on the Astros, ( and I’m still not sure why they’re in the American League, 1962 expansion sibling of the Met sand all), the World Series seemed near. But when you’re up 3-2, you have to finish it in game 6, because as the sage Yogi Berra observed, “No one ever wins game seven.” The Pirates taught me that in the ’90’s. And  sure enough, it’s still true.

I know there are many Yankee haters out there among my friends, especially Bucco buddies. So a word or two about how I came to be a Yankees fan. When we moved here from Pittsburgh 22 years ago, we had to pick a team. Given my affinity for underdogs and  certain family connections, the Mets seemed a logical choice. But as a National League team, there was an inherent conflict with the Pirates. Besides it took a good hour on the 7 train to get to Shea. And in my neighborhood, Mets fans were lawyers with cars, Yankee fans were Dominican doormen and bodega workers who rode the subway. A short 20 minute ride.

Well there was also this. The most magical ,moment of my life was Mazeroski’s miracle home run in the bottom of the 9th in the seventh game of  the 1960 World Series. The Yankees were the team on the other side of that miracle, the mighty dynasty the scrappy Buccos defeated..I knew their lineup as well as the Pirates. And had some affection for them. That was there when we moved here.

Shea Stadium was the prototype  for cookie cutter multi-purpose stadiums. Surrounded by parking lots and Korean auto shops. I loved the Bronxness of Yankee Stadium. That street under the train tracks filled with bars and souvenir shops, what the new retro stadiums try to create was already there.  Though its former grandeur had been changed to a 1970’s functionality, you could still look down and see where Babe Ruth or Mickey Mantle stood. And there was a rowdy democratic feel about the place, especially in the stand alone bleachers, their own wonderful world of the bleacher creatures and their roll call of players to begin every game. The connection was sealed one afternoon when at the end of warm ups, the great Bernie Williams, a Puerto Rican player in the tradition of my childhood hero, Roberto Clemente, turned and tossed a ball to my boys.

In 1996 I finally saw a World Series game. I had tickets twice before in the early '90's when the Pirates got within one game, even one out, from the Series only to have the accursed, tomahawk chopping, Braves snatch it away.  So it gave me great pleasure to see the Yankees, back after a decades long absence, take out the Braves. There’s been a lot of good moments since then. 

Though the new stadium struts and swaggers, this Yankee team was absent the arrogance of the Evil Empire days of Boss Steinbrenner who always tried to win with an open check book that teams  like the Pirates could never match. But this team was one you could feel good about. Young guys. Rookies. A home grown core of bright shiny hustling kids. ( So to speak) Led by Aaron Judge, that gentle giant with the Derek Jeter sincerity and dedication.  He spent half a season playing like a combination of a real life Joe Hardy and Roy Hobbs, playing at an otherworldly level with towering majestic home runs. Only to spend the better part of the second  half looking completely lost flailing helplessly at just out of the zone pitches only to rediscover himself in September. Judge alone made for an engaging roller coaster ride of a season. 

So I came back from South America in time for one last mid October game with my son Dan. And the Yankees won. And then they lost. Twice. But the pleasure of an unexpected deep post season run will remain until spring comes again.   

Urban Church, Global City: Buenos Aires Day One

10/1

Pastor Alvaro Michelin Salomon and Pastor Brashear

My old friend Dennis has come to meet me as I arrive in Buenos Aires. Thanks to landing at municipal airport, we've got just enough time to catch the end of the worship service at the Iglesia Evangelical Reformada de Buenos Aires, or IERBA. (Almost an ironic acronym.) 

La Iglesia IERBA

The soft natural light brings a feeling of comfort and warmth as the sun streams in though a wall with a very subtle cross.

Inside the sanctuary

There is a simplicity here I will come to know as typical Waldensian, reminiscent of the United Presbyterian Church of my childhood.  A simple pump organ supplies music to the hymns, and the pastor, dressed in a simple suit, has a tone that  matches that of the sanctuary.

It's an older crowd, except for Alfredo, who I remember from his visit  to New York, come over from the Flores community this morning. During prayer time, there is much concern expressed about the violent interventions by police in the Catalan independence vote. There are friends  and family ties to Cataluna and the news is disturbing. People are wondering  about that afternoon's Barcelona football game. We will later learn that after much controversy, the game was played behind closed doors in an empty stadium.

After sharing Eucharist, we gather around a table for the breaking of bread and conversation.

after worship conversation

It's very important to the community to share its three roots: not only Italian Waldensian  but reformed traditions from Switzerland and France,as well. Like bringing together Lutheran and historic reformed churches.

They share with their American counterparts the concerns of dwindling and aging congregations and fewer resources to sustain pastors....and buildings.  The challenge of part time pastorates. How and where new members might come from. Deep, deep pride in those roots....but the future?

Dennis and I will have a few hours to rest before taking the overnight bus to Bahia Blanca. We watch the other Catalan team, Espanyol, play the powerful Real Madrid. The Espanyol captain's arm band is the Catalan flag, a quiet statement of resistance.

Remembering Guatemala

10/14

Dennis Smith 2017

Being with my old friend Dennis Smith has brought  back memories of our time in Guatemala. These memories were made even more present by the fact that two days ago, it was announced that the second trial of Efrain Rios Montt for genocide was set to begin again.  

I remember that as our Presbyterian Task force prepared to leave for Guatemala, one task force member decided to remain in Mexico City and our then South American staff person had to be persuaded to go.  That was the level of anxiety that preceded our visit.

I remember Dennis coming to visit our hotel room, turning the radio way up loud to thwart obvious bugging  attempts. I remember passing a table of officers in a steakhouse and knowing by their accent they were Argentine advisors. (Israeli advisors were a little more behind the scenes.... )

We spoke with indigenous fellow Presbyterians telling us of  whole villages disappearing, cultures eons old being wiped from the earth.

We were called to visit the  country’s President Efrain Rios Montt.or ”El Viejo” as he was called. Over coffee on a balcony veranda, he pointed to a faded mural of a Mayan Indian ritual including human sacrifice and the bloody removal of a heart. “You see”, he said, this is what we come from.”

We were taken to visit the headquarters of Montt’s California based evangelical church, “El verbo.” We were greeted at the church’s headquarters, surrounded by a razor wire topped chain link fence, by loudly barking German shepherds. A short man in a leather jacket opened the door and let us in. When we asked him about genocide, he folded his hands, crossed his  knee, leaned forward and said, “You must understand, For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” And nodded as if that was that. Not humans, but “rulers of darkness…”

The primal beauty of the country was in  stark contrast to the apparent apocalyptic reality of the violence that surrounded our visit. 

We prepared our report and took it to the 1983 joint assembly of the two branches of US Presbyterians in Atlanta fully prepared to call out Montt’s genocide and call for end to US aid. Guatemala was a clear part of US Central America strategy and the Reagan administration’s relationship with Montt was on of the  many things I could never forgive Reagan for. 

Montt was the darling of American evangelical leaders like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. His open declaration of wanting to create a “Christian nation,” his Sunday night broadcasts demanding personal piety and socially conservative moralism while hiding genocide and his tough talking peasant program ‘frijoles and fusiles” (beans and rifles)  made him an iconic leader. In a word, Montt 

was to the Christian Right what the Sandinistas were to progressive Christians.

As our report was being debated in a late night General Assembly session, we were taken by surprise by a   strategic move by the conservative evangelicals. They had brought in two old school missionaries who sang Montt’s praises. A substitute motion was introduced, lifting up Montt’s faith and asking that we recognize him as a brother in Christ  and pray for him to prevent “a worse bloodbath..” The assembly was confused, we couldn’t get a commissioner or mission rep to a microphone, and  the substitute motion was approved. The Presbyterian Church was on record praying for Brother Montt.

Later that night I came as close as I would ever  come to throwing a punch at a church meeting when the gloating head of  Presbyterians for Biblical Concerns (what an unfortunate acronym that was!) came over to goad me about Montt, but friends intervened.

In another year, Montt was overthrown. (Though like a character in a franchise horror movie he never stopped coming back ..) Subsequently, the UN Commission on Historical Clarificationn declared him responsible for “acts of genocide” and perhaps as many as 200 thousand dead . It was estimated that at it's peak the war claimed 3000 lives  a month and 10000 between March and July 1982. In 2013, Montt was convicted for the murder of 1771 Mayan Ixil people in one village. While that was overturned on a technicality, he is up for trial again. His fragile physical state has led to a pretrial humanitarian decision that he will not serve time. 

In 1999, US President Clinton surprised us and  apologized to the Guatemalan people.

That same year, Guatemala President Portillo apologized to the people as well.  

The Presbyterian Church has yet to apologize…

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The Presbyterian Church essentially put its arm around Rios Montt while he killed his own people and   indigenous people who were also Presbyterian. That apology is still due….

Urban Church, Global City 1: Stopover in Santiago

9/30

Pastor Fred at the Community Church

Arriving in Santiago, it’s so cold and wet it could be Copenhagen. And it’s over a week into spring already….I’m greeted by an old urban ministry colleague, Fred Milligan, a longtime Presbyterian Health Education and Welfare member and one of the founders of the  Urban Presbyterian Pastors Association.  The random circumstances of a layover day on the way to Buenos Aires led to my discovery that Fred is now the pastor of the English language community church in the Providencia District of Santiago.

Even on a rainy Saturday the traffic is heavy on the way into the city. With its highways and high rise buildings, Santiago has the look and feel of a modern global city. 

The church itself has interesting roots. Although Great Britain had limited success in taking South America into its Empire, it did its best to involve itself where it could.  Both independent immigrants and business interests grew rapidly in the 19th century and British interests were responsible for much of Chile’s infrastructure. Today as many as 700000 Chileans may be of British descent.

And so the walls of the once Anglican church are filled with memorials to those who gave their lives in service to the crown in various wars.

Enemies embrace as Christ rises above the battle

Today, the church serves not only native English speakers but those from Santiago’s global community like Japan and India and other places where Spanish is not spoken and English is the lingua franca. 

Sanctuary cross of raw native olive wood

We share pizza, more Italian than American, and a glass of Chilean wine and talk about current Chile reality. With its nearing 6 million residents, Santiago is closing in on Rio, currently  the 4th largest city on the continent. Despite a season of economic setbacks, Providencia's neighboring community of Las Condes  still shows the shimmering glass and steel skyscrapers that led to its nickname of Sanhattan. 

Like other cities, refugees and migrants contribute to the reality, but come mainly from other South American countries, increasingly, for example from troubled Venezuela. There has been the beginning of the presence of refugees from Africa and the Middle East. And a fast growing presence of Haitians. 

Even with the return of democracy, as in other global cities, the income disparity between rich and poor continues to grow exponentially. Like Argentina, Chile all but eliminated its indigenous population. But Fred talks about the continued resistance of the Mapuche people of the south. They have never stopped resisting  and have shown undaunted resilience  over centuries. (I will learn more about this in Argentina…)…

We finish the day with jazz at the Thelonius Club. 

At Thelonius

And a  Pisco sour. Chileans and Peruvians argue about Pisco like Israelis and Palestinians over hummus. My entry into the world of the church in the city in the global south has begun. Tomorrow to Buenos Aires….