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Kobia Marks November with Visit to Bolivia

URL: http://news.spirithit.com/index/south_america/more/kobia_marks_november_with_visit_to_bolivia/
Posted: Monday November 08, 2004 11:35 AM EST

By Pauline J. Chang

5,000 meters above sea level. Leaders from Council member Churches in Bolivia welcome WCC General Secretary in the international “El Alto” Airport in the city of La Paz. From left to right: Samuel Kobia, Eugenio Poma (responsible for the WCC and Latin American Council of Churches indigenous peoples program) Carlos Intipampa (bishop president of the Evangelical Methodist Church of Bolivia), and Juan Miguel Parrapo (vice president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bolivia). (c) WCC/Juan Michel

Meeting legislators: Kobia and local church leaders meet with senators and congressmen, the majority indigenous, in the Senate Chamber in the Bolivian legislative palace. From left to right: Marilia Schüller, Samuel Kobia, Carlos Intipampa, pastor Emilio Aslla (IELB), senator Marcelo Aramayo Pérez. From the back, to the left: indigenous representative Isabel Ortega. (c) WCC/Juan Michel

The Rev. Samuel Kobia, General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, began November with his much-anticipated first trip to Latin America, Nov. 1, 2004. Landing first in La Paz, Bolivia, Kobia explored current-day issues of maintaining ecumenical ties in the midst of oppression and poverty, with the leaders of the Bolivian churches.

“Our ecumenical identity is at stake in Bolivia,” said Pastor Rolando Villena, bishop emeritus of the Evangelical Methodist Church in Bolivia (IEMB), during his meeting with Kobia.

According to Villena, the role of the ecumenical society is to “modestly contribute to a culture of dialogue” by integrating the “Christian identity in the Bolivian identity in formation.”

In addition to Villena, representatives from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bolivia, the Anglican, Methodist, Pentecostal, and Roman Catholic Churches, took part in the dialogue.

The WCC general secretary’s Latin American visit will continue in Brazil (Brasilia, Salvador, Porto Alegre), Argentina (Buenos Aires), Uruguay (Montevideo) and Chile (Santiago).

Source:http://www.christianpost.com