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Evangelical Lutheran Church of Colombia
Although Lutheran mission work began in 1936, some 70 years
ago, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Colombia (IELCO) was founded in 1958. It
has 2000 members, and has a structure with a strong accent on congregational
responsibility. Executive power is vested in a church council headed by the
bishop/president.
The 26 congregations and mission points of this church are
served by nine Colombian pastors, nine evangelists, and six seminarians.
Geographically, the major part of the constituency extends from Bogota, the
church headquarters, northwards to the mountains in an arc that includes the old
city of Tunja and the towns of Sogamoso, Socota, El Cocuy( birthplace of the
church) and Bucaramanga. To the east, congregations are to be found in the
lower-lying plateaus in the towns of Paz de Ariporo and El Banco.
One primary emphasis of the original missionary work in
Colombia was to start schools, so the church has traditionally been involved in
education. In recent years, some have been closed or have downsized. But IELCO
continues to focus on education. Three of the IELCO's congregations run
elementary schools. Under government recognition, the Lutheran secondary school
in Sogamoso offers the country's official curriculum. Since many of the students
are not members of the church, the school is a means of evangelism. In addition,
there is the "Emmanus Center" in Guaracura which offers agricultural training to
poor rural youth.
As part of its education, the church has a theological
extension program called Selite which trains lay leaders by extension. Most
recently, the church has also started a small seminary called la Escuela
Luterana de Teologia. At this time, the school is not a seminary. But IELCO is
interested in strengthening it so that it can become its seminary.
As the church does not have a theology school, pastors have
been trained in different seminaries, primarily, at the Escola Superior de
Teologia in Sao Leopoldo, Brazil and a very conservative ecumenical seminary in
Medellin. Most recently, IELCO decided not to send any further candidates to
Medellin so they are now going to Cali.
In addition to the seminary and the Selite education
program, IELCO has a small administrative structure which has departments in
communications, mission and development (diaconal work) and a human rights
office called Justice and Life.
During the year 2002 the IELCO joined a small ACT-Network
in the country, which is responded to the dramatic situation of displaced people
in some of the main cities in the country. During the next three years, there
were 4 ACT projects executed in 10 different communities in 5 departments of the
country which included housing assistance, potable water, small productive
projects, risk management and advocacy training, psycho-social services, health,
nutritional recovery and food security for these residents.
In 2006, a new Lutheran World Federation World Service
Office was opened in Colombia. This office will afford new opportunities for
development work with displaced and poor communities.
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