Light to Live In -- Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America

The annual summer gathering of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America  provided a great opportunity to network with a number of longtime as well as new friends of Ruth and Alex Orantes and the Iglesia Bautista Shekina.

With a theme of “Light to Live In,” this year's summer conference was held July 12 to 17 on the campus of Keuka College in the Finger Lakes region of New York .  More than 350 progressive Baptist  activists, peacemakers, pastors, students, teachers, families, and organizers from Canada, the US, Mexico,  Puerto Rico, Cuba, Burma and beyond came together to celebrate the BPFNA's mission of  “gathering, equipping, and mobilizing to build a culture of peace rooted in justice.” (See www.bpfna.org)

The conference schedule included an afternoon screening of the documentary film "Return to El Salvador," which features Alex and Ruth expressing their commitments to building a new vision of peace and justice in their country.   A number of people left the BPFNA conference with copies of the "Return to El Salvador" DVD in hand, planning to spread the story in their own communities back home.

In the discussion following the screening, several of the BPFNA participants attending the film spoke about their own experiences accompanying the struggles of the Salvadoran people. Some reflected on their participation in the repatriations of villages from refugee camps during the war in El Salvador. Others have been outspoken critics of oppressive economic policies like CAFTA (Central America Free Trade Agreement) and longtime advocates in the call to shut down the School of the Americas.

Participants in the BPFNA conference who have connections with Ruth and Alex talked about the importance of sustaining the work of these two talented, visionary leaders whose transforming work in their communities has been a cherished model and inspiration for many North American communities of faith.  (*** Check out http://thesimpleway.org/friends/cielo-azul/ in addition to this  blog for information about the “Cielo Azul Fund” created by a network of individuals, congregations, and groups inspired by Ruth and Alex's commitment to faith-based community development, justice, peacemaking, and healing.) And everyone agreed that the Orantes Family would be excellent to invite as participants in a future BPFNA summer conference!

We appreciate director Jamie Moffett's work to share the complex story of El Salvador's history, as well as to highlight some of the rays of hope for a new future.  For more about the film, go to www.returntoelsalvador.com.