CPTnet
9 April 2011
COLOMBIA: Palm Sunday materials available; “The battle-bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations” -Zechariah 9:10

On 17 April 2011, Palm Sunday, Christian Peacemaker Teams invites churches to pray and act in solidarity with Colombians displaced by oil palm plantations.

CPT Colombia offers resources for worship, action, and prayer that allow worshipers to hear echoes of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem—and the events that soon followed—in the lives, struggles and deaths of people affected by Oil Palm and other industries that unjustly continue to remove them from their lands in Colombia and elsewhere.

Just as Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem brought wrath from governors and priests, Colombians who seek a life with dignity on their land face the wrath of the Powers that Be.  Aware of the opposition, persecution, and death they face, people from around the world are joining Jesus in publicly denouncing injustice everywhere.  Since 2002, forty-five Colombians who were trying to return to lands have been killed and their lands seized for corporate pillage; tens of thousands have been forcibly disappeared and four million displaced in the country’s armed conflict.

The bittersweet triumphal entries continue.

How will the story end?

What can your Church do this Palm Sunday?

Here are three possibilities:

1) Use the materials that linked below for your Palm Sunday Service or Mass:

        1) Bulletin Insert

        2) Litany

        3) Sermon notes

2) Take action for the People of Colombia.  CPT Colombia invites you, as a partner in the Days of Prayer and Action, to contact the U.S. government, asking it to pursue policies that protect communities at risk for displacement, small-scale farmers, and Colombian human rights advocates.  You can request a packet of postcards to ask citing these requests for new U.S. policies toward Colombia.  Contact the Witness for Peace office:  jess(at)witnessforpeace(dot)org

3) Join our Prayer Network and Pray for the Christian Communities of Las Pavas and Garzal.  
We are looking for churches to commit to praying for two Christian communities every Sunday.

Learn about the struggle against Palm Oil:

Watch this video about the comunities of Garzal and Las Pavas

  For more information about how to participate, contact Duane Ediger at duane.ediger(at)prodigy(dot)net