|PIC1|Evangelical Church leaders have met together at the first ever Summit of the Evangelical Christian Church for the Peace of Colombia. The leaders expressed their desire to increase efforts to end the country’s long-running and bloody conflicts.

The Church leaders appealed to all Colombians to “devote ourselves to serving our neighbour, even if that neighbour is an enemy.”

The summit saw approximately one hundred theologians, clergy, academics, community as well as denominational leaders, overall representing more than five million evangelical Christians, calling on churches to take action to oppose violence.

Specifically, the Church leaders asked evangelicals to set up trauma centres for those terrorised by the violence, which kills more than 3,000 each year, as well as displacing more than 3 million over recent decades.

Evangelicals were also called upon to train more pastors in conflict resolution techniques, and to engage at a higher level in peace negotiations.

|TOP|The call was also made for their followers to gather and hold days of prayer, as well as days of reconciliation and forgiveness in the coming months.

The summit delegates, who gathered on the island of San Andres, recognised that evangelical churches had been hard working for many years to sow the “seeds of peace” through quiet work and prayer.

However, at the same time the summit also acknowledged that churches had to do more now to address the conflict that has now gone on for decades, and has constantly been marked by extreme levels of social and political violence.

The leaders have released an eight-page statement calling on militia groups and the Colombian government to “heed society’s cry for an end to the armed struggle, so that we may work together to build a lasting peace that will put an end to the social violence endured by our impoverished and long-suffering people.”

|AD|“A first step towards dialogue should be a humanitarian agreement to allow victims of kidnapping to be released,” the statement added.

The evangelicals also appealed to the international community as a whole, asking it to ensure that their policies would not “foment the armed conflict in Colombia, but instead promote actions that help us to build peace”.

A comprehensive examination of the impact of agreements on free trade, as well as arms and drugs trafficking was asked for by the leaders, hoping that this would “seek social and economic justice and the general good of our country.”

In addition the churches are drawing up plans to support the aims of the national Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation. They said, “The purpose of our proposals is that of reconciliation between all men and women in Colombia, a reconciliation that recognises wrongs that have been done, makes reparation to the victims of crimes, and produces changes in those who perpetrated them.

“In practical terms, the churches can make a constructive contribution on matters of truth, justice, reparation, forgiveness, and on reconciliation and rehabilitation for both the victims of crimes and the perpetrators.”