Lutheran Church in El Salvador/ACT Alliance/ALC
SAN SALVADOR
The Synod of the Lutheran Church in El Salvador, active ACT member in Central America, has shared this meaningful story about their history, with an anniversary this month:
On November 16, 1989, that same fateful day in El Salvador when the Jesuits were murdered, Lutheran Bishop Medardo Gómez was also targeted by the military. For Bishop Gómez and his Lutheran church were also voices who denounced the injustice they saw in Salvadoran society. They were deemed to be subversives by the government for siding with the poor and doing such radical things as operating a refugee camp for families fleeing the armed conflict, or for teaching the poor that they were entitled to equal human rights with the rich and powerful. A few days before, in a special service of reconciliation, the congregation of Resurrection Lutheran Church in San Salvador was asked to lay the sins of their country upon a symbolic cross. A simple wooden cross, painted white, was placed at the front of the church.
Congregation members came up to the cross, took a black marker, and wrote the sins on the cross, such as persecution of the church, hunger, discrimination against women, ambition for power, murder and violence. As they identified the sins of their country and their people, they also committed themselves to work toward forgiveness, and to be strengthened for liberation.
The cross also carries messages of hope and love, as a testimony to the transforming power of God. After the reconciliation service, the cross remained as a symbol within the church. On the same day when the six Jesuit priests were murdered by elite Salvadoran troops, soldiers arrived at Resurrection Church looking for Bishop Gómez; the Church was full of refugees, protecting victims of the war. Their search did not find Bishop Gómez, but they did find that simple white cross. Bishop Gómez had managed to flee and get to safety in the German embassy and subsequently found refuge in Milwaukee. Rather than capturing the bishop, the troops arrested 15 people, 12 foreigners and 3 Salvadorans, and they sunk so low as to capture and carry off a cross. The cross was imprisoned. A cross for them was subversive as they identified the sins of their country and their people.
The soldiers’ initial blindness didn’t allow them to see the sin that they were committing, but there, the cross, apparently passive, was pointing out to soldiers the crime that they were committing in this war against the innocent people and their leaders. For fear of being captured or assassinated, Bishop Gómez left the country in order to save his life. Two months later, the Bishop returned to the country accompanied by North American pastors and citizens who were received by the Ambassador of the United States. The Bishop asked the Ambassador to help him to free the cross. The Ambassador interceded and communicated with the President of El Salvador. The pilgrim cross made a journey from the prison to the Presidential House, the place where the cross completed its mission of pointing out sins. Sometime later, Bishop Gómez was again accompanied, this time by pastors from Germany. They spoke with the President and finally “The Subversive Cross” was handed over, and returned to Resurrection Lutheran Church.
The cross now is found resting, “timidly but at the same time valiantly,” in the church, pointing out sins, injustices and the arduous labour which its members must continue to do in social, humanitarian and Christian accompaniment.
Photo: El Salvador Lutheran Bishop Medardo Gómez and Subversive Cross
Source: ACT Alliance: http://www.actalliance.org/stories/the-story-of-the-subversive-cross
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