ARGENTINA-
After 30 years of service to the ecumenical community, ALC News has decided to close down as an institution. “This is the end of an institution, but not the end of a bigger cause”, says Rafael Soares de Oliviera, part of the ALC Board of Directors. August 30th will be the last day news will be issued.
“The love towards the cause of denominational news organisations joins the historic dream of a great homeland in the territory that unites us as Latin America and the Caribbean, and it lives! It lives beyond our hearts, in all the confrontations with fundamentalists of all kinds that exploit mass media with the deconstruction of human rights, threats to dignity and the need to alternative narratives – those that don’t feed with hate and don’t feed the enemy through confrontation. It lives in the voices that fight for rights, in the voices in favour of victims and in favour of the vulnerable. But human constructs come and go, and we have to rebuild them”, says the Board of Directors.
A bit of history
The Agencia Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Comunicación was founded 30 years ago in the city of Quito, Ecuador, as a venture by the Consejo Latinoamericano de Iglesias (CLAI), the Conferencia Cristiana del Caribe (CCC), the World Association for Christian Communication-Región América Latina y el Caribe (WACC-ALC), the Consejo de Iglesias Evangélicas Metodistas de América Latina y el Caribe (CIEMAL), and Luteranos Unidos en Comunicación (LUC). It was headed by Fernando Oshige, Enrique Zerbin and Leonardo Felix. The editorial task was carried for 12 years by Fernando Oshige and for 18 years by Claudia Florentin.
This ambitious project had two headquarters: Peru and Argentina, more than 25 correspondents, a regional editor in the Caribbean, and a public in three languages, taking on the compromise always in favour of a full and dignified life for all, a compromised life, giving place to diversity, the plurality of voices, making visible the goals of women, of climate justice, of indigenous people, and of the human rights in the region.
Through all these years it has been a space of encounters, connections, of a shared program for the regional ecumenic movement.
The current consortium is composed of:
AIPRAL (Alianza de Iglesias Presbiterianas y Reformadas de América Latina y Caribe), Centro Regional Ecuménico de Asesoramiento y Servicios (CREAS), Asociación Mundial para las comunicaciones Cristianas en AL (WACC AL), Consejo Latinoamericano de Iglesias (CLAI), Federación Universal de Movimientos Estudiantiles Cristianos (FUMEC ALC), Consejo Nacional de Iglesias Cristianas de Brasil (CONIC), KOINONIA, Coordinadora Ecuménica de Servicios-CESE, PAZ Y ESPERANZA Peru, Fundación Luterana de Diaconia- Brasil, Otros Cruces. Including other organisations with which strategic agreements have been reached.
What’s next
ALC News has decided to close down as an institution and reflect with its partners and collaborators about the current challenges and those that could come up in the near future. For this we will organise a virtual meeting towards the end of September that will be announced in due time. It’s also expected to hold a celebratory meeting and thanksgiving for the road we’ve walked together.