Could the heart of the Amazon hold wisdom that can heal the planet? Could the people of Peru point the way for U.S. Presbyterians to repair relationships with the land they live on and the Indigenous people in their own contexts?
A delegation of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) leaders, including the Rev. Tony Larson, Co-Moderator of the 226th General Assembly of the PC(USA), recently traveled to Peru in pursuit of answers to these questions. They spent eight days in conversation with Global Ecumenical Liaison the Rev. Jed Koball and local partners about the impacts of extractive industries like mining on the environment and Indigenous communities.
The delegation also included Dr. Dianna Wright, director of Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations; the Rev. Edwin González-Castillo, director of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance; the Rev. Dr. Laurie Kraus, director of Humanitarian and Global Ecumenical Engagement; and Valery Nodem, Associate for International Hunger Concerns.
Two other trip participants — the Rev. Annanda Barclay of the Presbytery of San Jose and Dr. Clarice Hutchens of the Presbytery of Giddings-Lovejoy — embody what Kraus considers an exciting expansion of how PC(USA) moderators engage with global partners and mid councils and congregations here in the U.S.
“We have not historically looked at how we might engage our mid council and congregational partners in these efforts, beyond an expectation that the Moderator would share the stories and results of their visit in their work around the Church,” Kraus said. “This, we realize, is a lost opportunity for our Church, as well as for the partners who have taken time and effort to share their work and vision with us. This time, instead of limiting the trip to staff leads and the Co-Moderator, we intentionally invited leaders from two presbyteries that have been involved in the Joining Hands work in Peru.”
Koball, a Global Ecumenical Liaison for the PC(USA), says this trip has been in the making for at least five years. It developed out of work with the Presbyterian Hunger Program — particularly its Joining Hands Initiative, which seeks to address systemic causes of hunger in countries around the world. Koball says during that time, Joining Hands has identified its work, globally, as addressing and dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery.
The 15th century Doctrine of Discovery established by the Catholic Church granted Christian European nations the right to claim lands and resources they “discovered” from non-Christian peoples. In Peru, this doctrine led to the conquest of Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples, including land theft, disruptions of spiritualities, and genocide.
Koball emphasized that the destructive mentality of conquest in Peru, and many other places including the United States, is not just historic, but ongoing.
“That relationship with the land is defined today as we talk about extractivism,” Koball said, “where we see the Earth as something that is a resource for generating wealth.”
By contrast, Indigenous communities have maintained a more harmonious relationship with the environment.
“Humanity is dependent on a harmonious and healthy relationship with the Earth, and those most equipped to promote that relationship are Indigenous peoples,” Koball said. “So, getting land in Indigenous hands is ultimately kind of the goal here.”
The purpose of the delegation’s time in Peru was twofold: to see how this ongoing mentality of conquest and the extractivist industry of mining are impacting both the environment and the people there — especially Indigenous and Afro-descendant people — and to learn how Peruvians are addressing these issues so that knowledge might inform how Presbyterians engage in similar efforts in the U.S. Several members of the group come from presbyteries already working on addressing the impacts of extractivism on their local environments and Indigenous communities.
Over the course of eight days, the delegation traveled to three different regions of Peru. They visited La Oroya in the Andes, home to a smelting operation that has earned the city a reputation as one of the most polluted places in the world and where people have been protesting for more than two decades. On the coast around Lima, the group encountered the literal downstream impacts of mining: a contaminated river and beach. They also traveled to the Amazon to meet with a federation of native peoples working to prevent encroachment and extractive activity on their land.
Layton Williams Berkes, Communications Strategist
Let us join in prayer for:
Judy Walton, Vice President, Lending Services, Presbyterian Investment & Loan Program
Laura Wampler, Operations & Rights Associate, Operations, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation
Let us pray:
Lord, thank you for opportunities to serve you. Bless us as we share our loaves with the children, youth and adults. Help us to remember that in John’s Gospel, the sharing of loaves began with a child. Amen.
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