Dedication of two
New Testaments
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| Young people performed a colourful cultural program, including dances, at the dedication of the Chiquitano New Testament held on October 4, 2003. Concepción, Bolivia. Photo: Finnish Bible Society / Riikka Karinto (BOL03DJ-7.JPG) |
ASCENSIÓN DE LOS GUARAYOS and CONCEPCIÓN, Bolivia — Ascensión de los Guarayos is located a little more than 200 kms from Santa Cruz in south-eastern Bolivia and takes about five hours to reach by car. Although the road goes over some rickety one-way bridges, it is nevertheless a good one – paved all the way. And the further it takes you from the city, the more the rolling countryside turns to forest.
Ascensión is a small town of about 3,000 people. Motorbikes proudly display their taxi signs where their headlight should be; the superior ones offer passengers crash helmets to wear.
By Thursday (October 2) the coliseum, the local open-air venue, had been specially decorated for the dedication of the Guarayo New Testament. By 10.00 that morning the various musical and dance groups were ready and the indigenous baroque orchestra had tuned up their violins and violas.
Some 800 people came to the coliseum for the dedication. Among them were a three-strong film team from the Finnish Bible Society, which has provided some funding for translation and literacy work in the region.
The varied two-hour program consisted of welcomes, speeches, presentations of dignitaries, presentations to translators, traditional songs and dances and, from the orchestra, offerings of Bach, Telemann and Vivaldi, a vivid reminder of the Jesuit heritage of an earlier time.
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to the Word of God... the nearer we shall come to each other.” |
The Polish Franciscan bishop, Bishop Reiman, drew attention in his address to the current crisis Bolivia is facing (see box). The gulf between the government and the people required a re-encuentro (a “fresh encounter”), he said, first between the people and God, and then – and only then – between one level of Bolivian society and another.
“The nearer we are to the Word of God,” he said, “the nearer we shall come to each other.”As the ceremonial part of the day ended, the distribution got under way, with copies of the Guarayo New Testament in great demand at 15 bolivianos (US$2.00) each.
A much larger town than Ascensión, Concepción is also better known. Lying some 200 kms (125 miles) away, it is one of seven Jesuit mission towns in its area dating back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They and their centrepiece churches remained in relative obscurity until the 1986 historical film The Mission brought them to world prominence. With the churches restored and recognised for the architectural gems they are, the region, listed by UNESCO as one of its Cultural Heritage sites, now draws tourists from far and wide.
The town is also profiting from ‘ecological tourism’: the other event taking place in Concepción the same weekend was the Third International Orchid Festival. At the same time, however, agriculturalists continue to push into the area, keen to get their hands on land belonging to the Chiquitanos and turn it over to cattle ranches. As a result, relations between local government representatives and the church, in its role of identifying with marginalised people, are somewhat strained.
The dedication of the Chiquitano New Testament was an earlier event than that of the Guarayo. By 9.00am on Saturday (October 4) some 600 people were sitting excitedly under a huge canopy on the playing fields of a local school, facing a platform where civic dignitaries, wearing their office regalia, the local bishop, in his Franciscan habit and red skullcap, sat alongside the other guests.
BoliviaBolivia is one of the poorest countries in South America, the majority of its people poor subsistence farmers, miners, small traders or artisans. In the 1980s the country was hit by a deep economic recession. Inflation soared and the national currency went into a severe crisis. While measures such as the introduction of a new currency and tax reform were effective in curbing it, they also widened the already huge wealth gap and generated great social unrest. Although the annual inflation rate is now around four per cent, the gap between those involved in modern business and the subsistence farmers remains. A program aimed at replacing the coca crop, in return for the promise of US aid, has incensed many of the farmers. For many of them coca, from which cocaine is derived, is the only source of income. |
Once again there were welcomes, speeches, presentations, and traditional music and dances. Both Dr Bill Mitchell, UBS Americas Regional Translation Coordinator, and Rev Tito LaHaye, Translation Consultant with the Paraguayan Bible Society, spoke – as they had at the earlier dedication – and Concepción’s mayor took the opportunity to say that Bolivia needed people – including people in authority – to live out the New Testament’s message.
After a lunch of majadito (rice, herbs and beef jerky) and fried bananas, the bishop made a point of asking Dr Mitchell if he and some Bible Society colleagues would be willing to return in a year or so to evaluate the use and impact the two New Testaments had made in the area.
“This is the first time a church
leader has ever made such a request to me,” Dr Mitchell said, “and
I told him we would be glad to do that. He also said, ‘It will
help us see if we should move forward to a translation of the Old Testament.’”
(WR383/7 -1/2.04) 