PORTO ALEGRE.

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil -- Invoking the memory of the centurys of women who have been homicide ed in recent years in Guatemala City and in Ciudad Juarez, Mexican theologian Elsa Tamez lower parted her presentation at the World Forum in succession Theology and Liberation in the toil for life of young women who migrate to large cities in search of work.

She went onward to ask what churches and theologians are doing with regard to violence against women and the feminization of deficiency Tamez was among about 30 the community who presented papers in a five-day forum that attracted about 200 commonalty from around the world.

The forum, held Jan. 21-25 just before the fifth World Social Forum (WSF) showed contemporary liberation theology in all its global ecumenical variety. Veterans of the manner of moving like Brazil's Leonardo Boff, Chile's Sergio Torres and Sri Lanka's Tissa Balasuriya shared the stage with Korean eco-feminist theologian Chung Hyun Kyung advocates of greater inter-faith collaboration and critics of neoliberal capitalism.

Indigenous theologians, feminist theologians, and those who mirror theologically on their experiences as sexual minorities appeared to point the way forward. earnestly of their discourse, in the words of India's Evangeline Anderson-Rajkumar, was about "bleeding, leaking, sexual bodies"---and about embodiment, incarnation and grace.

a certain number of participants wished that the theology forum had been built into the WSF or that an effort had been made to adopt the open-space WSF format instead of a series of presentations. "Theologians missed an opportunity to reflect onward their own practice and that of social movements" said to leeward Cormie, a theology professor at St Michael's guild in Toronto.

Cormie has studied the WSF proces as it has exhibited over the past five years. He said he was disappointed the theology forum organizers did not organize the fact so that more voices could be heard.

The forum coordinator, Capuchin Friar Luiz Carlos Susin, said it showed an opportunity for "mutual dialogue for Christian theologians of all continents." The forum's title, "Theology for Another Possible World," was adapted from the WSF slogan, "Another World is Possible."

"The road is made as you walk it," Susin said. "From our religious experience, we can dedicate ourselves to justice and compassion, or to intolerance and fundamentalism. We have chosen the first option. In this forum, we will share our vision that another world is possible."

Critical voices that were heard wait oned to come from indigenous the bulk of mankind women, sexual minorities and theologians who work forward inter-faith dialogue. Here are a examples:

Eleazar Lopez a Zapotec who is also a priest and president of Mexico's National middle for Support to Indian Missions (CENAMI), told participants that "it's time to gain off the boats of the conquerors" and "live onward the periphery and from there gather the waiting under the possibility of fulfilments of the poor."

Emelina Villegas, a nun who works among marginalized women in the Philippines, said that globalization has brought about a kind of democracy that provides "officials whose powers are limited to implementing the policies" of the International Monetary capital and other multilateral bodies.

Andre Musskopf, a Brazilian Lutheran theologian who, while not a presenter ensur that unique theology (the accumulation of theological expressions from various sexual minorities) was part of the discussion. After the forum closeed he wrote an open epistle to participants, noting the gap between the poor and those who labor for "their" liberation. "But still, after more than 30 years of liberation theology, it appears difficult for us to consider at the concrete face of who 'they' are." He said persons who fear losing their piece of works families and communities, who live upon the streets and are forced into prostitution, who commit suicide or tolerate violence because of their sexual orientation also writhe for liberation and experience God's grace.

The alone speaker who discussed sexual orientation in a presentation was Otto Maduro, a Catholic sociologist from Venezuela. His presentation, made during a public session of the forum, was attended at more than 400 people. Maduro spoke of areas that he said liberation theology has avoided--notably sexual minorities, "the scapegoats of dominant morality" for the sake of advancing other agenda.

The director of the Institute for Dialogues with cultivations and Religions in Chennai, India, Jesuit Michael Amaladoss, utter sentence againsted the use of religion to justify repression. Religions and ideologies should not be obstacles for collaboration in all of humanity, he said, and religious clusters should participate in the building of another possible world.

The forum was organized by the agency of several networks, including the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians and Amerindia. Financial support came from a variety of sources including the Canadian Catholic Organization for disentanglement and Peace, the United house of worship of Canada and the Presbyterian meeting-house in Canada.