ELCA NEWS SERVICE

April 25, 2007  

ELCA Remembers Bishop Margarita Martinez
07-073-MRC

     DORADO, Puerto Rico (ELCA) - With singing and prayers,
members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) said
good-bye to the Rev. Margarita Martinez, bishop of the ELCA
Caribbean Synod, in an April 23 memorial service here.  Martinez
died March 11 of cancer in Bayamon, Puerto Rico.  She was 59.
     The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the ELCA,
preached and the Rev. Francisco L. Sosa, interim bishop of the
ELCA Caribbean Synod, presided during the service.  Gathered
alongside one another at the altar were eight more of the ELCA's
65 synod bishops.  Hundreds of members from across the church and
staff of the churchwide organization, Chicago, attended the
memorial to celebrate Martinez's life and legacy in the church.
The service was held here at Christ of the Reconciliation
Catholic Church.
     Hanson preached on the Magnificat, Mary's song found in the
Gospel of Luke.  "It is Mary's song, but it is also Margarita's
song," he said.
     Hanson shared with the congregation memories of the time he
spent with Martinez in the hospital, the day she was diagnosed
with cancer.  "I remember when I walked into her room the day
that the doctors had delivered very bad news.  She said (to me),
'I just can't pray today.  I can't find any words to speak to
God.  So, I'll sing,'" said Hanson.  "Singing was for Bishop
Margarita both an act of defiance and an expression of her
faith."
     "Margarita never shrank back from human tragedy.  She never
denied the reality of injustice.  She never shrank away from
calling us, the church, to confront the injustices of racism and
sexism.  Yet, no matter how powerful those were, they were never
strong enough to silence Margarita's song.  It was a song of
praise to God, and a song of protest when we were not living
together as God intends for God's people," said Hanson.
     "Mary's song, the Magnificat, was the song of God's
transforming power of love and mercy, and Margarita's life of
faith and leadership was that same song.  (Mary's song was) a cry
for justice and the bold announcement of God's forgiving mercy in
Christ Jesus.  That vision of Mary drove Margarita to protest the
bombing practices of the U.S. Navy on Vieques.  You succeeded as
protesters.  That vision of Mary was Margarita's vision, which
called her to preserve the rain forests and to ask that her ashes
be spread over them as a sign of God's gift of life for all of
creation," said Hanson.
     "Margarita was always in our face in Chicago about pastors
and leaders in the Caribbean Synod (who) were inadequately paid.
Margarita's was the vision of an inclusive, multilingual,
multicultural diverse church enriched by diversity, not
threatened by differences.  That vision called her to global
mission (work).  That vision compelled her to be a strong voice
for ecumenism," said Hanson.
     "Margarita's vision, like Mary's, calls us to confront all
the barriers we erect to exclude anyone," said Hanson, "barriers
that are erected to preserve the power of the privileged, which
usually means white male privilege.  What better way for us in
the church to honor the legacy of Margarita's leadership and of
her faith than for us to continue to confront and remove those
barriers, whether they are physical barriers that deter or
prevent sensitivity, gender barriers that deny women full access
to participation and leadership in church and society, barriers
of race, class or language.  Margarita was very clear about
barriers of sexual orientation that precludes anyone from life
and leadership in the church.  Margarita was, especially for
women in the Caribbean Synod, Latin America and all over the
world, a model of leadership.  Margarita never missed an
opportunity to sing a song of God's all-inclusive mercy," he
said.
     "To be in Margarita's presence was literally to experience
the contagious joy of one who lived every day through faith in
God's grace for Jesus' sake.  Margarita, like Mary, believed that
God will always be faithful," said Hanson.
     "God turned the world upside down, uplifting the poor, the
oppressed, hungry and the forgotten.  When does that happen?  (It
happens) when the living Word of God breaks into our lives.
Margarita proclaimed that living Word of God boldly and without
shame.  She understood that God does some of God's best work with
lives of people.  God started a revolution in Mary and continued
that revolution through Margarita.  Through her tireless work for
justice, through her compassion for those living in poverty and
for a more inclusive church, Margarita was singing the song of
God's vision for a new world," he said.
     "Margarita, your voice is now silent, but your song
continues to ring in our hearts and throughout the world.  For
you, Margarita, we say thanks be to God," said Hanson.
     The United Lutheran Choir of the ELCA Caribbean Synod and
members of Christus Victor Lutheran Church, Estate Lavallee, St.
Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, provided the music.  The Rev. Jean
Kloss, Lord of Sabaoth Lutheran Church, Christiansted, St. Croix,
read the lessons.
     The ELCA Caribbean Synod elected Martinez to a six-year term
as bishop in 2001.  The synod has 6,558 baptized members in 34
congregations in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.  The
synod council appointed Sosa as acting bishop of the synod in
2006.  Sosa preceded Martinez as the synod's bishop.
     The synod will elect a new bishop at its June 21-23 synod
assembly.  The assembly will be held at Frederick Lutheran
Church, Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.

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