Project Via Crucis is a Pennsylvania-based ministry committed to building mutually empowering relationships between communities of faith here and communities of faith served by the Lutheran Church of El Salvador. The work of Project Via Crucis includes accompaniment of our Salvadoran sisters and brothers through delegations; sharing our resources by assisting Salvadoran communities with economic aid and projects that facilitate self-sufficiency; educating people in the United States about El Salvador; and advocacy on behalf of the Salvadoran poor to promote respect for human rights, non-violent resolution of conflict, and a society built on a just peace. (Statement of Purpose adopted September 1991.)
This ministry has sent a delegation to El Salvador each October since its founding in 1987, and with each passing year our relationships with the people we visit have deepened and broadened. In early 1991, after a lengthy process of discussion and discernment, Project Via Crucis committed itself to a sister relationship with a cluster of congregations associated with the Lutheran Church in the department of San Miguel. We did this knowing that San Miguel has had very little international attention, that it is an extremely militarized area, and that the Lutheran work there had been dealt a major set-back by the assassination of Pastor David Fernandez in 1984, a blow from which the congregations were only now recovering. We also knew that San Miguel was the family home of Bishop Medardo Gomez, and that the work there was again growing under the leadership of a dynamic young pastor, Walter Baires. The messages we were receiving indicated that sistering with San Miguel would be much more difficult than with one of the already conscienticized and thriving parishes nearer the capital, but that PVC had proven itself capable of fulfilling commitments over the years and that we would be equal to the challenge.
