Respected leader with ACIERA, CONELA, and the Luis Palau Association is the latest of hundreds of pastors in Argentina to die from COVID-19.
Death, even if we wait for it, always surprises us. The death of Rubén Proietti on the morning of September 9, at age 74, not only affected his family and friends but also touched the church across the Hispanic world.
The organizer of Latin America’s greatest evangelistic events, the mobilizer of crowds, the creator of bridges, passionate about evangelization and a paladin of unity, he is now in the heavenly homeland.
Rubén became the latest of more than 400 pastors in Argentina to die from COVID-19.
But he was much more than that. This is why, in the wake of the news, his family and the Christian Alliance of Evangelical Churches of Argentina (ACIERA) received messages of condolence from all the World Evangelical Alliance chapters of Latin America, Spain’s former minister of religious affairs, politicians across the continent, the former and current presidents of Argentina, the embassy of Israel, and even a handwritten personal note from Pope Francis (the former archbishop of Buenos Aires, whom Argentine evangelicals knew as a friend).
Rubén belonged to a generation of evangelicals who, at around 30 years of age, in the late ’70s dreamed and committed themselves to the unity of the church and to evangelization. During the organizing of Juventud 77, an evangelistic campaign held in Buenos Aires, the team of Luis Palau, who passed away in March, met Rubén and invited him to join their ranks.
Soon Rubén became the face of the Luis Palau Association in Latin America and served as its key man throughout the continent. He began to weave relations between the most adverse groups, building bridges and carrying out feats of unity never before imagined.
The goal was clear: Be one, so ...
from Christianity Today Magazine
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