wfn.org | ALC News Noticias Jan 19 2004

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

ALC NEWS SERVICE
E-mail: director@alcnoticias.org

ALC HEADLINES:
BRAZIL: The IELB celebrates 100th anniversary bringing together 10,000 at 
worship service
ARGENTINA: Methodist General Assembly offers message to the nation
ARGENTINA: Evangelicals promote reform of Santa Fe provincial constitution
BRAZIL: Bible Museum offers remarkable treasures
BRAZIL: Encontrao Movement obtains huge tent for Evangelical campaigns

BRAZIL
The IELB celebrates 100th anniversary bringing together 10,000 at worship 
service

By Edelberto Behs
GRAMADO, January 12, 2004 (alc).  The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil 
brought together more than 10,000 people in the Gramado Park to celebrate 
its 100th anniversary on Brazilian soil.

Delegations from across the nation traveled to Gramado, 115 kms from Porto 
Alegre for the service. Organizers were expecting 5,000 at the event that 
was originally planned for the neighboring city of Canela. They had 24 
hours to find a bigger venue.

IELB President Carlos Walter Winterle focused his sermon on the parable of 
the mustard seed. Gods kingdom, he said, is not a company that need 
sophisticated marketing resources to grow. It was the German immigrants, 
our grandparents and great grandparents who brought this seed to southern 
Brazil, he said. Today there is much to be sown and much to be harvested.

A 600-voice choir accompanied by three orchestras provided the music. The 
choir involved voices from 78 Lutheran congregations who practiced at home 
using music recorded on a CD.

Prior to the worship service a civic service was held with the 
participation of the vice governor of the State Antonio Hohlfeldt and 
president Winterle received a Honoris Causa Doctorate from Irvine 
University of California.

According to the IELB magazine Mensajero Luterano, at the end of the XIX 
Century of the 18 million people living in Brazil, 600,000 were of German 
origin and one sixth lived in Rio Grande do Sul. At the end of 2002, the 
IELB had 222,508 members ministered by 553 pastors in 1,938 congregations 
across the nation.

By 2010 the IELB aims to have 300,000 members. It recently reached the goal 
of being present in all state capitals when it established a mission in 
Macapa, capital of Amapa, a state in the extreme northern part of Brazil on 
the border with French Guyana.

The 58th National IELB Convention was inaugurated in the celebration and 
will take place January 11-15. The main goal will be to plan the Churchs 
missionary work until 2010.

Winterle said that Lutheran Churches from around the world aim to hold a 
major Evangelical movement to reach 100 million people by 2017, the 500th 
anniversary of Protestant Reform.

The first National Convention of the Missouri Synod in Rio Grande do Sul, 
that gave rise to the IELB, was held June 23, 1904.

Five years earlier the Synod had named Pastor Christian J. Borders as a 
missionary to Brazil. In July 1900 Broders brought together 17 families to 
found the San Juan de Colonia San Pedro Evangelical Community, the first 
congregation of the Missouri Synod of Brazil.

Broders was sent to Brazil to substitute Pastor J. Brutschin who was to 
return to Germany. However, Brutschin did not travel and Broders decided to 
investigate the area. When he visited San Jeronimo he was sad to confirm 
that the Germans and their descendants were more interested in dancing, 
getting drunk and gambling than in the Word of God, said the Lutheran 
Messenger.

In one place he found 22 dance halls and only one Evangelical chapel. I 
cannot recommend the State of Rio Grande do Sul as a missionary field, he 
wrote to the US Synod and decided to return to America.

While he was in Pelotas a cart driver who was transporting colonial 
products to the Rio Grande Port said that there were around 10,000 
immigrants and German descendants in the surrounding area who did not have 
spiritual help.

So Broders went to the San Pedro Colony where the first congregation of the 
Missouri Synod was born in Rio Grande do Sul in 1900. In his first report 
Broders said I have struck oil and of the finest quality.

  The 100th anniversary worship service was attended by the president of 
the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession of Brazil (IECLB) Pastor 
Walter Altmann, the Catholic Bishop of Porto Alegre Dadeus Grings, 
representatives of the Independent Presbyterian Church and foreign guests 
including a delegation from the US Lutheran Church. .(004/2004).

ARGENTINA
Methodist General Assembly offers message to the nation

CORDOBA, January 12, 2004 (alc). The XVII General Assembly of the Argentine 
Evangelical Methodist Church (IEMA) sent a message to its faithful entitled 
Rise Up Church: New Days are Coming, while in another call to the 
Argentine people it said Come, New Days Are Coming.

  Never has there been such an opportune moment to transform this slogan 
into a cry of hope for our country, said the IEMAs message to the nation 
after recalling that last December Argentina celebrated 20 years of 
uninterrupted democracy. It admitted, however, that over the course of 
these two decades many of those who represented this democracy have ended 
up dashing popular expectations.

The message to Methodist congregations said our country is in a process of 
change and we want this change to be for the better We know it is not an 
easy task and that the old ways, which lead us to more than one difficult 
crisis in our history, resist ceding space.

However, the Lord calls us to be a Church in mission, which is to say a 
community of witnesses to Jesus who, mobilized by the Holy Spirit, recover 
their passion to make the Word known.

The two statements were made at the end of the General Assembly held 
January 4-9 in the Embalse de Rio Tercero hotel complex in the northern 
province of Cordoba.

The National IEMA Missionary Meeting was held at the same time, attended by 
2,000 people including 580 young people. The event included 50 training 
workshops for youth and adults, 10 for adolescents and Christian education 
activities for children.

Evangelism, renewal of worship, Parish life, spiritual growth and 
solidarity service were the principal focuses of this activity.

Ninety delegates including lay people and pastors from all parishes and 
Churches across the nation attended the XVIII General IEMA Assembly. It is 
held every two years and is the Methodist Churchs maximum decision-making 
body.

Bishop Nelly Ritchie presided the Assembly that evaluated the work over the 
past two years and planned the next working period. The IEMA has a 
recognized trajectory in human rights defense, ecumenical dialogue, 
solidarity service and education. It has been working in the country since 
1836 and has 110 parishes and places of worship.

The message to the Argentine people underlines that we want to affirm the 
value of living in democracy and to definitively discard any option that 
violates grassroots will, either by military coups or the degradation of a 
democratic system through immoral practices.

For this reason we call on all people to demand the fulfillment of projects 
that lead to greater justice. Over the course of 2003 major steps were 
taken to recover the status of Republic and the democratic institutions 
that had been so weakened over the course of the past decade.

However, no national or grassroots project will be possible while a 
capitalist system reigns that is destroying countries and continents 
through economic extortion, fratricidal wars, the breakdown of the 
solidarity ethic, anti-terrorist crusades that only seek to hide the 
empires insatiable greed for power, said the IEMA.

We Methodist Christians denounce this system that destroys life, as a fruit 
of the sin of greed and human avarice and we condemn it with the strength 
that comes from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

For the God of Life we can affirm Come, new days are coming. We will work 
to promote honesty, respect, cooperation, solidarity and justice in all of 
society. We know that, while the hoped for process of profound changes will 
be arduous and difficult, our hope is founded only in the one who makes all 
things new, affirmed the call.

The call to Methodist congregations exhorts Rise up Church. New days are 
coming if you act with vital force, defending your life and that of your 
people. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be 
terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you 
wherever you go." (Joshua 1, 9).

The unjust and destructive economic model that is present in our country 
provoked the crisis of moral values that only deepened corruption and 
impunity due to a lack of valid justice, actions on the part of mafias and 
increasing crime, it added.

Moreover, it added, the world panorama is also worrying. The so-called war 
against international terrorism responds to economic and hegemonic needs. 
In the name of a pseudo god of peace, freedom and democracy the aim is to 
justify a world system of economic imperialism, social, racial and 
religious discrimination.

There will be new days if we allow the Lord to heal relations among 
members, congregations and institutional bodies; if we forgive the 
offences; if we leave old confrontations and quarrels at the foot of the 
cross. If we testify, proclaim and serve all men and women. If we announce 
the Gospel with fire and passion, it affirmed.

And there will be new days if we do all this in relationship with other 
communities of faith that unite us in the same faith, baptism and same the 
Lord and with other religious communities and social movements where we 
are united by the aim to struggle in favor of life, concluded the Methodist 
call. (005/2004).

ARGENTINA
Evangelicals promote reform of Santa Fe provincial constitution

ROSARIO, January 14, 2004 (alc). Representatives from Evangelical Churches 
presented a series of studies and proposals related to reforming the 
provincial constitution of Santa Fe to guarantee real and concrete freedom 
of thought, expression, religious and worship.

The documents were presented to Gustavo Vera, under-secretary of Justice 
and Workshop from the Province of Santa Fe.

In an audience that lasted nearly two hours, representatives from the 
Confraternity of Christian leaders raised the need to modify article 3 of 
the 1962 provincial constitution that states that the religious of the 
province is Catholic, Apostolic and Roman. It goes on to say that the 
state provides its most decisive protection, without harming the freedom 
of religion that its residents enjoy for the Catholic Church.

While Article 12 of the Constitution from this province in northern 
Argentina proclaims the free profession of religious faith, as an 
individual or group, is the only one of Argentines 24 provinces to 
declare an official religion.

Evangelical leaders said that an example of a clear separation between 
Religion and State is the Chaco constitution that states that the 
provinces does not protect any religion or worship or contribute to its 
maintenance.

The Confraternity of Christian Leaders, who represent some 150 Evangelical 
Churches in Rosario and the surrounding area were represented by Pastors 
Carlos Agustmn Ahuban, of the Church Disciples of Our Lord Jesus Christ and 
Rodolfo Maidana of the Church The Refuge and Maria Cristina Infanti of 
the Churches Eagles of the Lord.

Ahuban, general coordinator of the Confraternity and leader of the Research 
Center, Church Studies and Training, offered arguments based on legal and 
historic reasons and human rights and International law.

He said that evangelicals with more than 150 years of presence currently 
constitute 15 percent of the population of Santa Fe and that the requested 
constitutional modification will facilitate the normal operation of the 
Churches in their different aspects, both spiritual as well as regarding 
service to society (community, health, education, etc).

For his part, Vera said the meeting is the beginning of the process to 
debate a new and modified constitution for the province.

  Participating pastors expressed their satisfaction for the dialogue and 
underlined that the freedom of worship is not in discussion because it is a 
right that is consecrated in all jurisdictions, but what does seem to be 
the object of questions is the relationship between the Church and the State.

BRAZIL
Bible Museum offers remarkable treasures

SAO PAULO, January 14, 2004 (alc). The Bible Museum in this Brazilian city, 
inaugurated last Month, contains some true bibliographic treasures among 
its 3,000 books.

For example, there is a copy of the Vulgate, printed in Venice in 1583. The 
Vulgate was a Latin translation of the Bible, translated directly from 
Hebrew by San Jeronimo (342-420) and that the Council of Trent declared to 
be the authentic version of the Sacred Scriptures, a status in held for 
1,000 years.

There is also a tiny text that is barely 0.5 centimeters square, or the 
size of a grain of rice, that contains the Our Father in several languages. 
The museum also houses the first Portuguese Bible, an original version that 
dates from 1819.

The Sao Paulo Bible Museum was created by specialized architects and 
includes several different areas such as a room to house the Bible in the 
world, the Bible for children and a room for special expositions.

It was inaugurated with an exposition to pay homage to the 200th 
anniversary of the creation of the Foreign and British Bible Society that 
sparked the world movement to disseminate the Holy Book in the majority of 
countries and in all languages.

Among other things, it is an interactive space. There are Bible knowledge 
games, a listening room, audio and video and a panel that allows visitors 
to experience Bible aromas such as myrrh, among others.

This Museum was built thanks to cooperation between the Brazilian Bible 
Society and the Municipality of Barueri where it is located. There is no 
entrance fee and visitors can see a replica of the press invented by 
Gutenberg and a collection of images that contain excerpts of the Bible and 
examples from the XIX Century.

BRAZIL
Encontrao Movement obtains huge tent for Evangelical campaigns

By Edelberto Behs
CURITIBA, January 16, 2004 (alc). The Zero Mission of the Encontrao 
Movement (ME) has obtained a huge tent in order to evangelize as Jesus did, 
traveling from one place to another, spreading the Good News to the most 
isolated parts of the country.

The enormous blue and yellow tent, which can house 1,500 people, was made 
in Joinville in the state of Santa Catarina. The project, known as the 
Urban Tent Mission, is not looking for the funds to buy a truck to 
transport the tent with seats for six.

The Friends of Mission, who support the ME, have collected 75 percent of 
the US$17,000 they need to buy the truck. There is great enthusiasm to 
support this project, said MEs Continuous Educational Coordinator Asta
Z|ge.

When the truck is ready the ME will be able to travel and hold meetings in 
those parts of the country that the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran 
Confession of Brazil (IECLB) does not usually reach given its conventional 
parish structure. The IECLB forms part of the ME.

The tent has already been set up twice. The first time was in Vila Nori, in 
the state of Curitiba on November 8-9.

The idea was born in the regional ME meeting in Mafra, Santa Catarina in 
March last year. It was a collective dream, said Asta.

The idea is not new. On a smaller scale the parish of Matias, a 
neighborhood in Canoas, in the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre, has 
been using a tent for more than two years. We set up the tent in 
neighborhoods where the Church does not have a presence and we begin to 
call the people, said local pastor Paulo Gilberto Bvhm.

This tent is much smaller, with the capacity for 150 people. The parish 
provides all the necessary infrastructure, benches, lighting etc. The tent 
remains in a determined spot for a week to 10 days. In this time, the 
parish practically moves to the tent, said the Pastor.

When we announce that the tent will be set up, the entire parish mobilizes, 
from women to young people. More than 100 leaders participate, he added.

Bvhm warns, however, that continuity is decisive. We rent a meeting room 
or we ask for a garage to sep on bringing people together, to hold worship 
services and Bible studies, he said.

Once the transportation is in place, Mission Zero plans to travel Brazil 
with the tent that will also serve to give Evangelical support to already 
established communities or to hold mass Church events.

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