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["WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches - Update
Contact: + 41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 11/11/2004

NOT STRANGERS, BUT NEIGHBOURS: WCC GENERAL SECRETARY MET CANDOMBLI
REPRESENTATIVES

Photos available free of charge, see below

"Christians and followers of Candombli and other Afro-Brazilian religions
need not be strangers to each other," but rather must realize that they are
"neighbours one to the other, and (...) must strive to forge good
neighbourliness characterized by tolerance and mutual respect," said WCC
general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia in the city of Salvador, Brazil, on
Sunday November 7.

Kobia made the comments in a meeting with representatives from some 16
'terreiros' or worship houses of this Afro-Brazilian religion and members of
social and ecumenical organizations that work with the 'terreiros'. The
meeting was organized by the Ecumenical Service Coordinator (CESE) and
sparked considerable interest in the local press. 

The WCC general secretary emphasized that the reality of an inter-dependent
world "should prompt people of various faiths to come together, not to merge,
not to blend, but affirming our differences, and yet committing ourselves to
a new attitude to the other, a harmony of differences". 

Affirming inter-religious dialogue as "an alternative to atomisation and
religious fundamentalism," Kobia said that "through dialogue and co-operation
we will discover what we really have in common and how we, each from the
heart and soul of our religious traditions, can be of service to humankind". 

During the meeting the WCC general secretary, who earlier had visited Casa
Branca, the 'terreiro' which is considered the oldest in Bahia, heard a
series of concerns raised by Candombli representatives. Several of them
agreed that the idea of a "peaceful and harmonious Brazil" is false, as
society, in their opinion, is marked by racism and religious intolerance as
well as flagrant inequality in the distribution of income with a negative
impact on the Black population. 

They called on the Council to take a stand on the issue and Kobia affirmed
that the WCC is "prepared to accompany efforts geared toward overcoming
religious intolerance." "There is no place in the world for religious
intolerance, it belongs to a past era," he said. 

>>> Meeting with bishops

One key moment on Kobia's agenda in Bahia was a meeting with the president of
the National Brazilian Bishops' Conference (CNBB) and the Archbishop Primate
of Brazil, Dom Geraldo Magela. 

The WCC general secretary lauded the ecumenical opening of the Brazilian
Roman Catholic Church. In particular, Kobia referred to the fact that next
year the Catholic Church's traditional Fraternity Campaign would be
ecumenical for the second time. The campaign theme is "Solidarity and Peace"
and its slogan is "Blessed are the Peacemakers," inspired by the WCC Decade
to Overcome Violence.

The Archbishop underlined, for his part, the ecumenical commitment of his
Church at many levels, including the local level. He recalled significant
ecumenical experiences he led years earlier when he was Bishop of Toledo, a
small city near Porto Alegre. 

The WCC general secretary also visited the meeting of the III Northeast
Region of the CNBB, where he spoke briefly with its general secretary and the
person responsible for ecumenism in Bahia, Bishop Dom Paulo Romeu Dantas
Bastos, with the second vice president of the Latin American Bishops'
Conference (CELAM), Archbishop Dom Geraldo Lidio Rocha and with Archbishop
Dom Itamar Vian. 

>>> and grassroots organizations 

The WCC general secretary's activities in Salvador included a Sunday
ecumenical celebration in the Catholic parish Nuestra Seqora de la Concepcisn
in Periperi, a poor suburb in Salvador, the city with the highest
unemployment rate in the country: 18 percent. 

The celebration was organized by the Bahia Ecumenical Council of Christian
Churches (CEBIC), which includes the Roman Catholic, the Evangelical Church
of the Lutheran Confession, the Anglican Episcopal, Presbyterian United,
Nazareth Baptist, Syrian Orthodox, and Independent Catholic churches.
Representatives from the Methodist and Independent Presbyterian churches also
participated. 

After the celebration, Kobia met with representatives from church communities
and grassroots organizations at the Dom Helder Camara parish centre, where he
spoke about the upcoming WCC Assembly to be held in February 2006 in Porto
Alegre. 

The Assembly, or more precisely the "mutirao", a Brazilian name for the
activities organized around it, was also discussed at a meeting with CESE
personnel and other ecumenical and social organizations. The issue of water,
foreign debt, childhood and adolescence were also proposed as themes, as well
as the need to incorporate the idea of festival and celebration, essential to
the experience of the poor of the continent. 

- - - 

The WCC general secretary visit to Latin American continues in Brazil (Porto
Alegre), Argentina (Buenos Aires), Uruguay (Montevideo) and Chile (Santiago).

A detailed programme of the visit as well as high resolution photos are
available in: 
www.wcc-coe.org > Press Corner > Latin America visit

Additional information: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363
media@wcc-coe.org

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The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 342, in more
than 120 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian traditions.
The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works cooperatively with
the WCC. The highest governing body is the assembly, which meets
approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally inaugurated in 1948 in
Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its staff is headed by general secretary Samuel Kobia
from the Methodist church in Kenya.