wfn.org | ALC Noticias Feb 20 2005 Brazil Guatemala Ecuador Switzerland

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

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

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CONTENT
BRAZIL: Cardinal refuses to give communion to representatives of other Churches
GUATEMALA: Central American Anglicans defend unity and autonomy
SWITZERLAND: Kobia calls for support for Week of Action for Fair Trade
SWITZERLAND: Co-WCC president calls on young people to participate in Porto
Alegre
ECUADOR: Evangelical Confraternity calls for Dialogue

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BRAZIL
Cardinal refuses to give communion to representatives of other Churches

SALVADOR, Feb 18 (alc). Representatives from non Catholic Churches who took
part in the Mass to celebrate the beginning of the 2005 Ecumenical
Fraternity Campaign in Salvador, Bahia were not allowed to receive
communion at the service.

The Mass was celebrated last Sunday in the Salvador Cathedral, by Cardinal
Archbishop and President of the Brazilian Bishops? Conference (CNBB),
Geraldo Majella.

Eight Churches participated in the launch of the 2005 Fraternity Campaign
but only representatives from four Churches: Anglican Episcopal, Syrian
Orthodox, Nazareth Baptist and Evangelical Church of the Lutheran
Confession, participated in the Mass.

Bishop Majella invited the pastors from those denominations to sit in a
place of honor, next to the Altar. However, when it came time to partake in
the communion, the Archbishop said he could not administer it to them.

The National Council of Christian Churches of Brazil (CONIC) lamented the
unfortunate moment.

?We are surprised by this gesture on the part of the Cardinal, above all
because these Churches were invited to participate together in the 2005
Ecumenical Fraternity Campaign,? said the Ecumenical Service Coordinator
(CESE) in a statement signed by executive director Eliana Rolemberg.

CONIC said that the incident could have been avoided if the pastors had
been previously warned that the Archbishop of Salvador could not give them
Communion, according to a Vatican norm adopted last year.

Ecumenism, said Anglican Episcopal Bishop Sebastiao Armando Gameleira
Soares, of Pelotas, in Río Grande do Sul, is "a difficult path marked by
misunderstanding and crosses, but also great progress and enormous joy in
the Lord.

Pastor Ervino Schmidt and the Rev. Gabriele Cipriani, of CONIC, said that
in order to avoid these situations, Catholic ministers should orient their
guests.  However, pastors from other denominations, when they are invited,
should try and inform themselves about the liturgical procedures of the
Churches they are planning to attend.

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GUATEMALA
Central American Anglicans defend unity and autonomy

GUATEMALA, Feb 14 (alc). One week before a crucial conference that will
bring together 38 Primate Bishops from Anglican Churches around the world,
Anglican Bishops from Central America published their perspective on the
so-called Windsor Report about the consecration of a homosexual bishop in
the United States.

The Windsor report, published in mid-October last year, contains the
conclusions of a commission made up of renowned Anglican leaders to analyze
the consequences of a decision made by the US Episcopal Church (ECUSA) to
consecrate Gene Robinson, a declared homosexual who lives with his partner,
as Bishop of the diocese of New Hampshire.

The decision was hotly censured by some Anglican Churches, particularly in
Africa and even some Churches in the United States, and threatens to cause
a schism among the 77 million Anglican believers around the world.

The Lambeth Commission, presided by Irish Bishop Robin Eames called on
ECUSA to express its regret ?that the proper constraints of the bonds of
affection were breached in the events surrounding the election and
consecration of a bishop for the See of New Hampshire?

?Pending such expression of regret, those who took part as consecrators of
Gene Robinson should be invited to consider in all conscience whether they
should withdraw themselves from representative functions in the Anglican
Communion,? the Commission stated.

It also called on it to abstain from appointing another homosexual bishop
?until some new consensus in the Anglican Communion emerges.

The Chamber of Anglican Bishops from the Central American Region (IARCA),
made up of Anglican Bishops from Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador,
Nicaragua and Panama, met last week a few days before the Anglican
Primates? Conference slated to take place February 21 ­ 26 in London.

The conference is expected to adopt a decision about the controversial
policy of the US Anglicans, as well as the decision made by the diocese of
Vancouver, Canada, to bless homosexual marriages.

IARCA, in a public statement, said it is important to maintain the unity of
the Anglican Communion, to respect and strengthen the autonomy of the
Provinces and to consolidate mechanisms of consultation in pastoral,
canonic and administrative issues.

It laments the fact that the Windsor Report exercises pressure on people to
assume one position or another regarding the issues addressed in the
report. However, it said, we believe we must maintain a position of
observation and learning and at the same time one of conciliation.

Moreover, it laments that in the conformation of the commission that
elaborated the Windsor Report, no Latin American representative was taken
into account and suggests that, in the future, official documents emitted
by the commission be produced or translated into Spanish.

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SWITZERLAND
Kobia calls for support for Week of Action for Fair Trade

GENEVA, Feb. 17 (alc). In a statement to the World Council of Churches
(WCC) Central Committee meeting being held this week in Geneva, WCC
Secretary General Samuel Kobia called for support for the Global Week of
Action for Fair Trade.

Kobia told the 150 members of the committee, who represent 347 WCC members
Churches in more than 100 countries that the WCC and many of the member
Churches are working to oppose injustice in the global trade system.

The current world trade rules are making the poor increasingly poor.
Confronting the economic injustice of this system is a priority of the
ecumenical community, in particular after the WCC Assembly in Harare,
Zimbabwe in 1998.

He invited Churches to support the Trade for the People Campaign,
coordinated by the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance. This campaign seeks trade
that promotes human well-being and allows governments to develop trade
policies that protect the rights of their peoples without pressure from
richer nations.

It also seeks to change trade rules to promote human development, defend
the environment and eradicate poverty.

Kobia specified that the rules of fair trade should ensure the right to
food, water, education, health and information and should regulate the
activity of transnational corporations.

With these objectives the WCC secretary general called on Churches to
participate the Global Week of Action, that will take place April 10-16.

He also called on Church leaders to sign and encourage their congregations
to sign a petition that will be delivered to the general director of the
World Trade Organization.

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SWITZERLAND
Co-WCC president calls on young people to participate in Porto Alegre

GENEVA, Feb. 17  (alc). Federico Pagura, Bishop emeritus of the Evangelical
Methodist Argentine Church called on Christian youth to attend the IX
Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) to be held in Porto Alegre,
February 14 ­ 23, 2006.

?We want the assembly to have a young face,? said Pagura, WCC co-president
and former president of the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI). He
added that we want the voice of young people, their struggles, hopes and
frustrations and their desire to renew the life and thinking of Churches to
be heard.

Together with official youth delegates from Churches, Pagura hopes that
hundreds of young people attend as stewards, visitors and observers. There
is a year before the Assembly and young people can organize activities to
cover the cost of their trip, he said.

The ecumenical leader emphasized that it is the first time in 57 years of
institutional life that the WCC will hold an assembly on Latin American
soil. Latin American Churches, in proposing Porto Alegre as the site of the
Assembly, wanted to offer the ecumenical movement the opportunity to be
present in a ?laboratory? moved by hope and the desire that ?another world
is possible,? he said.

Porto Alegre is a symbol that ?Another World is Possible? in the face of
the failure of a system that only produces hunger, unemployment, social and
environmental deterioration and exclusion and wars. The world is waiting
for the contributions made by the Churches, the ecumenical movement and
other religious expressions, currently restless and active around the
world, he said.

The Brazilian scenario, said Pagura, offers a setting that invites us to
more serious, profound and realistic thinking for an Assembly of Churches.
Brazil is a spectrum of contemporary social and cultural reality,
appropriate so that the Biblical-theological reflection is not distant from
the concrete reality facing humanity.

There, he said, is the struggle against the foreign debt and for a new
economy, coexistence with different religious sectors and different
cultures and races. In the Pontifical Catholic University, site of the
Assembly, we will also have the opportunity to hear the voices of the most
lucid theologians and thinkers from the continent and around the world.

The major attention focused on the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre last
month encouraged many Churches, people and organizations, in particular in
the Americas, to travel to Porto Alegre as delegates, visitors or observers.

?I am sure that Porto Alegre will allow the WCC to project its thought,
programs and hopes toward the continent and the entire world,? said Pagura.

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ECUADOR
Evangelical Confraternity calls for Dialogue

QUITO, Feb 17 (alc). The Evangelical Confraternity of Ecuador (CEE) called
on people to uphold the Constitution and lobbied on the government and the
opposition to dialogue and reconcile given the difficult political
situation in this Andean nation.

In declaration published Tuesday it said this is necessary in order to
ensure national peace and tranquility. Ecuador will never progress if we
live in constant political and juridical insecurity, it affirmed.

?We strongly condemn the attacks and insults that the government and the
opposition publish in different media, seeking grassroots support in favor
of their interests, by manipulating the freedom of conscience of
Ecuadorians, said the CEE.

?We are tired of hearing how they insult and denigrate political rivals out
of hatred, revenge or disagreement with the way the political and economic
power is divided up,? said the document.

?The police and the government, in their respective areas, have the
obligation to identify and condemn the authors of persecutions, attacks and
threats that several citizens have suffered for raising their voices
against the current political situation,? it said.

"We still have time to stop the violence from growing and to stop the
foundation of the Ecuadorian state from being undermined, as has
unfortunately taken place in neighboring countries,? warned the Evangelical
body.

The declaration laments the fact that ?despite the fact that nearly two
months have gone by since a group of politicians and parties disrupted the
nation?s institutionalism, the authors of this act have shown no interest
in making amends, despite the fact that many voices have been raised to
demand a return to constitutionality, including our own.

The statement, signed by  CEE President  Estuardo J. López, concluded by
warning: "Let us not forget that the governments and governors who identify
ourselves as Christians that in a day, not far from now, we will have to
render accounts for all our words and deeds before God?s Court.
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