wfn.org | First joint conference opens doors in Brazil

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

Lutheran churches plan closer cooperation

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil/GENEVA, 23 November 1998 (ALC/lwi) - At their first
joint conference early this month, the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran
Confession (IECLB) in Brazil and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brazil
(IELB) agreed to take steps towards increased cooperation.

Meeting from 29 October to 1 November, in Rodeio 12, Santa Catarina,
southern Brazil, the 66 representatives of Brazil's two large Lutheran
churches discussed the theme, Unity and Mission of Lutheran Churches of
Brazil. Recently, the IECLB and the IELB signed an agreement concerning
future cooperation.

The delegates at the joint conference agreed on recommendations to be
submitted to the respective church leaders. These include the proposal to
launch a joint campaign for Reformation Day and to conduct a study on Holy
Communion, thus paving the way for an agreement on worship and eucharistic
communion.

They also recommended the establishment of an inter-Lutheran commission
for social and diaconic services, the need to develop a joint statement on
the challenges facing Brazilian society, initiate regular meetings between
students and teachers of theology, organize a seminar on worship and
liturgy and issue a common hymnal.

An inter-Lutheran commission on mission and evangelism will compile
experiences and findings on mission in Brazil and abroad and look for
appropriate strategies. Meetings and exchange programs aim to promote
dialogue between community leaders and teachers and students of religion
at the schools and institutes of the two churches. Moreover both churches
agreed to work on a common identity and create a slogan that will identify
the two churches in the media. Among other things, the conference proposed
to intensify print media work and publish news from the sister church in
their respective publications.

In a letter, the conference urges their congregations and church agencies
to receive these suggestions "with love and interest" and to implement
them, bearing in mind the local situations.

Gottfried Brakemeier, Professor for ecumenism at the School for Theology
in Sao Leopoldo and former President of the Lutheran World Federation
(LWF), cautioned that "in order to have credibility, the Christian mission
demands unity."

The two churches need unity for "even together, the Lutherans are still a
minority in the country." About 90 per cent of Brazil's 140 million people
are Catholics who include an estimated 35 million or more devotees of
traditional beliefs.Other Christians who include Lutherans with over one
million members are about six per cent of the population.

Nestor Luis Joao Beck, a pastor and professor of theology, reminded the
meeting that the relationship between the two Lutheran churches is
perturbed by the memory of "stories about the injustice and violence
committed against each other. These memories are recorded in the
collective memory and continue to perturb our relationship from generation
to generation," he said. For this reason, he recommended that history be
reinterpreted from the perspective of a different future.

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Lutheran World Information
Assistant Editor, English: Pauline Mumia
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