wfn.org | Title: Preparations for the WCC Assembly are underway - Lula

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

World Council of Churches	
For immediate release
13 May 2003
Up-03-22

Preparations for the WCC Assembly are underway
Lula has already been invited

Cf. WCC Press Release PR-03-17, of 9 May 2003

The president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has already been invited
to the next assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC), which will take
place in February 2006 in Porto Alegre. The WCC general secretary, Rev. Dr
Konrad Raiser, extended this invitation during a meeting in Brasilia on 12
May 2003.

"I should still be head of the government at that time; I hope I shall still
be worthy of the invitation", said the Brazilian president, mindful of the
fact that politics is a slippery area where critical support offered today
may prove to be an embarrassment in the future.

For the time being, Lula seems certain to be a welcome guest at the assembly.
At the meeting with Raiser, he announced that at the next G8 meeting in
Evian, he will propose that half the money spent servicing the foreign debt
of poor countries, and one percent of expenditure on arms be allocated to a
fund to eradicate hunger in the world.

During his meeting with the president, which lasted about 45 minutes, Raiser
was accompanied by leaders of WCC member churches in Brazil, the heads of the
Council of Christian Churches in Brazil (CONIC), and representatives of other
Brazilian churches.

Rev. Walter Altmann, president of the Evangelical Church of Lutheran
Confession in Brazil (IECLB), read a letter on behalf of Brazilian church
leaders supporting government proposals for reform of social security and
taxation as well as a programme to safeguard access to food. The letter
underlined the churches' right to criticize the government, if necessary, in
order to serve the nation.

President Lula spoke to the church leaders about projects his government is
implementing in the social sphere, like the Zero Hunger programme and
literacy classes. He said that while the government has no way of identifying
the illiterate, the churches do, as they are present in the remotest parts of
the country. The government therefore counts on the churches' cooperation in
this task.

At the end of the meeting, Raiser said he felt he had obtained "a clear idea
of the president's proposals in the social area".

Raiser attended the meeting with - representing WCC member churches - the
head of the Episcopal Anglican Church, Glauco Soares de Lima, the bishop of
the Methodist Church, Adriel de Souza Maia, the moderator of the United
Presbyterian Church, Eser Tercio Pacheco, and the IECLB president. 

The president of the Syrian Orthodox Catholic Church of Brazil and the
vice-president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops of Brazil
(CNBB), as well as other members of the CONIC board, were also present.

Raiser will be in Porto Alegre from 13 May until Saturday 17 May. There, he
will attend the first meeting of the committee in charge of local
preparations for the next WCC assembly. He will also have contacts with
leaders and members of churches, and with theology students.

His schedule includes visiting the campus and meeting with the rector of the
Catholic Pontifical University of the Rio Grande state, where the assembly
will be held. Raiser also has appointments with the state governor, Germando
Rigotto, and the city mayor, Joao Verle. 

The WCC's ninth assembly will be the first to take place in Latin America.
Provisional dates are 14 to 23 February, 2006. The WCC central committee is
to take a final decision concerning dates and theme when it meets in August
this year.

WCC assemblies take place every seven years, and are attended by about 3500
people. Gathering Christians from all over the world and from virtually every
Christian tradition, they are major events in the life of the Council. 

For further information, please contact the Media Relations Office, tel: +41
(0)22 791 64 21 / 61 53

------------------------------------
The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a fellowship of 342 churches, in more
than 100 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, The Netherlands. Its staff is headed by general secretary Konrad
Raiser from the Evangelical Church in Germany.

World Council of Churches
Media Relations Office
Tel: (41 22) 791 6153 / 791 6421
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