wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Latin American churches prepare to play role in WCC

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #8973 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05563
Oct. 20, 2005

Latin American churches prepare 
to play a major role in WCC Assembly

Host churches see gathering as 'a laboratory 
of something new, a laboratory of hope'

Editor's note: This is the second in a series of background articles leading
up to the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Feb. 14-23,
2006, in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Two PC(USA) journalists will help cover the
Assembly: Eva Stimson, editor of Presbyterians Today, will serve on the WCC
staff as co-editor of the daily Assembly newspaper, and Jerry L. Van Marter,
coordinator of the Presbyterian News Service, will serve as a reporter for
Ecumenical News International, a Geneva-based religious news agency.

by Juan Michel
WCC News and Information

MENDES, Brazil - With a call "to pray, support and participate" in February's
World Council of Churches (WCC) 9th Assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil,
representatives of Latin American churches and ecumenical bodies concluded a
preparatory event here on Oct. 18.

	The Assembly "will, without a doubt, be a significant moment in the
history of our journey in this continent," participants said in a letter to
the churches of the region.

	The letter, drafted for about 60 church leaders who attended the
event, emphasizes the churches' need to "encourage and motivate youth
participation" as a "contribution to the construction of a new Latin American
ecumenical movement."

	Speaking for young people, Nicaraguan Ashley Hodgson, the Caribbean
representative on the Latin American Council of Churches' Youth Pastoral
Commission, said, "Young people are prepared and willing to make a
contribution."

	"When we proposed that the 9th Assembly be held in Porto Alegre, we
did so because we see a laboratory of something new developing there, a
laboratory of hope," said Bishop Emeritus Federico Pagura, a WCC president
from Latin America.

	"In Porto Alegre, the cradle of the World Social Forum, we will hear
the challenge from social movements: 'Do you also believe that another world
is possible, is necessary, urgent, indispensable?'" The Assembly will be an
opportunity to "seek an answer in prayer and hope."

	Participants in the preparatory meeting reflected on the contribution
churches from the region can make.

	"There is a lot we can contribute," said Bishop Nelida Ritchie of the
Evangelical Methodist Church of Argentina, mentioning the "unavoidable need
to anchor the search for Christian unity in the search for justice" and the
"impulse to broaden the ecumenical space beyond those who confess Christ."

	Ritchie proposed "moving beyond what is politically correct and
speaking from the heart, from the experiences of suffering, but also the
dignified resistance" of the churches in the region. "As Latin Americans, we
should not expect to impact the Assembly in terms of numbers, because we
don't have them; but let's do it working from around the edges."

	Participants discussed the Assembly agenda and procedures, in
particular consensus decision-making. Cuban Presbyterian pastor Héctor
Méndez, a WCC central committee member, pointed out the benefits of the new
model, emphasizing that as it was only recently adopted, it is still to be
tested.

	Meeting in the week before a national referendum on banning gun sales
in Brazil, participants supported the churches' "YES to Life and NO to the
Guns Trade" campaign.

	"We recognize our failures and limitations as churches" in the face
of major challenges, the participants said in their message, but they said
they also are open to the "transforming action of God in our lives, in our
churches and throughout our world."

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