wfn.org | ALC Noticias Oct 23 2005 Brazil

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

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

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CONTENT

BRAZIL: CELAM to celebrate V General Conference in Aparecida
BRAZIL: Brazilian Anglicans lament interference of the Southern Cone
Province in internal issues
BRAZIL: Bolivian indigenous bishop calls for solidarity from Churches
BRAZIL: Lula is still invited to WCC Assembly, said Brazilian Church leader
BRAZIL: Pre Latin American WCC Assembly discusses breaking down barriers
and prejudice

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BRAZIL
CELAM to celebrate V General Conference in Aparecida

Brasilia, Oct 21 (ALC). Pope Benedicto XVI will travel to Brazil at the end
of April or early May 2007 for the opening of the V General Conference of
the Latin American Bishops Council (CELAM) to be held at the Marian Shrine
in Aparecida, 168 kms from the city of Sao Paulo.

The Pope selected the venue as well as the theme of Conference: Disciples
and missionaries of Jesus Christ, so that our peoples will have life in
Him: I am the Way, the Truth and the Life" (John 14:6). Aparecida has the
second largest shrine in the world and is know as the patroness of Brazil.

The theme of the conference emphasizes discipleship, the identity of the
Church and its followers, who are called to mission and service in current
circumstances in Latin America and the Caribbean. "The aim is to vigorously
motivate the Church so that it is present in society with more coherence
and more strength," said the secretary general of the Brazilian Bishops'
Conference Odilo Pedro Scherer.

According to the secretary general, the key themes of the conference are
the "actuality of the Good News for the peoples and cultures in this part
of the world, the identity of the Catholic Christian, the relevance of the
Church, the anthropological Christian proposal in the face of new
challenges and the urgent need for a new missionary proposal for Latin
American and Caribbean Catholics at the beginning of the third millennium
of the existence of the Church."

The 31st General CELAM Assembly, to be attended by 300 bishops from the
continent must elaborate a four-year Global Plan (2007-2011) that will
project a major "Continental Mission" in Latin America and the Caribbean,
with the preparation of missionary teams, subsidies and proposals for the
realization of mission in the dioceses.

The CELAM conferences have marked the walk of the Church in the region. The
first General Conference of the Latin American Bishops took place in Rio de
Janeiro in 1950, which gave rise to CELAM. The second conference took place
in Medellin Colombia in 1968, the third in Puebla Mexico in 1979 and the
fourth was held in Santo Domingo in 1992.
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BRAZIL
Brazilian Anglicans lament interference of the Southern Cone Province in
internal issues

Porto Alegre, Oct 20 (ALC).  The Primate Bishop of the Anglican Episcopal
Church of Brazil (IEAB) Orlando Santos de Oliveira and the Chamber of
Bishops rejected what they termed the interference of the Southern Cone
Province in internal issues in the Brazilian Province.

The Primate of the Southern Cone Gregorio J. Venables recently recognized
the ordination and ministries of 32 clerics who were removed from the
Anglican Diocese of Recife last August and the Diocesan Bishop Robinson
Cavalcanti, who was removed from the ministry by the primate of the
Brazilian Church and the Chamber of Bishops last June.

In a letter sent to the "bishop and clergy of Recife," specifically those
removed by the IEAB, Venables voiced support and recognition of their
ordination, bringing them under his supervision until the Anglican
Communion can resolve the crisis in the Brazilian Church.

This interference is a "total and aggressive lack of respect for our
autonomy as a province," wrote Orlando Santos de Oliveira in a letter
addressed to his colleague in the Southern Cone Province, based in Buenos
Aires. The questions related to Brazil are disciplinary and come under the
General Canon Law of the Church, he affirmed.

In the letter, Santos de Oliveira recalled the contact he had with Venables
and the fact that he gave him documents about the case and explained the
situation involving Cavalcanti and the clergy in Recife.

In 2003, Cavalcanti participated in a confirmation service for 110 young
people in the Orthodox Church of Ohio, celebrated by five retired bishops
without the authorization of the local diocesan bishop. The celebration was
requested by the young people who did not agree with the consecration of
Bishop Gene Robinson, a practicing homosexual, by without the authorization
of the IEAB leadership.

Bishop Santos de Oliveira is not in agreement with the description of the
crisis in the Brazilian Church as a "holy war between Evangelicals and
liberals".

"Accusations that 'Evangelicals and Orthodox' are being persecuted is a
version that was constructed and nourished by the deposed bishop, with the
support of some institutions within and parallel to the Anglican
Community," said the Bishop.

"What part of the Anglican Communion does not want to understand, either
intentionally or it does not want to understand, is that the events in
Brazil are related to canonical discipline, someone who ignored Church
law," said Santos de Oliveira.

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BRAZIL
Bolivian indigenous bishop calls for solidarity from Churches

Mendes, Río de Janeiro, Oct 19 (ALC). The Bishop of the Evangelical
Methodist Church in Bolivia, Carlos Poma, called on Churches to be in
solidarity with the Bolivian social movement.

Poma made the call before some 60 representatives from Latin American
Churches and ecumenical movements meeting in Mendes, Brazil from October 16
- 18 in preparation for the IX World Council of Churches (WCC) Assembly.

"The world must listen to the clamor of the excluded people" affirmed Poma
who belongs to the Aymara nation and demanded "guarantees for the social
movements and their leaders, because there is fear for the lives of these
social actors who defend the poorest."

Bolivia is one of the poorest countries in Latin America despite is
extensive natural resources, he explained. But "the interests of
transnational companies" represent "death of millenary indigenous such as
the Aymaras, Quechuas and Tupi Guaranies."

According to Poma the "exhaustion of the neoliberal model" incapable of
"detaining the poverty" leads to a "social uprising" on the part of those
who "have no bread, who have no shelter, who have no land, no water, no
light, no gas, no work."

He recalled that pastors from his Church "marched together with the people
in the midst of the repression."

According to Poma, "as a Church we cannot stop listening to the emerging
clamor of social injustice and the economic crisis in general. We are sure
that our life is not condemned to failure and destruction."

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BRAZIL
Lula is still invited to WCC Assembly, said Brazilian Church leader

Mendes, Río de Janeiro, Oct 18 (ALC).  "I think so, I think he will come"
said Walter Altmann when asked if President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva
will be present in the IX World Council of Churches Assembly that will take
place in Porto Alegre next February.

The president of the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in
Brazil was one of the Brazilian leaders who accompanied former WCC
Secretary Konrad Raiser when he invited the Brazilian president to
participate in the Assembly a little more than two years ago.

On that occasion Lula responded with words that now seem prophetic: "I will
still be in government: I hope to still be deserving of the invitation."

After the accusations of corruption involving his Workers Party (PT)
leadership, which have sparked the worst political crisis of his
government, the obvious question is: does he still deserve the invitation?

"Yes, of course he deserves it," said Altmann during a preparatory event
for the WCC Assembly attended by representatives from Churches and
ecumenical bodies in Mendes, Brazil October 16-18.

"Those words were a joke, of course, but they were also an expression of
political wisdom: to be president of Brazil is a very difficult challenge,
impossible to do without producing a lack of satisfaction in government
actions."

According to Altman, the accusations of corruption "have not shed doubt on
the legitimacy of Lula's mandate,  his representative role and much less do
they annul the trajectory of his commitment to social causes."

According to Eliana Rolemberg, executive secretary of the Ecumenical
Service Coordinator (CESE) the phenomenon of corruption in the PT has
created a "profound disappointment and a huge feeling of failure" in
grassroots sectors. "It was a dream built with a great deal of hope that
has broken," she said.

How to rebuild a dream? According to Altmann, who presides the biggest
historical Protestant Church in Brazil, the PT faces the "enormous task of
recovering its credibility."

Perhaps a positive result of the crisis is the emergence of a "more
realistic vision of the human condition and political structures," said the
Lutheran Leader. This vision should "replace certain Messianic trends,
although it must not renounce a vision of social justice." According to
Altmann, it is important to remember that we participate in the world and
we cannot be immune to its reality.

According to Rolemberg, who maintains that the political coalition that
brought Lula to the presidency was not capable of bringing him to power,
reconstruction is possible. "Grassroots movements have historic patience,"
she said. "They always try to look at things in a positive light, seeking
unity in their struggles and erasing the frontiers that separate them."

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BRAZIL
Pre Latin American WCC Assembly discusses breaking down barriers and prejudice

By Juan Michel

Mendes, Río de Janeiro, Oct. 17 (ALC/CMI). It is time to break down the
prejudices and traditional barriers between "Evangelical" Pentecostals and
"Ecumenical" Protestants, according to a panel discussion at a preparatory
event for the World Council of Churches (WCC) General Assembly.

One of the challenges for Churches in Latin America today is "to overcome
old antonyms" said Argentine Pentecostal Pastor Jorge Vaccaro of the Church
of God Association, at the event which took place in Mendes, Brazil from
October 16-18.

"There is no place for polarization between the ecumenical and the
Evangelical or between the ecumenical and the Pentecostal," he said. He
added that "these realites are not mutually exclusive but rather complement
each other."

Vaccaro sustained that the Latin American Pentecostal Churches are "true
therapeutic communities" that "allow believers to revalue the person."

Moreover, he emphasized that they have an "important contribution" to make
in the spiritual arena. The insistence in the "supremacy of the
experiential faith" recalls the "profound and immediate realities of the
human person."

However, he added they should be self critical and recognize that numerical
growth hides certain dangers." In the leadership of many communities it is
possible to perceive the effects of the "seduction of power," he said.

According to Vaccaro, Pentecostal Churches "should move away from an
individualist and futuristic faith" and "work for peace" recovering a
"serious prophetic dimension that is committed to current society."

Professor Magali do Nascimento Cunha, of the Methodist Church of Brazil
agreed with Vaccaro. "The prejudice that the so-called historic Churches
have toward Pentecostal expressions must be broken down," she said, along
with the "exclusivity of the Pentecostal groups and leaders who disqualify
and reject the religious expression of the Churches of the Reform."

Cunha also underscored the temptation hidden in the obsession with the
numeric growth in a context of market religiosity.

Differentiating between visibility and public presence, she emphasized that
the first is related to obtaining media space while the second "demands
commitment and identification with social causes." The challenge of the
Church is not visibility but public presence which in theological terms is
translated as "incarnation."

At the same time, in an individualist world that is subject to growing
privatization the Church is called to create "spaces for community life and
mutual support."

"We are not going to raise people's awareness with documents but only with
ecumenical experiences," she said.

Speaking on the same panel, the secretary general of the Latin American
council of Churches (CLAI) Pastor Israel Batista affirmed that Latin
American Evangelical Churches are going through a transition. As a result,
they could "go from being an insignificant minority to becoming a
purposeful, significant minority that motivates changes."

Batista's vision requires returning to the founding principles of
Protestant reform, the universal priesthood of believers, reading the Bible
and recovering the message of God's grace. Based on these principles, the
mission of the Churches should be centered on Evangelism, ethics and
spirituality.
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