FEATURE: Brazilian Lutherans Enthusiastic about World Council of Churches Assembly IECLB President Altmann: "This Will Strengthen Ecumenism in Our Church and Country"
PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil/GENEVA, 10 February 2006 (LWI) - Since March 2005, Vera Roth has been co coordinator of a women's group, meeting once a month and "working non stop like bees with order and peace," as aptly described in the group's name, Colméia (Portuguese word for beehive). The ten member inter religious voluntary team including fellow Lutheran, Elaine Neuenfeldt, is one of several working groups that have been getting ready to receive participants in the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) to be held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, 14-23 February 2006.
"God in your grace, transform the world," is the theme of the assembly bringing together around 3,700 participants from churches all over the world. It is the first time since the WCC's 1948 founding that a meeting of its highest governing body is taking place in Latin America.
At the Assembly, Colméia will be the name of a women's space to allow delegates, Brazilian and other women visitors to meet with women coming to the Assembly, discuss Brazilian and Latin American women's concerns and link these to global ones, or simply to rest and be silent. "Active participation" has been the group's motto since its formation, and during a pre assembly meeting of Portuguese speaking women, held 12-16 August 2005 in Sao Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul State, with some 50 participants from Angola, Brazil, Mozambique and Portugal.
Honored to Co Host Assembly
Roth and Neuenfeldt are members of the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil (IECLB), which has been working alongside other WCC member churches in hosting the assembly under the auspices of the Brazilian National Council of Christian Churches (CONIC).
IECLB president, Rev. Dr Walter Altmann is enthusiastic about the "unprecedented anticipation for this ecumenical event, the biggest of its kind ever to take place in Latin America."
"We feel honored and happy that the Assembly will be held in the city of Porto Alegre, where the IECLB has its headquarters, and in the [southern] region that is home to the largest number of Lutherans in Brazil," he stresses. The IECLB, with a membership of around 720,000 is the largest member church of both the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and WCC in Latin America.
Ecumenical Progress, Commitment
Altmann speaks of the steady ecumenical progress and commitment which is reflected in the church's constitution. "The WCC Assembly will be an unparalleled opportunity for Lutheran congregations and members to meet with church representatives from all over the world. It will be a chance to encounter other churches, their theologies, practices and ecumenical efforts. In turn they will see how the IECLB and other churches demonstrate their faith in Brazil. This will certainly strengthen ecumenism in our church and country," says the Lutheran leader, a member of the LWF Executive Committee.
Altmann is quick to point out the challenges the ecumenical movement must encounter in what he defines as an important transition period worldwide. "While growing religious pluralism proves the importance of religion in people's lives, it can, however, test the credibility of the statement of faith when it manifests itself as mutual competition, rivalry and even conflict. Given the current global circumstances, we hope this assembly will be a strong and convincing assertion of the ecumenical commitment of member churches, and that it will open new paths for ecumenical cooperation," he adds.
As well as the active participation of Lutherans in 18 voluntary assembly working groups, the Lutheran School of Theology will lead an important meeting on ecumenical theology, bringing
together theologians mainly from Latin America but also some from other continents. "These events will undoubtedly have long term positive effects on the IECLB's ecumenical life," according to Altmann.
Unique Opportunity to Encounter Different Traditions
Voluntary group supervisor, Rev. Kurt Rieck, deputy pastor of Rio dos Sinos Synod, one of the 18 IECLB synods, describes the WCC event as "a unique opportunity for Lutherans and members of other churches in Brazil to encounter different cultures, ethnic groups and traditions."
Roth, who has worked over several years with IECLB women's groups echoes this sentiment. "The Assembly is an important moment in my worship life and the work of my church," she says. "Ecumenism is part of the Lutheran faith. I wouldn't consider myself Lutheran without the ecumenical side."
Other IECLB related organizations that will be involved in the ecumenical partnership program during the event itself include the Lutheran Diakonia Foundation; Support Center for Small Scale Farmers; Mission among Indigenous Commission a commission focusing on issues of land, health, education and indigenous rights; Lutheran People's Ministry; Evangelical Center for Diaconal Ministry and the National Youth Ministry.
A number of congregations and parishes in Porto Alegre and nearby cities in Rio Grande do Sul are preparing to receive the WCC Assembly participants for Sunday worship, February 19. In addition to communal worship, congregation members and Assembly participants will share lunch together.
The WCC is a fellowship of over 340 Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, and united and other churches in over 100 countries representing more than 550 million Christians. Nearly half of the 140 LWF member churches worldwide also belong to the WCC.
The LWF's delegated representatives to the 9th WCC Assembly are General Secretary, Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko, and Assistant General Secretary for Ecumenical Affairs, Rev. Sven Oppegaard. (893 words)
(Contributed by Susanne Buchweitz, press advisor, Lutheran Diakonia Foundation.)
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(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF currently has 140 member churches in 78 countries all over the world, with a total membership of nearly 66 million. The LWF acts on behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as ecumenical and inter faith relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)
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