Note #9128 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:
06089 Feb. 15, 2006
4,000 attend opening worship at WCC Assembly in Brazil
Albanian archbishop says transforming world
is both privilege and obligation for Christians
by Jerry L. Van Marter
PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil - More than 4,000 Christians from around the world crowded into a multi-colored "worship tent" for the opening service of the ninth Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) on Feb. 14.
In his sermon on the Assembly theme - "God in your grace, transform the world" - Orthodox Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana and All Albania said that a direct consequence of God's incarnation in human form is that all who belong to God "have both the privilege and the obligation to share actively in the transformation of the world."
Anastasios, who has been active in promoting efforts for peace and reconciliation in the Balkans and is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, lamented how elusive peace continues to be and the resulting suffering of so many innocents.
"In the face of all the poor - the hungry, estranged, and refugees, we are obliged to discern the face of Jesus," he said. "Let us make a firm decision to struggle, with the power of the Holy Spirit, to overcome violence wherever we possibly can: in our family and society, as well as in the political and international community."
Earlier, worshipers gathered to the thrum of Brazilian drums and the Latin rhythms of a massed choir and orchestra.
Symbolic gifts from the seven regions of the world were brought forward and placed on the worship table onstage: a large stone from Kenya; a celebratory bell from Asia; sugar cane from the Caribbean; a Nordic reindeer calfskin from Europe; a Salvadoran cross from Latin America; a Coptic icon of the holy family's flight to Egypt after Jesus' birth from the Middle East; sweet hay, wheat and corn from North America; and a mat, map and bowl from the Pacific.
Walt Wiltschek of the Church of the Brethren contributed to this story.
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