IELB Evaluates incorporation into Lutheran Federation

Edelberto Behs, SAO LEOPOLDO, Brasil, April 14, 2003

 The presidency of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil (IELB) has submitted a document to Taxi Heathrow Airport its congregations from the Theological and Church Relations Commission that proposes joining the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) as an associate member.

Once the different congregations have responded, the Directive Council will study the final proposal in a meeting to take place next October and will submit the Church's position to the National Convention slated to take place in January 2004.

The information was made public by the IELB secretary Rony Ricardo Marquardt, in the Lutherans United in Communication (LUC) assembly - Brazil Region - held in Sao Leopoldo April 12 - 13.

LUC agreed to send a letter to the pastor-president of the IELB, Carlos Winterle, encouraging the affiliation and emphasizing that the communication could help unite Brazil's two Lutheran Churches.  The Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil (IECLB) has been affiliated to the LWF since the 1950s and has approximately 750,000 members.

 Since LUC was created in January 1977, communicators from the IECLB and the IELB have been in this forum and cooperate in the area of literature and dissemination of materials.

The IELB's approach to the LWF demonstrates that "historic, theological and personal barriers can be overcome in the search for fraternal life  together," said Pastor João Artur Müller da Silva, president of the ALC news service and a former member of the Inter-Lutheran Dialogue Commission.

The LUC assembly began April 12 with the presence of pastor presidents from the two Lutheran Churches who spoke about communication in their management.

Walter Altmann, who has been president of the IECLB for slightly more than 100 days, said that his Church is in a transition phase and is defining a global plan that began with the areas of formation and personnel. Over the course of this semester, communication work will be analyzed and evaluated to be inserted in the mentioned plan, he said.

Altmann said that the IECLB is entering a era and over the next few years it should concentrate on questions related to the hope that people have entrusted in it, as expressed in 1 Peter, 3:15. "We are called to respond to what it means to be the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession of Brazil," he affirmed. This will be the priority for the upcoming years, he said.

He is also aiming for greater visibility and presence of the IECLB in the press and in society. He recalled that in 2006 the World Council of Churches (WCC) will celebrate its General Assembly in Porto Alegre and that the eyes of 350 member Churches will be on Brazil and its Churches.

The Lutheran Church, said Pastor Carlos Winterle, has not been very visible since its origin in Brazilian soil and only recently has it begun to "show its face before Brazilian society."

Winterle said that communication goes far beyond print, television or radio media. "The Catholic Church built better monuments. The Church worked on visual communication and decorated its temples."

He recalled that the printing press was a blessing for the Protestant Reform Movement in the XVII Century. "Imagine what Luther would have done with a computer," he said.

The two presidents did not promise more budget resources for communication. Altmann emphasized that the IECLB is increasingly dependent on internal resources as the channel of funds from abroad is increasingly closing.

However, he emphasized that last year the IECLB collected 15 percent more than its budget. Winterle still sees the possibility of presenting specific communication projects in search of new resources.

Journalist Karin Achtelsteter, of the LWF Communications Department participated in the LUC-Brazil meeting and presented Lutheran communicators with the structure of the organization she represents.

She encouraged LUC to contribute to the X LWF General Assembly that will meet in Winnipeg, Canada from July 21 - 31 around the theme "For the Healing of the World."

LUC Brazil proposed that the next continental assembly, to be held in Buenos Aires next October, address the central theme "For the healing of communication."