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Thursday October 25, 2007

The V General Assembly of the Latin American Council of Churches Begins

ALC/CLAI, BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, February 20, 2007

Last night the V General Assembly of the Latin American Council of Churches, under the Taxi Heathrow Airport motto “The Grace of God justifies us, God’s spirit frees us for life,” formally began with a worship service at the Iglesia Cristiana Bíblica in the barrio of Devoto in the city of Buenos Aires.

The assembly will take place until February 25, where the over 550 participants will discuss diverse themes significant to the ecumenical path of the churches that make up CLAI. Each one of the workdays will rotate around one of the axes of regional work: “Ministry, Charism and Power,” “Church and Ethical Challenges,” “Spirituality and Identity,” “Diakonia and Evangelization” and “The Right to Full Life.”

The plenary sessions will work on these themes. In addition to the regular reports, the VII session will analyze visions and challenges for CLAI and the IX session will look at the ecumenical movement in general. In the afternoon visitors will have discussion forums, workshops on health and HIV-AIDS, the environment, women and gender, youth, indigenous peoples, and faith, economy and society. There will also be spaces for presentations and worship.

Today, in a separate afternoon session, a discussion took place concerning the state of the churches in the Unites States of America in relation to Latin America. A large group entered into a dialogue, moderated by Church World Service, on the reality of churches in the U.S. in light of their political situation and the particular challenges that this situation holds for relationship building with Latin America. The predominant question that surfaced during the dialogue was, “Are the U.S. churches aware of how the U.S. is functioning and what it is doing in the world, and how then are they facing this reality?” Gratefulness was expressed to U.S. churches for their solidarity with and support for Latin American churches.  At the same time participants asked that U.S. churches, in order to truly accompany churches in Latin American, “learn from the past” and be a stronger witness in the midst of an “empire” that is actively involved in “destroying life” and “trampling on justice.” Participants also voiced the need for churches, as they strive for justice, to witness to their own people by living with less and combating an individualist and consumerist ethic.

In a public act on the night of Thursday the 22nd, near the Obelisk - a traditional symbol of Buenos Aires - CLAI will deliver the curriculum, “Learning to educate for peace,” to national authorities including the Minister of Education Daniel Filmus. This material was developed to help every educator take on the commitment to educate for peace. The well-known Argentine singer-songwriter Víctor Heredia will sing during the event.

The V General Assembly of CLAI will end on Saturday the 24th with Holy Communion and an ecumenical worship service.