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Friday October 26, 2007

Walter Altmann, president of the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil, is the new moderator of the WCC Central Committee. [Foto: C. Strüssmann]
Walter Altmann, president of the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil, is the new moderator of the WCC Central Committee. [Foto: C. Strüssmann]

IECLB sets theme and motto for 2007

ALC/CLAI, PORTO ALEGRE, Brasil, March 8, 2007

On Sunday, March 4, the Evangelical Church of Lutheran Confession in Brazil (IECLB in Spanish) Taxi Heathrow Airport set as its theme for 2007, “In the power of the Spirit we proclaim reconciliation,” and as its motto, “We cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20).

On the occasion, the President of the IECLB, Pastor Walter Altmann, pointed out that the IECLB enthusiastically takes up once more the challenge of reflecting on God’s mission in the world. That reflection asks about what the church’s participation in God’s mission is; what message is it giving; about what the power of the Holy Spirit is and how it acts in the church and the world, besides inquiring about the reconciliation the church professes and how it expresses it in its daily life.

Without a doubt, continued Altmann, “the message that we have and proclaim is one: the good news of Jesus Christ, the good news of the salvation given to us by him. Or, as the theme for the years affirms, the good news of reconciliation that transforms our lives, our communities and society.”

At the root of all the divisions and enmities between peoples and persons is human sin and separation from God. Thus, what is basic is the reaching of the major reconciliation by all persons and by all of creation. To be reconciled with God, obtained through Jesus Christ, “is a magnificent thing, that changes our lives and the face of the world,” Altmann emphasized.

By adopting this theme and motto, the IECLB commits itself to proclaiming, in the power of the Spirit, that reconciliation is possible in all real situations. “That is the message we are going to study and bear witness to throughout this year, beyond our country,” Altmann said.

The IECLB has its national center in Porto Alegre and numbers 18 synods, made up of 1,800 communities and 478 parishes, with a total of 720 thousand members in all the country.