Document
Geneva, 8 July, 2016
Dear brothers and sisters of the Methodists Church in Brazil, Grace and peace!
I send you warm greetings of behalf of the fellowship of churches represented by the World Council of Churches on the occasion of the 20th General Council of the Methodist Church in Brazil.
I regret not being able to personally attend the 20th General Council and I pray that your reflections, work and decisions be enlightened and blessed by the Holy Spirit. I was grateful to have visited your church last year and appreciate your vision for mission and the many ministries which have deep value and impact for the people of Brazil.
Recently the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches met in Norway. In offering my own report to the governing body, I stressed that the church is “given a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (1 Peter 1:4). This living hope is not grounded in something we leave behind us, just as a matter of history, or something we only project into life after death. It is the living hope nurtured every day by the Holy Spirit. This is what we need when we enter into all of the challenges of life, in different and even dangerous landscapes.
We express this living hope by saying that we are together on a Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace, the defining perspective of the ecumenical movement today. This is a calling for all churches, and all people of good will. The WCC is grateful for your own participation in the pilgrimage, particularly at a time of worrisome fragility in the political life of Brazil. In an urgent way the churches must give signs of hope by demanding accountability, transparency, and policies that demonstrate care for all and for God's creation. You are sustained in prayer as you seek to do so.
In all contexts and landscapes, we should be the voice that brings the focus and effort to establish a just peace. To end the suffering of the people and bring a platform of justice for sustainable peace must be our highest priority.
The challenge before us is to continue to move together, without fear, with clear motivation in our living hope. You, members of the College of Bishops, participants of the 20th General Council, and all members of the Methodist Church in Brazil, are part of that vision. Let us always be aware that we must have the role of being the promoter of relations, also of a particular quality of relations, with all people who share our aspirations for building and sharing hope.
Again, I offer my prayers and those of the fellowship of churches as you meet. I trust that you will continue in your work to make God’s desire for the church, for humanity, for all of creation manifest in your own context and as a gift to the whole ecumenical family. And so we pray:
God of life, together we give thanks for the living hope we are given.
Give us the wisdom and the courage to give an account of this hope wherever you call us to be, in our pilgrimage for justice and peace!
Yours in our Common Lord,
Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit General Secretary
World Council of Churches
