God of grace and mercy,
Creator and sustainer of life,
Savior in the word and work of the Son Jesus Christ,
Present and caregiver through the Holy Spirit!

We give thanks
• for the seventy-year journey of the World Council of Churches, in which, as Evangelical Church of Lutheran Confession in Brazil, we have been able to participate as members since 1954;
• for giving us the opportunity to meet and have fellowship with you and with your sons and daughters around the world expressing and valuing unity in diversity;
• for having helped us to shape our ecumenical identity committed to the unity of the one Church of Jesus Christ in the world;
• for always remembering the importance of mission through witness and service to the world;
• for the solidarity and support shown in very difficult times experienced by the Brazilian and Latin American people during periods of military dictatorship when serious violations of human rights and restrictions on political democracy occurred;
• for records kept by the WCC of the cases and people who have suffered torture or disappeared during the military regime, keeping alive the memory so that such crimes against humanity are submitted to trial, and justice and reparations can be offered to the victims;
• for having sheltered Paulo Freire, the pedagogue of liberation, and facilitated his contribution to the peoples and countries of the South when he became a political refugee in the 1960s;
• for the WCC 9th Assembly in 2006, held in Porto Alegre, which provided renewed local ecumenical commitment and strengthened its global dimension;
• for calling Christian churches and all people of good will to engage in a pilgrimage of justice and peace.

We pray:

• God, in Your grace, transform the world;
• that the WCC fellowship can continue to be an instrument in the service of the unity of the one Church of Jesus Christ, in order to strengthen the churches in their witness and service to the world through a prophetic and transforming ecumenical diakonia;
• that this fraternity of Churches can, through the action of the Holy Spirit, deepen step by step and finally reach full communion between them and in Christ.

Amen!

(Rev. Silvio Schneider
Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil, adviser for Global Mission and Ecumene)