Document
Geneva, Switzerland, 13 October 2022
Dear sisters and brothers from the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil,
Greetings in the name of the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
It gives me great joy to send greetings to your 33rd Churchwide Assembly on behalf of the World Council of Churches fellowship.
Your choice to hold the assembly in the heart of the Amazon rainforest is already a strong message on the urgency of caring for God’s creation.
It also resonates the statement on the climate emergency released by the WCC 11th Assembly, celebrated just a few weeks ago in Karlsruhe, Germany – with an active participation of your delegation:
“Christ’s love calls us to deep solidarity and a quest for justice for those who have contributed to this emergency the least, yet suffer the most, physically, existentially, and ecologically, through a transformation of systems and lifestyles. Our theology must respond to an emergency of such dimensions”.[1]
As you gather in Cacoal, let us be reminded that we are all called to be stewards of God’s good creation. May our ecumenical ties be an increasingly effective tool to engage people from our churches in this same quest.
The WCC 11th Assembly also spoke loudly of reconciliation and unity. I believe these two topics are of extreme relevance in the current Brazilian context as well. Therefore, I share with you a short extract of the final message of the assembly:
“As reconciliation brings us closer to God and each other, it opens the way toward a unity founded in God’s love. (…) We will find a strength to act from a unity founded in Christ’s love, for it enables us to learn the things that make for peace, to transform division into reconciliation, and to work for the healing of our living planet. Christ’s love will sustain all of us in the task of embracing everyone and overcoming exclusion.”[2]
We entrust this message now to you, asking you to hand it on to the people in your church and all people of goodwill, that together we might unite in discovering how Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity.
May your 33rd Churchwide Assembly be blessed with spiritual wisdom and understanding to continue the journey of justice, peace, reconciliation and unity among God’s people and all of creation.
Yours, in Christ
Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca
Acting general secretary
World Council of Churches
[1] “The Living Planet: Seeking a Just and Sustainable Global Community”: https://www.oikoumene.org/resources/documents/the-living-planet-seeking-a-just-and-sustainable-global-community
[2] Message of the WCC 11th Assembly, “A Call to Act Together”: https://www.oikoumene.org/resources/documents/message-of-the-wcc-11th-assembly-a-call-to-act-together
