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'A moving experience' ... Lindsey Sanderson in Porto Alegre

February 15, 2006

Rev Lindsey Sanderson, ACTS' Assistant General Secretary, reports from the World Council of Churches Assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil

Already so much has happened and I have been here just about 48 hours. I arrived about midnight on Sunday/Monday and found that I am in a hotel with others from Scotland and lots of Africans, some of whom I have met before through the Council for World Mission, so it has been great to see people again.

On Monday I had chance to explore the city centre, which is about 20 minutes walk from our hotel. The centre has a covered market which is full of stalls selling salted fish, meat and fruits and vegetables. Round the market there are more stalls with clothing and other goods. In the afternoon I found a large park near the hotel and enjoyed the shade! That night the group of us from Scotland went out for dinner ... I had a traditional Brazilian dish called Carreterrio which is rice, sweetcorn and beef, with a local chilled red wine.

Today has been the opening day of the Assembly. We were guided through how the new consensus decision-making will work and given a presentation of the life of the WCC from Harare to this Assembly. I am in the back corner of the plenary room with other delegated representatatives, and today sat beside people from the Lutheran World Federation and the Norwegian Council of Churches.

At lunchtime I went to a workshop by the Joint Working Group from the WCC and Roman Catholic Church about the report which they will present. I think that it would be good for us in ACTS to look at their work on Roman Catholic participation in national councils of churches. Archbishop Mario Conti was part of the group presenting the workshop and the report will be formally presented to the Assmebly later this week.

The highlight of the day has been the opening worship in the huge circus style tent. The music in particular was really special - very Latin American and full of energy. Being amongst the worshippers as we prayed the Lord's Prayer and said the Nicene Creed in our languages was a very moving experience.

The address was given by Archbishop Anastasios of Albania who challenged us that God's response to our prayer 'God in your grace transform the world' is to say: 'Well, I need you to come with me if transformation is to be achieved'. The feeling as we left the worship tent singing one of the Assembly songs which uses the words of the theme is that we all felt inspired to do just that.