Sunday, February 26, 2006
Heading for Home
Some thoughts upon leaving Porto Alegre…
Some of the most powerful moments here have been the conversations held while standing in line, or on the bus as we rode, sometimes interminably, between our hotels and the campus where the Assembly was held. So many people, from all over the world. I have had conversations with a woman who is a professor in a Brazilian seminary, an Orthodox layman from Romania, an Orthodox laywoman from the U.S., several people from the Reformed Church in Switzerland who knew a friend of my mother’s who lives outside of Bern, a Roman Catholic woman from Italy, Australians from the Uniting Church there, a man from the Church of South India (another of our UCC partner churches), and an Episcopalian woman from Honduras but who is originally from Mexico, and so finally had a Spanish accent I could understand (the people from Argentina and Uruguay sound so different!) Conversation about faith and home and family and church and politics and Christ and the future of the world. I went on a short tour of Porto Alegre and sat with a woman from Portugal, and we talked about the European view of Brazilian politics and the connections today between Portugal and Brazil. And there were so very many more…
This was the first Assembly of the World Council of Churches to make all decisions except for elections using the method of consensus instead of parliamentary procedure or Roberts’ Rules-type process. It was fascinating to watch. The delegates had special training in consensus, and despite some predictions that none of the business would ever be completed, they actually did move through the agenda. People lifted orange cards if they were warm to the idea being discussed, and blue cards if they were cool to the idea. It certainly did not work perfectly, but it is extraordinary to think that such a diverse group of people, with all of the underlying disagreements between them, could be in agreement about anything. But, sure enough, there were many times that we witnessed a sea of orange cards approving the proposals, and only a very few or no blue cards. If there were a few or even only one remaining blue card, they had the opportunity to write out their dissenting view to be included in the report. That’s a very incomplete explanation, but more info the process is available at the WCC website.
The other thought that remains on leaving is the beauty of the people of Brazil who worked so incredibly hard to prepare for years to host us, and the beauty of our host city Porto Alegre. We had some fascinating, and sometimes very funny, encounters with locals who were trying to deal with all these Christians everywhere, especially when we are so very very different from each other. Just before I boarded the airplane, the Brazilian TV news was reporting the close of the assembly and explaining the wide diversity of people, from so many different churches, who had come together for this assembly. These blog entries have of course only barely scratched the surface of my experiences, and I look forward to sharing lots more in the days and weeks to come. See you all soon!
Some of the most powerful moments here have been the conversations held while standing in line, or on the bus as we rode, sometimes interminably, between our hotels and the campus where the Assembly was held. So many people, from all over the world. I have had conversations with a woman who is a professor in a Brazilian seminary, an Orthodox layman from Romania, an Orthodox laywoman from the U.S., several people from the Reformed Church in Switzerland who knew a friend of my mother’s who lives outside of Bern, a Roman Catholic woman from Italy, Australians from the Uniting Church there, a man from the Church of South India (another of our UCC partner churches), and an Episcopalian woman from Honduras but who is originally from Mexico, and so finally had a Spanish accent I could understand (the people from Argentina and Uruguay sound so different!) Conversation about faith and home and family and church and politics and Christ and the future of the world. I went on a short tour of Porto Alegre and sat with a woman from Portugal, and we talked about the European view of Brazilian politics and the connections today between Portugal and Brazil. And there were so very many more…
This was the first Assembly of the World Council of Churches to make all decisions except for elections using the method of consensus instead of parliamentary procedure or Roberts’ Rules-type process. It was fascinating to watch. The delegates had special training in consensus, and despite some predictions that none of the business would ever be completed, they actually did move through the agenda. People lifted orange cards if they were warm to the idea being discussed, and blue cards if they were cool to the idea. It certainly did not work perfectly, but it is extraordinary to think that such a diverse group of people, with all of the underlying disagreements between them, could be in agreement about anything. But, sure enough, there were many times that we witnessed a sea of orange cards approving the proposals, and only a very few or no blue cards. If there were a few or even only one remaining blue card, they had the opportunity to write out their dissenting view to be included in the report. That’s a very incomplete explanation, but more info the process is available at the WCC website.
The other thought that remains on leaving is the beauty of the people of Brazil who worked so incredibly hard to prepare for years to host us, and the beauty of our host city Porto Alegre. We had some fascinating, and sometimes very funny, encounters with locals who were trying to deal with all these Christians everywhere, especially when we are so very very different from each other. Just before I boarded the airplane, the Brazilian TV news was reporting the close of the assembly and explaining the wide diversity of people, from so many different churches, who had come together for this assembly. These blog entries have of course only barely scratched the surface of my experiences, and I look forward to sharing lots more in the days and weeks to come. See you all soon!
# posted by Petra : 7:44 AM
