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A Russian Orthodox View of Papacy, and More

Interview With Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev

VIENNA, Austria, NOV. 6, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox can be fruitful, though many hurdles still exist on the road to Eucharistic communion, says a leading prelate.

Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev of Vienna and Austria, representative of the Russian Orthodox Church to the European Institutions, commented in this interview on Benedict XVI's forthcoming visit to Turkey, as well as on other topics.

(Part 1) (Part 2)

Here is a news flash from the Catholic Church on issues relating to the Orthodox Church:

Pope Backs "Appropriate" Status for Church in Greece
Juridically, It Is Now Considered a Private Entity

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 30, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI took up the request of Catholic bishops of Greece to be able to have an "appropriate" juridical status in that country.

The Pope formulated the request today in the wake of meetings with the prelates of that overwhelmingly Orthodox nation, in which Catholics comprise 0.55% of the population.

"In the conversations I have had with you I have gathered your desire to have defined, on the part of the state, the right to have an appropriate and recognized juridical status," the Holy Father told an audience of Catholic bishops of Greece. The prelates were concluding their five-yearly visit to Rome.

Taking into account the Orthodox majority, the Greek Constitution establishes a state license to build "places of prayer" and prohibits proselytism.
Read the full story here

Benedict XVI Desirous of Ties With Greek Orthodox

Including Taking Part Together "in the One Altar"

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 30, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI spoke of the desire for closer ties with the Greek Orthodox Church when he gave an audience to the Catholic bishops of Greece.

The bishops were on their five-yearly visit to Rome. Catholics constitute only 0.55% of Greece's population of 10.6 million.

"The desire is great in all to take part together in the one altar on which is offered under the veil of the Sacrament the one Sacrifice of Christ," the Pope said today when addressing relations with the Orthodox.

"We want to intensify prayer so that the day will come as soon as possible in which we will be able to break together the Bread and drink from the same Chalice in which the price of our salvation is deposited," he added.
Read the full story here

Neocatechumate Clarifies Meeting With Orthodox

"We Agreed With Patriarchate to Continue In-depth Dialogue"

MOSCOW, OCT. 30, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Here is a press release from the Neocatechumenal Way clarifiying the details of a meeting between Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, and the initiators of the Neocatechumenate.

* * *

On Oct. 19 took place a meeting between Kirill, metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, president of the Department of Foreign Relations of the Patriarchate of Moscow, and the initiators of the Neocatechumenal Way, Kiko Argüello and Carmen Hernández, accompanied by Father Mario Pezzi.

Kiko Argüello explained to the Metropolitan the origins and development of the Neocatechumenal Way following the Second Vatican Council's rediscovery of Christian initiation and the Catechumenate for adults.
Read the full story here

A survey of people's religious beliefs carried out in 10 countries this year suggests that Nigeria is the most religious nation in the world.

BBC News for that story

The home page of rev. Henrik Lindberg is now back online. Read about his experiences in Egypt.

www.faithtofaith.dk

Fr. Jeffrey Mickler explains Pope Benedict's talk faith, reason and the nature of a University, that led to the controversy with Islam.

CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad debates George Weigel of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, on the comments by Pope Benedict on Muhammad

Watch this video clip

It is an interview with dr. Thomas Scheffer, Copenhagen University, on the pope´s speech.

His analysis is to the point that the quoting of a Byzantine emperor who lived 60 years before the Ottoman conquer of Constantinople is an open embrace of the pope towards the Orthodox Church before the pope's visit to Turkey. But not as dr. Scheffer thinks the Greek Orthodox Church, but the Ecumenical Patriarchate?

If inter religious dialogue is really dead I am much more skeptical. It seems to be on the rise at least in ecumenical circles.

Christianity and Globalization

Vatican Official Offers Guidelines

ROME, SEPT. 16, 2006 (Zenit.org).- A book published this summer offers a summary of the Church's view on globalization. In just over 100 pages Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, brings together some of the main points made by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI on this complex theme, as well elements taken from other Church documents.

The book, published in Italian by Edizione Cantagalli, is entitled "Globalizzazione: Una prospettiva cristiana" (Globalization: A Christian Perspective). The text starts by noting that the Church has so far not published a systematic treatment of globalization. Instead, there are numerous speeches and documents that touch on the issue.

Read the full article at Zenit

The reactions to Pope Benedict's speech in Regensburg, Germany, last week has been hard from the Muslimer all over the world.

Due to this the Pope has now made an personal apology saying that his intention never was to offend Muslims.

Here is the full text:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The pastoral visit which I recently made to Bavaria was a deep spiritual experience, bringing together personal memories linked to places well known to me and pastoral initiatives towards an effective proclamation of the Gospel for today.

I thank God for the interior joy which he made possible, and I am also grateful to all those who worked hard for the success of this Pastoral Visit.

As is the custom, I will speak more of this during next Wednesday's general audience.

At this time, I wish also to add that I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims.

These in fact were a quotation from a medieval text, which do not in any way express my personal thought.

Yesterday, the Cardinal Secretary of State published a statement in this regard in which he explained the true meaning of my words.

I hope that this serves to appease hearts and to clarify the true meaning of my address, which in its totality was and is an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue, with great mutual respect.

The Muslim anger about the pope continues.

Muslim leaders from around the world has protested.

John L. Allan comments on Benedict's hihad remark.

The New York Times thinks the pope should give an apology

The Malaysian Prime Minister thinks the same

Slapstick Politics has gathered more reactions to the Pope's speech. http://slapstickpolitics.blogspot.com/2006/09/pope-benedict-on-islam-roundup.html

EDIT:
Daily Telegraph: God is not to be second-guessed

Slate Magazine: Papal Bull

On Monday, the International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic church and the Orthodox church resumes its activity with a Sept. 18-25 session in Belgrade, Serbia.

Many experts aren't holding their breath expecting great breakthroughs, but optimism nevertheless abounds in ecumenical circles, for whom the mere resumption of the talks after a six-year hiatus represents a victory.

Read the full commentary by John L. Allan here

Apparently pope Benedict has offended a lot of Muslims with a recent speech during his visit to Germany.

Here is a short extract (full speech below!):

In the seventh conversation (*4V8,>4H - controversy) edited by Professor Khoury, the emperor touches on the theme of the holy war. The emperor must have known that surah 2, 256 reads: "There is no compulsion in religion". According to the experts, this is one of the suras of the early period, when Mohammed was still powerless and under threat. But naturally the emperor also knew the instructions, developed later and recorded in the Qur'an, concerning holy war. Without descending to details, such as the difference in treatment accorded to those who have the "Book" and the "infidels", he addresses his interlocutor with a startling brusqueness on the central question about the relationship between religion and violence in general, saying: "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached". The emperor, after having expressed himself so forcefully, goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable.

You can read the full text of pope Benedict here and judge for yourself:

Speech of pope Benedict XVI

More Americans are active in religious groups than previously thought and many others without ties to congregations still believe in God or a higher power, according to a broad survey of faith in America released Monday.

The study also found that most traditional Christians reject the label "evangelical," preferring to describe themselves as "Bible-believing" or "born again."

The survey was conducted by the Baylor University Sociology Department and the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion as the first in a series on the spiritual life of Americans.

Researchers found that only 10.8 percent of Americans have no ties to a congregation, denomination or faith group. Previous surveys had put that figure at 14 percent, overlooking about 10 million people involved in some form of organized religion, the Baylor report said.

Read the full story at the Christian Post

PITTSBURGH (AP) - The Russian Orthodox Church, which suspended ties with the U.S. Episcopal Church over its consecration of an openly gay bishop, has offered to restore ties with conservative Episcopal dioceses in the United States.
Related
Dallas Episcopalians Mull Break from Denomination
(August 24, 2006)

The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh and other dioceses have shown disapproval of recent decisions by the Episcopal Church, including the 2003 consecration of Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

In a letter delivered Monday to Pittsburgh diocesan officials, the Russian Orthodox Church's head of external relations, Metropolitan Kirill, said his church "supports your act and expresses willingness to restore relations with your diocese."

Read the full story at the Christian Post

If you are not already following the Central Committee Meeting on the WCC website here is the link with news and photos:

http://www.oikoumene.org/en/events-sections/cc2006.html

Also make sure to follow the news from the Habitus Website: www.habitusnetwork.org

In the early days of Christianity confessions very a public affair which meant that they were done in the in front of the whole congregation. Liturgically the private confessions - which are the ones with which we are most familiar with today - are of a later date.

But with the emerge of the internet the public confessions now have a new revival. Or have they?

The evangelical network "Life Church" now makes it possible to confess your sins online. On the website www.mysecret.tv you can not alone confess your sins, but also make them available to the whole internet.

On the site you can browse sins by category. Choose between "addictions", "adultery", "lying" and a lot of other vices. In line with good American political correctness you also get parental warnings: These sins may contain adult material and are only for person above 18 years of age.

But wait a minute! Have the evangelicals become afraid of using the word "sin"?! The site is called "my secrets", and what I have termed sins above are indeed only called "secrets".

But the users of the site have no doubt: their actions are sins. This one can read from the many testimonials on the site.

The site itself does not label all these secrets as sins and indeed the site does not seem to be very religious. Except for the users?

Is the site just a place for voyeurs and exhibitionists or is it a place of confession?

What to think of this kind of public confessions?

How Did I Celebrate the End of the World
All the people who experienced communism in no matter what form will be very happy to see this film.

The director, Catalin Mitulescu, reached with this fourth film the maturity of his creation. Being a part in the new wave of Romanian directors, Mitulescu managed in this movie to bring people almost twenty years back for a reminder of their former days under communism.

Romania experienced one of the most oppressive communist regimes in Europe, first because in the '50ies and 60ies, the state was a political police state, ruled by the fear of being imprisoned and never heard of again. After the 70ies, when a more relaxed regime was put to work by Ceausescu, it came the period of "historical and greatly changes" in the life of the Romanian people. This meant a great programmed and forced migration from villages to cities, who were subjects of a great "systematization", meaning demolishing all houses and building mamoth blocks, containing sometimes 200-300 small apartments (40-50 square meters).

Mitulescu chose to film this movie in a suburb of communist Bucharest, where people lived in fear of being demolished (they are saying exactly this: "we will be demolished", not "our houses will be demolished"), with poor jobs, forced to be commuters, working in dirty needless factories, with their kids exposed to polution and bad education provided in schools.

Eva, a 16 years-old, is attending the courses of one of the best high-schools, together with her boyfriend. They are developing the same questions as everybody on this planet at their age: sexuality, the lack of freedom, the uncertainty of their future life. Their families are completely different, Eva's being hard-workers, honest people, but their neighbors, the parents of Florin, they are the proteges of the communist regime, with the father being an informer for Securitate (coomunist secret service, with a great role of controlling Romanian society). After a dramatic incident, Eva breaks up with Florin, producing great dispair to her parents. She's moved to another highscool and begins to think of leaving the country. In the last moments, she gives up this plan, goes back to her former life and gets back with Florin.

Although the plot might be descibed as not so satisfactory, it is planned to be that, because in this movie the atmosphere is of great importance. It manages to depict with great accuracy the feelings, thoughts and hopes of the Romanian people in this period, bringing new light to a dark segment of Romanian social history.

Dorotheea Petre is excellent in the role of Eva, convincing and with a great depth in every scene. Mircea Diaconu and Jean Constantin are already sacred monsters of Romanian cinema, with great feeling for great roles. With a cast formed in majority by student actors, "How did I Celebrated the End of the World" casts a bad shade on Romanian acting school, some of the actors declaring they did not pass the exams. They did pass it at TIFF and in the eyes of the public.

Lucian Dragos

Interview With Taizé Founder's Successor

TAIZÉ, France, AUG. 16, 2006 (Zenit.org).- "A year of mourning but also a year of grace," is how Brother Alois Loeser describes the year since the death of Brother Roger Schutz, founder of the ecumenical Taizé Community.

Brother Roger was stabbed to death Aug. 16, 2005, by an apparently mentally-disturbed woman at an evening prayer service attended by 2,500 people in the Burgundy region in France. He was 90.

Brother Alois, 52, who succeeded Brother Roger as prior of the community, is a native of Bavaria.

In this translation of an interview given to the Italian newspaper Avvenire, Brother Alois describes Taizé's journey during the first year after losing its founder.

Read the interview at Zenit

New archaeological evidence is raising more questions about the conventional interpretation linking the desolate ruins of an ancient settlement known as Qumran with the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were found in nearby caves in one of the sensational discoveries of the last century.

After early excavations at the site, on a promontory above the western shore of the Dead Sea, scholars concluded that members of a strict Jewish sect, the Essenes, had lived there in a monastery and presumably wrote the scrolls in the first centuries B.C. and A.D.

Many of the texts describe religious practices and doctrine in ancient Israel.

But two Israeli archaeologists who have excavated the site on and off for more than 10 years now assert that Qumran had nothing to do with the Essenes or a monastery or the scrolls. It had been a pottery factory.

Read the full story at New York Times

Is Bush influenced by 'end times' theology?

All anyone can know about Bush’s religiosity is the pattern and implications of his statements, writes Prof. Ira Chernus of the University of Colorado. ‘What he “really believes” is something we can never know.’

By Ira Chernus

Q. Joel C. Rosenberg, who writes Christian apocalyptic fiction, was invited to meet with aides in the White House. How highly placed were these aides and do they have any real influence on U.S. foreign policy, especially Middle East policy?

Q. What do President Bush and his most influential advisors on foreign policy really think about apocalyptic “end times” theology? Is there any convincing evidence that Bush or any influential policymakers are influenced by such theological views?

Q. How much influence do fundamentalist Christians who espouse apocalyptic “end times” theology have in the White House? In particular, how influential is Rev. John Hagee’s Christians United For Israel? Do Republican strategists think these fundamentalists are so politically crucial that the administration shapes its Middle East policy to please them?

Q. What do the leading neoconservatives think about apocalyptic “end times” theology? Does that, or any other aspect of Christian theology, influence their foreign policy views at all?

Religion is an important component of the Bush administration, at least in its public face. But the subject has to be addressed carefully. The conservative Christian world is a very complicated place. Most Christian conservatives are evangelicals (though many evangelicals are not politically conservative). They say they use the Bible as a guide for life, but they don’t necessarily take it literally. Those who do take it literally are fundamentalists. They’re a distinct minority among evangelicals. In Christian circles, that distinction is crucial. Even fundamentalists have to interpret the text of the Bible (though they may deny it). So they hold a wide variety of views about the end of history and the second coming of Christ. Evangelicals have an even wider variety of views.

Read the full article at Nieman Watchdog

The American Institute on Religion and Democracy has a story on the recent US attempt to make the situation for Christians in Saudia Arabia more tolerable. My questions is will oil prevail or will the US make real pressure on its Arab allied?

On Monday, July 24, IRD president Jim Tonkowich joined other religious and human rights leaders at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building for a briefing by Ambassador at Large for Religious Freedom, John Hanford, about religious freedom in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia, which is governed according to Islamic Shari'a law, was first designated by the State Department as a Country of Particular Concern in 2004 under the International Religious Freedom Act. This designation is reserved for countries that commit "particularly severe violations of religious freedom." According to the State Department web site, this includes "systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom, including violations such as torture, degrading treatment or punishment, prolonged detention without charges, abduction or clandestine detention, or other flagrant denial of the right to life, liberty, or the security of persons."

Read the full story here

This question is asked by by a person who indentify himself with "a certain separatist flavor of Baptist fundamentalism".

He is struggleing with Baptist fundamentalists who try to shorten the Christian tradition to the confines of the origin of their own tradition it seems. Also the Calvinist have the same problem.

A helpful suggestion from a Lutheran would be to look more at scripture. Because you need some criteria with which to judge if your tradition (baptist, lutheran or whatever)

Beer Blessing
From the Rituale Romanum (no 58)

Bene+dic, Domine, creaturam istam cerevisae, quam ex adipe frumenti producere dignatus es: ut sit remedium salutare humano generi: et praesta per invocationem nominis tui sancti, ut, quicumque ex ea biberint, sanitatem corporis, et animae tutelam percipiant. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen

Bless, O Lord, this creature beer, that Thou hast been pleased to bring forth from the sweetness of the grain: that it might be a salutary remedy for the human race: and grant by the invocation of Thy holy name, that, whosoever drinks of it may obtain health of body and a sure safeguard for the soul. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Translation by Fr. Ephraem Chifley, O.P.)
Source First Things

Thanks to the Baby Priest for drawing my attention to this. http://lifeofababypriest.blogspot.com/2006/08/beer-blessing.html

The new Superman movie has caused a tense debate about its Christian content. Here is a few relevant stories for you to explore.

Is the new Superman meant to be Jesus?
Is the Superman Returns movie meant to remind us of the Bible? And if so, is it blasphemy?

This question is asked by BBC News

The Kryptonian Gospel
'Superman Returns' presents a gospel story as moving as 'The Passion of the Christ'--and possibly more affecting.

Read the movie review on Beliefnet

The passion of Superman
"Superman Returns," opening today, is one of the most clearly Christological allegorical movies ever made. It is so clear that it even has a discussion about the world's need for a savior.

Dr. Ted Baehr writes at World Net Daily

The Second Coming of Superman
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, wait ... it’s Jesus! At least that’s what some Christians are seeing in the long-anticipated “Superman Returns,” which flies into theaters this week, after decades of failed attempts at sequels.

Annabelle Robertson gives you more at Crosswalk

As it turns out it is an old discussion. Journal of Religion and Film had an article about Superman and Jesus in 2002:

Holy subtexts abound within the popular cinema. Superman: The Movie (1978) and Superman II (1981) were examined as a protracted secular analogue of the Jesus story. The literature was reviewed and twenty Superman-Jesus parallels plus eight Christic personalistic traits were explicated. It was concluded that Superman is not only a legitimate Christ-figure, but the American pop culture movie Messiah.

To my knowledge the Superman caracter was invented by two Jewish boys in 1938. Can anyone confirm this?

Orthodox Theologian Speaks on Modern Deserts
Interview With John Chryssavgis

BOSTON, JULY 18, 2006 (Zenit.org).- We can only appreciate the mystical dimension of our world and our soul if we go through the stage of the desert, says Orthodox theologian, John Chriyssavgis.

Read the full interview at Zenit:
http://zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=92770

"Faith finds role on the catwalk

By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, The Telegraph Group Limited

London: It is known for its heavenly bodies and its unholy tantrums, but the world of the catwalk is about to receive spiritual guidance.

A leading fashion college is setting itself apart from the industry's more lurid standards of sexual excess, drug addiction and furious egos with the addition of a Church of England chaplain to its staff."

Read the full story here:
http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/06/07/16/10053384.html

The good idea of combining beer and theology which originates from Jesuit circles in the Chicago area is now duplicated in the UK.

Read the full story here:

http://www.indcatholicnews.com/theopub958.html

I am part of an old Christian drinking guilt which dates back to the 1980s here in Denmark so it seems that the idea have come about in two countries and cultures at the same time.

Radu Mihaileanu is a director born in Romania and living in France for 20 years now. Saturday night at TIFF 2006 Radu Mihileanu spoke in front of a full-house public in “Republica” cinema, much to the delight of a somewhat spoiled Romanian crowd, having three Romanian cineasts winning prizes at major film festivals. We spoke to Radu Mihaileanu about his big hit “Va, vis et deviens”.

How much of your own experience as an immigrant is included in the movie?
Well, I didn’t live what the ethiopians have, I can say I can be compared to them only on a small scale. Of course, I left Romania in an almost cladestine way, as Shlomo in the movie did, but it never felt what he must have. I left Romania going on a “vacation” in Israel. The problem was I was supposed to leave for France afterwards, but the weather in Israel is different than in France. So, because there was a control at the airport, I could not take winter clothes in my luggage, so I wore them to Israel, this causing me to sweat the whole trip. And, of course, saying goodbye to my mom was difficult.

The story is a real one. Did you have great trouble documenting?
The documentation took me 5 years. During this time I had sometimes a rough time with some of the authorities, because a lot of details relating to the operation of bringing the Ethiopian Jews back to Israel were still classified, so I could not use it directly. Also, I didn’t want to be manipulated by the aythorities, so much of the political facts I had to double-check.

The script won a Cesar. You wrote the script by yourself?
I had the help of two great friends, one is present in the credits, the other is a professional writer , he helped us with the literary work. This script is now a book, because the story is much more dense and much longer than the one presented in the film; actually, this is a big problem, because the movie was ready, after the first editing, the movie was 3 and a half hours long. And something else: much of this Cesar here belongs to the people living the events in the movie, I was just the one to bring the story to you.

Considering the importance of the main character, Shlomo, did you have a rough time finding the three actors? (Shlomo is depicted in the movie in three stages of his life: 9 years old, 16 years old and 20 years old)
Well, the story was ready, the team was prepared, but we didn’t want to do anything without having the main actor, especially the little one. So, we dedicated 5 months for the casting. I’ve seen 1.500 children from Israel, but ellected from the orphans coming from Ethiopia, from Ethiopia and Burundi. We ended up with a small group, because the child had to learn also French, needed in the movie. In the end, what helped me a lot was the relationship developing between African children, where the eldest one plays the role of the big brother, helping the smaller one. So, I had almost an assistant director in the person of the third Shlomo, helping me get the best from the other two.

The technical aspects were hard and demanding?
We filmed in Ethiopia, Israel and France, so it was demanding. But the hardest part was the two days of filming in Ethiopia, with a tight schedule and an even tighter budget. I’m also a co-producer, so I was also interested about this aspect. The hardest scene was the one at the beginning of the movie, where Shlomo leaves his mother to go to Israel. We lost one day just to get this scene good, and we came close to not finish the film. Another scene was very difficult, the one in which Yael, the adoptive mother of Shlomo, licks Shlomo’s face to demonstrate he’s healthy. I had to lie to the actress in order to get from her the exact feeling I wanted.

How do you find Romania after 9 years?
It is the same welcomming space I know from my childhood in Bucharest. It’s now a European country and with events such as TIFF, its cinematography can develop easier and quicker.

Lucian Dragos

TIFF 2006: All The Unseen Children (co-production, d. Mehdi Charef, Emir Kusturica, Spike Lee, Katia Lund, Jordan Scott & Ridley Scott, Stefano Veneruso, John Woo, 2005).

During the first images of the movie there's RAI Production's logo, so this is mainly an Italian film, but directed, as you may read above, by directors from all continents. And indeed the stories are from all continents. At the front of the film there's also a mention that this film is for the benefit of Unicef. Personally, I was waiting for this kind of film for quite some time now, curious to see what comes up.

And very good things came up. First, the directors looked for a story inside their culture, all of them demonstrating they are very much inside that culture, they belong to it. This is to be seen in the fact that all stories speak about children and their struggle for life in all corners of the world.

"Tanza", the story by Mehdi Charef, brings to the public the life inside ethnic Africa, with civil wars, children used as combat forces. We follow a group of five children fully armed, killing mature soldiers and tacking villages at night to steal food. They loose one of their partners, the smallest one, but they keep on going. Arriving in the area of a very lively village, they decide to blow up the "institutions" of their enemy and to cut the head of their organization: meaning the school and the latrine. Tanza is the one to blow up the school, but inside he's remembering his life and takes a hard decision. This episode is filmed entirely in Burkina Faso, much to the wonder of the viewers, because the setting are as poor as they should be considering the subject.

Emir Kusturica is Emir Kusturica, a melange of music, sad story, irony and sadness surrounds his work in which he follows the life of a gipsy child who's taken institutionalized for robbery, but learns to do haircuts inside. While his family survives stealing, their little one is about to be released, but instead of happiness, he's feeling more
anxious than inside.

And for a good reason, his parents making him steal again and, in a grand finale, specific for Kusturica, our main character returns to the freedom, whatever that means.

Spike Lee is well-known for his independent views about the social issues, his view towards race and conflicts between races. In his story, "Blanca", he goes deep in the atmosphere of a family suffering from Aids, a family that still does not give up drugs. The family's daughter, Blanca, a brilliant 10 year old school-girl, finds out what their parents never told her: she is also sick. From here, Spike Lee takes us through the events developing before our eyes like a roller-coaster: Blanca overhears the discussion of her parents regarding her, discovers at school she's not wanted there, finds out her parents still do drugs. What gives us hope is the end, even if the end comes quicker for these people.

Maybe this is the best told story inside the film, because goes at a certain pace, we get to know and love the children and we are inside a South-American culture always appealing to Europeans. The story is by Katia Lund and is named "Bilu and Joao", a girl and a boy making a living by gathering recyclable materials. In the film we follow one day of their life, when they go on a hunt for metallic beer cans, iron bars, cardboard etc. They strike luck on some occasion, they loose some of the price because the cardboard is wet, they have a flat tire on their cart, but they manage to go all the way to help their parents, because the money they earn are used to buy bricks for their future home. A tasty corner of Brasil and its contrasts.

"Jonathan" is different from any other short films inside this production, because the film directed by Jordan Scott & Ridley Scott introduces the onyric vision in the story. We have a war-correspondent who's job is to bring news from the wars everybody runs from. But he's haunted by the image of all the children he has seen in the wars suffering, so he becomes also a child and goes through the same situations as these children. His companions are two childhood
friends. Jonathan lives a while the life of a 10 year old child, whose parents are dead, who lives in a forgotten train carriage, meeting children of the same age taking care of themselves and forming an utopic community. The return to maturity is never easy, but makes Jonathan wiser.

South Italy, Naples. Year: 2005. Beautiful scenery, impressive architecture, open-air concert, good life. Well, not quite. There's a drama about to unfold, whet two children steal a wealthy-man's expensive watch. "Mario" is a story about poverty, about the laziness of adults and of lost and regained childhood. These tough guys steal money to give
to their parents, some of them buy small motorcycles, but Mario uses some of the money to go on a roundabout and to light up the park just for him. A very well-placed note on the possibility of returning from this nightmare.

John Woo is known for his action movies bearing the mark of Hong Kong film industry. His short film also bears the mark of Hong Kong, but speaks about the poor people living in one of the most crowded areas in the world. We follow in parallel the story of a brilliant girl born in a high-society family and the life of a poor flower girl. The rich girl
has all a girl would want, but is often sad and depressed, because her parents are fighting over her custody. The poor girl was found by her father in a garbage can, raised by him and is never separated from her doll. The grandfather, as she calls him, dies, and the lonely girl ends up together with other girls in the custody of a man taking advantage of
them and making them sell flowers. All the images manifest a touch of Chinese meditation and nostalgia.

These short films have the gift of immersing the viewer into the life of children, a life often harder than the one of adults. They are the first to be sacrificed, they feel first the changes in equilibrium. This film has to be seen over and over again and to be continued.

Cluj-Napoca, a quarter to 7 p.m.: the hall of "Republica" Cinema (what an ugly name for a great cinema). Waiting for the official opening ceremony, important people present, exchanging the first impressions after the Festival opened in the morning with projections at the other cinemas involved in the festival.

The ceremony was held in the bastion of TIFF: "Republica" cinema is the most profitable single cinema in Romania (never part of a chain of cinemas). The organizers chose to present one of the greatest successes of the last years, the film by Corneliu Porumboiu "A fost sau n-a fost? ("12:08 East of Bucharest" Romania, 2006). The film won "camera d'or" and "label Europe Cinema" in Cannes Film Festival. With these great references, the public held its breath. During the ceremony, the festival director provoked the public, saying in Cannes the audience laughed a lot and gave a long reprise of applause at the end...

And so did we... The film speaks about the Romanian revolution (the name of the film can be translated literally "Was it or it was not?" remembering one of the most asked questions in all the TV talk-shows analyzing the Romanian anti-communist Revolution. It is not the first film speaking about the revolution or relating to the subject: Point Zero (Romania 1996, d. Sergiu Nicolaescu) or the documentaries ("Timisoara – December 1989", d. Ovidiu Bose Pastina and "Universitatii Square", 1991, d. Stere Gulea), but it is the first to investigate how simple, common people from a city lost in a rural area understand their role and the importance of the December Revolution 1989.

Like I said, we laughed, because the characters can be sometimes recognized during the local shows at some local TV station. We are immersed in the life of a lost small town, somewhere light touches the ground later than everywhere. Here, people are as common as everywhere, having the same prejudice and small sins as do any other. They revolve around tonight's TV talk-show, where they'll be answering the key-question: was there a revolution in our town?

For 40 minutes, Corneliu Porumboiu was actually a small TV station director, having to cope with a neurotic host of the show, too afraid not to say the wrong thing about someone, with an alcoholic teacher claiming he was in the town's square one hour before Ceausescu had fled and an old retired man, who used to play Santa Claus for virtually everyone in the city. In the meantime, we don't see him, but there's a clumsy cameraman, forgetting the camera in some corner or making stupid and deranging adjustments to the device.

The satire is total. First, it is the script that reaches to all the clichés related to the Revolution and there's also the beautiful play misenscene by all three participants in the show. Conclusions, fears, misunderstandings, debates, phones, papers, paper-clips, pens, all act so that we can feel estranged from the truth of the Revolution: it is just another day-to-day subject for a small-town TV show.

This is the first feature film of Corneliu Porumboiu and it is a great success. He will be present in Cluj-Napoca starting Wednesday and will meet with the public. Once again, this is a great representation singling out Porumboiu as one of the most promising, but in the same time one of the confirmed directors of the new wave in Romanian cinema.

Lucian Dragos
June 2nd, first day

Starting today, June 2nd and ending to June 10th, Transsylvania Film Festival becomes more and more a venue in an otherwise not so dynamic cultural environment of Cluj-Napoca. This year's edition is the fifth, so it's still a young festival.

Because it has been promoted as a festival for young people, TIFF's competition is open only to the young directors, meaning they must be at their first or second movie only. As with anything new, the first editions were a little bit funny, awquard at times, but the organizing team grew with every year and we can say last year's edition was a complete success.

There are voices saying this festival would be more welcomed and supported if it were in Bucharest, but the atmosphere surrounding it would clearly change. Which brings us to Cluj-Napoca and its cultural background. Situated in Center Romania in the province of Transsylvania, Cluj-Napoca has been and still is the financial, cultural and economical capital of Transsylvania. It is multicultural, multiethnical (four major ethical minorities) and ecumenical city. Its medieval architecture and cultural heritage makes Cluj-Napoca one of the most suited cities as host for a Film Festival.

During the first years of existance, the festival was surprising because its selection of movies, some of them earning the name of failures. But besides some unpleasant surprises, the festival stuck in people's minds and now is one of the major cultural events in Cluj-Napoca and Transsylvania.

The last two years were very promissing and so it seems about this year's edition. With the success of Romanian movies like "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu" (d. Cristi Puiu) last year in Cannes, also this year prizes won by Romanian cineasts such as Corneliu Porumboiu ("12:08 East of Bucharest", 2006) or Romanian-born Radu Mihaileanu ("Vas, vis et deviens", 2004), and with the presence of young local directors like Catalin Mitulescu, TIFF announces to be more spectacular than ever.

Since the first year, the festival has more than one sections: competition, the main section, SuperNova, Special Events and Short Films. Special events are evenings dedicated to projections dedicated to the festival's public. There is also a "HBO night" featuring mini-series produced by the broadcasting company in marathon projections (last year the entire series "Angels in America lasted for almost 7 hours!).

The jury has five members this year: David Robinson, former film critic for London Times, director between 1989-1991 of Edinburgh International Film Festival, film hystiran; Anamaria Marinca, winner of Bafta Award for her role in "Sex Traffic"; Kornel Mundruczo, Hungarian director; Laufey Gudjonsdottir, director of the Icelandic Film Centre; and Radu Mihaileanu, Romanian-born French Director, his film "Va, vis et deviens" won a cezar Award for screenplay.

As the director of the Festival, Razvan Chirilov, declared, this year TIFF is setting another standard, both in quantity and quality. With so many films to choose from, this day-by-day job of keeping everybody well-informed is not just everybody's cup of tea...

Lucian Dragos

I stumbled over this blog directory on the internet:

http://lutheranblogs.blogspot.com/

It is primarily with American Lutheran blogs - enjoy :-)

While the Da Vinci Code is opening worldwide Friday the 19th it will not be shown on the Faeroe Islands. The owners of the only two cinemas on the islands have chosen not to show the movie.

”We have chosen to prohibit the movie. It is blasphemous. When we asked Nordisk Film (Nordic Film) who distribute the movie if the content corresponded with the book they responded positively and we decided not to be the ones who show something blasphemous on the Faeroe Islands”, the leader of the cinema in Torshavn, Jákup Eli Jacobsen, said to the Faeroe newspaper Sosialurin according to the website of the Danish National Television (DR).

Jákup Eli Jacobsen admits that he has not read the book, but people have told him about the content and he does not want to show a movie where Jesus is getting children with a woman. Jákup Eli Jacobsen fears that he could lose his license to run the cinema if he shows something blasphemous.

Jákup Eli Jacobsen tells that it was not allow to show the Monthy Pyton movie Life of Brian when it was opening some years back.

Source: http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Kultur/2006/05/12/120834.htm

From Europaica 93:

World Russian People’s Council: Declaration on Human Rights and Dignity

Aware that the world, passing through a crucial point in its history, is facing a threat of conflict between the civilizations with their different understanding of the human being and the human being’s calling, – the World Russian People's Council, on behalf of the unique Russian civilization, adopts this declaration:

=> Read more!

Is Tony Blair really becoming Catholic? The rumour has been around for some years now, but has gained new strength after Times of London revealed that a Franciscan friar has celebrated mass at the PM's residence at Downing Street 10. Newsmax has that story for you

In 2003 The Mirror speculated that Blair will become Catholic when he steps down as Premier.

In 2004 the family priest hinted that the Anglican Prime Minister "may well" convert to Catholicism. Times Online has that story

And the funeral of late pope John Paul II alse sparked some rumours

The PM's wife is described as a "feminist" Catholic.

I feel a little strange about this satirical note from Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, but maybe it is just because I do not understand Russian humour? It was brought on Interfax on 13 February.

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin.
The commandments of post-christian paganism (a satirical note on the occasion of the opening of the World Council of Churches Assembly)

It is the time to become honest: today many Christian circles in fact believe in post-Christian paganism. Alright, why should’t we formulate its creed? It can be even proclaimed solemnly at the Porto Alegre Assembly (at least by the Western European delegates), just to mark the final victory over the darkness of fundamentalism!

First of all, the Ten Commandments:

I am the Basically Unknown Supreme Being (some stupid people were calling me God and even Father; sorry for that). I tell you people: believe in me, in anyone else or just in anything. It all doesn’t matter!

Still, don’t worship the terrible idols of racism, sexism, ageism, religionism, nationalism and capitalism. Liberalism and Marxism are allowed to a certain extent.

Don’t pronounce the name of your Lord in an exclusivist way. Don’t pronounce it publicly at all - it may hurt so many good people!

Celebrate Saturdays with the Jews and Fridays with the Moslems. Go to the beach on Sundays. Don’t work on all these days to show solidarity with those who are pressed to work.

Respect the founding mothers and fathers of Democracy and Enlightenment. They have made all people happy forever, even if some of you are stupid enough to disagree with that.

Don’t kill (if you are not a member of a liberation movement).

Steal only from the rich.

Rape and sexual harassment are forbidden. Paedophilia, too (until 2030). All other sexual behaviour is not subject to these commandments.

Do not say anything which is not politically correct: Big Democratic Brother is watching you.

Do not wish anything which is not in line with pluralism and tolerance: do not bother the Big Brother, control your thoughts from within.

And, of course, the Beatitudes:

Blessed are the poor, for they can criticise the rich.

Blessed are the tolerant, for they will inherit the Earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after social justice, for they will be never fed up with it.

Blessed are the pacifists, for they are well guarded by armies.

Blessed are the outspoken, for the final judgment will always be in their hands.

Blessed are freedom fighters, for they are always right.

Blessed are those who struggle with the darkness of the past, for they don’t care what will be said about them in the future.

Blessed are the oppressed for whatever reason, for theirs is the Kingdom of Media.

Blessed are you when you play a victim, for that brings you victory.

Rejoice and be glad, all of you, for your gain is guaranteed in this world!

http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=analysis&div=33

It is brought here in the interest of the common good.

H. E. Patriarch Emanuel Delly III, Head of the Chaldean Church of Babel and President of the Catholic Bishops in Iraq issued on March 24, a “Brotherly Call” on all Iraqis, Christians and Muslims from all denominations, to pray God to bestow His Love, Mercy and Grace on the children of Iraq. “We have moved away from God and His Will”, says Patriarch Delly, and from “ Fasting, Repentance and Forgiveness. Many of our brothers and sisters have shed their blood and many children have become orphans. Today, we should turn to God and His Will and repent. We call upon all Iraqis, inside Iraq or outside, and on all believers worldwide, to observe two days of prayer and fasting, on April 3 and 4, so that peace, security, stability and love may prevail in Iraq and in the world ”. The Call in Arabic is posted on the MECC website at: www.mec-churches.org

From the MECC Newsletter

Press Release
March 29, 2006

The organisations Armenica and ArmeniaDiaspora would hereby like to inform you about their world wide campaign of "Light the Night". The content of the campaign is stated below and further information can be viewed at http://www.armenica.org/light-the-night

On the eve of April 24th, we encourage all to "Light the Night" by lighting a candle through the night of the 23rd and into the morning of the 24th, in remembrance of the 1.5 million souls that fell victim to the annihilation machine of the Ottoman Empire. Each lit candle placed on the window sill will represent a soul lost throughout the years of 1915 and 1923. Together, let's "Light the Night"; let's vow to remember, to never forget, and to pursue justice and peace for all humanity.

The "Light the Night" campaign started last year in connection to the 90th remembrance day of the Armenian Genocide and we wish to continue this campaign hoping that it will be a permanent tradition. Last year the campaign received wide TV and radio coverage in Armenia and this year Printinfo has volunteered to contribute to the campaign by printing flyers free of charge for distribution within Armenia. We hope that you aslo could join us in this tradition.

For campaign flyer, banner, and other information, please visit http://www.armenica.org/light-the-night and help us spreading this information to as many as possible. You could also forward this email to proper recipients. This information is also available at http://www.armeniadiaspora.com

With best regards,

Armenica Editorial Staff
http://www.armenica.org

Since 2001 the mobile mp3-player by Apple, the i-pod, has taken over the world of music for people on their daily commute to work or school. For many it may just seem like a modern day version of the good old walkman, but the i-pod and its clones have recently given way to a new phenomenon called podcasting where people can get the latest version of their favourite radio show into their mobile device and listen to it in the privacy of their own headset whenever they feel like it.

It is no wonder that Christian circles have also taken up this new technology and try to use it for edifying and mission purposes. “Godcasting” this type of podcasting is sometimes called.

Now the Jesuit community has also gone mobile and launched a new service called Pray as You Go.

Daily Bible readings and reflections can be downloaded – or podcasted – into your mp3 player. While the world runs stressful around trying to get to work on time you can lean back and relax to the music and the tender voice of the Jesuits. On the Pray as You Go website you can also download breathing and body exercises to help you keep focused. And just before you go to bed you can do the ancient jesuite exercise of reviewing the day trying to see where God was present and spoke to you. You can do this guided by the mp3 sound as your wife reads the latest Fay Weldon novel before sleeping or is already snoring loudly besides you.

It is the spirituality of the i-pod generation. You can enjoy it at www.pray-as-you-go.org

This is how the Orthodox approach to ecumenism is defined in the free and user made online lexicon. It think it witnesses a specific theological discourse rather than being something in a lexicon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecumenism as of 15 march 2006 (Emphasis mine):

"Eastern Orthodoxy

Ecumenism for the Eastern Orthodox did not begin with the Roman Catholic Second Vatican Council. It is the Eastern Orthodox churches' work to embrace estranged communions as (possibly former) beneficiaries of a common gift, and simultaneously to guard against a promiscuous and false union with them. The history of the relationship between Eastern Orthodoxy and the Oriental Orthodox churches is a case in point. Likewise, the Eastern Orthodox have been leaders in the Interfaith movement, and some Orthodox patriarchs enlisted their communions as charter members of the World Council of Churches. Nevertheless, the Orthodox have not been willing to participate in any redefinition of the Christian faith toward a reduced, minimal, anti-dogmatic and anti-traditional Christianity. Christianity for the Eastern Orthodox is the Church; and the Church is Orthodoxy—nothing less and nothing else. Therefore, while Orthodox ecumenism is "open to dialogue with the devil himself", the goal is to reconcile all non-Orthodox back into Orthodoxy."

As reported earlier by the Habitus Network the situation in Northern Uganda is very serious and this far the churches have kept silent. But now something is beginning happen from the side of the churches the Church of England Newspaper reports. The UK Bishop of Winchester Michael Scott-Joynt has raised the matter in the House of Lords urging "the government to declare the northern part of the country a disaster zone and highlighted the need for international assistance there."

I came across this article by Ulla Hom on the homepage of the Danish Institute for International Studies.
Hans Christian Andersen can also be used in the current international crisis of the cartoons of Mohammed it seems.

Have look at http://www.diis.dk/sw19878.asp

=> Read more!

The Habitus Network is proud to present movie critique from a Christian perspective done by Signis president and a life-time movie lover Fr. Peter Malone MSC.

Go to the movie reviews

The section is currently being filled with movie reviews so please make sure to visit often in the coming weeks!

Salman Rushdie and 11 other intellectuals have issued a statement on totalitarian islamism.

Together facing the new totalitarianism

After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new totalitarian global threat: Islamism.

=> Read more!

This parade took place at the WCC assembly in Porto Alegre. I am not sure exactly what it were about, but something about U-turns. Oh those photo memories.

I have now returned to Denmark and have started the process of digesting all the impressions from Porto Alegre and Brazil. Some 1000 photos are on my hard drive and I will keep letting those visible memories flow here on the blog.

The trip home was not without problems, but it started as a dream when I was upgraded to 1. Class (one step higher than business class) on the first part of the trip from Porto Alegre to Sao Paulo. Man is that a big seat! I was like a little child at Christmas trying every position that the seat could manage. Seat up - seat down. Footrest up - footrest down. Why not lie totally down? Oh yes! In the horizontal position the seat took up 3 and a half window. Nice lying there seeing the sunset through the fourth window.

In Sao Paulo all planes, more or less, were late due to the carnival in Rio. Ours was over 3 hours late, but the worst part was the lacking information at the airport (I will spare you the story of my encounter with the supervisor mr. Romero who according to his staff is a big fat man - and spare you the story of the missing food at gate 27). The day before I had bought 960 ml of beer from Uruguay which I had planned to share (I love this ecumenical word) with my Romanian colleague. Due to a bar visit we never got to the 960 ml that night, but at gate 27 the following day I had the time to drink the beer together with Habitus Helle. That was a nice beer at the right time (I still have the champagne - Cristian you know what I am talking about).

Until we were on the plane I thought we might be there until the morning, but at 01.50 our plane did leave. The plane was bound for Frankfurt everything was fine until Madrid where we had to stop to get extra full for the plane. Bad weather had forced us to take a longer route over the Atlantic. So of course we missed the connecting flight in Frankfurt, but eventually we arrived in Copenhagen some 5 hours late. But it could have been much worse I guess.

Here is a photo of Cristian from Romania leaving the hotel in Porto Alegre. I hope he enjoys the carnival.

The newly elected Central Committee of the World Council of Churches has elected Brazilian Walter Altmann as moderator and has chosen the members of its Executive Committee.

Walter Altmann, Gennadios of Sassima and Margaretha Hendriks-Ririmasse are, respectively, the new moderator and vice moderators of the WCC central committee.

The election of Altmann was not a surprise since he was one of the favorites for the post.

So I survived the massage which was in fact very nice. I am leaving the hotel in a few hours and will return to Denmark while my Romanian colleague explore the carnival in Rio. For some reason the image upload is currently not work for the Habitus site, but I will upload more pictures to th blog and the image gallery when in Denmark.

Here is a list of the new Executive Committee which was elected by the new Central Committee:

=> Read more!

The assembly finished yesterday with a nice closing prayer where a "black" America sermon (applause etc.) was one of the highlights.

A lot of decisions have of course been made at the assembly. Regarding youth the assembly has approved the creation of a youth body of the WCC.

In my eyes it is still to be seen if it will change anything. In Samuel Kobia description this body would consist of the youth which would be in the other committees of the WCC. Thus no more young persons would be involved. Also it is very uncertain if there is resources for this body to do any work. Maybe they will just meet 2 times in the next 7 years? Also if the WCC takes the youth serious as they claim in their press release they should allocate money for programs etc. for the youth work. In Europe e.g. the WCC does not have separate youth work. The good people at the Ecumenical Youth Council in Europe and the WSCF Europe are doing a good work for the youth, but these are independent bodies. So if the WCC prioritizes youth it must show it more visible. The creation of the youth body could just be a way of silencing the youth for a while. But I can be proven wrong and lets hope I do!

In 15 minutes I am going to have a massage here at my hotel. I wanted to write in the blog before that since I am not sure what remains of my motoric skills after the untrained Brazilian chief has been working on my spine.

The World Council of Churches has just (at 10.14 local time) adopted a minute on mutual respect, responsibility and dialogue with people of other faiths. Regarding the Danish newspaper Jyllandsposten's publication of the Mohammed Cartoons the minutes reads:

"As people of faith we understand the pain caused by the disregard of something considered precious to faith. . We deplore the publications of the cartoons. We also join with the voices of many Muslim leaders in deploring the violent reactions to the publications."

Read the minutes below.

=> Read more!

Just now at 18.03 local time the new Central Committee of the World Council of Churches was elected. 15% youth.

The 8 presidents of the World Council of Churches were elected 20 minutes ago.

From the plenary hall of the assembly. More to follow.

"You are part of the assembly" Aram I stated as the stewards were presented to the assembly. A critical voice may note that once again the youth have posed for a photo opportunity for the press. Photos can now be used to claim that the assembly was a youth assembly when in fact it was not. But for now lets enjoy the future of the ecumenical movement.

From the plenary hall of the assembly.

Yesterday there was a peace walk in the city of Porto Alegre headed by Desmond Tutu and Adolfo Perez Esquivel - both Nobel Peace Price winners.

Earlier in the day people were trying to advertise for this event. Here is one of them. She is carrying a banner with the "Walk for Peace" and - well a pink dog...

"PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil, Feb. 20 (Reuters) — Changes in church practices that are seen as liberal, such as allowing women to serve in the clergy and permitting same-sex marriages, are creating a widening gulf within world Christianity, a leading Russian Orthodox bishop said Monday.
That growing divide may prompt Orthodox churches to consider a tactical alliance with Roman Catholicism to defend traditional Christian values, Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev said in an interview on the sidelines of the global assembly here of the mostly Protestant World Council of Churches."

Just found this in the New York Times

The Russian bear is indeed hard to dance with - especially if you are Protestant. Given the recent statement by Vsevolod Chaplin maybe youth should also be mentioned as one of the Protestant sins?

"In the spirit of Christianity I apologize, but I deeply believe that the quality of the youth at this assembly are not of the quality which I had hoped"

This was the words of V. Chaplin of the Russian Orthodox Church at 17.40

The comment came in a hearted debate about the youth representation in the WCC Central Committee. Chaplin (that is his name!) had complained that the youth was just shouting like in the 1960s "we are youth", but he had not seen them speak about the topics. This caused the outrage of an US (UK?) bishop which demanded that the assembly did not move forward until Chaplin had apologized.

The youth were supported by quite a number of "old" delegates.

A bishop from Tanzania got up and asked for the forgiveness of the young people.

From the plenary hall at the assembly 17.50 (session is going on)

UPDATE (17.56): the report of the nominations committee is thrown back to the committee to find another solution. Tomorrow a revised version of the report is to be presented.

"Feb 20, 7:18 - I woke up today with a terrible headache. Veins are pulsating painfully on the sides of my forehead and my left eye vision is blurry. I hope it's not from the cheap Brazilian booze we bought last night at Zaffari. The two other guys I share the room with are still asleep. The African was drunk long before we reached half-bottle. But the Icelander drank like hell and we had to borrow half of the Orloff vodka from the neighbor’s fridge. Schaise, we'll buy another one for them and drink the upper half ourselves. That's a funny word, schaise, I learned from a German-speaking Brazilian from the local minority. I also learned many other words, but I don't remember them now. Oh, xarope is funny. It's Brazilian and it means syrup. It is pronounced charopee. Fun way to call booze; also the saintly ones do not get it. Damn, I gotta go to the bathroom.

7:22 - Harald, the Icelander, did not clean his vomit last night. At least I did not vomit. I squeezed last of my toothpaste and brushed my teeth. I have to buy some toothpaste. We have been advised not to drink the local water. I hope this does not mean we cannot rinse with it. Beer would be better. I heard they'll have a beer party tonight, after the stewards' ecumenical strike.

7:31 - I gotta rush to catch the bus, otherwise I'll have to go to the campus with the T9 local bus. It stops in a square nearby our hotel but it takes way longer to get to PUC than our charter coach. I'm on assignment this morning in the press-room, but I'll have the afternoon free. I hope to catch the other guys and prepare the ecumenical strike.

8:49 - I talked to the other stewards. We're about 150 but the real core is about 30-40. They have ecumenical experience and want to do something for the youth. Everyone here speaks it's a Youth Assembly, but the stewards do not feel it. Me and others do not feel it. There is this Portuguese Old Catholic guy, green-eyed, short, I cannot remember the name now, he seems to know a lot about the politics of the Assembly. He told us exactly how there is a "rhetorical conspiracy" of the older to keep us out of the mainstream and they just use our work as stewards. A Danish male and a Canadian female, stewards, intervened and said that we knew this from the very beginning and we are here to help our Churches, learn from direct experience and network as much as we can. This could be helpful if you wanna have an ecumenical career. Also we should be grateful for this opportunity to travel in Brazil. For many of us this is the travel of their life. The others almost booed them and they shut up. But the Portuguese, he knows everything. He said that there should have been ecumenical training for us. And we didn't get any. Than Big Sam came to us during the pre-Assembly Youth event and wanted us to follow his agenda. This is unacceptable and we should fight the old farts, he said. I think he's right, he worked a lot in the ecumenical youth movement and he knows are things are. I barely took part in one ecumenical event about Mass-Media and Church and now I'm here. One should trust those that know better.

9:55 - The today's issue of the Assembly newspaper is ready and I distributed it in the media office. The two press-rooms were almost empty, the journalists left for the morning press-conference. I talked to a Romanian guy that was covering for a certain Habitus Network, never heard of it. He asked me the usual a/s/l stuff and what my tasks were. Not much, I said, they trained us half a day at the beginning. I basically have to check the press-rooms all the time to see if computers work, if people that are not accredited come to use the internet, to fill in the pigeon-holes of the journalists with the latest documents, blah-blah. Not much to do, had enough time for fun, I said. He's not very much older than I am, couple of years, and then said I was lucky WCC is paying almost my entire ticket and than offers us room and board free for so little. Well, I guess he's older than he claims, he thinks like my father. Ecumenical work is fun: I wonder why they don't come together all these churches and just forget about the historical thing. Time is different now. It would be fun to have all traditions coming together all-in-one.

10:48 - I think I am going to have a very nice argument with the Croatian chairperson of the European wing of FCSW - Female Christian Students Worldwide. She is absolutely gorgeous, believe me, I heard that all Croatian girls are good looking, but this one I loved from the first day. It's a pity she is not a steward, they live in a different hotel. I asked a guy or two about FCSW and heard they live very far from the center and I managed to see her only twice on campus. First time was 2 days ago during a Mutirao workshop about the discrimination against the Indian Untouchables. I talked to her a bit and then she had to live. Never saw her again that day in the huge campus, filled up with the more than 3000 people attending the Assembly. I planned to go to her hotel in the evening and invite her out but I didn't find anyone to split a taxi. I guess that was cheap from my side and I thought I would just forget her. Yesterday I saw her going for the gay movie screening in the Auditorium of building 50. Something about Christian programs in the US to help gay become straight; sounded very funny, very Tennessee. Only that the movie was not praising the programs, but rather interviewing the failures and they talked at length about their experiences. The hilarious part was that the programs never managed to have a guy switch the teams. So much about ex-gay ministries and their pompous titles: “Exodus”, “Ministry of Life”. They also cost a lot of dough, some 2000 plus living expenses. I had to leave before the movie was over and I could not disturb her. I hope she's not gay. You can expect anything in Porto Alegre. Well, to be politically correct, to be gay is no problem, and people just should be open-minded. There are many conservative people here at the Assembly, along with leftist, gays, revolutionaries and the likes. Anyways, but I guess her being gay would be a problem for me. I'm straight, God bless your right hand that so created the woman.
Now, the argument was that I caught her using the internet in the press-office with her personal laptop. She's not accredited media, but she was sneaking around to a quite space to do some work. Isn't she a darling! Lord strike me, but I'm damned lucky. I was planning to get a taxi to their quarters tonight and then here she is sitting very innocent in my sector. Lord, do I really deserve this? Am I not a sinner? I can now see again quite well with my left eye.

10:55 - Stampede of the journalists. They came back from the press conference. I like working here at the media office because it's not much to do, but I would never want to be a journalist. They basically go around all day talking to people and then trying to write something. And these are ecumenical journalists! Who in the world reads them? I for one don't. But the smart Portuguese steward said I might arrange a few interviews with some of the most representatives here to make our voice heard. It works for me. I like to be youth and youth should not be ignored.

11:01 - I got a deal with Anna, the Croatian girl. I'm going to have lunch with her later. She can use the internet as long as she wants, I'll keep an eye for the supervisor. We are to meet in front of building 16, the library and then go to a nice buffet in a more isolated corner of a campus where not many people go. We can basically eat at any buffet or cafeteria in campus, the WCC covers for us. The buffets are better because you just pay the flat-tax (we just give a ticket) and then you eat all you can. They have all kinds of dishes, also the Brazilian feijoada with the black beans and smoked meat, and many deserts and exotic fruits. You also receive a free soft drink and one small Hershey chocolate bar at the end. I don't really like American Hershey chocolate, I was surprised to discover it here in South America with all the European culture they have. But maybe this is why they hate Americans, the Hershey bar is a bit soury and powdery. For beers and for wine you have to pay. But it's way better to buy the alcohol at the supermarket 'cause it's very cheap. But maybe tonight we're not going for the cheapest again.

11:42 - Joao Miguel, the head of the press-office, was very angry today because one of the stewards forgot to follow the procedures for the press interview requests and one journalist from the Associated Press could not interview one Nobel prize winner that visited the Assembly. Now the guy from the Associated press was heading towards the airport in the same car with the Nobel winner, trying to get the story done. I guess he was quite happy that this compromise was working for his interviewee and was readier to overlook the steward’s blunder, but Joao Miguel was really, really unhappy. Imagine that would have happened with another Nobel winner, like archbishop Desmond Tutu who is now addressing the Assembly. We'll see what happens, but this steward shall probably be distributing prayer books at the entrance in the great prayer tent tonight.

12:19 – The television set in the first press-room stopped working and I had to get a technician to fix it. There is internal television broadcasting to the press rooms from the great plenary hall. Those that don’t have the time to cover the plenary can just get their live updates while working in the press office, 6th floor, building 40. The documents are available on the Assembly website, and those for the use of the press are usually available in advance, only embargoed until the moment of their reading in the plenary. Having the TV set is useful because the journalists can actually here the speeches recited. I sometimes watch the plenary when I have the time from my workplace in the press-room and it’s much better than in the plenary, where the air-conditioning is overworking and all the stewards assigned there are now having a cold, some of them worse. The Canadian steward was treating some of them with oregano oil. Never heard of that one. The funniest thing: there is an Egyptian Coptic bishop that is now permanently wearing an extra shawl at all times, besides his otherwise heavy dress, even when he walks outside in the sunny and hot alleys. I gotta take a picture of the guy. Gotta remember that. So now the TV works and I’m outta here for lunch."

[DISCLAIMER: The characters of this story are fictional, but any resemblance with real persons and situations might be true. The places are entirely real. The author helds no responsibility whether a person thinks that he/she recognizes himself/herself in this story. More probably it's about someone else. The pictures are real, but they are small enough for anyone to claim they are in the picture. Smile and let go.]

Coming to this blog soon:
"A day in the life of a steward: afternoon"

Porto Alegre, Brazil, Feb 18 - Privileged sources, well represented at the confessional meeting of the Orthodox churches at the 9th General Assembly, told us a story where the names are so obvious that it is useless to try to hide them.

Porto Alegre 2006 has been generally called a Youth Assembly. Youth tried to speak up and some made enormous efforts to step over the dramatic ruptures inherited from previous generations. Time, thought, prayer and ideas have been put in attempts to heal the wounds of the past. It was the case with Syndesmos, the only current world fellowship that brings together young faithful from all the Orthodox churches and from the two Orthodox families (Eastern and Oriental).
During the confessional meeting mentioned above, they dared to challenge the establishment, the story goes, and requested, with all civility to be put into words, our sources confirmed, a common liturgy for the Orthodox to take place on the Sunday in Porto Alegre. Not of the Orthodox and Oriental, which still requires final steps in dialogue and minor adjustments, but of the Eastern Orthodox present at the Assembly, coming from their different countries: Albania, Brazil, Bulgaria, Finland, France, Greece, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, USA. It appeares that everytime before in their meetings, a hidden spell had kept the Orthodox separated. Or at least this is what the outsider might think.

There are two communities of Orthodox in Porto Alegre: one Greek church and one Russian church. Both of them are able to host only up to 200 de people. It was known beforehand that this was far less than the number required to accomodate all the requests for participation. It seemed that the Syndesmos request was proper and well thought: the people would gather together somewhere outside the unsuitable church buildings, maybe on the spacious grounds offered by the prayer tent on the Assembly campus. The celebration together of the Holy Mass would have been a rare occasion for the Orthodox to sit together at the same table; and it would have worked for both the locals and the visitors.

The tone of the request was warm, humble and it appeared to have come at the right moment. An infusion of grace seemed to invigorate the audience when the proposal was made and a certain expectant fervour animated everyone. But when the good-hearted majority does not act in courage and self-consciouness, the politically-minded minority shuts out the dreams and drowns the hopes with mephistophelian lucidity. This was the case in that particular moment and both the Russian and the Constantinopolitan delegation briefly reunited in one ungraceful mind to undo a blessed moment.

First of all, the moderator screened the proposal from the public by allowing just limited intervention. Poor speakers hastily popped out of the crowed to speak against the proposal. Incoherent and dull they did not moved the hearts of anybody. Then procedural strategy marginalized the idea and kept it out until the meeting finished 10 minutes later. When a speaker advertised the scholarhips of the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey, the people were still thinking of the lost crucial moment.

This was how a respected professor of liturgics interpreted the moment. Same readings were confirmed by priests and bishops of Orthodox Churches of different jurisdictions than Moscow or Constantinople. None of them hid that this was primarily a powerplay between the two Patriarchates in their struggle for supremacy in the Orthodox world. The same was thought by an entirely different range of Orthodox participants. All of them thought that the argument that the local parishes should be prioritized at the expense of the common Orthodox liturgy was weak and inept. Even as it was claimed that the proposal came rather late, it would have still been time to arrange the liturgy given that good-will existed.

Outside the plenary, the moderator bishop and one reporter chased each other around the lobby for a hilarious interview. The bishop was split between bursting into unrestrained comments and instants of reserve and doubt when he seemed to look for an escape. During the open moments he did not shield himself from the reporter seeming to enjoy his presence as an outlet for his cumulated fury. Instants later he was shouting "No comments!" and seemed to run away in big circles around the lobby, with no clear destination, glimmering sweat dropping down his sideburns. But an invisible spring kept him returning. "I am not paranoid", he almost shouted. "They [the youth] should not teach us. They should know their place in the church. Without us they are nothing. How do they dare?" Out of a sudden, the Russian Grey Eminence of the Russian imperialistic jurisdiction in Vienna appeared and joined the queer dance, gazing with the eye of the beholder at the reporter. But the latter seemed unaffected and impervious to the chesty importance put out by the black-robed paladin of the correctly-opinionated. It seemed he just wanted to write down the words of the flamboyant Constantinopolitan bishop, without caring too much of the emotional distress brought about by his otherwise licit intrusion. The eyes of the two bishops met and yet again they ungracefuly came to the same conclusion as they did before in the plenary. "Who are you?" asked the Russian loud enough that even I could hear the comments from the other side of the huge lobby. The reporter continued scribbling in his notebook the declaration of the Greek. He measured the pale, yet arrogant Russian bishop, presented his credentials to the dismay of the latter and continued the scrawling. Probably he was rapidly adding acid remarks about the self-important invasion of the Russian dark silhouette. "I write a story for an ecumenical news portal", he said in a collected tone. The bishops frowned in dismay. The reporter smiled victoriously. The bishoply pair departed, exchanging political remarks about the common ennemies. Of course, that is never enough to make you friends. The reporter retreated from the deserted lobby with what appeared to be a sense of an accomplished mission.

But in the end the question is not whether Syndesmos made the right proposal or whether they used the right tone. The question goes beyond the despotic handling of the process or the supposed lack of humility of the youth.

The question remains simple and tragic: why did not the Orthodox have a common liturgical celebration?

The answers provided by the high-ranked and fat-bellied were unsatisfactory and nauseating. That means that they for sure did not deserve it. But what about the rest of the people?

Cristian
And it was night. (John 13:30)

I attended the catholic mass in the cathedral of Porto Alegre this morning. It was somehow a coincidence that I ended up in that particular church. Not having been notified by the WCC about where to attend church (we had been asked beforehand to indicate at which denomination we wanted to attend) I decided to go to some local church near the hotel. I was uncertain of when it would start so I ask in the hotel reception at what time the mass was. 10 o’clock! The same as in Denmark! It seems to be an universal time for worship. “Catholic?” – “yes” - the directions were given to me - the church was close to the hotel. The local church turned out to be the cathedral of Porto Alegre where many of the assembly participants attended the service. We were officially welcomed and translations of the sermon and text readings were available in German and English. So much for experiencing the local church life in cognito.

The mass was a good experience. There were many bishops present including a representative from the Vatican, but it was the archbishop of Porto Alegre, Dadeus Grings, who presided. The mass started with a procession where the archbishop waved at the church goers as if he was another pope. His sermon was brief in its written English translation, but it seemed longer in spoken Portuguese. It consisted primarily of words of welcome and a description of the church. Now I need your help with this one: ”The crypt is a replica of the God’s Sun Incas’ Temple, who has populated the South American land”. If I am reading this correctly the church is build on top of a newly constructed temple. Had it been a church build on an ancient temple I could understand it. It is a Christian tradition to Christianize old pagan temples. Maybe it is just referring to the shape of the crypt? The Brazilians seem to like the indiginous herritage so who knows. The church is build as a replica of the Church of St. Peter in Rome (again the archbishops sermon). Some of the readings were in English and one in German.

It is a wonderful feeling to walk into a church when abroad and feel welcome and to be welcomed. This was also the case in Porto Alegre.

The mass ended with some Scottish guy in kilt and a German man greeting the local church. This part was way to long, but maybe the locals benefited from a small lecture in how ecumenical work is done in German. Luckily the Vatican envoy had the gift of briefness and finally the procession could exit the church. The archbishop was waving.

This tropical evening I was at an open air concert with various artists from Latin America, but that is a different story.

Now I am in the hotel lobby alone – even the usual internet suspects have left. There is a graduation party here at the hotel which produces quite a lot of noise. A cool goodnight beer awaits me.

I'm not sure if I should feel embarassed, but I did not go to my favourite tent the night with the youth meeting. I chose the latter instead reckoning that dreamy laziness and nonchalant lack of vision should be also represented. Why, mates, it has been said on the corridors that the global youth president in the WCC wouldn't have much leverage or things to do for that matter anyways.

The experience was minimalist, the meeting temperamental and erratic. It took place in a hall of the Lutheran Church in Porto Alegre, just across the stwards' hotel. Not all the youth came, and not all those that came were enlightened. The two meetings of the two previous days had been sterile and useless, it was claimed, even though an outsider could easily see that an evolution had taken place and influential core groups had been formed. It's not a bad thing, that's politics, and they consisted mainly of people already involved with the ecumenical movement and showing availability or ambition to dedicate themselves to the cause, as small or big, tokenist or festive as it might be.

Discussion was focused on two main issues: young delegates nominations for the Central Committee and nominees for the possible new position of global youth leader. Things rolled on with regional group meetings and then a plenary. Hiding behind my press accreditation I followed the European meeting and then the last part of the global plenary. Ahem, I was taken too much with source milking in between the two, darling activity that usually pays off.

The part with the youth nominees for the Central Committee, believe me, it was more boring than Vogon poetry at its best in "Ode to a Small Lump of Green Putty I Found in My Armpit One Midsummer Morning", by poet master Grunthos the Flatulent. I almost died of internal hemorrhage. The note that saved me withouth ruining the premium on my insurance was the discovery of a splendid inconsistency: remember that I applauded myself Aram I's emphasis on youth; well, it came to our knowledge that his gloriuos rhetoric astutely hides the lack of youth nominees from his church. German sources told us afterwards that a Waldensian heretic actually managed to bring this up with his otherwise extreme holiness before his ecumenical testament would become history.

Then the things got mildly livelier with the talk about the global youth leader. Each region tried to propose candidates, but the process went erratic. The Middle East did not propose anyone. North America did not reach consensus and abandoned the quest. Oceania/Pacific went against the grain and smoothly nominated a Samoan female. Africa managed to do the same against all odds. Europe reached applause-consensus on one candidate and then a young steward suddenly proposed an extra candidate by pointing to a young Orthodox that happened to be passing by; and because the political balance was already strained and in danger, the Old World got stuck with two candidates. The Carribeans, ahem, I don't remember. Finally, Latin America was very late and because they basically came when there were only 2 minutes left for speeches, they lost one minute on internal decision on who to speak and another minute on internal decision on whether to speak in Spanish or English. In the end they did not speak at all.

Next day I tried to approach Natalie Maxson and Freddy Knutsen, current and former youth WCC staff and ad-hoc moderators of the process and learnt that nothing is bound to move in the coming days.

If it weren't for this update and the press follow-up beer meeting, I would have dismally regretted not going for the rewarding tent nap I had planned.

godspeed,
cristian

Habitus is not the only one writing from the World Council of Churches General Assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Here is a list of blogs we found:

Sara Faulhafer: http://dancingwiththespirit.blogspot.com/
Disciples World Magazine: http://disciplesworld.blogspot.com/
San Bernadino's UCC Church: http://sbucc.blogspot.com/
Rachel in Argentina: http://earthandstarrs.blogspot.com/
Mike's adventures: http://angellmike.blogspot.com/
National Council of Churches in India: http://nccindia.blogspot.com/
ELCIC: http://elcic.wordpress.com/
Echo Orthodoxe [in French]: http://www.echo-orthodoxe.net
Fed. Protestante de France [in French]: http://www.protestants.org

EDIT: it is a small world. Just as I has written the blog list my business partner Mr. Buchiu was talking to a lady sitting across the table in our hotel lobby. It turned out that she was just writing an entry for the French Protestant blog which is has now been added at the bottom of the list.

Bloggers they are everywhere...

There has been a lot of talk at this assembly about youth. In words the organizers want to include youth, but if there is more to it than words is questionable. Do the WCC really want youth in their decision making bodies? I guess that is also a question of what region you come from.

Let this be a political incorrect comment:

For those doubting the youth importance at the WCC meetings: I want to see old bishops dance like the youth on this video clip! (from the exhibition hall of the assembly)

See video clip (4.86 MB )

On one particular alley of the campus there are thematic tents, and among them there is a Youth tent. Nothing special, you might think, but this particular tent is great fun because it offers nothing more but huge pillows inviting to happy careless siestas, some loudspeakers and a musicbox going randomly through a syncretic playlist. A huge board at the entrace reads Youth in several languages.

Youth is at the center of this Assembly and the issue is incessantly present on the lips of everybody. Don't think it's easy for the youth or that they are necessarily privileged. The youth representative at the first press conference came under press fire (yes, it was the only one time when the press here opened fire, ahem) and was questioned whether youth had any vision or any agenda, or at least a list of issues to be brought to the public's (read: grown-ups) attention. Then there was the amusing incident with the Oriental's bishop remarks and other funny incidents from which the most self-counscious among the young should have understood that they have to deserve the attention. Even at our workshop about ecumenical youth work, a Catholic Maronite bishop questioned us for vision and another clergy was very careful to point out that youth work is nothing new under the sun. (Yeah, alright, but we're doing it on the internet ;)).

But there are other twists to this. The youth political frey is continuing tonight, when all youth are invited to gather in front of the Master Palace stewards' hotel at 9PM in order to talk for the third consecutive night about WCC youth policy, mostly related to Big Sam's (Kobia in stewards slang) proposal to have a WCC global president for youth. It is a big issue for the Youth and those that really care about the subject should do themselves a favour and not miss it.

But let me get back to the Youth tent. It is a splendid manifesto for guilt-free indolence and nonchalant, blissful lazyness. It invites to rest and dreaminess, tranquility and downtime. So in the last days I'm tempted more and more by the irresponsible but jubilant thought that this is a youth vision as well. And this vision should be respected and taken advantage of. In my hurried passings through the alley I came to envy the happy people and their peaceful time. To heck with youth politics.

I am not sure what you would choose, but tonight I'll go to my favourite tent, I'll listen to some music and get lurid youth politics out of my mind, while lying slothfully, for Christ's sake, on one of the big pillows.
So much for the youth vision, but everything comes at a price ;)

Stay tuned,
Cristian

Here is what met me this morning as I was on my way to the plenary hall to listen to the speech of the Brazilian president Luiz Inácio da Silva (nick name: Lula)

The venue of the assembly the brazilian city of Porto Alegre is supposed to be one of the riches cities in Brazil. Contrary to wold order it is the south which is the riches in Brazil. There is said to be huge difference between the north and the south.

The city seems very clean and nice. At the hotel they tell us not to go out at night by ourself, but I am not feeling particular unsafe here. Of course one should act wisely when being in a country with that big differnces between rich and poor. One thing that strikes me is: where are the beggers? One would expect that there would be a lot of people asking you for money, but I have not met one yet. I would probably meet more beggers walking around in my home city of Aarhus.

The campus where the assembly is taking place is a city in the city with walls with barb wire and glass surrounding it. Is it to keep to poor masses out? It feels a bit strange that the churches of the world meet in a place that is secluded from the rest of the surrounding society, but I see the logic to it.

Olà from Porto Alegre. I'm running out of synonims and concepts for hectic and frantic, so I'll have to abandon mentioning this soon. In any case, there's plenty to talk about.

First of all, the Ecumenical Conversations started today. While it is not a new concept as Assembly space for communication (former GS of the WCC, Kondrad Raiser told Habitus in a brief interview that the current ecumenical conversations occupy the place of former sub-sections in previous General Assemblies), the ecumenical conversations at this particular general gathering are different by being open to non-delegates, Mutirao participants and youth. There is a total of 22 different themes of ecumenical conversations, with issues ranging from youth, gender, inter-religious, sexuality, to economic justice and politics.

It took me a while to choose, but in the end I went for the "Public Life, Religion and Politics: Ambiguities and Possibilities". Well, at first I visited the "Emerging forms of Ecumenism", with a title so much linked with our workshop (as I said, report is coming soon :) ), but I followed my intuition and went for the former. Technically, each particular Ecumenical Conversation is meant to last for 3 days and so you have the time to choose if your ecumenical interest does not quite fit the initial choice.

All in all, I fell satisfied with it. There was an excellent input from Konrad Raiser, preceded and then followed by small group work, which in general is an excellent option for doing ecumenical work. Other participants told me that their Ecumenical Conversation consisted mainly of long (and rather boring) inputs, followed by meager and insubstantial talks, but fortunately this was not our case. Please read the Habitus front page report on dr. Raiser's input and his interview. About the coming developments, more to read on this blog the coming days.

pax,
Cristian

I am a Lutheran from the North so my first blog entry from the WCC assembly in Brazil is bound to be about methodology.

Just returning to the press office after attending the plenary on economic justice I am wondering if it is a good idea to have people come and read aloud their previously written scripts. Would it not be a much better idea to send out the documents before the meeting or distribute them the day before they are used? As a member of the press I have access to the documents in advance and I had today read some of the speeches before going to the plenary. So I knew already what they were going to say in their speeches.

This could of course be a mistake on my side. Maybe I should not have gone to the plenary. This brings me to the core of the matter: I can read the documents much faster by myself than if I have to sit and listen to someone reading them aloud. Also the translation is much better when reading the document than listing to a translator reading aloud the script in a noisy wireless headset. These might just be matters of convenience, but there is one aspect more: if people had read the statements before going it would leave time for the one thing always not prioritized: questions! Imagine how much more fruitful a plenary could be if there was 1.5 hours for questions instead on 0 minutes? Now the business committee is looking for space in the program to give room for questions and discussion about the economic justice issue – so it was announced today. This could be avoided by exploring new methodologies for a WCC plenary. But hey what do I know? I am just a Lutheran from the North of Europe.

keep focus,
Christian Pedersen

Porto Alegre, Feb. 16 - It's overcast today in Porto Alegre, with short bursts of drizzling, but apparently the liveliness of the Assembly has lost nothing yet. We keep to a strict timetable and usually arrive on campus at 8AM. A couple of days ago the Press Office was not even opened at this time, but the media put pressure on the organizers and here we are in our chilling environment at such a fresh hour of the day. We also usually work late into the night also in the hotel Embaixador's lobby, sharing beers and one network cable that provides a limited and rather moody internet connection.

Life on campus is hectic, with splitting to cover more events, running between press conferences, workshops and the plenary. Much work is done on the way. Basically we meet friends and acquaintaces every other step and it's really hard to browse through the enormous input of the alleys and corridors.

It's 9:35 AM now and issue no. 3 of "Transforma mundo", the Assembly newspaper has just arrived and is distributed around by the stewards of the media department. It smells nicely of ink and printing house. Hopefully we'll take some pictures of the first issues and put it here for everyone to see.

We had our Mutirão workshop yesterday (report soon) and now we can dedicate the rest of the time to the splendid task of being free press, roaming around and getting into the core of the burning issues. A press conference with cardinal Kaspers follows at 10AM, there's the first session of the Ecumenical Conversations starting at 11AM. Workshops follow (trying to catch the EYCE inter-religious one at 13:30) and more press-conferences in the afternoon together with another Assembly business session.

Agora means now in Portuguese.
Depois means later.

Cristian

The 9th Assembly has been declared the Youth Assembly par excellence and this is not just hollow rhetoric. The spirited and colourful life in the Mutirão, with its more than 2300 participants, is a magnificent example of how an official structure can be animated and galvanized in the background through diversity and celebration.

But the youth are also an important presence among the delegates, with 15% of the official church representatives being under 30. The second day of the GA, Feb 15th, and the first day of business, witnessed the first struggles to secure the space for the new generation in the Assembly Committees, with the German delegation proposing the co-option of a youth in the Nominations Committee, one of the first groups to be voted by the Assembly and one in which the youth were not represented.

The initiative was well received. Clapping and cheers accompanied the request in the plenary (they also were heard when other "minorities" tried to make their voice heard). But not everyone was happy. Our sources say that more conservative voices cynically and somwhat irresponsibly commented that the Mutirão, given its location in the carnival-oriented Brazil, is merely a summer festival, and that the issue of co-opting a youth representative in the NC is barely serious, despite the credentials of the young adult. However, it was under one condition that the respective Oriental bishop would agree that the youth be co-opted, namely if the person was ordained. His argument: only clergy can in reality tend to the welfare of the church. This caused some uproar, and according to German sources, this should have happened in the plenary, just to give everybody an idea of where backwardness can lead.

But the little uproar caused by these remarks has been somewhat put to rest by the extraordinary emphasis on youth of the Moderator, Catholicos Aram I, during his report. Reading the rather long document (available on the WCC assembly website) he took the liberty of skipping many pages due to time constraints. But he read the entire section on Youth and this was accompanied by frenzied applause.

The report of the Moderator, also his WCC testament, was a strong argument that with the change of the current moderator, the Orthodox voice loses an open mind in the higher structures of the WCC. Aram I's words casted an implacable shadow on the contemptuous remarks of bishop Yeznik Petrossian.
Sometimes hierarchy matters. ;)

Stay tuned,
Cristian

The Assembly started with the opening prayer, an event that brought together different traditions into the same timeframe and space. Every day of the Assembly is now marked by two ecumenical prayers, one in the morning, which is interconfessional, and one in the evening, which is denominational.
The evening prayer on the 15th of Feb. was prepared by the Methodist Church in Bolivia and the Bolivian delegation, with a specific Aymar (indigenous people) input. Here is the creed recited during the prayer:

AYMAR CREED
We believe
That God has created the earth, the hills, the lake, and by it they produce our crops.
We believe
In the unity of our communities and the wisdom of our elders.
We believe
In the struggle against hunger, in non violence, in the rising again of our peoples, in justice for the imprisoned
We believe
That God is present among the orphans, the humble and the poor.
We believe
That human beings, near and far, are our brothers and sisters.
We believe
In healing for the sick through the grasses growing on the pampas.
We believe
In the dignity of fisherfolk and of farmers.
We believe
In Jesus~s self-offering for all, and in the rituals for the land to yield its haravest.
We believe
In Mary, the Mother of all, as is Mother Earth.
We believe
In God's revelation through our protectors and the Achachilas.
We believe
In God's self-revelation in different ways in each people.
We believe
In the presence of God as believers meet and live together.
We believe
That every prayer is heard by God, because from God comes eternal life for all peoples.
We believe
That the Holy Spirit has come to liberate humankind from the hand of the devil.
Uqhamapan!Amen

Porto Alegre, Brazil, Feb 15 - Attending the press conferences, I have the impression that the life of the ecumenical journalist is much easier than the life of the regular media joe that earns his living by squeezing the last drop out of everything. During the first press conferences I was really surprised to discover the lack of unaccommodating questions. Not all the questions were downright bland, but I felt a certain complaisance animating the interogatory concerns of the press. The typical "What should WCC do to be heard more in the secular press?", otherwise inviting nothing but twisted diplomacy, or the apparent sharp questions addressing unclear points in the comments of those holding the conference, that in the end turned to show rather the lack of preparation of those asking. This for me, if thinking of the secular press in my country, seemed like a return in time, or if thinking of the religious press in my church, seemed like an unpleasantly familiar return in space.

A press conference was organized today with metropolitan Kyrill of Smolensk, head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Patriachate of Moscow. He seemed to close the mouth of everybody with the sudden annoucement of a "world summit of religious leaders" designed to come up with a crucial inter-religious statement just before the G8 summit hosted by Russia in mid-July 2006 (Russia currently has the presidency of the G8).

The press seemed to be amazed with this pompous announcement, forgetting to notice the lack of consistency of this declaration and therefore forgetting to corner bishop Kyrill and trying to get some emotions rolling from behind his seemingly impenetrable composure. After being asked about details, according to Kyrill there are for now only some unconclusive confirmations of some Christian leaders (he failed to make precise points), while the significant leaders from the non-Christian traditions have not yet confirmed the presence or availability.
With only six months to go, this might be nothing but empty talk, wishful thinking or grandeur hunting. Moreover, no one in the press questioned either the relevancy or the efficiency of such an inter-religious summit. In metropolitan Kyrill's own words uttered today, all meetings of this kind held in the wake of 9/11 failed by not being able to reach the heart of the clash of civilizations and/or cultures. They failed to reach the extremists in the religious tradition, and such they failed to put an end to terrorism, religious wars, religious animosities or even make religious enmities milder for a start.
What is it that makes metropolitan Kyrill think that such a summit held in Moscow and orchestrated by a Church that never ceased to show that it enjoys hard, strict and conservative stances, hardly conducive to dialogue and cooperation, would be a success? Is the Moscow patriarchate holding a secret card that we are not aware of? Does metropolitan Kyrill in particular think that rushing religious leaders from all over the world to Moscow or St. Petersburg just before the G8 meets and pressing hard for a common statment shall abruptly alleviate the world's political problems that stem from a clashing religious background? There are some for which this script looks like a recourse to the old ideological gatherings of the marxist times, when the voice of the people was hastily put together by the secretaries with propaganda.
Of course, maybe it would be nice to have a common statement coming from the world religous leaders, but then, wouldn't it be one of that long line of statements that bishop Kyrill deplored? What would be the extraordinary original input that the pre-G8 meeting would offer to the world of inter-religious dialogue? Is consensus among the big of the world enought to quench the hatred and vindictivness of the small of the world, of extremists and fundamentalists alike?
These were questions never asked in our small auditorium.

Hopefully, in the coming days, Habitus shall try to make a name with its poignant, striking, maybe brazen questions. But my own confession is that we are not here in any case to be afraid that we might lose anything by asking the difficult questions from the people that claim to be in the elite of the good-willing of the world.

Stay tuned,
Cristian

Dear friends, dear readers, dear ecumenical partners,

Greetings from South America. With some delay I managed to start the Habitus blogging and in the coming days I hope to keep you updated with news from the 9th Assembly of the WCC, with reports from the vibrant life of the Mutirão and glimpses of the ecumenical corridors.

I am writing this post from the press room of the GA, in a modern facility on campus of the Pontifical Catholic University of Porto Alegre, in the sound of keyboard clicks of hurried press correspondents (we are more than 120 here in Porto Alegre) and the cooling hum of the air conditioning fans that shelter us from the hot day outside.

There are many things to say and many things to cover, only time seems not enough for now. It's the second day of frenzied running-around for me and Christian in our reach to get to as many as possible significant moments of the Assembly. Despite our efforts we cannot physically cover everything that takes place on campus, either in the Plenary, where the delegates and guests gather for the WCC business sessions, in the Mutirão worksops, cultural presentations, conversations, bible studies etc that take place in tents, buildings and stands scattered around the entire area, or in the press facilities, with the numerous press conferences and briefings scheduled throughout the day.

Please stay tuned, however, and soon you'll be rewarded.

Todo bem,
Cristian

Here are some of the key sessions that is going to take place at the WCC assembly in Porto Alegre.

15 February Addresses of the moderator of the central committee, Catholicos Aram I of thegeneral secretary Samuel Kobia.

16 February "Economic justice - A world without poverty is possible!"

17 February "Christian identity and religious plurality"

18 February "Youth overcoming violence"

19 February "Latin America plenary"

20 February "Church unity - Claiming a common future"

21 February "God, in your grace, transform the world"

Make sure to read news from the assembly at the Habitus website:
www.habitusnetwork.org/portoalegre

It is now possible to give an donation online for the Habitus Network.

Habitus is a non-profit network that is dedicated to the study of Christianity in the world of today. The money collected will be used for this purpose. This could be for seminars, making more resources available at the website,employing staff, expanding the network etc.

To make a donation go to www.habitusnetwork.org and press the "PayPal Donate" bottom.

We thank you in advance for your contribution - big or small.

Habitus together with WSCF India is arranging a workshop at the Mutirao at the World Council of Churches assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Learn about Ecumeninical formation and youth when you join us on the 15th of February for the workshop.

3 Habitus members are soon departing for Brazil to cover the World Council of Churches 9th assembly 14-23 February.

News, photos and of course blog entries will appear on the Habitus website.

Please check: http://habitusnetwork.org/portoalegre

"The BBC plans to mark the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ this Easter with an hour-long live procession through the streets of Manchester featuring pop stars from The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays and featuring songs by The Smiths and New Order."

Read the whole article by Ben Dowell here

The inter-religious seminar organized by the Ecumenical Youth Council in Europe (EYCE) together with the Forum of European Muslim and Youth Organisations (FEMYSO) took place this year in Sliema, Malta 4th - 11th December 2005. The seminar was hosted by ZAK Malta, one of EYCE's member organisatios, with great hospitality. Over 35 young Christians and Muslims from all corners of Europe, including members of Habitus, took part in the event.

Read Habitus member Laura Hytti's report here

Read the encyclical here

John L. Allan has made a thorough analisis of the encyclical in The Word from Rome:
http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/word/word012706.htm

"The period proceeding a General Assembly of the World Council of Churches is a natural time for self-review and self-evaluation within the ecumenical world. It is a moment when past achievements and aspirations of the movement can be weighed and measured, and future goals and hopes articulated. It is a time when basic assumptions, methods, and trends in inter-church relations can be revisited, problems identified, and new formulations proposed."

David Wagschal in the new online journal, Speaking of Unity, published by the US NCC.

See full article here

"I suppose the reason why, despite everything, people still listen to Roman rumors is that every now and then they're right on the money. Such was the case Dec. 17, when Pope Benedict XVI appointed Archbishop Pietro Sambi as the new nuncio, or ambassador, to the United States, thereby confirming speculation that literally stretched back years."

John L. Allan in The Word from Rome