Feature stories

The rebuilding of a church destroyed by human hatred and ideology can be a sign of God's transformative grace, says bishop Margot Kaessmann in the following article, reflecting on the theme of the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches: God, in your grace, transform the world.

With blue and orange cards in their hands, delegates at the 9th World Council of Churches (WCC) Assembly gathered in Porto Alegre next February will wave goodbye to old-style parliamentary majority votes. Does the Council's future lie in consensus decision-making?

It was the Latin American Churches that first suggested divine grace as a theme for the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches. In the following article, a Latin American theologian reflects on what it means to pray "God in your grace, transform the world" in Latin America today.

The excitement and brilliance of the carnival, the grace and skill of soccer, the exotic tropical beaches and the uproar of political scandals: these are some superficial snapshots of Brazil, a country rich in natural resources and creativity but battered by poverty. What is the country that will host the World Council of Churches' 9th Assembly next February really like?

A spear buried on the common border of two nomadic-pastoralist communities in the North Rift region of Kenya marked the end of bloody clashes a couple of decades ago. Today, the two rivals need the churches to help them arrest a fast-growing gun culture.

''The theme of the upcoming 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) is a prayer: God, in your grace, transform the world. But perhaps we ought to ask the question 'What would we do if God actually answered that prayer?' Or 'Dare we pray for transformation?'

The World Council of Churches (WCC) wants to make its Ninth Assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil, a space where young people are welcome and enabled to speak - and be heard. "We are doing our best for young people to have as much of an impact as possible," says Natalie Maxson, the person responsible for the WCC's youth programme.

They had literally groped in the dark for ages. But for the past three years, more than a thousand upland folk in a remote village in northern Philippines have felt blessed because they are finally seeing the light of fluorescent bulbs.

The theme for the World Council of Churches (WCC) 9th Assembly, to be held in Porto Alegre, Brazil 14-23 February 2006, invites us to return to, and re-appropriate, the resources of prayer.

People going to Brazilian churches these days have the opportunity not only to free themselves of the weight of their sins but also of their weapons and the risks entailed in their possession.