WCC Assembly - Post #2

Hi ya´ll:

If you haven´t heard, the big thing happening on campus yesterday was the youth protest that happened during the last plenary of the day.

This protest, from what I saw, was mostly stewards that were protesting. What they were protesting about was the fact that 25% of the Central Committee would not be made up of youth, and they felt that that was unfair and that was silencing the youth.

I would like to go on record as saying that I did NOT support this youth protest. Why? While I do feel that while it would be nice to have 25% of the Central Cmte made up of youth, 1) it is NOT a realistic figure, and 2) it was not the place or the time to make such a protest.

Why is it not a realistic figure? Well, because the Central Cmte is made up of delegates to the WCC assembly, and there certaintly weren´t 25% of the delegates to the assembly under 30. To be a member of the Central Cmte, you have to be a delegate. So, there was not the constituency to draw from. That´s a major problem, sports fans.

Why was it not the place or the time to protest? Well, in my most humble opinion, which, at points, tends not to be humble, the place where the protests needed to happen was at the local level, when the delegates were chosen. It should have been earlier, because there was nothing that the assembly floor could have done about it.

Learn some timing and do your HOMEWORK if you´re going to do a protest. This protest was acknowledged by the moderator, and then, as I read it, immediately dismissed.

To me, this sounds like something the CFS would pull...it had about as much effect as they do, anyway.

Talk to you all soon.

Grace and Peace,

Matt

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P.S. This blog entry, or any of the ones before it, is the opinion of the author, and not of any body connected to the Anglican Church of Canada. Just thought I´d remind you, in case you either didn´t know, or forgot.

WCC Assembly Post #1

Hi ya´ll:

Well, right now, I´m sitting in my hotel taking the morning off to catch up on some of my studies, and decided that this would probably be a good time to catch up on my blog.

I thank those of you who have e-mailed me over the past couple of days. It´s been good to talk to some of you. I encourage you to keep e-mailing me. I will definately read your e-mail, but if I don´t reply, please forgive me, because it is very hard trying to find time to sit down and actually write e-mails.

Well, it´s been a very interesting assembly so far. The opening day, Tuesday, Feb 14, was pretty basic with orientations and a workshop. I chose to attend the workshop on violence in David´s household (and ours), which studied the rape of Tamar from 1 Samuel (I believe, can´t quite remember right now), and how we could use it to educate people about rape. Very cool, very interesting. I just might have to use the bible study back at the university (coming soon!). After the workshop, there was a opening plenary, which I used to goof off and visit the exhibitions hall and learn more about different groups. I got hooked up with the World Student Christian Federation, which I am hoping to bring back to UBC Okanagan, and have UCM have some kind of partnership with them. After that, was the opening service, which was absolutely wonderful, with awesome music (which I will use back at home), an awesome liturgy, and a pretty good sermon (that in all honestly, went way too long. The copy I have is 8 pages single spaced, read slowly. Imagine how long that would take...)

Well, actually, that´s the only day that I really remember, because it´s all been a blur. For more information on what´s actually been happening, I recommend you check out http://www.wcc-assembly.info. It´s got more news about the conference that you can shake a stick at, with pictures...and if you look hard enough, you´ll see a picture of yours truly listening intently to a discussion!

What I´d like to do is give you my thoughts on what I´ve seen and done over the last couple of days. First off, I´d like to make a few comments on my ecumencial conversation. For those of you who don´t know what I´m talking about, ecumenical conversations took place on all different kinds of topics. The topic that I chose was Keeping the Faith in a Cyber-World. We had about 3 Orthodox priests/bishops; an Orthodox moderator, and an Orthodox resource person. Talk about blowing stereotypes away in about thirty seconds. Anyway, in this discussion we talked about how to use technology to promote our churches, especially to the youth. Overall, it was a very good series of conversations, and I will take lots away from it.

Secondly, well, I've only been involved with a little bit of the politics of the WCC, but let me tell you, it's been a wild ride...if you want to know more, feel free to ask. I'd be more than happy to share that, but in a more private setting.

Well, it's all been great so far. I've met so many new people and made many contacts for all my different ministries. I even got a picture with +Rowan, the Archbishop of Canterbury! I've been socializing almost every night with the Anglican delegation to the WCC, and that's been great to connect with them.

Well, I think that's about it for now...once more, please, feel free to e-mail me. I'd love to chat with you all...talk to you soon.

Grace and Peace,

Matt

Back in Porto Alegre

Hi ya´ll.

My apologies for taking such a long time to post, but being in backwoods middle of nowhere, nobody seems to have a computer. It almost wasn´t pretty at all.

So, as many of you know, last Saturday morning, I flew to Toronto and stayed there until Monday night. On Sunday morning, as is my tradition when I´m in Toronto, I attended Holy Trinity, and in the afternoon, I went to St. James´Cathedral for a organ recital followed by a Choral Evensong. Damn...I miss Choral Evensong. After that, I chilled in the hotel room and watched three consecutive hours of Crossing Jordan.

Monday morning entailed orientation to this trip...information overload, to be more precise...some of the stuff, I knew already from doing all my work with the PWRDF, but some I didn´t, and it was good to have that information before I got here in Brazil. Monday night we flew out to Sao Paulo. 10 hours on a plane is never easy...especially when at 2AM in the morning (Toronto time), the unaccompanied minors on the plane decide to start screaming. Why I am still in youth ministry is beyond me. I guess that I like kids when they are calm. We arrived in Sao Paulo, cleared customs like a breeze, and were on another flight to Porto Alegre. We stayed in Porto Alegre on the Tuesday night. Not much happened here, because we were all exhausted by the amount of travelling we have done.

So, Wednesday morning comes around, and we have more travelling to do. This time, it´s a nine hour bus ride to Tenente Portela, which is northeast of Porto Alegre. We basically travelled that day, and when we got to Tenente Portela, we just had dinner and went to bed.

Thursday morning was our first indigenous community visit. The community was called, oddly enough, km10. Yes, that is what I typed. We visited a Kangingang community, and visited with the chief and discussed how life was in the community. We would revisit this community later...in the afternoon, we visited another Kangingang community, called writing stick in English, and discussed more about the life of the community, and the justice system in these communities. I´ll explain more when I get home, as internet time here is precious.

Friday we spent on a Guarinee community, and learned about their daily life. We toured the community, which happened to be much more spread out than a Kangingang community. I also noticed that there was no Christian church in this community, but there was a prayer house and a shaman who would act as the healer for the community. We had lunch with the community, and spent the afternoon meeting with the community and answering questions about life in Canada.

Saturday, we visited a sustainable development project in an indigenous community and learned how they grew corn for their own use. At lunch time, we went back to the first community we visited and particpated as guests of honour at a wedding. In the afternoon, we met with the PWRDF partners and discussed problems we saw in the indeigous communities.

Today was a nine-hour bus ride back to Porto Alegre...it´s been a long day, and I´m going to call it quits here.

Please, if you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at <email address removed for SPAM protection>. I´ll try to check e-mails on a daily basis.

I hope all is well in your respective communities. Talk to you soon.

Grace and Peace,

Matt