August 24, 2005

SAO LEOPOLDO, Brazil/GENEVA – A former president of the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil (IECLB) has called for change within the Brazilian Lutheran church, saying its current structure was not viable for the church's growth and future.

Rev. Dr Gottfried Brakemeier, IECLB President 1985-1994, said the "feared division of the IECLB is in process," due to different currents organized as movements within the church. He stressed the need to invest in the church's continuity, which implied eliminating internal barriers that were impeding growth, controlling its centrifuge forces and joining together in a common project.

Brakemeier, also former president of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), 1990-1997, issued his remarks in an article sent electronically in June to leaders and movements within the church as "a contribution toward a necessary debate." It became known to a wider public in July, weeks after the current IECLB President, Rev. Dr Walter Altmann had issued a pastoral letter warning that the church could face a "painful schism" impelled by a charismatic movement within it.

Altmann's pastoral letter, issued July 9, named four pastors who asked to be withdrawn from the church's clergy roster, and three congregations that have constituted themselves independently. The IECLB Council decided to distribute Brakemeier's article widely for discussion within the church that has around 1,200 congregations served by more than 800 pastors.

IECLB President Walter Altmann Affirmed Rejection of Re-baptism

Theological questions are at the root of the conflict. In December 2004, Altmann stated the church's rejection of the practice of re-baptism that pastors linked to the charismatic movement had introduced into Lutheran congregations. His recent pastoral letter clarified that the IECLB was opposed to the practice of re-baptism due to confessional issues, but did not reject the re-baptized people. The church, Altmann affirmed, "must be willing and be prepared to pastorally cope with all people who, for reasons of conscience, have submitted to re-baptism."

The forces Brakemeier was referring to are internal movements in the same structure including the Lutheran Grassroots Pastoral movement, Encontrao Movement, the Christian Union Evangelical Mission, Martin Luther Communion, and Charismatic Renewal. He emphasized, however, that the differences were not harmful as long as the sectors remained integrated and focused toward the same direction.

He also cited the IECLB's three theological faculties, formation centers with different bibliographic references and theological orientation and the movements, which have their own devotionals, song books, publishing houses and administrative systems.

Brakemeier emphasized that the major victims of these discrepancies were the communities and parishes. "If they had opted in favor of one of the ‘lines' in the IECLB, the rupture would have taken place long ago," he remarked.

The Lutheran leader referred to a study by former IECLB secretary general, Rev. Gerd Uwe Kliewer, indicating that the church's membership barely grew 0.3 percent from 1997 to 2002. It had 715,000 members in 2002, less than 0.5 percent of Brazil's estimated population of 180 million.

Brakemeier also challenged the IECLB about its role as a missionary church. Timid in the past, because it limited itself to offering pastoral support to German immigrants, the IECLB, in an increasingly multi-religious setting, must urgently define its identity in "rigorously confessional terms," he said. He recommended "ecumenical learning" in the use of media for evangelization, without necessarily trying to imitate methods used by other Christians.

Brakemeier invited people to rediscover the delight of the Lutheran faith. "Its delight is not limited to some dogmas of faith. It is a way of being." The Lutheran confession invites people to faith without prohibiting critical reasoning, he added.

The IECLB currently has 710,000 members. It joined the LWF in 1952.

Lutheran World Information
From the Latin American and Caribbean News Agency.