It’s an event that will bring together over 3,000 delegates in the Brazilian city. They will come as representatives of the majority of the world’s Christian traditions. The 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) already promises to be the biggest world meeting of its kind ever held. It will be held in Brazil from 14 to 23 February 2006 and have as its theme: “God, in your grace, transform the world”. The event will be held in the Events Centre of the Pontifical University in Porto Alegre: a venue that has already accommodated important international meetings, such as the Social Forum on issues of world solidarity that was attended by some 30,000 people. It is expected that the WCC Assembly will be attended by 1,200 official guests including delegates and representatives of WCC partner organizations. To these will be added a further 1,800 people, simple visitors, youth groups, members of ecumenical organizations. “The theme – explains Norman Shanks, Scottish chairman of the preparatory committee is presented in the form of a prayer to express that the world and we ourselves have a need to be saved and transformed, that this depends on God, but that all of us have a role to play in this process of change”. The theme will occupy the delegates throughout the whole period of the Assembly and “will be studied in all its various dimensions: transformation of the earth, of societies, of the churches, of our life, and of our witness”.
