Leader in Latin American evangelism to speak at New Wineskins convocation
By Craig M. Kibler, The Layman Online, May 6, 2005
A leader in Latin American evangelism will be one of the speakers from the world church during a national convocation considering a “bold new design” for the Presbyterian Church (USA).
The convocation, with the theme “Following Christ into the 21st Century,” will be held June 15-18 at Christ Presbyterian Church in Edina, Minn.
The Rev. Dr. Ludgero Morais, executive secretary of the Supreme Council and stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil, has spoken often about “liberalism’s threat to the integrity of Reformed Christian faith.”
The Presbyterian Church of Brazil is a rapidly growing body of Reformed Christians. Morais has served his congregation in for 25 years in Belo Horizonte, the capital city of Minas Gerais province. When he began his ministry there, Morais said his province only had 13 congregations. That same province, he said, has grown to 148 congregations and more than 600,000 members today.
In 1999, the Presbyterian News Service characterized the Presbyterian Church of Brazil as “an unabashedly conservative million-member denomination, the fruit of the first Protestant missionary forays into Brazil more than a century ago. [It] broke its ties with the Presbyterian Church (USA) in the 1970s.”
In the spring of 2003, the Witherspoon Society criticized the Presbyterian Church of Brazil as “fundamentalist,” and said its leaders had “purged its seminaries of their progressive professors and students.” Those “progressives,” according to the Witherspoon Society, then formed their own denomination, the United Presbyterian Church of Brazil.
Delegates to the convocation also will refine and vote on draft documents that propose new statements of faith essentials and ethical imperatives, as well as a revised constitution that calls for greater flexibility, a new approach to leadership development at the congregational level and a pared-down, adaptive service structure at the national level.
While the convocation will include preaching, prayer and worship, as well as an international flavor with guests and speakers from Presbyterian churches around the world, the focus will be on how evangelical Presbyterians respond to what task force leaders called “grave concerns about the health and effectiveness of our present organization” in theology, mission and structure.
More information about the convocation is available on a special convocation Web site, or contact “Following Christ into the 21st Century” at 888-754-9693, or 7435 E. Oxford Ct., Wichita, Kan. 67226.