Porto Alegre - WCC general assembly

The assembly finished yesterday with a nice closing prayer where a "black" America sermon (applause etc.) was one of the highlights.

A lot of decisions have of course been made at the assembly. Regarding youth the assembly has approved the creation of a youth body of the WCC.

In my eyes it is still to be seen if it will change anything. In Samuel Kobia description this body would consist of the youth which would be in the other committees of the WCC. Thus no more young persons would be involved. Also it is very uncertain if there is resources for this body to do any work. Maybe they will just meet 2 times in the next 7 years? Also if the WCC takes the youth serious as they claim in their press release they should allocate money for programs etc. for the youth work. In Europe e.g. the WCC does not have separate youth work. The good people at the Ecumenical Youth Council in Europe and the WSCF Europe are doing a good work for the youth, but these are independent bodies. So if the WCC prioritizes youth it must show it more visible. The creation of the youth body could just be a way of silencing the youth for a while. But I can be proven wrong and lets hope I do!

In 15 minutes I am going to have a massage here at my hotel. I wanted to write in the blog before that since I am not sure what remains of my motoric skills after the untrained Brazilian chief has been working on my spine.