180 YEARS
A group of German immigrants of the Evangelical faith arrived in Nova Friburgo / RJ on May 3rd of 1824 and another group in São Leopoldo / RS on July 25th of 1824. These constituted the first congregations of what today is the Igreja Evangélica de Confissão Luterana no Brasil - IECLB (The Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil). Other groups followed. The Evangelical immigrants, of various nationalities, were mostly Lutherans, but there were also Reformed (Calvinists) and United. Congregations arose regionally and, later, the synods, with their own peculiarities. Only after many years, in truth, after more than a century, did the Evangelical congregations develop and define their theological and ecclesiastical identity as being of the Lutheran confession. They also constituted a national church, the IECLB. This took place in 1949, with the creation of the Synod Federation, this name later giving way to the current name of the church.
Going over our history of 180 years in retrospective, since those first congregations, we register, recognize and emphasize:
Our gratitude
Amidst many adversities and unfulfilled promises made by the imperial authorities, those immigrants, men and women with their families and, later, their descendants, constituted congregations that were characterized by mutual help. Most of them farmers, they developed, in the midst of difficulties, a prosperous economy, based on small farming, aimed at the production of basic food crops for the population. Handicraft persons and store owners, small business people and manufacturers, provided, first to the rural communities and later, to the cities, in particular in the southern part of country and in the state of Espírito Santo, a peculiar shade, in which cultural values, work ethic, emphasis on education and, not last, valorization of the church, occupied a special place. Confronted with the frequent omission of the State in many different areas, as for example, in education and health, they took their own initiatives and made them flourish. In this whole process they contributed decisively to a more balanced development of the economy of our nation.
We are especially grateful for the ecclesiastical and theological inheritance. Communities of faith were constituted. Church and School walked hand in hand. Those immigrants and their descendants persevered in the Evangelical faith and passed it down to their sons and daughters. When there were no pastors or trained teachers, they chose among the members those who could best fulfill these respective functions. They maintained and developed a sober spirit when dealing with religious issues, respecting faiths different from theirs. They experienced in a peculiar manner the marvelous gift of Christian freedom. The Bible, the Catechism - mainly Luther's Small Catechism - singing and praying fed their faith.
They highly valued the family and cooperativism. Although preserving in good measure their cultural traditions, for example, the id of their houses, the cooking, the way of dressing, their celebrations and, not last, their language, from early on they understood themselves as citizens of this nation which had taken them in, as it had done with other immigrant contingents, and they understood that they were contributing to the well being and progress of the new nation. During the period of the two great wars there was an identity crisis. Victims of exacerbated nationalism, they were looked upon with suspicion and suffered a series of discriminations. However, they overcame the painful experience, strengthening themselves in their conviction and posture as citizens, as full participants amidst the Brazilian people and committed with this country.
As a Church we are also grateful for the exchange relationships and the support, that, over time, have been established with missionary churches and societies from Germany, the country of origin of most of the Evangelical immigrants, and more recently, from other countries. These relations and the support have contributed to the development of an organized church and one open to ecumenical cooperation and to exchange between churches of different countries. The IECLB is progressively developing as a multicultural and multi-ethnic entity, involved in promoting citizenry and a community spirit, although in a slow process, which is as much due to our cultural baggage as to the fact that we purposefully renounce proselytizing practices.
Our guilt
Although the humble immigrants of the past could not have been aware of this reality, the fact is, that upon their arrival to Brazil they occupied, in many ways, the social place that could have and should have belonged to the indigenous communities, the original owners of these lands, and to the African communities of the slave states of Colonial and Imperial Brazil. It is emblematic that the first families of German immigrants to arrive in São Leopoldo, were housed in former slave quarters.
Even though it be unintentional, the communities that were developed are, therefore, part of the history of injustice and social imbalance of our country. And, in spite of the discrimination that they themselves were victims of, the immigrant communities, compared with the indigenous and the Afro-Brazilian communities, obtained a privileged space in the Brazilian society. Colonization projects sponsored by the State conceded or sold land inhabited by the indigenous people to the farmers. This fact constituted the first cause of the situations of sharp tension and conflict that exist yet today among the indigenous people and the farmers, a number of whom are members of the IECLB.
We need to equally recognize that in many places a feeling of cultural superiority over other ethnic groups, particularly over the indigenous and the afro groups, arose and prospered among the members of the Church. We are, still today, victims and authors of prejudice against those who are different. This is also felt in the new areas to where many of our members migrated carried by the flow of internal migration. In the year that the Jewish community commemorates its 100 years of immigration to the state of Rio Grande do Sul, we recognize with deep sorrow that during the period in which social nationalism reigned in Germany we were not totally immune to the influences of the ideology of the Aryan racial superiority.
In the life of our congregations, many times a superficial traditionalism puts itself over the need to deepen the issues of faith. The Bible has been relegated, to a great extent, to usage only in worship services and in confirmation ides, losing its place as the daily source for family devotions. The spiritual and evangelization task has been preponderantly delegated to the pastors, no longer being the responsibility of the congregation itself and of all the faithful as integral participants in the general priesthood of all people who believe.
In all this we need God's forgiveness and the forgiveness of those whom we have offended.
Our commitment
Placed before this reality we wish to reaffirm the values for which we are grateful and to commit ourselves to a practice of overcoming those issues for which we have confessed our guilt. Along with the 18th Church Assembly in Pelotas / RS (1992) we reaffirm that God is not racist and that, therefore, we must overcome all racial prejudice within us and among us. In the 70 years of the Barmen Confession, which we celebrate in 2004, this being the document with which the confessing Christians of Germany resisted the interference of the Nazi State in the life of the church, we declare our identification with the theological concepts emitted therein. Thus, confessing the sovereignty of God revealed to us in Jesus Christ, we do not acknowledge any other authority over us other than that of this God of love. Therefore, we cannot make any distinction of value among people, all of them being created in the image of God, and for whom Jesus Christ gave himself. We affirm the need to wholly respect cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity.
e commit ourselves particularly to:
- work in favor of peace, justice and the integrity of all creation;
- carry out in congregational living, in mission and in diaconia, a practice aimed at social inclusion, overcoming all sorts of exclusions;
- assume more intensively our public responsibility, contributing to making Brazil a more just and solidary nation, overcoming poverty and wretchedness;
- join our ecumenical involvement with our task in mission, aiming at proclaiming without fear the evangelical reasons for the hope that is in us in face of the challenges that present themselves in our reality, as well as with full respect for the diversity of religious options.
We beseech the God of all grace that he accept our gratitude, be benevolent toward our guilt and support us in our commitment.
XXIV Church Convention
São Leopoldo, October 16, 2004.
