|PIC1|The World Council of Churches is increasing their efforts in its preparations for its 9th Assembly that will take place from 14-23 February 2006 in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The council is looking to offer a hugely diverse and innovative programme for more than 3,000 delegates that are expected to attend from all Christian backgrounds and regions.

The moderator of the international planning committee, Norman Shanks, who is overseeing the preparations for the event, has announced that the Assembly programme will be both creative and diverse, with participants to be provided with endless attractions to interact and share insights of their own experiences.

The Assembly will be held in the Catholic Pontifical University (PUC), which will offer a modern area as well as a perfect meeting setting.

The PUC has great experience in hosting major international events, and has previously hosted such worldwide events as the World Social Forum, which was attended by 30,000 people.

|PIC2|The WCC has told that they are expecting approximately 1,200 “core participants”, including church delegates and representatives of related organisations, in addition to about 1,800 others, which will be made up from ecumenical partner agencies, student groups and so on.

The theme of the Assembly will be ‘God, in your grace, transform the world’. It has been established in the form of a prayer, and has been chosen to reflect the need for healing and change, and for all members of society to recognise their dependence on God.

The WCC state that this theme will “flow” through the Assembly, and specific days of the event will be entirely devoted to explore the various dimensions of the Assembly: “transform... the earth, our societies, our churches, our lives, our witness.”

Over the three core days of the Assembly, delegates will communicate in “ecumenical conversations” and choose from various topics relevant to the life and witness of the church in today’s era. Topics that are expected to arise are the changing religious, cultural, ecumenical, social and political landscape - from HIV/AIDS to the challenge of racism, from mission and evangelism to information technology and bioethics.

At the core of the Assembly the plenary sessions have been laid down and confirmed as: economic justice; Christian identity in a pluralistic world; church unity and the future of ecumenism; and youth overcoming violence.

|AD|The gathering will be the first to be hosted in Latin America, and to celebrate this, the programme will engage with the regional context through the involvement of local churches, national and local ecumenical bodies, and through the expected participation of many visitors from the region.

A great highlight of the week will be a special ‘Latin America Day’, and will combine prayer, presentations and an evening dedicated to the culture of the region.

Youth will also be a focus of the Assembly, and the organisers of the event are hoping that the Assembly will qualify as a youth event also, with active and visible contributions playing a part in the overall celebrations. A special Assembly youth camp will host young people from Latin America.

Rev. Dr Norman Shank, who is the minister of Govan Old Parish Church, Glasgow (Church of Scotland), was a member of the central committee elected at the Harare Assembly and is moderator of the Assembly planning committee. He concluded, “I have no doubt that the WCC's 9th Assembly will be a life-shaping and -transforming experience for all those involved as well as for those who will be accompanying the event. My prayer is that all may be open to the grace-filled, graceful possibilities that the Assembly offers, and that the experience and decisions will permeate, influence, enrich and transform our churches and our world. God, in your grace, transform the world!”