UnitingWorld : Partnership for effective involvement in mission including development

This chapter argues that, both theologically and practically, development is a form of mission and therefore dividing 'mission' and 'development' is artificial. A theological understanding of mission clearly incorporates upholding rights especially of people most excluded and vulnerable, the core task of development.One church agency involved in both development and supporting partners in communicating the gospel is UnitingWorld – the national agency of the Uniting Church in Australia responsible for international partnerships including development. The Uniting Church was formed in 1977 from the merging of three denominations, all of which had a long history of overseas engagement – for example with Fiji since 1844 and Korea since 1889. Such partnerships have endured and spread to the point where the Uniting Church now has thirty six formal partners, mainly in the Pacific and Asia.Over the past 20 years, a range of social trends, such as decolonisation, climate change, and increased global commitment to justice, as well as changes in missiological thinking, have influenced collaboration with indigenous churches as well as organisations not explicitly Christian.Recolonising approaches by international inter-government bodies and by the Australian government through promoting predominantly western neo-liberal economic values to neighbours, invites the church to collaborate in valuing partner cultures, spiritualities, values and world-views. For UnitingWorld this is most evident in its Pacific engagement, especially with programs arising from the Pacific Conference of Churches.These factors have further relativised the tensions between what was seen as “mission” and what was seen as “development”. Evangelism as communication of good news exhibits a different hue – now coming out of the natural conversations between partners and speaking of God’s life- giving alternatives to destructive social and economic models. Whilst development is inherent in mission, the major challenge faced by UnitingWorld is with Protestant partners strongly influenced by an era of church teaching that emphasised personal commitment tied to distinctive religious expressions.In this chapter we use case studies from the Pacific to show how UnitingWorld is partnering with a range of church and other organisations to support people in exercising their rights and re-engaging Australian church communities in this task.

Innovative delivery mechanisms: Australian aid partnership with churches in Papua New Guinea

The Australian Aid programme is currently valued at AUD5 billion. The majority of this aid flows to the Asia Pacific region with Papua New Guinea and Indonesia being the largest recipients. In addition to traditional delivery mechanisms-bilateral and multilateral-the Australian Government has piloted a small partnership activity with Churches in Papua New Guinea. This paper will consider this model and the benefit it brings. Possible extension of this partnership model to non-Christian religious faiths in other countries, such as Islamic nationwide organisations in Indonesia, is also discussed.

GÊNERO E RELAÇÕES DE PODER NO PENTECOSTALISMO: ESTUDO COMPARATIVO ENTRE A IGREJA DE CRISTO NO BRASIL E A COMUNIDADE EVANGÉLICA SARA NOSSA TERRA

Based on the empirical comparative study between two churches from Pentecostal guidance - both located in Parnamirim/RN - and supported on a dialogic interaction between my interlocutors and theoretical references, I proposed me to reflect about how this protestant segment represents and articulates questions such as gender and power relationships, and the daily impact of that in their followers life. In other words, this dissertation aims to understand the reason of the asymmetry attributed to male and female, especially in what concerns the distribution of ecclesiastic works and the authority given to male, as well as the implication of this reality in the reconfiguration of morality and religious praxis in daily life of individuals and involved groups. From this perspective, this work was divided in three chapters, in which I investigate the tension/relationship between faith and secularism, for from this question on concessions and/or prohibitions related to the limits and involvement of the followers with the world and with the very Pentecostal ethos arise. I also analyze here aspects concerning to both ecclesiastic hierarchy and power, with the objective of elucidating how it occurs, what kind of criteria and implications they consider as well as about the nature of the religious labor division between men and women and, finally, I try to understand how the conversion/adhesion of members is reflected in the redefinitions of gender and its relationship between the ecclesiastical and domestic spaces. The diligence and energy spent in this work is in the hope that its fruits can corroborate in the expansion of anthropological knowledge which, in this particular case, involves the Brazilian Pentecostal phenomenon

Práticas de cura místico-religiosas, psicoterapia e subjetividade contemporânea

Nous avons analysé les résultats d'une recherché sur les pratiques de guérison mystico-religieuses (chez les Églises Évangéliques et Catholique Renovée, et chez l'Oumbanda). Ainsi que leur comparaison avec le traitement fourni, chez les Ambulatoires de Santé Mentale publiques, aux individus se plaignant de souffrance psychique. L'analyse statistique a révélé que les pratiques de guérison mystico-religieuses sont efficaces à la solution des problèmes de ceux qui les ont cherché, en surmontant, dans le court délai, l'efficacité obtenue par les pratiques ambulatoriales. Un des principaux moyens d'efficacité des pratiques de guérison mystico-religieuses consiste dans l'offre de sens de diverses nuances, d'où se ressort le sens radical de teneur imaginaire, qui implique en des adhésions institutionelles du type fanatique ou ritualistique en bonne partie des cas. Les pratiques de guérison mystico-religieuses semblent fonctioner comme des orthopédies des maladies de l'individualisme contemporain, en réinstallant, par des moyens syntoniques, quelque fonctionalité de la catégorie individu. Comme suite de l'analyse, nous arrivons à l'hypothèse sur l'existence d'une Culture du Mysticisme en état avancé de formation dans le contexte brésilien, comme conséquence des caractéristiques culturelles et des effets de la perturbation des rapports du sujet avec le domaine du symbolique, dans les sociétés de consommation mondialisées à exclusion sociale accentuée et affectées par une importante crise de sens, conséquence de l'ébranlement des idéaux les plus basilaires du libéralisme.

Gênero, pentecostalismo e formação de professores na construção da cidadania: as professoras da congregação Cristã no Brasil

Pós-graduação em Educação - FCT

Entre a sacristia e o laboratório: os intelectuais protestantes brasileiros e a produção da cultura (1903-1942)

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Siberian Wooden Churches: Reality and Symbolics

The preservation of Siberia's cultural heritage poses a serious problem. Many Siberian churches were destroyed or reconstructed, without their original form being carefully described. Mainicheva studied the question of Siberian wooden churches of the 17th-18th centuries, producing a complex analysis of their symbolism, phenomenology and morphology. Published and archival materials show that such unique churches as the Sophia Cathedral in Tobolesk (1621), the Trinity Church in Tomsk (1654) and the Church of Kazan Holy Mother in Ilimsk (1679) directly reflected the main features of medieval Russian culture combined with new perceptions of Man and the Universe. These Russian Orthodox churches have considerable significance for understanding the natural development of Russian architecture as a part of the Russian culture of permanently moving people. All these churches, which no longer exist in their original form, were built by unknown folk builders and represented a good example of non-professional architecture. Mainicheva developed full descriptions of the churches, including graphic reconstructions of their original plans and facades.

CAP Reform vs WTO: Crop Diversification or Crop Rotation? : Legal opinion prepared by Dr. Christian Häberli at the request of APRODEV, the Association of World Council of Churches related Development Organisations in Europe

The European Commission’s proposals for the Legislative Framework of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the period 2014-2020 include, inter alia, the introduction of a “strong greening component”. For the first time, all EU farmers in receipt of support are to “go beyond the requirements of cross compliance and deliver environmental and climate benefits as part of their everyday activities crop diversification as a contribution to all EU farmers in receipt of support go beyond the requirements of cross compliance and deliver environmental and climate benefits as part of their everyday activities.” In a legal opinion prepared at the request of APRODEV, the Association of World Council of Churches related Development Organisations in Europe (www.aprodev.eu), Christian Häberli examines the WTO implications of this proposal, as compared with an alternative proposal to rather link direct payments to crop rotation. The conclusions are twofold: 1. Crop rotation is at least as likely to be found Green Box-compatible as crop diversification. Moreover, it will be more difficult to argue that crop diversification is “not more than minimally production-distorting” because it entails for most farmers less cost and work. 2. Even if (either of the two cropping schemes) were to be found “amber”, the EU would not have to relinquish this conditionality. This is because the direct payments involved would in all likelihood not, together with the other price support instruments, exceed the amount available under the presently scheduled maximum.