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December 2000
Dear Friends,
As Christmas approaches and we think of God Incarnate, coming
to earth, we also look forward to his coming again.
If, on coming again, he finds a temple with the entryway clogged
by moneychangers, how would he respond? That seems to be an easy
one, but for us there’s more.
If he finds people in cities, living in crowded, moldy quarters
that are also inhabited by rats? (Linnis works with such people,
in tenement houses called "cortiços," in the
center of São Paulo.)
If he finds people in these places who could put up with the
rats, if it weren’t for the human being who takes their money
to pay the water bill, and then doesn’t pass it on to the
water company, which in its turn cuts off the water? (That’s
where Linnis tries to help.)
If he finds people struggling to relieve situations like this?
Or to change these situations?
If he finds young people singing his praises in a small church,
and staying off drugs? (Like the churches of Jardim Guarujá
and Grajau, which Arch knows, on the periphery of São Paulo.)
If he finds a Presbyterian elder visiting prisoners at a local
jail one night a week, and wishing others would go with him? (The
elder’s name is Abner, and Arch knows him.)
If he finds a church where middle class Brazilian Presbyterians
have evangelized the local poor and distributed food to them as
far as they were able, only to see the poor people leave that
church for another church, that charges dues? (The church’s
name is Parque Ipê, and Arch was parish associate there
year before last.)
If he finds a Neo-Pentecostal Church with a big banner out front
advertising the schedule for a weekly "Vigil for Anointing
and Prosperity"? (It’s called the "Church of the
New Covenant," and it’s near where we live. The Brazilian
Presbyterian intellectuals we know are firmly against the theology
of prosperity.)
If he finds upper-middleclass Christians retreating from the
harsh realities to gated communities? (They’re called "closed
condominiums" in Brazil, and they are on the rise.)
Some of our answers may be too quick, especially about the theology
of prosperity. But we are moved to think about these things, which
are all around us. You can surely add to the list, and we will
be glad to pray for situations that you write to us about.
And the mystery of Christmas—and of post-Christmas—is
that he does come!
The two of us are privileged and grateful to be where we are.
Linnis continues to work and celebrate at the Gaspar Garcia Center
for Human Rights, an ecumenically supported agency concerned with
housing and other needs in the center city. She works in the legal
department and on a city planning commission. Arch continues to
teach New Testament at the São Paulo Theological Seminary
of the Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil. That’s
an undergraduate night school, where students and faculty fight
the same enemy: exhaustion. Arch also is teaching in the ecumenical
graduate program at the Methodist University of São Paulo,
where Presbyterians and
others from all over Latin America can study for master’s
degrees and doctorates.
There is additional information, about us and from us, on the
Worldwide Ministries Division’s Web site, and we will be
sending more. Look us up here.
Wishing you a great Christmastide and Epiphany,
Archibald Woodruff and Linnis Cook
The 2001 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 258
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