Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians - EATWOT
Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians - EATWOT

Dra. Luiza Etsuko Tomita
The EATWOT was founded in 1976 in Dar-Es-Salaam (Tanzania) to promote the dialogue between people from Asia, Africa, Latin America and First World minorities. It is made up of members from several Christian churches that have an ecumenical intention and are in dialogue with the many religions of the world. It cooperates with actions for justice and peace at the local and regional level. The EATWOT publishes a journal, Voices of the Third World, that is edited in India and appears twice a year. At its intercontinental General Assembly held in Quito in 2001 it decided to keep the emphasis on theology for the Third World and to add, as its main focus for the coming years, the dialogue with other religions. All of this is part of its option with and for the poor.
www.eatwot.org

Amerindia

Dr. Agenor Brighenti
Amerindia is a network of persons committed at the pastoral and social level who respond to the new challenges posed in our societies and churches on the basis of the memory and updating of the conferences of Medellín, Puebla and Santo Domingo. It intends to maintain and renew the Latin American and Caribbean theological and pastoral tradition and to update liberation theology. Together with other persons and groups, it intends to create economic, political, social and cultural alternatives to the neoliberal model of globalization. Amerindia develops activities in each country and there is a continental coordination that supervises the various action programs.
www.amerindiaenlared.org

Society of Theology and Religious Studies - SOTER

Dr. Afonso Soares
The SOTER is an organization set up by natural persons founded in July 1985 by a group of Catholic theologians with an ecumenical perspective from several regions in Brazil. Its goals are to encourage and support teaching and research in the field of theology and religious studies; to disseminate the result of such research; to promote services provided by theologians to church communities and organizations from the point of view of the option for the poor; to foster communication and cooperation among its members and to defend their freedom of research. In order to reach these goals the SOTER holds every year a national study meeting, every three years an Electoral Assembly and periodical continued education courses. It also sponsors the registration of professors and researchers of theology and other publications.
www.soter.com.br

Centre de Théologie et d'Éthique Contextuelles Québécoises - CETECQ

Dra. Denise Couture
The Center for Theology and Contextual Ethics in Quebec was founded in 2003 on the initiative of four professors of the School of Theology and Religious Studies of the University of Montreal. It emerges from a concern with Quebec's present social and religious context and is motivated by the involvement and struggle of many persons and groups for other forms of being the church and society. Inspired by liberation theologies from the South, the CETECQ takes on the challenge of making a theology that is connected with the social transformations of its context. It intends to be a space of creativity for a communal theology made with partners who share diverse interests and common approaches.
www.ftsr.umontreal.ca/cetecq/

Ecumenical Center of Service to Evangelism and Education - CESEP

Dr. José Oscar Beozzo
The CESEP was founded in 1983 on the initiative of a group of bishops, pastors, theologians, Bible scholars and social scientists. Inspired by Paulo Freire's concept of popular education and putting itself at the service of the popular movements, the forms of social pastoral work and the activities of the Catholic Protestant churches, it developed its training project in various courses, trying to respond to the various needs and new challenges. Emphasizing the training of grassroots leaders, congregational leaders and pastoral agents of the Christian churches, the CESEP offers continued education courses both in the field of Christian activism in society and pastoral commitment. It is part of a network, along with other centers in Brazil, Latin America and the Caribbean that provide similar services in the area of training, support each other, try to enrich each other with the diversity of cultures and social experiences, in the area of religious studies and more directly in the biblical, theological and pastoral fields, seeking to associate the rigor of analysis with the control by the popular movements and the work developed by the churches.
www.cesep.org.br

Ecumenical Center for Evangelism, Training and Advisership - CECA

Ms. Cláudio Becker
The CECA is an ecumenical organization that was founded in 1973 in the context of the struggle for the democratization of Brazil and Latin America. Its actions are focused on the areas of ecumenism, human rights and gender. It is located in the city of São Leopoldo, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, and provides advisership to popular movements and activities of Christian churches, fosters ecumenism and interreligious dialogue, organizes and systematizes information from the various forms of pastoral work, promotes the exchange of experience between them and conducts studies that can assist in the actions. It has several institutional forms of networking for the exchange of experiences and the development of projects. Its mission is to contribute to social transformation and the construction of a democratic, just and participatory society in the ecumenical perspective.
www.ceca-rs.org

Latin American and Caribbean Community of Ecumenical Theological Education - CETELA

Dr. Roberto E. Zwetsch
The CETELA is a community that gathers 25 institutions of theological education throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, from Mexico to the Southern Cone. These are Protestant institutions with a definite ecumenical commitment, which is reflected in their faculties, curricula, students and presence in churches and communities through programs of theological training and reflection. It was founded in the '80s and at present develops various programs focused on the relation between theology and pedagogy. Its goals are: (1) to gather the institutions of theological education in a network in the search for a contextual theology as a service to the Latin American churches and peoples; (2) to gather efforts in order to overcome any form of discrimination and reaffirm the Christian churches' witness to unity; (3) to broaden spaces of reflection for theological and pedagogical diversity (theologies of the indigenous, black, peasant and female faces and topics such as gender, sexuality, interculturality); (4) to foster networks of faculty members and the exchange of common knowledge; (5) to deal with the new challenges that the social and ecclesial realities pose to the making of theology by promoting a dialogue between forms of knowledge. The present president of the CETELA is Dr. Néstor Míguez, a Bible scholar at the ISEDET University Institute in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The executive secretary is Dr. Roberto E. Zwetsch, professor of practical theology and missiology at the Lutheran School of Theology in São Leopoldo, Brazil.
www.cetela.com.br

Faculdades EST

Dra. Marga Ströher
Faculdades EST is the center for theological education and research of the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil. Its goal is to promote academic education and to foster scientific investigation in the field of theology and related areas. It contributes to the training of qualified professionals who are able to act in several sociocultural realms that call for expert knowledge in these areas, particularly in the spaces offered by religious and ecclesiastical institutions. For that purpose, it offers courses at the undergraduate and graduate level, professional and extension courses, promoting the training of professionals in the areas of theology, religious education, diakonia and music.
www.est.edu.br

Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul - PUCRS

Dr. Erico João Hammes
The PUCRS is located in Porto Alegre, the capital of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, and belongs to the religious congregation of the Marists. It was created from the schools of philosophy, law, economy and social work. It was legally recognized in 1948 and became a pontifical university in 1950. As other universities with the same characteristics, the PUC is a so-called community university that tries to unite, through teaching, research and extension, professional training and a holistic and humanistic education. Its mission consists of the production and dissemination of knowledge and the promotion of a human and professional education that is oriented by the criteria of quality and relevance in the search for a just and fraternal society. At present it has 28 schools, 21 Master's and 15 doctoral programs.
www.pucrs.br

Humanitas Institute of Unisinos - IHU

Dra. Cleusa Andreatta
The Humanitas Institute, located at the University of the Sinos River Valley (Unisinos), in São Leopoldo, state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, was founded in September 2001. It is connected to that university, which belongs to the Company of Jesus. It helps to make the focus of the Jesuit mission - expressed in faith's service, the promotion of justice and cultural and interreligious dialogue - become present, visible and active in the Unisinos and the Company of Jesus in Brazil. The Humanitas Institute is rooted in the university's living history. It fosters and develops projects that involve research, studies, reflections, analyses and services that, with boldness and creativity, promote the crossing of disciplinary boundaries, regional insertion and lifelong education. For that purpose, it has five major axes that guide its reflection and action, are interrelated and make it possible to carry out cross-disciplinary actions: Ethics, Work, Sustainable society, Women - sociocultural subject and Public theology.
www.unisinos.br

Permanent Secretariat

The WFTLT's Permanent Secretariat is located at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, in the context of the Graduate Studies Program of the university's School of Theology. It is coordinated within the Research Core Group on Theology and Society, which gathers two different research groups of the institution, and has partnerships with other research projects on ethics, citizenship and public theology maintained by other schools of theology.

Team:

• Dr. Luiz Carlos Susin - Executive secretary
• Dr. Joe Marçal G. dos Santos - Coordinator of activities
• Rafael Rossetto - Assistant

Consultants:

• Dr. Sergio Torres
• Dr. Diego Irarrazaval
• Dr. Rudolf von Sinner

International Consultative Committee

This is an ecumenical network of 26 theologians from different parts of the world who permanently follow the WFTL's organization through the exchange of information, consultations and discussions. At each edition of the Forum, the International Committee meets to evaluate the process, to decide on the agenda for the next Forum and to organize its planning.

Local Committee - Belém, state of Pará

The WFTL's Local Committee has the task of meeting the demands for the logistic organization in the location where the Forum is held. It shares this work with the Permanent Secretariat. The 3rd WFTL's Local Commitee is made up of the following organizing institutions:

• Amazonian Council of Christian Churches (CAIC)
• Amazonian Association of Human Sciences and Religion (ACER)
• Regional Pastoral Institute (IPAR)
• Ecumenical Center for Bible Studies - Northern Region (CEBI)
• Indigenous Mission Council (CIMI)
• Brazilian Conference of Members of Religious Orders (CRB)
• Pastoral Land Commission (CPT)