Churches Unite to Disarm Brazil under WCC Backing

An initiative to get weapons and offensive weapons off the streets has continued in Brazil after a request was made during a meeting between Brazilian Vice President José Alencar Gomes da Silva and the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary, Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia.

The request to extend the already successful campaign into this year came about after a November 2004 submission by the country's National Council of Christian Churches (CONIC), which brings together the Roman Catholic Church, the Evangelical Church of Lutheran Confession, as well as the Catholic Syrian Orthodox, Episcopal Anglican, Christian Reformed, Methodist and United Presbyterian churches.

The initiative allows people going to Brazilian churches the opportunity to come for spiritual renewal as well as freeing themselves of their weapons and the risks that go together with carrying such violent possessions.

Brazil is a country that has huge firearm problems, and the WCC reports that the country’s civilians are carrying ten times more the number of firearms as those held by state agencies. In addition Brazil is number one on the list of world figures for the number of gun related deaths each year.

To ease these troubling figures the government sponsored the disarmament campaign which was hugely and actively backed by Brazilian churches across the denominational lines.

The official campaign commenced on 15th July 2004 and basically enables people to give up their weapons with no "difficult" questions regarding the origin or use of the weapons. Also people that turn in the non-registered firearms are receiving between 100 and 33 Reais (£20-£60).

The promise to extend the campaign beyond 2004 was greeted by hundreds more churches involving themselves in the initiative. Submitting to the wide calls to extend the campaign, the government 6 weeks later announced the new date to end would be 23rd June 2005.

Now it is planned to enable 300 churches to participate in the scheme, and currently training workshops are being held across the main cities in Brazil.

"Many people are more confident approaching a church than a police station," says Lutheran pastor Ervino Schmidt, secretary general of CONIC.

General Secretary of the National (Catholic) Bishops' Conference of Brazil, Bishop Odilo Pedro Scherer estimates that the churches could collect over 100,000 weapons. The current official goal now stands at 400,000 weapons.

"Whoever lets a weapon into their house has first let it enter their soul," says Fr Gabriele Cipriani, a Catholic priest and the deputy secretary of CONIC.

Schmidt commented that it was not just a question of reducing the number of weapons, but of building a culture of peace: "Above all, we must disarm the spirits."

A special prayer has also been made available for the moment when the weapon is handed over.

Currently the churches are again lobbying the government to extend the disarmament deadline to 23rd December 2005.

Strong links are being made via ecumenism, due to the powerful connection between the upcoming WCC 9th Assembly in Porto Alegre set for February 2006 and the disarmament campaign – the same churches that are invited to the assembly have also been actively involved in the campaign.