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PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF BRAZIL

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Page 1 CRIE 11.2021

COMISSÃO DE RELAÇÕES INTER-ECLESIÁSTICAS (CRIE)

Edf. João Calvino, 9^o andar ⚫ Rua da Consolação, 896 ⚫ Consolação ⚫ CEP 01302-907 ⚫ São Paulo - SP ⚫ BRAZIL Tel. +55 (11) 2114-8605 ⚫ Fax +55 (11) 3256-6212 ⚫ [email protected] ⚫ www.ipb.org.br

São Paulo, 20

of March, 2021 To:

The president of Inter-church Relationship & Cooperation Committee of GAPCK (Hapdong) c/o – Rev. Jung-Ho, Kim

[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] Dear Brothers in Christ, Grace and Peace!

Praying for your spiritual and physical health, we thank you for your letter of December 20, 2020, giving us some information about the PCK’s 105

General Assembly, supplying data about the 106

GA – which has been placed on our agenda (September 13-17, 2021 at Ulsan Metropolitan City), inviting us to be represented there, and requesting some information from our end about our own GA.

We also have been experiencing disruption of “normal life”, as we consider it, that has been affecting activities on a world-wide scale, ever since the last months of 2019, throughout 2020, persisting to this day, even with greater virulence. Brazil is currently considered the epicenter of the pandemic with the loss of 3,000 lives every day, and a sum total of over 300,000 persons that have lost their lives to the CORONA virus. This made us postpone meetings of our Executive Commission in 2020, and we are currently scheduling a limited one for April 20-23, 2021. The pandemic has also prevented greater interaction between our two denominations, as it was our plan and desire. Nevertheless, we continue to thank God for your fellowship and for enabling you to stand for the “faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 1:3) and thank you for the invitation to your next GA. If at all possible, we plan to send two representatives.

As far as your request for information concerning the date, location, and other questions about our General Assembly, we would like to position you about the following:

• The Igreja Presbiteriana do Brasil holds its Executive Committee meetings (Comissão Executiva - CE) annually. It consists of the 80 presidents of Synods, plus presidents and officers of our boards and agencies. At this meeting, these boards and agencies present their reports and receive guidelines for the years ahead.

• In the year of 2020, after successive postponements, the meeting is scheduled to take place on the above dates (April 20-23, 2021), but with very limited attendance, with no foreign visitors.

• Our General Assembly (Supremo Concílio) happens only every four years. The next one should be in July, 2022, in the city of Salvador (Northeast Brazil) – but we don’t have the set dates as yet.

Administrative matters are annually managed by the CE, but specific doctrinal matters, or eventual constitutional amendments, are referred to the next GA, and can be deliberated only at this major council.

• You will certainly be invited to be present at our General Assembly, as we have been doing during past years, hoping that by then international travel and restrictions have been lifted.

Yours, in Christ Jesus, our Savior,

Presbyter Solano Portela Rev. Dr. Davi Charles Gomes

Executive Secretary, President

Commission on Inter-Ecclesiastical Relations – IPB

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF BRAZIL

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Page 1 CRIE 12.2021

COMISSÃO DE RELAÇÕES INTER-ECLESIÁSTICAS (CRIE)

Edf. João Calvino, 9^o andar ⚫ Rua da Consolação, 896 ⚫ Consolação ⚫ CEP 01302-907 ⚫ São Paulo - SP ⚫ BRAZIL Tel. +55 (11) 2114-8605 ⚫ Fax +55 (11) 3256-6212 ⚫ [email protected] ⚫ www.ipb.org.br

São Paulo, 20

of March, 2021

To:

The Sinodale Deputate Diakonale Sake (SDDS) of the Reformed Churches in South Africa

c/o – Revs. F. J. Potgieter and H. S. J. Vorster [email protected]; [email protected];

Dear Brothers in Christ, Grace and Peace!

Praying for your spiritual and physical health, we thank you for your letter of November 23, 2020, and apologize for the delay in responding to it. We were glad to see our sister church involved, through the SDDS, in so many relief actions both inside the African continent as well as on a world-wide scale, catering to so many needs.

Part of the reason for the delay in answering you is for the difficulties brought about by the COVD19 pandemic which has hindered not only church life, but also seminary teaching and meetings of commissions, such as our Commission on Inter-Ecclesiastical Relations (CRIE) of the Igreja Presbiteriana do Brasil (IPB). But your letter was examined with great attention.

Brazil has been experiencing disruption of “normal life”, as we consider it, that has been affecting activities on a world-wide scale, ever since the last months of 2019, throughout 2020, persisting to this day, even with greater virulence. Our country is currently considered the epicenter of the pandemic with the loss of 3,000 lives every day, and a sum total of over 300,000 persons that have lost their lives to the CORONA virus. Therefore, our churches have been involved in taking care of internal needs, such as purchasing oxygen cylinders (in short supply, especially for the Amazon region); supplying basic non-perishable food items; caring for the sick and unemployed; and, sadly, burying and comforting many families that have lost loved ones.

Vaccination is proceeding slowly, and the death curve continues to rise. We are constantly pleading for the Lord’s mercies, for our country and for the world, but also for submission to His sovereign will, knowing that in the midst of all this, there are still many blessings to be counted.

Considering all of this internal burden, we thank you very much for your letter, but the IPB is unable to be considered as a contributor to your relief efforts at this time. We pray that the Lord Almighty will supply the needs and bring resources from other brethren, especially to these drought-stricken areas. We continue to thank God for your fellowship and for enabling you to stand for the “faith which was once delivered unto the saints”

(Jude 1:3).

Yours, in Christ Jesus, our Savior,

Presbyter Solano Portela Rev. Dr. Davi Charles Gomes

Executive Secretary, President

Commission on Inter-Ecclesiastical Relations – IPB

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF BRAZIL

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Page 1 CRIE 10.2021

COMISSÃO DE RELAÇÕES INTER-ECLESIÁSTICAS (CRIE)

Rua Maria Borba, 44 ⚫ Vila Buarque ⚫ CEP 01221-040 ⚫ São Paulo - SP ⚫ BRAZIL Tel. +55 (11) 2114-8644 ⚫ [email protected] ⚫ www.ipb.org.br

São Paulo, 22

of September, 2019

Dear Brothers of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (Vrijgemaakt):

Grace and Peace!

These are some topics that we thought could contribute to your steadfast growth and faithful march in the Kingdom:

A Word of Encouragement: Be encouraged by the fact that you are the source of many faithful churches that have been planted or supported around the Globe. Certainly, this has pleased our LORD and it is a precious heritage.

A reminder about Children’s Ministry: Don’t forget the ministry to children. Young minds must be taken care of at the earliest age, but there must be biblical sustenance provided through the pre-teens and teenage years. In a confused World, with so many attractions and behavioral deviations, this must be done always reenforcing the practical differentials of our faith, stressing the implications of our basic Christian beliefs, and not only overstretching a head knowledge of our reformed tenets. Teach them to think and act for themselves, but under guidance. Ask the LORD to show clearly, through his Holy Spirit in His word, what needs to be corrected, if churches start to be a repository of older people, only, and the message is not being received by the new generations.

A Needed Emphasis on Pastors’ training: Training of pastors in the area of biblical counseling and visitation