A tour in Brazil

By Armando Tortelli

From “Economy of Communion – a new culture” N.32 – December 2010

Campaign of Ecumenical Fraternity – CFE 2010: Economics and Life

Two-thousand-ten was a year rich in opportunities for the spreading of the EoC project in Christian environments, and when the National Bishop’s Conference of Brazil (CNBB) launched the 2010 CFE, entitled, “Economics and Life”, actors of the EoC in every corner of the country offered their contribution to what was being proposed to the local church, “collaborating in the promotion of an economy at the service of life, founded on the ideal of the culture of peace, starting from the joint commitment of the Christian Churches and people of good will, so that all contribute to building the common good and work towards a society without exclusion”.

There were numerous events at churches, universities, schools, etc., besides the contacts made through the local press, radio and Internet. Just to name a few: launching the Campaign at Osasco, in Sao Paulo; the congress of Rio de Janeiro; at an ecumenical seminar in Florianópolis; presentations in Nordest a Triunfo, by João Pessoa and Paulo Afonso; in the North at the Conference of Religious Men and Women of Brazil, a presentation of the EoC at Juiz de Fora and the Catholic University of Campinas.

The contacts with members of other churches that make up the National Council of Christian Churches were very fruitful, ever more alive and developing. In November, there was even a two-day seminar in Lages, Santa Catarina (South), in order to make the EoC and its relationship with ecumenism known.

New Generations

Youth involved in the EoC are always more in the front lines. They are in the local commissions, in the businesses, in societies like ESPRI of the Spartaco Busines Park and the National Association for an Economy of Communion – ANPEC, in study groups, and in events, either as a constructive presence or involving their friends in this lifestyle.
Seven employees of Prodiet Pharmaceuticals present at the EoC Congress that took place in September in São Leopoldo – RS organized a month later an evening in their business to share this project with their 35 colleagues.

Spartaco Business Park

The applications for shareholders have grown in number, and a proposal was made to people who are friends of the EoC in central, south and southeast Brazil, to “adopt the business park”, committing to underwrite new actions for 250,000 Reais, which is €110,000 Euro.A new warehouse was built, and the go-ahead was given to enlarge those that already exist.Compared to when the business park began, the area in which it operates has developed greatly, increasing its patrimony and making it possible to increase the value of the shares. They have decided to hold three yearly workshops for youth.

Ginetta Business Park

There were four formational days for entrepreneurs on the following topics: “Relational goods in businesses”, “The value of work”, “Considerations on shared management”, and “The need to be listened to”, always followed by moments of dialogue and sharing.

Schools for Entrepreneurs

For the states of South Brazil, there were various schools on the EoC in the last two years, using communication with video conferencing. In 2010, the experience was repeated three times, including 320 participants who are fully involved in the project, linking 10 different cities. These conferences were a way to put people “together”, as well as multiply the chance to meet all the actors of the EoC.
Even in the zone of Sao Paulo, near Mariapolis Ginetta and the Spartaco Business Park, entrepreneurs meet with one another every four months. These meetings are also a chance for communion among everyone.

Means of communication

A notable push in this direction took place with the opening of ANPEC’s website, www.anpec-edc.com.br and the various expert blogs. The electronic journal EdC – REDEC, published on the official site of the Loyola Center of Faith and Culture (http://www.clfc.puc-rio.br/redec/) of the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro - PUC-RJ is today one of the most visited pages on the site.
Ardrea Cruz of Filadelfia Center, in an interview with TV Canção Nova, presented the historical aspects of the EoC and its influence in the academic field. Luis Carlos Moraes Santos presented an experience of life in an EoC business, accompanied by a series of shots of the Spartaco Business Park. In the central states of Brazil, personal contacts were deepened, that “one-to-one” among people involved in the project and those who may be interested, with a growing relationship among everyone. An entrepreneur who came into contact with the EoC made a commitment to finance the monthly stipend of a social worker for the Adoptions at a Distance project of the AFAGO-DF.

Towards tributary advantage

A federal congressman that works in the commissions related to tributary rights offered his time to the EoC to help prepare a law proposal for a more just taxation of businesses involved in Solidarity Economy and Civil Economy, keeping in mind that these businesses produce social goods and already carry out, though in different ways, a redistribution of income.

International UNIAPAC Convention

Last September, Mariapolis Ginetta, in Vargem Grande near Sao Paulo, welcomed twenty entrepreneurs of UNIAPAC, an international union of associations of Christian workers coming from Paraguay, Angola, Uruguay, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Congo, Argentina, Cameroon, France, Holland and Brazil. They wanted to know the EoC project better through a congress titled “What is the role of the entrepreneur in the world to come”.

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites