CESE held its 52nd Annual Assembly on June 12 and 13, in Salvador/BA. The activity was attended by the current Institutional Board, Fiscal Council, representatives of the Member Churches, and other invited organizations.
Traditionally, during the Assembly period, CESE carries out visits to communities that face rights violations and that organize themselves to resist and fight for a more dignified life. On the 12th, the commissions were divided into two groups to closely observe initiatives supported by the Small Projects Program (PPP), both with strong actions in the defense of the Right to the City, in Salvador (BA).
One of the groups visited the Cooperativa de Reciclagem e Serviços do Estado da Bahia (COOPERES), created in 2007 in the Subúrbio Ferroviário of the Bahian capital. With 16 current members, COOPERES has the mission of generating work and income for waste pickers, contributing to social inclusion and environmental conservation through popular waste management.
The other group visited the CAMMPI Network (Commission for Articulation and Mobilization of the Residents of the Itapagipe Peninsula), a community articulation that brings together social movements, collectives, and groups from the region. A long-time partner of CESE, the Network is recognized as a space legitimized by the community to build and manage its own territorial agenda, with notable action in the defense of rights related to early childhood education, culture, art education, environment, environmental conservation, and income generation.
Upon return, a dialogue circle was facilitated by CESE advisors Rosana Fernandes and Marcella Gomez. The circle brought reflections and exchanges between the two groups about the visits. On the second day, the executive coordination presented the Institutional and Financial Reports, both unanimously approved.
The churches that are part of CESE are:
- Alliance of Baptists of Brazil – @aliancadebatistas
- Roman Catholic Apostolic Church / CNBB – @cnbbnacional
- Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil – @ieab.oficial
- Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil – @luteranos
- Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil – @ipidobrasil
- United Presbyterian Church of Brazil – @ipu
Read the Assembly´s Letter:
“City, Ground of Struggles and Resistance”
“Seek the peace of the city… and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace, you will have peace.” Jeremiah 29:7
Gathered in Assembly on June 12 and 13, 2025, the Ecumenical Coordination of Service – CESE, together with its member churches, namely: United Presbyterian Church of Brazil, Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil, Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil, Roman Catholic Apostolic Church, Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil, and the Alliance of Baptists of Brazil, along with partners from ecumenical organizations, comes publicly to express its commitment to the right to the city and the defense of our common home.
In articulation with grassroots movements, CESE embraces a broad concept of the city as a space of contradictions and disputes, but also as a living, transformative territory of multiple realities. In this sense, it understands the right to the city not merely as access to urban spaces, but as the guarantee of democratic and just structures that place collective needs above exclusionary logic and historically constructed inequalities.
The right to the city is not achieved without struggle! Dialogue with the experiences of the Commission for Articulation and Mobilization of the Residents of the Itapagipe Peninsula (Rede CAMMPI) and the Cooperative for Recycling and Services of the State of Bahia (COOPERES) — which are concrete and present expressions in the peripheral context of Salvador, BA — reinforces the idea that transforming urban spaces necessarily involves popular knowledge, practices, and participation.
Rede CAMMPI is a space for mobilization and coordinated action by various community organizations of the Itapagipe Peninsula, with the mission of contributing to the region’s sustainable development. COOPERES, in turn, works to generate income and employment through the important recycling sector. Both experiences also bring to light the challenges of the urban context: the intense effects of climate change and environmental racism; the absence of public policies that ensure greater safety and economic strengthening of the territories; and the devaluation and invisibility of the work carried out by waste pickers in ensuring environmental preservation and more sustainable cities.
But it is from this ground of struggle that courage and hope sprout: the leadership of community actors, especially Black women, who reframe the territories as spaces of resistance, belonging, and ancestry; the solidarity and network articulation that strengthen these struggles, where youth play an active role and point to the continuity of community action; creative and solidarity-based economic initiatives; the essential role of waste pickers in urban sustainability; demands for socio-environmental and climate justice in the urban context, among other actions that demonstrate that the right to the city requires listening to and recognizing those who build it and resist within it.
It is from these realities that, as Christians, we are called to reinforce our commitment to the struggles within urban contexts, denouncing rights violations and combating structures of inequality, such as patriarchy and racism — especially environmental and institutional racism. We also highlight the essential role of waste pickers in ensuring more sustainable cities and their importance for socio-environmental justice focused on caring for God’s creation.
At this moment, our committed testimony compels us to establish sustainable practices in our faith communities that lead to Buen Vivir (Well-Living) in the Common Home. We also prophetically assume a firm stance before public authorities in advocating for the adoption and/or strengthening of public policies and mechanisms that guarantee fair recognition and remuneration for waste pickers, and the participation of grassroots groups and movements in decision-making spaces so that there may truly be democratic management of cities.
As churches and faith-based organizations, grounded in our understanding of respect for differences and in valuing the protagonism of grassroots groups — which form the basis of our vision of ecumenical diakonia — we are committed to echoing these voices within religious communities and broader society, engaging in these struggles for rights, with a special focus on promoting practices that help safeguard the integrity of creation, sustain, and renew life on our planet.
“Under the blessings and inspiring breath of the Divine Ruah, let us continue bearing witness with courage and faith in our journey toward a dignified and just life for all.”
52nd Ordinary General Assembly of the Ecumenical Coordination of Service – CESE
Salvador, June 13, 2025