1st World Forum on Theology and Liberation
Porto Alegre – Brazil, 2005
On the appointed date, participants from all over the world arrived, encouraged by the enthusiasm of the World Social Forum. The theological forum took place on the central campus of PUCRS, which also hosted the WSF that year. Everything developed normally regarding the organization and the program. The theological and thematic content was of an excellent standard, offering a public space for the dialogue of liberating theologies. The great result of the meeting is witnessed in the Spanish, Portuguese and English editions of the book containing the conferences and panels of the 2005 Forum.
After the meeting, the Permanent Secretariat continued working on event reports. In the first contacts with the members of the International Committee (constituted at the end of the Forum), the results were shared, which encouraged the group to hold a second meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, in January 2007.
From the First to the Second Forum
The challenge of the first forum was to place the contribution of Liberation Theology in the WSF discussion scene. Based on a broad assessment of the participants of this first event, the objectives of the FMTL were expanded, as well as its methodology and the profile of the event's participants were reformulated. A vision was born for the FMTL: to carry out a process that would contribute to the formation of an international network of contextual theologies inherited and/or identified with Liberation Theology, in its different formulations and expressions. The objective also became more evident: to provide an open space of encounter for a vivid and reflective interaction of theology with contemporary society. This vision guided the International Committee of the WTFL, as well as the group of entities that then assumed the organization of the project.