Meeting of discernment and grateful remembrance in Porto Velho
The Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA) held its end-of-year meeting of the Presidency, Advisors, and Executive Secretariat from December 10 to 12 in Porto Velho, Brazil. This space for community discernment allowed for an evaluation of the path taken during 2025, the projection of the institutional mission for 2026, and significant progress in the preparation of the 6th General Assembly, to be held in March 2026 in Bogotá, Colombia.
During these days, the participants gratefully recalled the process that had been undertaken, reviewed the main pastoral and institutional milestones of the year, and deepened their understanding of the Synodal Pastoral Horizons, the fruit of an extensive process of listening in more than 75 Amazonian ecclesial spaces. These horizons will guide CEAMA’s pastoral and missionary action in the coming years.
Prayer, discernment, and institutional evaluation
The meeting began with a community prayer that framed the collective discernment. Subsequently, Cardinal Pedro Barreto, president of CEAMA, gave an opening address in which he invited everyone to “look with gratitude at the path traveled and recognize the action of the Spirit in the midst of the challenges of the Amazon.”
In this context, the Executive Secretariat presented the CEAMA 2025 Report, highlighting progress, lessons learned, and challenges in the four areas of the Institutional Plan: Communication, Governance, Sustainability, and Operational Flows. This exercise provided a comprehensive overview of the process that has been undertaken and the challenges that lie ahead.
Main pastoral milestones and international presence
The reflection included a pastoral and institutional assessment of the main milestones of the year, including the Meeting of Amazonian Bishops in Bogotá, the Water Summit in Iquitos, the institutional visit to Rome, and CEAMA’s participation in COP30. These events reaffirmed the Amazonian Church’s commitment to defending life, territories, and peoples, in dialogue with ecclesial, social, and political entities at the regional and international levels.
Progress towards the VI General Assembly
A significant moment of the meeting was the review of the first draft of the Instrumentum Laboris, the base document for the VI General Assembly. Based on this work, progress was made in identifying the Synodal Pastoral Priorities and in reflecting on the institutional structure and decision-making mechanisms, with the aim of strengthening a co-responsible Church, close to the territories and faithful to the synodal path.
Commitment to human rights and indigenous peoples
Within the framework of Human Rights Day, CEAMA participated in the presentation of the document “Violence against indigenous peoples in Brazil. Summary of data 2024”, organized by the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI) in the Archdiocese of Porto Velho. This space reaffirmed CEAMA’s commitment to defending the rights of indigenous peoples and prophetically denouncing the violence that affects their territories and ways of life.
Encounter with the local Amazonian reality
The link with the concrete reality of the Amazon was expressed through a pastoral visit to various local experiences in the Archdiocese of Porto Velho. These included the Levántate Project, run by Caritas, which accompanies people living on the streets; the Archdiocese’s Pastoral Center, with farming initiatives that promote self-sustainability and work with indigenous peoples; and a project run by the Indigenous Pastoral, which provides comprehensive support to young indigenous university students from different peoples.
At the end of the pastoral visits, a Eucharistic celebration was held together with the local Church, in which sisters and brothers from the Warao people, migrants from Venezuela, participated. In this community and celebratory context, the official launch of the journey towards the VI General Assembly of CEAMA, which will take place in Bogotá, Colombia, from March 16 to 19, 2026, was held.
During this time, the prayer of preparation for the Assembly was also presented as a sign of a process sustained by faith, communion, and hope.
These experiences gave a concrete face to the pastoral, social, and missionary commitment of the Church in the Amazon.
Institutional strengthening and economic sustainability
The meeting also addressed the institutional and financial strengthening of CEAMA, with the presentation of the 2026 Economic Sustainability Program and various strategies for cooperation and solidarity funds at the service of the Amazonian mission. Likewise, a Special Session on the CEAMA Election Process was held, defining the synodal framework, the normative steps, and the calendar that will lead to the VI General Assembly.
A synodal path in the service of life
This meeting reaffirms CEAMA’s willingness to continue advancing on a synodal, missionary, and integrated path, responding to the cries of the peoples and the Amazonian territory, strengthening the Amazonian identity of the Church, and consolidating a structure at the service of life, justice, and the spirituality of the peoples.
CEAMA thanks all the people, communities, and institutions that accompany this process and renews its commitment to the defense of the Amazon, the promotion of its peoples, and the construction of a Church with an Amazonian and synodal face.
