It is time to rethink the spiritist congress structure  

 
Everyone linked to the Spiritist movement will aknowledge the importance of a Spiritist Congress to the vitality of the spiritual movement, the exchange of experiences and reconciliation among people that face the same difficulties and problems in their cities.

Some years ago the spiritist press has raised an interesting controversy about one of the points related to the realization of a congress: its financial cost. The enrollment fees have been increasing, a fact that would prevent the attendance of many people.
The Congress would then be restricted to a small group of people who could afford buying plane tickets, staying in expensive hotels, and also paying expensive enrollment fees.

The polemic has taken place and soon after those who defend the model adopted argued that the financial cost involved in the organization of such events are very high and it up to the spiritist people to pay for them.
If this fact prevents the less favored people to attend –they say- the problem is not the costs involved, but the fact that the Brazilian population lives with scarcity of resources.

We believe that both propositions are reasonable but it is undeniable the marginalization of invaluable confreres that due to the inability to afford such expenses are, and will continue to be, excluded from these important events that have been organised by some local groups and even by FEB (Brazilian Spiritist Federation).

What would be the solution?

Firstly, it would be interesting to analyse the model adopted by the organizers of the so called “Spiritist week” and “Youth Spiritist meetings” which were very popular on the 60 decade of the last century, especially in southeastern part of Brazil.

Accommodations were either camping in the public schools or staying in the spiritists workers own homes; transport was done by buses chartered by groups of participants and greater simplicity in the organization of meetings, along with promotional campaigns in which the different cities covered by the event are seeking resources to fund part of the expenses. Here are some ideas that could, certainly, allow the attendance of people that have low income but, as active spiritist centre workers, have much to offer to the debate of the proposed topics.

The venue could also be a bit simpler. Instead of a convention centre which is expensive and does not offer the required capacity, why not consider a well-equipped Sports Gymnasium, which is used by the greatest artists of the country?

The entrance should be free of charge to the public. Contributions from those who would like to colaborate would be accepted, which would be added to the funds obtained with the campaigns.

In a gymnasium with capacity for four, five thousand people, there is always room for the spiritist doctrine supporters that could attend and also benefit from the lectures delivered by our speakers.

As we know, the spiritist message came for all people. But, how is it going to reach a larger public if it is so difficult and costly to attend its most significant events?

Another point that has already been discussed is the selection of the themes. It has been noted in some conferences an excessive concern with the external image of the spiritist movement. This is the only explanation that can justify the level of sophistication of certain topics, which sometimes are absurd. In some cases the distance between the topics and the reality of the people and spiritist groups are so are so big that it does even seem to be a spiritist congress.

The topics should be chosen by the Spiritist Centers, based on their needs. Obviously, there must be time and place for everything, but we can not direct the efforts of a large congress for the interests of a small priviledged group, which will be the only one able to understand the terminology and concepts formally adopted in certain conferences, while the majority of the Brazilian population still does not know exactly what Spiritism is and its main differences to the African religions.