At the beginning of the 21st century, the churches of the Alliance are summoned to a critical self-review. How far have we acted as a counterforce to the powers of death that pervade our world? How far have we been instruments of God in advocating and fostering life?

The theme invites us to look at the life-related issues facing the church today, including economic justice, creation, gender, human rights, violence, marginalization, and HIV/Aids. The threats and challenges to life call us to consider God's gift of diversity, the role of young people, partnership between women and men, the mission of the church, our covenant with God, our witness in prayer and worship, and the ways in which the church is called to bring life and hope to all God's people.

Biblical notions

The theme is a deliberate adaptation of John 10.10.

"Abundant life" or "life in abundance" may be heard as suggesting a focus on material possessions. We prefer to speak of "life in fullness", with an emphasis on being rather than having.
We speak not of "fullness of life", but of "life in fullness". The first might be understood to mean a quantitative improvement in a life we already possess. "Life in fullness" suggests qualitative change. The first sounds reformist. The second allows for more radical interpretations.
Finally, we say "all" in place of "they". This makes possible a critique of a world order in which only some enjoy an abundant life and - for this reason among others - none enjoy life in fullness.

A closely related text for our purposes is Deuteronomy 30. "I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curses. Choose life, so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him..." (Deut 30.19f)

A priority for life

These passages and many others show us that God has a high priority for life and how life is lived

Whether through the commandments, statutes and laws of the Hebrew scriptures or the emphasis on grace in the New Testament, God's priority is to offer life - life in fullness, life in community. God's commandments are modalities ensuring that life will be lived and lived well. The modalities may change with historical circumstances, but the promise of life is always the same. This promise touches on human life in all its aspects, including sexual exploitation (Ex 21.7-11) and the right of slaves to be free (Deut 15.12 -17).

A rejection of dualism

These texts expose the falsity of a dualistic view of life. Neither in John nor in Deuteronomy is there an abyss between the world of flesh and the world of spirit. There is one world in which people may hope for salvation, for life in fullness.

Nor do Deuteronomy and John set a falsely abstract individual over against an equally abstract society. Both are addressed to communities, not just to individuals. Both see life and salvation as social: they involve our ancestors, the currently living, and those yet to be born.

The social and political structures set out in Torah are there to provide individuals and tribes, the living and their children as yet unborn, with life, a life lived well and, when done, a life gathered to the ancestors. At the centre of that life is the commandment to the whole community to love God, obey God, and hold onto God, placing all its trust in God. To choose life is to develop social and political processes that begin and end with a God who first loves us.

A critique of religion and society

Faith is thus a bedrock of society, with ethical consequences that require the protection of the weakest by the most powerful. The obligations laid upon the powerful are all the more demanding because there is no impunity, no special loophole for them. God's interest is life, and faith has to contribute to life in fullness.

Our churches today need to engage in self-critique. How far do we believe in the promises of God? How far do we really work in the world as Jesus worked? How far has our faith succumbed to idolatry and sin?

Christianity when it becomes the religion of an unjust status quo falls under the judgment pronounced by Moses and the prophets and the apostles of the early church. As coworkers with Christ, our priority also is life in fullness. In part, then, our task is to examine our consciences, to criticise ourselves.

But God's priority of life has implications also for the world. The church is called to proclaim the good news of grace in ways that offer life in fullness. This demands critical social discernment. Which secular practices and institutions lead to suffering and death? Which promote wholeness and life? And how may we move from one to the other?

Good and bad shepherds

In Ezekiel 34 we find a powerful restatement of the prophetic critique of the rulers of Israel and Judah.

"The word of the Lord came to me: Mortal, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel: prophesy, and say to them-to the shepherds: Thus says the Lord God: Ah, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and scattered, they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep were scattered, they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill; my sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with no one to search or seek for them." (Ezek 34.1-6)

This text indicts the leaders of the community: instead of caring for the people, they have taken advantage of them, denied them their rights and treated them with injustice.

By contrast, the "I am" passage immediately following John 10.10 presents Jesus as the good shepherd who offers and protects life (Jn 10.11-18). Later in John's Gospel, the task of shepherding is handed on by Jesus to his disciples: "Do you love me... feed my sheep" (Jn 21.15-17). They must be good shepherds like Jesus, tending the sheep and feeding especially the weakest ("my lambs", v.15).

"Can these bones live?"

The splendid parable of Ezekiel 37 is addressed to a despondent people, who say, "Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost." The people are called upon not to lose heart, even when the forces of death seem to prevail. God will not leave them desolate, for these dry bones shall live.

From Debrecen to Accra

There is an intimate link between the theme of the 23rd general council (Debrecen, 1997), "Break the chains of injustice" (Is 58.6), and the Accra theme.

Here is what Debrecen said in calling Alliance churches to a committed process of recognition, education and confession regarding economic injustice and ecological destruction:

"In many parts of the world, Reformed churches and communities are challenged by the appalling circumstances in which many people live and by the threat of the ongoing destruction of the environment. Many believe that the time has come to make a confession of faith which rejects and struggles against these injustices, while affirming our faith in the triune God who in Christ offers a new creation.

"We are challenged by the cry of the people who suffer and by the groaning of creation. We Christians of Reformed churches are aware of our complicity in an economic order that is unfair and oppressive, leading to the misery and death of many people. We participate in attitudes and practices which erode the foundations of the earth's livelihood. We want to affirm the gift of life. We consider this affirmation of life, commitment to resistance, and struggle for transformation to be an integral part of Reformed faith and confession today."

The general council called WARC member churches

to give special attention to the analysis and understanding of economic processes, their consequences for people's lives, and the threats to creation;
to educate church members at all levels about economic life, including faith and economics, and challenge them to develop a lifestyle which rejects the materialism and consumerism of our day;
to work towards the formulation of a confession of their beliefs about economic life which would express justice in the whole household of God and reflect priority for the poor, and support an ecologically sustainable future;
to act in solidarity with the victims of injustice as they struggle to overcome unjust economic powers and destructive ecological activities.

"The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it, the world and those who live in it; for he has founded it on the seas, and established it in the rivers" (Ps 24.1f). To those who forsake the Lord and choose evil and death God declares, "I am about to create new heavens and a new earth" (Is 65.17). We are called to break unjust chains precisely so that all God's people, and all God's creation, may have life in fullness.

A careful evaluation of how far we have come on the road of confession and solidarity will be central to the Accra council. But our attention must go wider, to include

a revisiting of theological notions of grace, justification, salvation, sanctification, etc.
a revisiting of spirituality
gospel and culture
poverty, suffering and disease
conflict and uprootedness
ethnicity
violence in all its forms
science and technology, including genetic engineering

Based on the theme proposal approved by the Alliance executive committee in Bangalore, India in 2000.