We greet you in the name of the living God who has given us a sure and certain hope in the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. By the Spirit's power, each Christian has been called to bear witness to this hope and to God's promise of a more abundant life in this world and the next.

We are writing to you as representatives of 18 churches belonging to the Caribbean and North American area council [Canaac] of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.

The combined membership of these churches is approximately seven million souls in nine countries. We celebrate our communion which bridges distances and differences: "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3.28).

In October 1999, Canaac convened a conference in St Mary, Jamaica to consider the theme, The debt crisis: owning the problem, sharing the solution. United in a common faith, we nonetheless spoke out of our diversity in cultures, experiences, and perspectives as we analysed the pressing problem of global indebtedness and its particular impact on the people of Caribbean nations.

We have been assisted in our discussions by numerous facilitators, among them an economist from the University of the West Indies, the governor of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, the Jamaican secretary of state for the ministry of finance, as well as theologians, pastors, church officers, and laypeople drawn from Canaac member churches. We also visited neighbourhoods and institutions in Jamaican cities where residents spoke of the human consequences of the crushing burden of national debt.

We have come to understand that the roots of the international debt crisis are tangled, and blame may be widely shared on every side. Effective solutions will require economic wisdom, expertise, sophistication, and compassion. Churches, the United Nations, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund have recognized the urgency of addressing the current crisis, yet a means to debt relief has not been agreed.

We confess that there is a temptation for Christians to stand silent due to the financial complexities. However, we have learned that the seemingly endless spiral of nations taking new loans to pay interest on past loans has slowed or halted human subsistence and development programmes in those nations which have been termed "heavily indebted poor countries". For Christians, silence in the face of suffering is not an option.

As a result of our deliberations, and hearing God's call to proclaim hope to all people, Canaac appeals to creditor nations, banks, the IMF, the World Bank, and other financial institutions to cancel the debt in the year 2000.

Canaac invites its members to join us in the Jubilee 2000 movement as a first step toward solving the debt crisis. This international movement unites persons of faith in God and commitment to justice who seek a resolution to the complicated problem of debt in a process characterized by mutual respect and dignity.

We encourage each congregation to promote education on this issue through the study of literature from Jubilee 2000 as well as ecumenical and denominational sources, and to mobilize in support of global debt relief in the spirit of the biblical ideal of jubilee, "the acceptable year of the Lord" (Lev 25.8-55; Lk 4.16-19).

Canaac recognizes that many additional steps and negotiations will be necessary to prevent recurrences of the failed policies and practices which conspired to create the current crisis. One of the next steps to be taken regionally must be the lifting of the US embargo against Cuba.

Our ultimate goal is not debt cancellation, but worldwide economic justice. Cancelling the debt is only a beginning. But, for the sake of oppressed human beings in indebted nations, we must begin.

Brothers and sisters: "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may do the will of God - what is good and acceptable and perfect" (Rom 12.2). Grace to you, and peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord! Amen.