A continuing journey

Towards a confessing, covenanting movement for economic justice and life on earth

The Warc executive committee (Bangalore 2000) mandated the department of cooperation and witness to organize a theological consultation with the aim of helping member churches and the wider ecumenical family to understand the theological basis of covenanting for justice in the economy and the earth. In order to fulfil the mandate, a small consultation was held from March 26 to 31 2001 in Cape Town, South Africa, mainly involving theologians from churches that had confessing experiences. This document is the result of the consultation. In addition to clarifying the theological basis of the process, it also suggests how member churches could be engaged in the confessing movement with respect to economic injustice and ecological destruction.

The journey from Kitwe towards Accra

We participants, gathered from three continents, share a common commitment to the Reformed faith. We recognize that we are part of one universal church, one body of Christ; we are part of one humanity in solidarity; and we are part of God's creation. We cannot be separated from the one whole, nor can we be fragmented as individuals. We are one.

We studied the experiences of the confessing churches in Germany, South Africa and Asia, seeking wisdom. We sought to expose the reality of the forces of injustice and destruction of life, and to clarify what it means to engage in the confessing movement for economic justice and life on earth, exploring various steps for the continuing journey. We offer this reflection and analysis for consideration and response from the churches. We do this recognizing that this journey of confession is a kairos as we hear the cries of the people suffering under globalization.

In 1997 the Debrecen general council of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches made the historic decision to invite member churches and the ecumenical movement into a process of confessing (processus confessionis) in the midst of economic injustice and destruction of life on earth.

This journey has its historical references in the Barmen declaration of the Confessing Church in Germany (1934), the declaration on apartheid by the 21st general council (Ottawa 1982), the confession of Belhar (1986), and the confessing stances of Asian churches against the colonial powers. It is accompanied by similar movements such as the conciliar process for mutual commitment (covenant) for justice, peace and the integrity of creation.

The Kitwe consultation on Reformed faith and economic justice organized by the Southern Africa Alliance of Reformed Churches in 1995 moved Warc to take up economic injustice as a confessional matter. This consultation recognized that Africa and the African people are systematically excluded from the world economy. It heard the cry of the African people in the midst of suffering and despair. It perceived that the powers in the global market subjugate and enslave people as workers, peasants and consumers to production process and market forces.

Furthermore, the Kitwe consultation discerned that "today the global economy has been sacralized, and elevated to an imperial throne. It has changed places with the human beings who created it. By redefining what it means to be human, it has become the creator of human beings. Thereby it usurps the sovereignty of God, claiming a freedom that belongs to God. For us as Christians this raises the question of idolatry and of loyalty to God or mammon." It declared, "All the signs of the times lead us to conclude that Africans live on a crucified continent as people to be sacrificed... The sacrifice of humanity on the altar of the global economy is intertwined with the sacrifice of nature."

The consultation called upon African Reformed churches to confess their sins of not resisting enough and challenged them to choose between coerced allegiances to mammon or faithful worship of God. It proclaimed, "It is our painful conclusion that the African reality of poverty caused by an unjust economic world order has gone beyond an ethical problem and become a theological one. It now constitutes a status confessionis. The gospel to the poor is at stake in the very mechanism of the global economy today." It urged the Warc general council to consider the calling of a confessing movement of the churches of the south and others who are in solidarity with them.

The Debrecen general council responded to this call and resolved to call the member churches to the processus confessionis on economic injustice and destruction of life on earth, a process of recognition, education, confession and action.

There has been a significant progress in this journey. The eighth assembly of the World Council of Churches (Harare 1998) embraced the confessing process. On this basis, Warc and the WCC have cooperated closely in this journey, especially in the Bangkok conference (1999). The Bangkok symposium, which was organized in response to the financial crises of Asian countries, sent messages to churches, faith communities, the World Trade Organization, the IMF, and transnational capital, urging action against economic injustice and destruction of the earth. The next joint consultation will take place in Budapest in June 2001, with the focus on the consequences of economic globalization in central and eastern Europe.

Other world communions are expressing a keen desire to accompany this process. The member churches in various regions also are beginning to respond to the Debrecen call in a significant way. In western Europe there is close coooperation with Kairos Europa. In June 2000 we co-sponsored Colloquium 2000, "Faith communities and social movements facing globalization". Now we are preparing together a process on the democratic control of financial markets, leading to a church assembly in the Netherlands and a hearing in the European parliament later in 2002.

On the basis of the Bangkok conference, Warc submitted a written intervention on economic, social and cultural rights to the 57th session of the UN commission on human rights. Within Geneva, the WCC, Warc, the LWF, the YMCA, the YWCA, the WSCF, Pax Romana, and Frontier Internship in Mission have joined together to create the ecumenical coalition for alternatives to globalization (ECAG).

As the journey continues, the global economy has given rise to a truly grave situation, which causes unprecedented suffering for people, socioeconomic exclusion, and cataclysmic destruction of life on earth; and this calls churches and faith communities to intensify the process of confession and resistance.

As we deliberate on the further journey toward the 24th general council (Accra 2004), we have a strong sense that the general council must resolve in a special way to proclaim the "fullness of life".

Hearing the cry of the people and the earth

The unprecedented level of suffering and exclusion

We are taking part in the suffering of creation, humanity and the body of Christ. Our common life is marked by great suffering, death and destruction, unprecedented in the history of earth. This concern was brought before the Debrecen council in very clear terms:

"The lethal combination of pervasive poverty and unemployment has resulted in the exclusion of 1.3 billion people from active participation in the economic, political, social and cultural life of their communities and countries. The phenomenon of exclusion has contributed to the disintegration of society." (Leonor Briones)¹

The stories of humanity describe this statement:

• We suffer, as the African continent, for we are excluded more and more from the formal economy while at the same time pressed to pay interest on unpayable and to a great degree illegitimate and odious debt.
• We suffer as people infected and affected by HIV/Aids whose family life is destroyed by this pandemic. We see governments act in confused ways and pharmaceutical companies seek greater profits, whilst in places like Africa almost 25% of the population will die from Aids in the next decade;
• We suffer as victims of racial hatred and ethnic cleansing aggravated by socioeconomic destruction. In some places like Kosovo and Burundi this is dramatic and captures the attention of the world, while in places like the United States and Europe immigrants from the south and people of colour are daily dehumanized;
• We suffer as we are caught in civil wars and armed conflicts in many, many regions of the world. The proliferation of small arms for profit's sake, and the terrible legacy of land mines wreak havoc and genocidal death amongst our people.
• We suffer as victims of the feminization of poverty, domestic violence, sexual abuse and gender discrimination. As women and girls, we are daily reminded of our second-class citizenship in home, school and work place, subjected to intolerable levels of abuse and traded in the world sex market.
• We suffer, in countries like Iraq, North Korea and Cuba, from international sanctions. We discover that we cannot care for our lives and our futures in dignity, but are subject to the control of global power politics.
• We suffer, as indigenous peoples' communities, because we are disinherited from our lands, mining corporations and other large scale so called development projects destroy our livelihoods, lack of recognition of our dignity and the integrity of our communities and their respective cultures.
• We suffer as our language, our music, our foods and our cultural treasures are appropriated by the market and the mass media. Our children are being brought up unaware of the great achievements of their forebears, and lacking the time-honoured resources to cope with the challenges of the future.
• We suffer as we lack food, shelter and health care and have lost the possibility of ever having access to these things. Because of international agreements we undergo structural adjustment programmes and see our clinics and schools closed down and our water and land owned by multinational companies.
• We suffer as people who have a commitment and desire to work, but whose skills and energy are discarded by the economy. We desire to labour with our hands to raise income for our families, but we find ourselves standing in ever-growing unemployment queues.
• We suffer as victims of cataclysmic floods, drought, fire and storms, signs of the abuse of the earth. The effects of global warming and the energy needs of the north are already having a catastrophic effect upon our earth, making it a place of hostility rather than hospitality.
• And we suffer alongside our mother, the earth, as rivers and air are polluted, cattle culled, resources depleted and biodiversity destroyed. We no longer understand ourselves as part of creation, but find alienation and enmity at the heart of our existence.

When we meet together to share and pray about our experiences we discover that suffering, socioeconomic exclusion, dying and destruction of life are not exceptional or accidental, but a normal state for most of us. We discover that some of us suffer directly from poverty, and others from the passions and prejudices that prey upon poverty. We discover the suffering of those who are victims of decisions taken by anonymous people in unknown places. We discover the suffering within our own communities amongst women, children and the aged, and against the earth.

We are dehumanized, and we respond in inhumane ways. We cry out, for the spirit of life is being squeezed from us, and we seek answers to the omnicidal character of our suffering. We remember the mechanized destruction of Nazism and the crime against humanity of apartheid. And we realize that now a new type of systemic death creation is being globalized.

The causes of our unprecedented suffering, socioeconomic exclusion and destruction of life

Debrecen called upon Warc and its member churches "to give special attention to the analysis and understanding of economic processes, their consequences for people's lives, and threats to creation".²

We also remember what the participants of the Kitwe consultation in 1995 declared: hyperlink

"...Africa is dying at a time when the accumulated global wealth, to which we and our parents have handsomely contributed, is larger than ever before in the history of humankind... The sacrifice of humanity on the altar of global economy is intertwined with the sacrifice of nature... The voice of those who speak in defence of nature has been drowned by the loud proponents of unlimited economic growth."

From the process so far in Warc, the WCC and member churches, we come to the following conclusion, to be concretized and further developed in the process:

This alarming structural and systemic suffering of a large part of humanity and the destruction of nature is caused by human greed.

• the present system, protected by the dominant imperial power and its allies, is like a cancer. It kills the lives of people and destroy nature because it subjects all life to the global market, which is aimed at capital growth of the few owners of property and financial capital rather than at satisfying the needs of all people and of caring for life
• the systematized greed in the market is ideologically self-justifying, rationally and scientifically truth-claiming, morally pretentious, and religiously self-sanctifying, and thus replacing God's sovereignty over life.

How does the system function?

Economy

The biblical witness tells us God has graciously bestowed the earth with the plenty of good things so that all may live. However, the core of the present economy is that capital owners invest their money where it can grow quickest with highest profit rates and returns. So the absoluteness of property is the base on which the accumulation of capital takes place. This economy is not designed for satisfying the needs of all people, but for creating wealth for the owners. In our analysis we use the word "capital", which is not identical with "money". Capital is characterized by having to grow, by investment in order to be reinvested ad infinitum. The word "mammon" has the connotation of "where you put your trust".

As the highest returns can be secured in speculative financial transactions most money goes there and not into the production and distribution of necessary goods and services. In addition the target for returns in the financial markets of at least 15% puts pressure on industry and agriculture to rationalize and to neglect ecological criteria. The result is unemployment and the destruction of the earth instead of using the increase in productivity to humanize work and care the life in nature.

Finally all elements of life are being commodified, privatized and subjected to the accumulation of capital: seeds, animals, even human genes. The result is wealth for the few on the one side, hunger, exclusion, mass misery, despair, violence, death and ecological destruction on the other.

It is claimed that the capitalist market will solve the problem of hunger and poverty. Transnational food corporations dominate the world food market. It is also claimed that all the health problems can be solved through the market mechanism. Transnational medical and pharmaceutical corporations control the health market, making drugs and the life sciences into market commodities.

Politics

According to long-standing theological teaching, the mandate of the state is to secure the common good. In the neoliberal model of capitalist globalization, governments tend to do the opposite:

• They deregulate the globalized economy more and more, allowing capital to follow its own laws of self-aggrandisement.
• Instead of progressively taxing wealth and redistributing it for people's welfare, they lower taxes, do little or nothing against tax flight and even subsidize capital, thus increasing public debt.
• In order to balance their indebted budgets, they cut down on public, social, health and other services through "structural adjustment".

The democratic sovereignty of the people is eroded as global market forces weaken the nation-states.

For these purposes the governments of the rich countries dominated by the USA, use undemocratic international institutions like the G7 summits, the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO, while the USA is downgrading or coopting UN institutions so that these are further weakened.

Military

Theology teaches us that - if military power may be used at all - the power of the sword is meant to preserve justice and peace. Even according to the ideology and constitutions of all countries, the purpose of the military is self-defence in the case of a country being attacked. In the "new world" since the '90s the rationale has changed. The military force of the USA and its Nato allies is openly designed to protect the economic interests of the west. The new Nato strategy even renounces the disguise of international law and openly states that the alliance can mandate itself, as it already did in the war against former Yugoslavia. The USA has opened a new arms and missile race, promising new profits to the arms industry.

There have been covert activities by the CIA, allied western intelligence agencies and sometimes even agents of transactional corporations in order to kill political leaders (like Patrice Lumumba), social and ecological activists (like Ken Saro-Wiwa), and priests, bishops, nuns and liberation theologians (like Oscar Romero), as well as destabilize governments who are trying to introduce more social policies.

Culture and social control

Human beings are created in the image of God. The hearts and minds of the people are the place where they listen to God and the voices of their fellow creatures in faith and truth. More and more, hearts and minds are the battlefield for the "sociopsychological" dimension of power, in order to manipulate people. The goal is that hearts and minds should be directed towards competition and individual success, measurable in monetary terms, and expressed in as much consumption as possible and an unwillingness to look for alternatives.

The media owned by big capital influence people to follow the "laws of the market". Schools and universities cultivate the spirit of competition and adjust young people to "reality". Churches fight against liberation theology and any political involvement for justice, follow an individualistic prosperity theology and compete in the religious market (church growth).

These are some of the important mechanisms of the present system leading to unprecedented suffering, socioeconomic exclusion and death. Examining the misuse of power in its economy, political, military and sociopsychological dimensions, we conclude that what hinders the development of a people-centred and life-enhancing economy is best described as finance-driven imperialism strengthening its hegemonic power.

Industrial capitalism dominates life in nature at both the macro-level and the micro-level, treating nature as a resource for profit-making.

• The unlimited growth of the capitalist industrial economy depletes natural resources and develops environmentally hazardous energy production (dams, nuclear fission).
• Global warming, pollution of water, air and life-forms, and so on, destroy the natural environment with no limit.
• Genes are arbitrarily engineered for profit in the name of increased food production and improving human health.
• Scientific and technological developments are encroaching on the mystery of life.
• The capitalist economy is protected ultimately by nuclear, chemical and biological weapon systems that can destroy life totally.

We may differ about detail, analysis or concepts, but on this we find agreement: We are facing unprecedented suffering caused by an economic system which excludes many people, destroys creation and threatens life.

How did the churches relate to the historical roots of the present system?

The system has deep roots in the history of Europe and its relationship to the rest of the world, going back to the times of the Renaissance and even the crusades of the Middle Ages. Since those times the mechanisms of capital accumulation have always been coupled with various forms of political power, such as princes and, later, nation-states. This combination of capital and power allowed the Europeans to penetrate more and more of the world: through conquering (the conquista), protected trade including the slave trade (mercantilism), and colonialism coupled with financial hegemony and "free trade" (liberalism).

In all these periods Christian churches played an ambiguous role. The official Roman Church supported the conquista, tolerating the genocide of the indigenous peoples, while only a few people like Bartolomeo de las Casas fought against it. In mercantilism, the Netherlands and England with Protestant majorities were the leading forces; in liberalism, England again. In these periods Protestant missions used colonialism for their expansion, with again only a few of their missionaries siding with the subjugated. In Europe itself only minorities were in solidarity with the workers when industrial capitalism was exploiting them.

The classical competitive liberalism of the 19th century crashed in the great depression (1929) and the two world wars in the first part of the 20th century. After that, western national governments were forced by strong labour movements and the competition with communism to regulate their national economies socially, and introduce progressive tax systems, etc., in order to redistribute wealth. They even had to allow the national liberation of the colonies. At the 1944 Bretton Woods conference the British economist, John Maynard Keynes, presented a plan to regulate the international economy socially. This plan was rejected by the most powerful nation emerging out of the crisis, the USA. They wanted to have the dollar made the world currency, and to liberalize markets to benefit their strong companies. But some regulation allowed for a period of about 30 years of hope for welfare and development. Thanks to the ecumenical movement and the confessing stance of churches in historical situations of resistance, a revision of the relation of church and power started to emerge.

In the 1970s regulation started to break down: first the currency markets were deregulated (1971 and 1973), leading to more and more speculation; then the interest rates were given to the markets (1979), leading to the debt crisis through the transnationalization of the markets; tax flight led to increasing public debt even in the rich industrialized countries, leading to cuts in social services. The USA, since the 1960s, installed dictatorships around the world in order to have faithful collaborators for western capital. While church power structures were often complacent about these developments, ecumenical movements such as urban, industrial and rural mission and the churches of the poor and the minjung resisted injustice and exploitation.

From the perspective of the victims of the global economy, the breakdown in 1989/1990 of the Soviet system, which itself had created oppression, marked a turning point from bad to worse. Now the globalized capitalist market did away with social, ecological and democratic regulation so that capitalist globalization, which started more than 500 years ago, could be integrated into a global project of capital owners, protected by the dominant power, the USA, and its allies.

Since the 1960s a broad awakening started within the churches turning them towards solidarity with the poor such as the Catholic bishops' conference in Médellin (1968). The USA made every effort - openly (as in the Rockefeller report) and through covert action - to develop and strengthen the religious right, the theology of capitalism and prosperity, as well as religious groups promoting the American gospel, not only in the Americas but all over the world through institutes and broadcasting institutions. Many charismatic and evangelical Christians, and many churches, as they proclaim an individualized faith and salvation, are not aware that they have been instrumentalized politically and economically.

Since Debrecen it has become clearer that the system is in crisis, producing mass suffering and ecological disaster. The exclusion of Africa, the crises in Asia, the former Soviet Union, Ecuador, Brazil, and now in Argentina, subject whole nations to socioeconomic breakdown, creating unprecedented hunger, unemployment, violence and death.

Even protagonists of the system like the World Bank admit that policies of structural adjustment do not work. They are not ready, however, to change their macroeconomic policies, only adopting cosmetic changes in dealing with poverty, which continues to be created by those very policies.

Therefore we as churches face a kairos in which we are called to take a clear stance, win back credibility lost over the centuries, join the resistance, and search for life-enhancing alternatives which committed civil society actors and the people themselves are building up.

Resistance of suffering people and search for alternatives

Suffering peoples in Africa, Asia and Latin America and elsewhere in the world resist the powers and principalities that cause suffering. They inherit traditions of anti-colonial, independence and liberation struggles as they begin to resist. The farmers are struggling for their land and against WTO agricultural policy favouring the transnational food industry; the workers are struggling against structural adjustment and for social justice, exposing neoliberal market labour policy. The urban poor are fighting against exclusion, and the women are struggling against exclusion and discrimination. The people in weaker sectors of the society are struggling for justice and security. Indeed the people are rising again to resist forces that cause pain, suffering and death. Ethnic and national peoples are struggling for their identities, resisting commodification of their cultures.

In Africa, Asia and Latin America people are struggling to restore popular sovereignty and good governance, which serves the people rather than market powers. Struggles for human rights and democracy are emerging everywhere. Civil society movements are spreading from country to country, from continent to continent. People's movements are regaining their strength to struggle against economic domination and political oppression.

On the global level there is a growing resistance to institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, the G7 summit and other forums of the global market. Resistance movements are gathering momentum, as we have seen in Seattle, Washington and everywhere these organizations meet. Debates and struggles for good global governance to control the market forces are advancing significantly in these years.

At the same time the people are searching for alternatives to the present global economy that is geared solely to profit and capital accumulation. They begin this process with cooperative movements, alternative farming, alternative financial institutions, alternative food systems, alternative health care, and local participatory democracy. They are seeking vision and concrete models of life-enhancing economies in the midst of a new Social Darwinism. They are seeking alternative national and global tax policies.

In building alternative local economies the people draw wisdom from their traditional life- and need-based economies; they draw on religious, cultural and philosophical resources to lay foundations for new and alternative economies.

The people are building international, intercontinental and global networks of solidarity, exchange and alliance in resistance and in search for new alternatives of economy. There is an ever-widening forum for discussions and debates, for sharing and exchange, and for common and solidarity actions.

Ecumenical movements are participating in these developments. Jubilee 2000 is a prime example. The churches of Warc, other Christian world communions and the WCC, and other faith communities, have a special contribution as they search for economic alternatives on the basis of their faith and convictions and seek a confessing stance of resistance.

Listening and responding to God's revelation

The biblical vision and prophetic critique

"We are challenged by the cry of the people who suffer and by the groaning of creation." (Debrecen 1997)³

In listening to the cries of the people, in critically analysing the present system and looking for resistance and alternatives we can build on the rich heritage of the Bible. Here we see the vision of the manna economy (Exodus 16): God provides enough for the life of God's people every day. Nobody shall gather more than they need.

So when Israel adopted the king system of the ancient Near East, providing for an aristocracy and military with wealth, robbing the farmers of their land like in the case of Naboth (1 Kings 21), Elijah prophetically challenged the king.

The same is true when the property-based money economy was penetrating Israel from the eighth century BC. Here lending at interest started leading to the loss of the pawned land, debt slavery and hunger on the one side, and accumulation of land, money and slaves on the other (Is 5.8).

Besides the prophetic critique in Israel we find attempts to regulate the economy socially and legally, for example in the Covenant Code (Exodus 21-23), Deuteronomy and the Priestly Holiness Code (Leviticus). The fundamental teaching we find in Leviticus 25: God is the owner of the land as means of production and of the people. Therefore no human being shall have absolute ownership and commodify the land, or shall enslave a brother or sister. Concretely, no interest shall be taken on loans, the pawns should be given back once life is endangered, the sabbath shall protect the labourers and the land from exploitation. If things have gone wrong, slaves should be released, debts should be forgiven and land should be redistributed periodically (sabbath year and jubilee).

It is of great importance to note that the Bible understands God's laws, and particularly those relating to economy, as geared towards life. Especially the prohibition of taking interest from people in need is justified by the argument: "...let them live with you" (Lev 25.36). In turn, this means that accumulating wealth at the cost of other people's lives is murder. But it is also suicide because it kills the community of humans among each other and with God: "You shall observe my statutes and faithfully keep my ordinances, so that you may live on the land securely" (Lev 25.18). This also shows that life is not only dependent on food, but on human security.

When a system gets totalitarian, outright resistance is required (Daniel 3). Jesus himself attacks the economic centre of the temple exploiting the people through the sacrifice system, by direct symbolic action (Mk 11).

The vision of the economy of God's care, prophetic critique, social and legal regulation of the economy, and resistance are various forms of the basic biblical view: the economy's mandate is life in fullness for all people and communities. Where this is not followed we can expect suffering, dehumanization and death.

Reformed faith and economic justice

The call to speak out on economic justice comes from the Spirit, is guided by Scripture and informed by the Reformed heritage. John Calvin was intimately involved with the policy and practice of the political economy of Geneva in his days. This is reflected in his sermons and writings. In his teachings he attended to the role of money (now manifested in the financial market), the place of interest (now manifested in the unlimited quest for higher returns on investment), distributive justice and care for the poor. He didn't draw on a particular philosophical moral theory. Instead, he founded his engagement of economic issues in the theological idea of God's sovereignty and the imperative to follow the will of God in all matters including the economy.

The Reformed tradition has three pertinent points of departure (James Gustavson)

• recognition of the sovereignty of God;
• the commitment to faithful Christian life;
• affirmation of the regulation of personal and social life according to God's will

Calvin goes directly to the ten commandments where theology (I am the Lord your God) contracts for justice (thou shalt not...) Laws or regulations which violate humanity cannot be regarded as legitimate. Sometimes people are called to resist such illegitimate laws and regulations. However, doing the will of God is not to be seen as a new form of slavery. The God of the ten commandments is the God who liberates the slaves and the downtrodden. They now live in the certainty of this God-given freedom.⁴ Calvin had no time for the idea of a value-free economy, for God wills justice and liberates the exploited. In his Institutes, Calvin also speaks of the virtue of being patient in poverty. However, over against this call, he openly argued that "The rich and powerful exploiting of their material edge to increase the poverty of the poor was equivalent to brigandage."⁵ Where and when evil is more rampant, Christians are called to seek more "potent remedy".

Calvin proclaimed:

"God wills that there be proportion and equality among us, that is, each one is to provide for the needy according to the extent of one's means, so that no one has too much and no one has too little".⁶

Calvin affirmed the vocation of Christians to struggle so that the "crying difference between rich and poor" ceases. Upon this vocation rests the restoration of the dignity of people. Faced with the unprecedented suffering that economic arrangements can cause, Christians are called to affirm this vocation and to act accordingly.

Christians from the Reformed tradition have seen this vocation manifested in the biblical claim that God is the "helper of the helpless", the "father of the orphaned" and the "God of the widow". The church has to follow God in this. This calls us to stand up against the power of Mammon as we seek to affirm the sovereignty of God.

Debrecen thus clearly affirmed: "Our challenge is to redirect our economies under the sovereignty of our Lord, in the expectation of and preparation for God's coming".⁷

Christians in the Reformed tradition accept this challenge as it has become clear that current global economic power does not aim at the preservation of life, the restoration of human dignity, the building of the common good or stewardship of creation.

We accept this challenge in deep humility and in continuity with our own Reformed tradition. However, we accept this challenge also in attentiveness to other traditions and in partnership with multitudes who have come to a common understanding of the economic crisis of our times. The Catholic bishops' pastoral letter on economy, issued in the United States of America already in the 1980s, and decisions of other world communions remind us that our vocations belong together as we ecumenically covenant for economic justice as a matter of faith.

Our self-critique

We affirm that God's love embraces all living creatures, and the whole creation. God's promise of life is indeed cosmic (Genesis 9). There can be no exclusion of any living creature from God's grace and love. In Christ there can be no barriers of separation and exclusion by wealth, by power, by gender, by nationality, by culture and ethnic identity, by race, by ideology and religion, or by any demarcation (Gal 3.28). The dispensation of the Holy Spirit permeates all peoples (the whole of humanity), the whole of life, and the whole creation (Romans 8).

Yet in the present global situation as well as throughout history the Christian churches have been exclusive of people and life in the name of Christ, in the name of God and in the name of the church. This exclusionary justification has been explicitly theological, christological and ecclesiological. It has been implicitly economic, political, social, racial, cultural and religious. This exclusion has become second nature of the churches in the symbiotic relationship with the powers and principalities. Churches have participated in causing suffering of the people in this way.

We must repent of our involvement in the exclusion and suffering of the people and in the destruction of life in the present globalization as well as in the history of western domination.

Churches have been deeply implicated in economic power as well as political powers-that-be. Churches have been in symbiotic relationship with the powers and principalities of this world. Churches have become a part and parcel of the dominant economic, political and cultural powers of this world. Sometimes they have presented religious and theological justification and ideologized power to give it an absolute claim. These powers claimed the name of Christ and the Cross to justify their conquest and domination.

The gospel is the all-embracing love of God for all suffering and excluded people and the groaning life in the cosmos. Nothing can separate the people and the life from the gracious love of God in Christ (Romans 8).

We affirm the gift of life

We rejoice in God's love for all creation

We rejoice in God's gift of abundant life in Christ.

God created and creates life on earth. All humankind is created in the image of God and shares God's verdict: "it is very good". Because of our common origin in God, first of all and before anything else we are sisters and brothers blessed by God and called to care for the earth and all life.

We rejoice in God's covenant with every living creature

God's colourful rainbow in the clouds (Genesis 9) is the sign for the embrace of the multicoloured human family, indeed of God's inclusive and everlasting covenant with all creation. We are called to celebrate the colours of the rainbow rather than to turn it into one grey colour.

We rejoice in God's presence on earth

Through listening to the cries of the suffering, prophetic words and acts inside and outside the church; through reclaiming the Bible as the people's book; through reflecting upon our traditions and celebrating together our common hope, our hearts and minds are set free to envision an overflowing life for all without accumulation of wealth for a few.

We rejoice in God's promise

That out of a small mustard seed will grow the greatest of all bushes, creating a space for rest in the shade (Mt 4.30-32). Encouraged by God's passion for all life, empowered by God's wisdom and spirit, enlightened by God's promise to bring justice and peace we sail on the journey of hope, essential to our faith, announcing a life that encompasses justice, reconciliation and unity. We affirm God's gift of abundant life remembering that Christ said: "I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full" (Jn 10.10).

Affirming life

We repent of our complicity in an unjust and oppressive economic order, leading to misery and death for many people

We have all failed the gospel of Christ which teaches that for him pure and undefiled religion means to visit the orphans and the widows in their suffering; that he wishes to teach his people to do what is good and to seek the right (Jas 1.27).

As churches we repent that we have often violated this gift of life for all

• by the exclusion that we practise in our own ranks,
• by our exclusionary attitude towards people of other religions and faiths,
• by contradicting the credibility of the gospel to the poor because of the commodification of our churches and church life and the way in which we as corporate bodies use our resources.

Thus, our words and deeds have often been more of a hindrance than a furtherance of unity, justice and reconciliation. This violation of the gift of life is a contradiction of the gospel and constitutes a threat to the integrity of the church.

We repent that we have been silent when members of our churches have

• succumbed to greed and corruption,
• partaken in violence
• not resisted the oppressors or blocked the path of the ungodly;
• not resisted the extensive spending on the militarization of our nations and continents instead of using this very money for the eradication of poverty;
• not recognized various forms of injustice or have not witnessed clearly against the powerful and the privileged also in our own midst who selfishly seek their own interests thus controlling and harming others disregarding their dignity;
• contributed knowingly or unknowingly to the alarming structural and systemic suffering experienced by a very large part of humanity;
• participated in furthering economic imbalances, subjecting people to unfair labour practices, profiting unjustly at the cost of the poor and the marginalized and by this worshipping mammon instead of the living God.

In doing so, we failed to be more obedient to God than to other claims upon our lives or to be a help to the helpless, the poor and the economically discarded; and we have promoted the exclusion of the victims from the embrace of the gospel.

We therefore acknowledge with shame that others often are more obedient to God through their acts of compassion and justice towards the needy than we are.

We repent of our participation in convictions, attitudes and practices contributing to the erosion of the foundations of earth's livelihood

As a Reformed tradition we have not made clear the relationship between faith and economy, but took our subduing of the earth for granted, thus causing ecological hazard and destruction.

"We realize that despite the global hopes raised by the Earth Summit in 1992 the world is not moving toward a sustainable future, but is falling into an ever-deeper ecological crisis. We lament that the web of life is threatened as never before. We realize that if present trends continue, the world's life, as we know it, may not"⁸

Our greed and our own lifestyles often have contributed to an unreflective exploitation of the earth's finite resources thus endangering the life potential of future generations.

We repent of sinning against the hope that the message of life brings to the world

Too often we remained silent when we should have spoken out.

Too often we contributed to false hopes by not preaching the consequences of the gospel in its relevance to the world of economics.

Too often we actively destroyed the people's ability to hope when we did not stand where God stands, against injustice and with the wronged.

Too often we sinned against the message of hope, the gospel of life, and made a mockery of the will of God in this world.

We confess our faith in the triune God who in Christ offers life in abundance

"We belong - body and soul, in life and in death - not to ourselves but to our faithful saviour Jesus Christ." (Declaration of Debrecen)⁹

At the heart of the Reformed faith is the claim that we do not belong to ourselves but to Jesus Christ.

The Reformed community hears these words in the first place as gospel, as a word of comfort. This is a way of summarising the triune God's love, grace and promises of abundant life.

The Reformed community however also hears these words as a claim. This is also a way of summarising the fullness of God's calling, of Christian life itself (Calvin).

In the recent memory the Reformed community heard this gospel again in a powerful, inspiring and challenging way through the words of the Barmen theological declaration, originating in the context of the German church struggle:

"Christ Jesus, whom God has made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption." (1 Cor 1.30)

As Jesus Christ is God's assurance of the forgiveness of all our sins, so, in the same way and with the same seriousness he is also God's mighty claim upon our whole life. Through him befalls us a joyful deliverance from the godless fetters of this world for a free, grateful service to his creatures.

We reject the false doctrine, as though there were areas of our life in which we would not belong to Jesus Christ, but to other lords - areas in which we would not need justification and sanctification through him. (Barmen, Thesis 2)

Standing within this tradition, in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa the Belhar confession professed our beliefs concerning the unity of the church, the message of reconciliation and the justice of God, here for the first time tackling explicitly the issue of economic injustice:

"We believe that God has revealed himself as the one who wishes to bring about justice and true peace among men; that in a world full of injustice and enmity He is in a special way the God of the destitute, the poor and the wronged and the he calls his church to follow him in this; that he brings justice to the oppressed and gives bread to the hungry..." (Belhar, article 4)

The confession therefore concludes

• that the church must therefore stand by people in any form of suffering and need, which implies, among other things, that the church must witness against and strive against any form of injustice...
• that the church as the possession of God must stand where he stands, namely against injustice and with the wronged; that in following Christ the church must witness against all the powerful and privileged who selfishly seek their own interests and thus control and harm others.

On the basis of Belhar, and faced with their reality of poverty, African representatives of the reformed family at Kitwe, claimed that the gospel to the poor is at stake, as "the idolatrous and dehumanizing nature of the contemporary global economy is seen in the exclusion of Africa and Africans from the human family. This denial of our humanity (by cutting us off from the human family) is a direct contradiction of the faith that we were created by God in God's image."

They affirmed life against death and proclaimed the triune God as the God of life, of creation of care and of hope. They urged the Reformed family to call for a confessing movement faced in the light of this challenge.

Responding to this call the general council of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches at Debrecen took up the cry of the victims and called "for a committed process of progressive recognition, education and confession (processus confessionis) within all Warc member churches at all levels regarding economic injustice and ecological destruction."

In its recommendations the general council called upon Warc and its member churches "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."

It is now time for Warc to implement this decision by getting its member churches involved in studying the confession of Belhar and the decisions and recommendations of Debrecen in order to become an ecumenical confessing movement, facing the economic injustice and ecological destruction in word and deed and aiming at a common confession at the next general council (Accra 2004).

We do not belong to ourselves but to God, the creator of everything that exists, to Christ in whom we became a new creation (2 Cor 5.17) and who promises life in abundance (Jn 10.10) and we are led by the Spirit who establishes new life in us (Romans 8). Our lives should be testimony to our faith that all life comes from the spirit of God (Ps 104.30), that we respond in faithfulness to God's covenant made with the earth (Gen 8.13ff), that our actions be a testimony to God's work of redemption in Jesus Christ, reconciling "all things" (Eph 1.10), and offering the hope of healing to all the earth (Rom 8:21) (cf. report Justice for all creation).¹⁰

We commit ourselves to a ministry of embracing love

In response to the experience of exclusion we can do no other than commit ourselves to the gospel of life and ministry of embracing love. This embracing love is rooted in the very nature of the trinity itself. God is a God who embraces Godself within God's very being. This embrace is acted out in the embrace of the cosmos, the earth, and all humanity. This is the theological grounding of the covenant with all the earth in Genesis 9, in which life is affirmed. We are able to embrace in love, because the God of life has first embraced us.

Out of this embracing love we commit ourselves

To resist economic injustice and ecological destruction

Listening to the call of the triune God who, in a world full of injustice and enmity is in a special way the God of the destitute, the poor and the wronged (Psalm 146; Lk 6.20), and who calls the church to follow in this, we commit ourselves to follow Christ in

• witnessing against an economic system which excludes, exploits, dehumanizes and endangers life,
• witnessing against the global economy which subjects the entire household of God to a commodified monetary system,
• witnessing against all the powerful and privileged who selfishly seek their own interests and thus control and harm others,
• denouncing the false idols of greed and unlimited growth, which cause manifold suffering of people and the earth,
• covenanting with one another;
• in celebrating God's gift of life through the sharing of our bread with others, through an eucharistic vision that includes those excluded by global economy,
• in worship and liturgy as memory of Christ's death and resurrection,
• in celebrating the sabbath as a benefit for all God's people and the rest of creation

We commit ourselves to resist social, political, economic and ecological practices, institutions and systems that cause exclusion and suffering in the one household of God and to seek the cooperation of others within the ecumenical community as well as peoples of other commitments and faiths to further justice, unity and reconciliation.

To struggle for transformation

As members of the Reformed tradition we again emphasize the need for constant reformation and renewal of ourselves, the church and the social structures of society (semper reformanda). This also applies to the relationship between faith and economy.

We realize that in many areas of the globe abject poverty fundamentally influences the experiences of endemic violence. This poses a challenge together with others to renounce violence in its manifold manifestations, in order to pave the way towards peace (Lk 1.79).

We affirm that "the God who creates, sustains, judges, reconciles and redeems is also the God who rests. In the sabbath, creation, is celebrated as God's companion. Creation needs rest. Land, air, forests and water need their renewal, regeneration and replenishment that comes from the biblical vision of the sabbath day, the sabbatical year and the year of jubilee. Sabbath celebrates God's intention that all creation be set free from exploitation. It is a vision of sufficiency, denying the right of a privileged few to exhaust the earth's finite resources. All are called to such a style of life in the spirit of sabbath. The biblical meaning of sabbath teaches us to practice the sabbath as a witness to God's justice. In the full biblical picture humanity is an integral part of creation. Our work to break the chains of injustice is rooted in a vision of God's sabbath, where all peoples, all cultures and life-forms can share in the celebration." (Debrecen 1997).¹¹

To ministry of confessing the message of hope

We are urged by the unprecedented suffering and the groaning of the earth on the one hand and called by the God of life on the other to give account of the hope we have (1 Pet 3.15).

We commit ourselves to a life driven by the conviction that humanity and nature form an undivided whole. In a world in which exclusionary practices threaten this very unity and lead to brokenness, suffering and death, in a world in which life in just and sustainable communities is endangered, we commit ourselves to confess in word and deed towards a solid unity, characterized by justice and reconciliation. Our hope is Jesus Christ, who promised life and abundance to all (Jn 10.10).

Becoming a confessing movement

The act of confessing

Covenanting for justice in the economy and the earth, delegates at the 24th general council of Warc 2004 in Accra will continue the process of confessing faith in the context of grave economic injustice and ecological destruction, as was urged by the Debrecen general council in 1997. We hope that the Accra general council will strengthen the confessing movement that was envisaged by the Southern African regional consultation on Reformed faith and economic justice (1995, Kitwe/Zambia).

Confessing is an expression of the firm belief in God who is the giver of life and the true sovereign of life on earth. It responds to the promise of abundant life for all and is a call to care for the suffering people of God. If one member of the people of God suffers, all suffer. Confessing is a spiritual act in the presence of God that implies;

• repentance before God and victims of oppression,
• discernment of God's grace that unmasks the merciless and cruel character of the powers that be,
• resistance to the idolatry of money and market,
• reparation and reconstitution of just relationships,
• with the aim of reconciliation in Christ.

It points to an alternative vision of the household of life, celebrated in the eucharist and practised in a eucharistic life-style. Confessing is a way of being, thinking and doing that leads to participation in the movement of resistance to injustice and destruction of creation, search for alternatives and life in dignity for all. Increasing inequality and destruction of life caused by the "very mechanism of the global economy" (Kitwe 1995) compromises and threatens to destroy the integrity of the gospel. God's good news for the poor and the promise of life in its fullness are at stake.

In the perspective of reformed tradition a response of obedient discipleship is required, restoring a truthful witness to the gospel in preaching, teaching and concrete actions, ie an act of confessing. Because the gospel is at stake, this response has an inherent ecumenical dimension. The gospel never belongs just to one tradition, but constitutes the witness to the unity in Christ.

The act of confessing needs united action with all who share the same concern for life. This conviction constitutes the openness of the movement of confession. The general council in Debrecen declared: "We consider this affirmation of life, commitment to resistance, and struggle for transformation to be an integral part of Reformed faith and confession today" (Debrecen Proceedings, p.198) It agreed

• to strengthen the cooperation of Warc and its member churches with other networks and partners, such as Christian world communions, the WCC, and other relevant organizations and movements;
• to join forces with people of other faiths and people of goodwill who are looking toward the same goal.

The invitation to other churches to join the movement of confession is an expression of the desire for a common witness to the world and the sense of unity in Christ that will grow out of an unequivocal and fully committed witness for justice, peace and creation. Warc, therefore, invites other churches to search together for expressions of the ecclesiological unambiguousness of the committed act of confessing in their own traditions and to initiate processes of conciliar decision making to reject the dominant economic system and its ideological justifications for the sake of life. In this way we will together affirm the integrity of the gospel.

The common struggle with social movements and all people of good will is crucial not only for success and failure of the confessing movement. They remind the churches of their obligation to resistance and prophetic witness. Engaging in the struggle for justice, they point to the very heart of the act of confessing and help the churches to better understand the common task. Because the Spirit is constantly renewing the church and the world open to the participation of human efforts and agency also beyond the church, these movements and communities embody prophetic signs of the reign of God and can be seen to bring not only the world, but also the churches closer to God's mysterious purpose in the world.

Confessing through liturgy and worship

Liturgy and worship comprise life experiences as a whole. Performing liturgical acts, preaching the gospel and celebrating baptism and eucharist one acts of reconstructing reality as meant by God in creation and an act of healing relationships distorted by power and money. Worship empowers the community through the good news of the gospel, providing space for the suffering in the midst of the community and in the presence of God, building solidarity among the people of God, and helping people to re-own their sense of belonging, self-worth and identity. The worshipping community is sign and foretaste of the new community created by God in Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit.

Liturgy and worship can be in itself a real step as well as a symbol of resistance against totalitarian power, which confronts the sovereignty of God. Taking time to celebrate together and thank God for the gift of life is in itself a form of protest against the commodification of life and a liberating act, stating that being competitive and making money at all costs, is not the purpose of human life. In baptism, Christians are liberated, no longer loyal to the powers of death but to the God of life. Celebrating the eucharist at the altar, the worshipping community is liberated from the idolatry of the global economy, which sacrifices fellow human beings and other creatures on the altar of money and greed. Remembering the suffering of Christ, the community also recalls the memory of the martyrs, past and present, and is empowered and united by their costly witness. Breaking the bread and drinking the cup together, the celebrating community re-enacts God's economy of grace, relationship and sharing. Seen from this perspective the offering is not simply an act of thanksgiving and sharing, but a confessional act of subjecting the power of money under the reign of God.

The emphasis on covenanting highlights the building of mutual relationship, solidarity and sharing as crucial elements of worship. The church calendar and lectionaries are almost exclusively directed towards soteriology and Christology, not emphasizing enough the saving grace of God for all humankind and creation. The sabbath tradition reminds the community to leave space and time for the celebration of life and God's recreating love to creation and labourers. The confessing movement will revisit the choice of texts for the sermons, so that all realms of life are taken into account, particularly the faith response to economic injustice that affects human societies and nature in time of globalization. It will carefully reconsider the meaning of the major feasts during the church year. It will cherish that the intercession opens up the worshipping community to the reality in its place and also world wide in an ecumenical spirit. It is here where the congregations reckon with the transforming power of God in the world and, at the same time, with God's ability to be moved by the prayers and the cries of the excluded.

The church is called to open its space for the public and into the public. Re-membering those who were dis-membered, marginalized and excluded by violence and exclusion in its various forms, and to strive for healing and justice, requires us to stage protest against the ongoing victimization based on prevalent structures of class, gender, race, age, or dominating culture as in the case of indigenous people and sexual orientation.

The confessing movement will transform the liturgy in many ways, including dance, music, arts, silence, symbols and symbolic action. In the context of globalization, the local gains even more importance, thus different liturgies of mourning, remembering, publicizing pain, but also celebrating the joy of solidarity and common witness for justice are needed to avoid drowning the local voices in an all-too generalized or globalized language and approach. In many places, the confessing movement will be a movement of the poor and victims of oppression. But also in the rich industrialized countries, the confessing movement will encourage congregations to discover victims of oppression in their midst who usually remain silent, such as women affected by poverty and bearing the marks of violence. Congregations in rural areas, in the cities, in centres of production for global economy or of the financial markets will carefully look at appropriate ways to give meaning to liturgy and worship in the daily life of the people. The blessing of seed and soil, for instance, can be a powerful symbol for God's life giving power in rural communities. In the cities, however, congregations will refuse to ritualize economic activities and instruments, which contradict the economy of God. They will find new ways of expressing their solidarity in the confessing movement, accompanying the victims and confronting the powers in the places of struggle and in the streets with liturgies that make space in those situations for the cry of the people, discernment in the Spirit, and celebration of life.

Confessing through committed action

This understanding of liturgy and worship implies the continuation of liturgy through committed action in society and together with other partners. The Debrecen general council stated clearly what kind of "programmes, resources and practical steps are necessary to initiate and nurture the processus confessionis at all levels as a matter of extreme priority" and came up with a number of very practical recommendations for committed action.¹²

As shown in the growing movement of resistance against economic globalization and for people-centred alternatives, there are many other contextual ways of action for a just and life-enhancing economy. The confessing movement will encourage local congregations, churches, national ecumenical organizations, indeed, Christians at all levels, to search for appropriate and effective forms of action that motivate people at the local level and at same time strengthen the confessing movement at all other levels.

However, we need to find common action, which address the four power dimensions of the global system indicated in Part 1 of this report. hyperlink The three Jewish men in Daniel 3 refused to fall down in front of the golden statue; the early Christians refused to worship the emperor; the pastors of the confessing church in Germany refused to be paid by money collected through the tax system of a totalitarian state; in the struggle against apartheid, faithful churches disinvested from banks financing apartheid.

What are the actions we can identify required to clearly show that we disassociate ourselves from the death-inducing economic system and that we at least begin to work for and within a life-enhancing economy? We are inviting all Warc member churches and ecumenical organizations to develop concrete proposals and test their appropriateness in order to reach common ground for decisions in Accra.

In the process leading up to the next general council 2004 in Accra, it will be necessary to consolidate the process of south-south networking and joint witness that Kitwe called for and Debrecen affirmed. A meeting of churches from the south that should take place early in 2003 in Africa will provide the needed opportunity to re-examine the progress made since Kitwe and consider again what it actually means that this situation "constitutes a status confessionis" according to Kitwe (1995). This will contribute to deepen and consolidate solidarity among them. A consolidated voice of the south will also challenge the churches in the north to intensify their contribution to the confessing movement. The meeting in Africa should find its counterpart in a conference later in 2003 in Washington as an occasion for the churches in North America to draw the conclusions for their own context out of the questions and proposals brought to them by their brothers and sisters in the south. In order to ensure a broader ecumenical significance of this meeting, there should be an adequate number of representatives from ecumenical partners and from churches in Europe who have their conferences in the processus confessionis in 2001 (central and eastern Europe) and 2002 (western Europe).

Confessing at Accra

This requires the preparation of a draft confession for the general council in Accra as well as the identification of key areas in which covenanting for justice in the economy and on the earth could take place. The reflection on the different forms of power in part 1 of this report can help to give a clearer focus to the covenant. The executive committee should, therefore, invite the Warc member churches to participate in the development of a common confession and share among each other their analysis and practical steps in the implementation of this process.

Recommendations on process

1. The executive committee reiterates the Debrecen decision to covenant for justice in the economy and the earth as an invitation to create a confessing movement as a part of gathering process towards 2004 general council. The executive committee considers this report seriously, takes up its suggestions as recommendations to congregations and member churches at all levels, will share the report with them and ask them to identify their own options to create and join the confessing movement.
2. In order to encourage member churches to be engaged in the confessing movement without delay, the executive committee writes a letter of recommendation to all member churches.
3. Kitwe urged Warc "to consider the calling of a confessing movement of the churches in the South and others who are in solidarity with them." This recommendation should be implemented intensely at all levels. The executive committee will ask Warc offices at regional and global levels to strengthen the confessing movement in developing and supporting links to other churches, ecumenical organizations and social movements. The Geneva office will develop a more precise schedule for the confessing movement, taking into consideration the existing cooperation with other partners and with the aim of strengthening it.
4. Warc offices at regional and global level are asked to provide liturgical and Bible study materials so that the faith dimension of the confessing movement will be nurtured.
5. The confessing movement is asked carefully to ensure the involvement of children and youth at all levels.
6. The executive committee invites other world communions to join this movement.
7. The executive committee welcomes the cooperation between Warc office in Geneva and other ecumenical organizations based in Geneva in creating the ecumenical coalition for alternatives to globalization. This coalition can become a platform of expanding the confessing movement with other ecumenical communities.
8. The executive committee appreciates the close cooperation with WCC in response to the Harare recommendation to support the Warc processus confessionis as was the case in the common preparations of the Bangkok and Budapest consultations. This coooperation contributes to highlight the ecclesiological dimension of the WCC's work on globalization and violence.
9. The executive committee calls upon the WCC to help initiating and support an encounter with other church families, world communions and ecumenical organizations with the aim of broad ecumenical involvement in the confessing movement.
10. The executive committee welcomes increasing coooperation with the LWF, particularly in the consultative process on globalization and communion.
11. Warc facilitates the increase of coooperation with other ecumenical organizations whose constituency overlaps with Warc membership, such as CWM, CEVAA, UIM etc., in order to arrive at concerted action on the confessing movement.
12. The grave situation of economic injustice and the radical openness of the confessing movement motivate the executive committee to encourage member churches to strengthen united action with social movements and other faith communities at all levels and wherever possible.

Notes