In May 1994, the Synod of the Church of Lippe asked the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) to make representations to the Federal Government with the aim of developing through the United Nations an international insolvency or bankruptcy law, to protect the elementary life rights of those affected by the international debt crisis. The Synod resolution said that the debt servicing of highly indebted countries must be limited by social, ecological, developmental and democratic concerns, and asked the Federal Government vigorously to promote debt remission for developing countries in absolute distress.

In June 1998, the Synod welcomed the possibility offered by the "Jubilee 2000" campaign to revisit and reactivate its earlier resolutions. It agreed to make "Jubilee 2000" one of the foci of development-related work in the church for the duration of the campaign, and encouraged congregations to sign the campaign appeal.

As a result of foreign debt, more than a billion human beings - if nothing changes - will enter the new century in life-threatening poverty, while their countries continue to make enormous payments to governments and banks in rich countries and to international financial institutions. This cannot be a matter of indifference to us, the Synod said. As Germans, we are creditors many times over: as holders of bank accounts, and as taxpayers and citizens of a country whose government is an important participant in the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and a significant player in international politics.

In September 1997, World Bank President James Wolfensohn predicted that the struggle for debt forgiveness would be one of the big media events in the run-up to the millennium. Jubilee 2000 campaigns are now active in many countries, North and South. There are plans for the largest international petition campaign in history, aiming to collect at least 20 million signatures for presentation to the meeting of the G8 states in Cologne in Summer 1999.

Hand in hand with the appeal to governments goes a process of education and consciousness-shaping: clarifying the connections and the background of indebtedness. So also in Lippe. In the coming months, the Ecumenical Office of the church will run a set of information meetings. Many congregations and church agencies may also take up the campaign: Alavanyo, the "One-World" organization in Detmold, is already an example. There are plans for a ecumenical service on Whit Monday 1999 with the Jubilee year as its theme. The church can also use its links with partner churches abroad (in Ghana, for example) to include them in the campaign. Thus the Church of Lippe can contribute to the worldwide network.

From a press release by Andreas Duderstedt, Church of Lippe