The mass protests during the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos in 2001 and later at the G8 summit in Genoa and at other international meetings demonstrate graphically the great gulf between the advocates and opponents of the present forms of economic development. Even in church circles, arguments about the consequences of economic globalization are complex and highly emotional.

At the beginning of 2001, there was public discussion within the cantonal church of Berne - one of the largest in the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches. The point at issue was whether it made sense in present circumstances to talk to the WEF, or whether suspending the dialogue, as opponents demanded, was more helpful to the cause of more just and peaceful development.

In the hope of advancing the debate in a constructive and creative way, the ecumenical working group in the department of ecumenism, mission and development proposed a conference with the title "www.refkirchenbeju.global".

The discussion - in good Reformed tradition - should be as broadly-based as possible. Those affected by economic globalization in other parts of the world should be at the centre of attention. Workshops would enable participants to exchange their views, and these should be documented for the sake of the continuing work.

Roughly 130 people - church leaders, members of congregations, representatives of aid agencies and specialist church departments, and foreign guests - took part in the conference, which met in September this year.

In the opening presentation, Markus Mugglin, economics editor with Swiss Radio, asked "what lies behind globalization?" He argued that we are suffering today from a worldwide economic apartheid and used this idea to lead conference members to a critical view of global economic development.

Rogate Mshana, a Tanzanian economist working with the World Council of Churches (WCC), addressed the economic analysis of globalization from an ecumenical perspective. He gave the plenary a deeper view of the development of money flows and income and power relationships, and presented a picture of the destructive consequences of recent economic trends from the standpoint of poorer countries. In Europe, this focus is easily lost.

Park Seong-won of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches offered an unfamiliar theological perspective on economics. According to his interpretation of Calvin's attitude to the economy, every economic order must stand in the service of human beings. In this understanding, sharing is an essential element in a just economy, in which the weak and the poor are also considered.

All three speakers were clear: economic globalization as we experience it today demands human victims in the interests of the wealth of a small number of rich people. It is our task to oppose this with criticism and resistance. Thus the speakers laid a foundation for the discussion that followed.

Nine different workshops in the afternoon enabled the conference participants to look at particular aspects of globalization, e.g., "Reformed faith and globalization", "Feminist analysis of globalization", "The church under the law of the globalization?", "Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in globalization", "Critics of globalization". In each case, a specialist gave a short input on the topic before the discussion began. Specialists from many different walks of life were used: in addition to Warc and the WCC, representatives of the synod executive council, ATTAC (the association for the taxation of financial transactions for the aid of citizens), the Swiss foundation for small and medium-sized enterprises, aid agencies, and many others. Breaking down the discussion into these different aspects allowed it to be enriched by contributions from life and experience.

The workshops formulated expectations of the church. For example, since in many countries SMEs have similarly negative experiences of economic globalization, they asked the church to help these enterprises to network across national borders. Other proposals were that the "hidden work" of women should be brought out more strongly in the debate, and that the church must become, as it were, a partner to the political sphere, so that states remain politically effective and can set the basic conditions for the economy.

The conference ended with a panel discussion, in which the president of the synod executive council and the representatives of Warc and the WCC gave their reactions to the results of the workshops.

Further discussions need to be conducted on several levels. On the one hand, at the grassroots, in the congregations of the church. One way in which this could happen would be by the conference participants taking the conference debate back into their congregations. On the other hand, there is a need for discussion in the governing bodies of the church, so that official church policy can be further formulated. It is also important to network the discussion on the international level, e.g., in the context of Warc and the WCC. This could give a significant impulse to the process of confession initiated at the Alliance's 23rd general council (Debrecen 1997).

In Berne, it was possible to widen the debate on globalization by involving different groups, some of them not church-related, and to conduct it on an objective, factual basis. This example might encourage other churches to engage in the same difficult and emotive argument.

Uli Geisler, president of the ecumenical working group