A better world is possible Progressive Christians Uniting, an ecumenical network centred in southern California, sponsored a two-day conference early in June that summoned 350 Christian activists to the task of imagining how to create a more just and peaceful world. The conference was held at All Saints Episcopal Church, Pasadena, California, a cosponsor.

Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians and Walden Bello of Focus on the Global South engaged participants the first morning in a spirited conversation about the ideological underpinnings of economic globalization and the means of taming its many negative and environmental effects. They spelled out alternatives to existing multilateral institutions like the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO, offered policies for rebuilding economies in ways that are more responsive to human needs, and explored how vital goods and services like water or genetic material could be administered for the common good rather than privatized for profit or monopolized for control.

Seminars that focused on learning about policy and institutional alternatives to corporate globalization drew participants into small group discussions that afternoon, led by specialists of national stature. Among the offerings: global economics 101; Free Trade Area of the Americas; labour, race and globalization; What's wrong with the IMF?; population, women's rights and global power; casino capitalism; ecofeminist liberation theology; the World Trade Organization; sustainable development.

In a powerful indictment of the new American empire that evening, George Regas, convenor of Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace, linked the Bush administration's report on the national security strategy of the USA to the aspirations of corporate globalism.

The next morning, a service of thanksgiving and commitment was enriched by a sermon, "The commonwealth of God and the common good" by John B Cobb, Jr, anthems by a Tongan choir, and liturgical dance by an African-American children's group. The worship service also included witness by a few participants already engaged in ministries of justice that prepared participants for the afternoon's action workshops.

The workshops were designed to invite participants to take actions of their own choosing to help make a better world possible. Among the offerings: National Resources Defence Council; the Positive Futures network; stockholder resolutions; reclaiming the union movement; welfare: restoring a broken promise; overcoming sweatshop conditions; education and action in the local church; World Social Forum; peacemaking; equal exchange: supporting fair trade coffee.

A bookstore and tables on the lawn staffed by nonprofit groups working on economic justice offered many resources for learning and networking. Young people and grey-haired veterans of social action movements shared stories of their work. Catholics and Protestants from a wide range of traditions, including many Reformed people, both as leaders and participants, got acquainted with a Muslim imam who came in search of Christians who shared his concerns. Powerful voices raised together in song brought joy and rising courage to people who often feel like an outnumbered minority in the United States today.

The conference ended with a service of commitment when all participants identified as an act of worship the actions they planned to take to change things for the better in a world that cries out for a positive alternative to globalization and empire.

Gordon K Douglass, Presbyterian Church (USA)

Maude Barlow chairs the Council of Canadians, Canada's largest public advocacy organization with over 100,000 members. She is on the board of the International Forum on Globalization and co-founded the Blue Planet project, an international civil society movement to stop the commodification of water. She is author or coauthor of 14 books on the effects of globalization on social programmes, the Free Trade Area of the Americas, and the environment. Her latest books (coauthored with Tony Clarke) are Blue Gold: The battle to stop corporate theft of the world's water and Global Showdown: How the new activists are fighting global corporate rule.

Walden Bello commutes between Manila, where he is professor of sociology and public administration at the University of the Philippines, and Bangkok, where he is executive director of Focus on the Global South, a research and advocacy centre on the global political economy. He is a director of the International Forum on Globalization, and chairs the board of Greenpeace Southeast Asia. He has a PhD in sociology from Princeton university in New Jersey, has taught at UCLA in Los Angeles, and is author of 13 books, the latest of which is Deglobalization: Ideas for a new world economy. He has been called "the world's leading no-nonsense revolutionary".

John B Cobb, Jr is professor emeritus at the Claremont Graduate University and the Claremont School of Theology in California, vice-chair of the Centre for Process Studies, and co-founder of Progressive Christians Uniting. With Herman Daly, he is author of the seminal work For the common good: Redirecting the economy toward community, the environment, and a sustainable future. His latest book is Post-modernism and public policy.