"For half the world's population the brutal reality is this: you'd be better off as a cow. The average European cow receives $2.20 (£1.40) a day from the taxpayer in subsidies and other aid. Meanwhile, 2.8 billion people in developing countries around the world live on less than $2 a day."

- Charlotte Denny, "Cows are better off than half the world", The Guardian, August 22 2002

Study texts and Bible studies

In a world where people are better off as cattle, and even the cattle go crazy - bovine spongiform encephalitis, one of Britain's more recent contributions to progress, is popularly known as mad cow disease - what does it mean to have life in fullness?

Accra study book Karl Barth famously urged us to travel through life with the Bible in one hand and our newspaper in the other, but in today's world the tension between the reality captured by the media and the promise conveyed by scripture becomes acute. Provided, of course, that the media do not simply feed us propaganda, a trend that grows globally as they more and more become the plaything of corporations and conglomerates.

The October 2003 double issue of Reformed World, published in English, French, German and Spanish, contains the study texts and Bible studies for participants in the 24th general council (Accra 2004), but should attract a wider readership.

The Bible studies invite us to accompany Naomi on her journey from Judah to Moab and Ruth on the return trip - a highly symbolic itinerary if ever there was one. The study texts survey some of the contemporary threats and challenges to life, then reflect theologically on the meaning of life, and finally consider what our theme implies for us as Christians and our Reformed and United churches in mission, covenanting and spirituality. Philippe Kabongo-Mbaya's study on Jn 10.10 first appeared in Reformed World in our December 2002 issue on life in fullness in Africa, but we reprint it for the convenience of participants and in four language versions.

The Alliance beyond 2004

The 24th general council takes place at a time of major changes in the world and the ecumenical movement. Unless we take seriously the time in which we live, dare to listen to God and embrace a new vision, the Alliance may become irrelevant to the churches whose Alliance it is.

To fashion a future for the Alliance requires us to read the signs of our times clearly; to know where we have come from; and to understand ourselves and our purposes, and why we do what we currently do. This text - the long title is The Common Witness of WARC Member Churches Today and Tomorrow and the Service of the Alliance - in intended to help in these tasks. It has already been sent to member churches and Alliance areas for discussion and feedback and will go out in 2004 to delegates and other Accra participants.

We begin by listening to the churches and draw out some global trends that need to inform the work of the Alliance. In the second part, we outline the historic and current work done by the Alliance, within its self-understanding as an ecumenical confessional body and in response to challenges in the lives of member churches in the past and present. This part provides brief historical explanations for WARC's life and programmes.

Part three sets forth a vision for the Alliance in the decade following Accra. It presents some possibilities and raises many questions. We offer these as discussion starters.

We hope that as member churches, Accra participants and others read and respond with concrete suggestions, all of us together can help discern what the priorities of the Alliance ought to be and discover ways of working that engage us more deeply. If our Alliance is genuinely to be a fellowship of common witness, then it is the fellowship that must say what it should be and what it should do.