"We dare to propose that all churches which confess Jesus Christ as God and Saviour... should form a covenant for peace and justice... In order to give visible expression to this covenant, we suggest, under the auspices of the World Council of Churches, the preparation and early summoning of a special ecumenical gathering in which all churches would participate and bear witness to ways of peace and justice."

With those words the executive committee of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches boldly challenged the world church towards unity of witness against the threats to life in our age. The committee issued its proposal in March, 1983, in response to declarations made by the Alliance's general council in Ottawa (1982). That council had provided a litany of testimony on the issues of justice, peace and the environment which described a world on a death march and "in the grip of graceless powers... the outcome of greed and selfishness... supported by complex networks of economic, political and other forces."

There is little reason to revise that assessment in 1989. This is so, even though there have been significant and hopeful developments in the geopolitical scene since Ottawa, including especially the apparent improved relations between the two "super-powers". The general trend throughout the world remains perilous in the extreme. Indeed, the "grip of graceless powers" has tightened - -forcibly, and the threats to life in our present age have intensified and escalated. Consider these realities, which are documented throughout this booklet:

every minute the nations of the world spend 1.8 million US dollars on military armaments;
every hour a score of non-human species becomes extinct;
every day 40,000 children, die of hunger related causes;
every week during the 1980s, more people were detained, tortured, assassinated, made refugee, or in other ways violated by repressive governments than at any other time in history;
every month the world's economic system makes more unbearable the catastrophic debt now borne by the nations of the third world;
every year an area of tropical forests three-quarters the size of South Korea is destroyed and lost;
every decade during the past several decades the sea level has risen as a result of present global warming trends, portending disastrous consequences for our planet and all humanity should this trend continue.

Thus, despite some signs of hope in the present geopolitical situation the general trend is ominous, both for humanity and the whole creation. Surely the world should not be the way it is. If that is not accepted as basic fact, nothing that follows will make any sense.

What follows is an urgent plea to the world family of Reformed churches for a serious and determined response to the executive committee's challenge: "We dare to propose that all churches which confess Jesus Christ as God and Saviour...form a covenant" for justice, peace, and the integrity of creation. This challenge is made more compelling by the fact that two-thirds of the member churches in our "family" live in the third world. We must find new ways to witness together to the gospel in the face of our present situation. For if not us, then who? If not now, then when? If not in Seoul, then where?

Questions for discussion

Do you agree with the above general assessment of our present world situation?
From your own knowledge or experience, what testimony can you give to support or amend the above assessment?
The continent of Africa is both the most fertile and among the poorest in the world. How do you explain this seeming paradox?
From whose perspective do you think we should ask our questions and form our convictions about justice, peace and the integrity of creation?
Can you think of examples to show the interconnectedness between the issues of justice, peace, and the integrity of creation?
How do you respond to this statement: "Christians should stick to saving souls and not meddle in socio-political issues"

God's covenant of grace, the ground of our hope

Reformed Christians through the centuries have regarded "covenant" as a critical lens for viewing with clarity the message of the bible. The term covenant (Hebrew "berith"; Greek "diatheke") appears nearly three hundred times in the Old Testament. Its primary meaning is "promise", "oath", "bond", and it defines the action in which God seals or confirms God's unilateral commitment to the creation or to one or more human partners. In its basic meaning, therefore, a covenant is not a contract between equals. Nor is it an agreement that God and the people establish together. Rather, in the bible a covenant in the first instance is a unilateral and grace-full declaration: God initiates, establishes and seals the covenant, and the people are privileged to live in God's presence, to trust God's promises, and to keep God's "berith".

Invariably God initiates covenant in the worst possible situations and with the most improbable partners: the barren, the slaves, the powerless, and even the "defenceless" creation. The primal disclosure of the bible is that God has a "preferential option" for the unprotected and those in seemingly hopeless situations; God gives God's whole self in order to enter into covenant and be present in solidarity with these partners for their liberation. And the clear teaching of the bible is that this action is irreversible (cf. Gen 9.8-17; 11.30; 17.19; Ex 2.24-25; 12.40-42; Isaiah 40.1-8; Jer 31.31-34; Hos 11.8-9).

God's move towards covenant solidarity with these partners is evidence not only that covenant is possible, but that such is God's intention for the world: God intends that our broken and threatened world become a community that covenants, that practices justice, establishes peace and "stewards" the earth, that values all its members, that distributes its products equally, and that brings the strong and the weak together in common work and common joy (Jer 31.31-34; Amos 5-6; Micah 4.3; 6.8; Hosea 2.14, 19-20; Acts 2.44-45; 2 Cor 5.17-21; James 1.18-27; 1 John 4).

God's abiding faithfulness to this covenant intention finds full and definitive expression in Jesus Christ, the "new covenant" (1 Cor 11.15; Luke 7.16). In his person and work, Christ announced and established the new covenant order, or as he himself called it in the language of the time, the kingdom of God (Mark 1.15). This kingdom consists of the full reign of God in the world, and places both humanity and the universe under the power of a new age: "All things are made new" (2 Cor 5.17). In Christ's death and resurrection the conflict between divine faithfulness and human unfaithfulness is resolved. The dividing wall separating peoples and nations is broken. God's shalom finds its expression. And creation itself is redeemed from the historical reality of power and domination. And this is not a static situation: through the sustaining and sanctifying action of the Spirit of the reigning Lord, the kingdom drives towards its consummation. In all of this, God's original covenant intentions are radically manifested and expanded. This age is totally new because in Jesus Christ a new order has dawned. But it is at the same time totally the same God, the same faithfulness to the covenant promise, the same demands for justice, peace and the integrity of creation.

Though it does not yet appear that God's new age is established in our world, the hope of the church is grounded in this claim of the gospel. Jesus Christ is Lord. Even now the power of this claim is at work in the world for the transformation of all things. And one day the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of our Christ (Rev 11.15). The church celebrates all of this in the eucharist, the feast which acknowledges and proclaims our belonging to this "new covenant" relationship as the body of Christ and, through the Spirit, opens all of life to the promises and demands of the new age: "This cup is the new covenant in my blood" (1 Cor 11.25).

Although this covenant narrative pervades the bible, it was not until the "Age of Reformation" in sixteenth-century Europe that covenant was formulated into a doctrine. At that time, Reformed Christians differentiated themselves from the other branches of the church by making the powerful covenant symbol the basis of their faith and witness. With great imagination they applied this symbol not only to the relation of humanity to God, but also to the full range of human relationships: marriage, family, economics, politics, the church, and the just ordering of society. Indeed, the covenant became the spiritual and organizational principle for all of life among Reformed Christians, and formed them into alternative "covenanting" communities as salt, light, and leaven in their world.

In the centuries following the "Age of Reformation", covenant theology has had an uneven history within Reformed Christianity. For example, we are painfully aware even today of those who have corrupted the covenant into a doctrinaire, inward-looking, self-glorifying, and legalistic ideology. Indeed, some have interpreted covenant to justify racism, nationalism, separatism, and even war.

In addition, the creation has never really been fully incorporated into covenant theology; or rather, Reformed Christians historically have regarded creation as merely the "stage" on which the drama of the divine-human covenant is played out, a role which over time became strictly utilitarian. That is, Reformed covenant theology has been bound up with a social or political vision; it has not contained an ecological or environmental vision. That omission needs urgent correction by Reformed Christians in our age.

But there are many Reformed Christians for whom covenant theology has been and is the basis of their hope and witness, steeling them against despair, empowering them to resist oppression, and transforming them as signs of the new age. Indeed, Reformed Christianity at its best is a story of courage and struggle against every form of death and destruction: saying "No" to the "principalities and powers of this dark age", while saying "Yes" to God's covenant intentions on behalf of the poor, the unprotected, and the suffering creation.

In more recent years Reformed Christians throughout the world, but especially in Germany, Taiwan, Korea, South Africa, and the Philippines have courageously declared this "No" and this "Yes" in the face of tyranny in their time and place. In each case, the witness of these "confessing" churches has been and is grounded in their profound understanding of covenant theology, and in their determination to name and confront the destroyers of life in their respective contexts with the power-filled implications of that theology, often at great cost. In a sermon preached in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1988, Dr Allan Boesak pointed to some of these implications - and their cost - in the churches' struggle against apartheid:

And so I want to say this as calmly as I can. Mr [government] Minister, you can threaten us all you like - Jesus Christ is Lord. You can put us in jail as many times as you like - Jesus Christ is Lord. Let your security police terrrorize our children and threaten our lives - Jesus Christ is Lord. You can come into the streets and into our churches and you can massacre us - Jesus Christ is Lord. The battle is on. But Jesus Christ is Lord. No government can challenge the living God and survive. And that, Mr Minister is the good news for the people of God, and the bad news for you.

Questions for discussion

Is covenant theology important in the preaching and teaching of your church?
In what ways do the values held by your church differ from and/or challenge the dominant values of your culture?
In what practical ways does your church witness as salt, light, and leaven in your community?
In his sermon, Dr Boesak names the powers that prevent justice and peace in South Africa. What specific powers can you identify and name in your context that prevent justice, peace and the integrity of creation?

In facing the present threats to life, churches and Christians recognize that these are spiritual issues, the consequence of collective human sin, what Paul calls the "principalities...and powers of this present dark age" (Eph 6.12). Thus, the issues affecting justice, peace and the integrity of creation must be confronted and transformed by the power of the gospel; they cannot be resolved by mere pragmatic politics. Moreover, the church knows and must confess its own complicity in the conflicts and oppositions in the world; the church itself bears the marks of collective sin in its structures, theology, and witness. This makes the churches' concern in these issues ecclesiologically relevant.

The material that follows calls the church to set the issues of justice, peace, and the integrity of creation within the framework of a renewed theology of the covenant. The church's vocation within this framework is to give witness to God's preferential option for the poor and the oppressed; within the covenant, the church dares to judge the well-being of creation, including humanity, by the condition of the victims of the abuse of power, and to call the powerful to repentance and conversion. The church makes this witness not primarily as experts on these issues, nor less because of some presumed moral superiority. Rather, the church makes its witness because it is an imperative of the covenant God as revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Although the issues that follow are treated separately, they are clearly inseparable and interconnected. Until we render justice to each other and justice to the land, the peace for which all humanity longs will not arrive. Until we take care of all God's creatures while caring for each other, justice will be lacking on earth. And as long as justice is lacking, shalom's arriving is delayed. Centuries ago the prophet Isaiah pointed to the interconnectedness of justice, peace, and the integrity of creation within God's covenant in words that provide both the hope and the challenge for God's covenant people in our age: "In the wilderness justice will come to live and integrity in the fertile land; integrity will bring peace...and justice give lasting security. My people will [then] live in a peaceful home" (32.16-18).

Covenanting for God's justice in a broken world

"I have seen the affliction of my people...and have heard their cry and have come down to deliver them. Go tell Pharoah, 'let my people go'" (Ex 3.7.11; 5.1). The biblical meaning of justice is made known by people who have experienced God's liberating action within a context of oppression. Thus to "know" God's justice the church must begin where the bible itself begins: in solidarity with people oppressed, victimized, and exploited. Within that context we can learn anew the Name, and the revelation of God's justice, and the promise of the covenant, and the celebration of God's power and mercy.

It is an undeniable truth that our present age has reached new and unprecedented levels of injustice and oppression, which must be challenged, stopped and reversed. Indeed, the mind can barely comprehend the breadth and depth of abuse, violence and inequality in our world, or fathom the brutal ways human beings are violated. These really embrace all the cruelty the human brain can devise. The following are five such issues that urgently call the church to new forms of covenanting and witness. Everything is at stake.

Hunger and starvation

According to UNICEF reports, 40,000 people die of hunger related causes every day, and millions more live on the edge of death, malnourished or undernourished. Most of these people are children. The causes of this tragic plague are varied: drought, war, forced exile, absolute poverty, political repression. But none of these people are beyond the reach of those who have food and can give food.

Human rights violations

According to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the numbers of people reported tortured, detained, disappeared, assassinated, or in other ways violated by repressive governments is not diminishing. At present thirty-five governments are enforcing a "state of emergency" or "martial law" on their people, which means that those who live under these governments are denied the right of participation in the decision making process of their nations. Martial law also means that neither the leaders nor the military in these nations are accountable to the just rule of law. In such situations, beyond politics, economics, or national ideology, the church must always make its witness on the side of the victims of oppression.

Legitimate and illegitimate government authority

Governments always assume that their political authority is legitimate. This is declared the case even if the people have been denied democratic elections, if the record of the regime in power is a litany of overt and covert violence against the people, if those in power are secure only by the full-weight of the military, or if the ruling regime is controlled by external powers whose interests are not the people's but their own economic well-being. Until quite recently the church has accepted the legitimacy of such political authority; within traditional church-state theology, the church often has condemned the violent "excesses" of such regimes, but has not questioned their right to govern. This has meant that the church has unwittingly given these repressive regimes tacit approval to use violence to keep law and order, while at the same time telling the victims of these systems that they have no legitimate right to resistance and civil disobedience against such violence. This long-standing response of the church is now being challenged, particularly by Christians living under repressive regimes. Their challenge is forcing a rethinking of traditional church-state theology, and especially on two related issues: the question of legitimate and illegitimate government authority, and the question of resistance and civil disobedience, including the use of violence, against abusive authority. It seems clear that if the church wants to participate meaningfully in the debate about violent and non-violent resistance, it will have to begin by debating the question of legitimate and illegitimate authority in the light of God's justice and the coming fulfilment of God's reign.

The international debt crisis

The catastrophic debt of the third world now totals over 1,250 billion US dollars. Although the issues in this are complex, the following general points can be made: a) The effects of the crisis are falling disproportionately on those least able to pay, namely, the poor, and especially poor women and their children, primarily in the south, but also in the North. b) The crisis is an international problem because of the interdependence between the economies in the south and north, which is better characterized as dependency and domination. c) Because an interest rate which is one point higher or lower is crucial to the poor, the debt crisis has become a matter of life and death for many people in the south. d) The debt crisis calls into question the prevailing northern model of "development", which equates economic growth with progress; what we are witnessing today is not so much progress but a process of de-development and a net flow of money from south to north. It is clear that the resolution of the debt crisis can come only from the north, and must include dramatic lifestyle changes of the more affluent in the north who are benefiting most from it. In short, the crisis is an issue that requires conversion and thus it is a faith issue, one rooted in the churches' response to Jesus' question, "Who do you say that I am"?

The refugee

There are 15 million refugees in the world today. An estimated 4 million are in Africa, including 1.3 million displaced people in the Sudan. In Central America, nearly 900,000 people are being displaced within their own countries, with between 730,000 and 1 million seeking refuge elsewhere. The typical refugee is a woman with a child. As the number of refugees increases, the willingness and readiness of governments to welcome them proportionately diminishes. Many countries are closing their borders to the refugee, contrary to the universal declaration of human rights and other international treaties that protect the refugees from being returned to their country of origin and, thus, to certain danger and generally death. The sanctuary and asylum movements in the United States and elsewhere, as well as the risks taken by churches in the third world to protect those who flee provide a critical witness to the law of hospitality to the stranger and to the mandate of God to give the sojourner and the refugee a safe and wholesome dwelling place. However, churches providing sanctuary are risking censure and legal action against them. Indeed, some church-persons are risking not only their freedom but at times their lives in order to give this form of witness to the gospel in the world.

These five issues represent critical challenges to God's just reign in our present age. The issues have at least these points in common: they all are manifestations of the struggle for life of the poor in the world, and especially in the third world; they all underscore the widening gap between the rich and poor peoples and nations of the world; and they all are influenced and sustained one way or another by the widespread and evil power of racism. For the Christian, these are issues of faith; Jesus Christ compels our faithful and sacrificial co-response with him for the sake of the victims of the abuse of power. Indeed, for the Christian to deny responsibility on these issues is as much a case of heresy as to deny some historic article of faith. Thus God calls the church to new forms of covenant witness against these threats to life in our time. And for Reformed Christians, the ground, hope, and power of our witness is in what we claim, or what claims us, of God's covenant justice.

Jesus Christ is our justice. He, though rich, became poor for our sake, that we by his poverty might be made rich. He, knowing no sin, was made to be sin, that in him we might become the justice of God. Being rescued from such poverty and unrighteousness before God, possessing all things in Christ, we are called to be as generous to others as God in Jesus Christ has been generous to us. We are called to reach out with compassion to those in deepest need even as we ourselves have so compassionately been helped in deepest need. And we are called to strive toward such a just distribution of the world's goods that the abundance of some should supply the want of others, that there may be equality, both in the church and in society; for as once in Adam we all were equally in want, so now by the abundance of divine mercy we are all equally recipients in Christ of grace from the covenant God.

Jesus Christ is our justice. We reject the false teaching that faith in Jesus Christ is compatible with loyalties to groups, nations or economic systems which compromise the social responsibility of the church. No loyalty to group, nation or economic system can be taught or permitted which excludes the needy from the fellowship of the Christian community. No such loyalty can be taught or permitted which closes our ears to the cries of those in need, which silences our tongues against the cruelties of social injustice, or which resigns our hearts to gross inequalities of wealth and power both within the Christian community and in the wider world.

Jesus Christ is our justice. At a time when children by the tens of thousands are dying each day from hunger, when people by the hundreds of millions are driven from their homes as refugees, when a similar number are unable to meet minimal needs because of their "absolute poverty", and when torture, detention, banning and other forms of violence as a means of repression and social control has reached epidemic proportions, the church is called to self-examination. The church is called to confess, as need be, its tolerance and even legitimization of unjust structures, both in its own life and in the world, and of its gross neglect of those in need; to incorporate into its fellowship the needy, the refugee, the oppressed, and those discriminated against; and to enter into covenant with Christians and others who protest social injustice in the wider society, and who work to alleviate and eliminate it.

Questions for discussion and action

In light of our covenant responsibilities to God's justice, what witness are the WARC member churches and congregations prepared to make in regard to our confession of faith, worship, liturgy, (re)interpretation of scripture, and mission and outreach.
In light of our covenant responsibilities to God's justice, what witness are the WARC member churches and congregations prepared to make in solidarity on the issue of world hunger? on the issue of the international debt crisis? on the issue of human rights violations? on the issue of racism? on the issue of legitimate and illegitimate government authority? on the issue of civil disobedience against repressive authority? on the issue of providing sanctuary for political refugees?
What actions and/or life-style changes will be required by our response to questions one and two (above), and how can these be enabled in the life and witness of our member churches and congregations?

Covenanting for God's peace in a nuclear age

The world in which we live is not a world at peace. This is so even though there have been significant and hopeful changes in the geopolitical situation in recent years, including the improved relations between the two super-powers, the elimination of one category of nuclear weapons, and some positive steps towards peace in various regional conflicts.

Despite these and other developments, however, in general our present situation is more unstable and more dangerous than at any time in history. The following six issues urgently require that the churches covenant together in new forms of witness.

Nuclear weapons stockpiling

Humanity and all creation continue to live under the shadow of the Bomb and the spectre of the final, bloody match at "Armageddon". A world with 55,000 nuclear weapons whose combined destructive force is 16,000 megatons (16 billion tons of TNT equivalent) is still a world on the brink of self-extermination. In addition, since 1982 the two super-powers have increased their already enormous stockpile of nuclear weapons, and even now are aggressively continuing their testing and development of first-strike weapons. Other nuclear weapons states are also adding new weapons to their arsenals. Nuclear war by inadvertence - by human miscalculation or technical malfunction - remains an ever present possibility. Nor can nuclear war by design be ruled out. Any nuclear war would be a terminal event.

Regional wars

More wars are currently raging than at any other moment in recorded history. These conflicts are racial, ethnic, tribal, religious, or ideological and they are proliferating both within nation-states and regionally. In some places the nation's army comprises only those who represent the dominant ethnic community of the country, and the government in power uses this army in an attempt to liquidate other ethnic groups within the country.

World military expenditures

World military expenditures, a major incentive to war, have surged beyond belief. These expenditures are not accidental; they are tied to powerful military-industrial institutions with direct lines to governments. A staggering 1.8 million US dollars is spent every minute throughout the world on armaments, a figure that has been climbing for at least twenty-five years with no end in sight. In addition, great sums of money are being expended on the development of new forms of chemical and biological warfare. All of these expenditures not only amount to inexpressible monetary waste. They also buttress global and imperial structures of massive inequality - structures in which the poorest of the world's population must scramble to divide a pittance of the world's gross national product, while the richest nations and peoples become even more wealthy. Meanwhile, military defence budgets in the third world are today seven times higher than they were in 1960.

Militarization

Modern warfare is sustained by the systemic and widening spread of militarization in the world. Military regimes in third world nations are increasing, as is the influence and power of the military in traditionally democratic countries. As a result, peace and justice issues are more and more interpreted in narrowly perceived national security interests, often resulting in the imposition of martial law, official secrecy, "legalized" violence, detentions, torture, and a controlled economy. In some countries, military dominated governments collaborate with drug and cocaine traffickers. All of this contributes to social disunity, popular unrest, increased poverty, extreme forms of human suffering, and the subversion of justice. Throughout the world, the role and nature of the military is changing in our age; it exists less to serve and protect the people and more for its own sake as an end in itself. The military's new status is encouraged and sustained by a number of factors which vary from nation to nation: systemic racism, entrenched and pervasive patriarchal systems, the flaunting of the "macho" image among males, a powerful military-industrial complex, an insensitive, uncritical and often co-opted press, excessive violence on television and in the cinema, and the manufacturing and marketing of toy weapons. One consequence of the rise of militarism is that many governments now assume that warfare and/or terrorism are the necessary and often only solutions to social and political conflict, whether from within or outside the nation. Perhaps most serious, in an increasing number of places the military is now presuming the right to define the integrity of the nation-state itself.

The international arms trade

The spiralling influence of militarization is also apparent in an equally spiralling international arms trade, which is now quite literally out of control. This issue has become more complicated in recent years for at least two reasons:

a.) because of the expansion of weapons production capabilities within a growing number of semi-industrialized countries; and

b.) because the weapons are now primarily manufactured and sold in parts by industries within different countries, and put together by the military in a receiving country.

This problem is compounded by the fact that there is presently a proliferation of non-government military forces, private militias, and vigilante groups, who are able to use the international arms trade as the source of their weapons. These terrorist groups contribute to the fear, suffering, and violence of a nation, often as the "unofficial" arm of the government.

The fragmentation of nations and people

The militarization described above contradicts the gospel and underscores humanity's failed attempts as social beings. The world lives in "unpeace": we are fragmented, torn asunder, seemingly hopelessly divided against ourselves, east and west, north and south, both within and among nations. Nowhere is this more dramatically illustrated than in the division separating North and South Korea. That division, now more than forty years old, is the consequence of ideological conflict between the two superpowers. Neither willed nor wanted by the people of Korea, the existing division has resulted in irreparable suffering and loss, including the tragic separation of thousands of Korean families. It has also served to keep the two Koreas dominated by outside powers, militarized, and economically dependent. The poor (minjung) in both countries bear most of the burden of all of this. The Korean situation is a symbol of the present disease and fragmentation of our world.

In the face of the continuing nuclear threat, the growing militarization of the world, and the divisions between and among peoples and nations, east and west, north and south, the church is urgently called to new forms of covenant witness. For Reformed Christians, the ground, hope, and power of our witness is in what we claim, or what claims us, of God's healing and reconciling peace through Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is our peace. In him the sin of the whole world is taken away, our hostility toward one another is ended, and our wounded hearts are healed. No wound, no hostility, no sinfulness is beyond the reach of his death for us on the cross. There even the principalities and powers of this world have been disarmed, and their rebellion against God defeated. Henceforth we need not fear, for nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus Christ is our peace. We reject the false teaching that faith in Jesus Christ is compatible with allegiance to the powers of death he disarmed and defeated on the cross. When one nation (or group) is exalted above all others and hailed as a military power with a special role to play in God's scheme of redemption, this teaching and allegiance are present. When another nation (or group) is denounced as the embodiment of evil, and therefore regarded as a military target worthy of terror, aggression or even annihilation, again this teaching and allegiance are present. When resorting to indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction, to genocidal strategies or other immoral means are accepted as indispensable to national or group self-defence, again and above all this teaching and allegiance are present.

Jesus Christ is our peace. At a time when nations and peoples live separated as enemies from each other, when the frequency and destructiveness of war are mounting, and when the cost of militarism and the threat of the Bomb are accepted as "normal" by the nations of the world, the church is called to self-examination. It is called to test all allegiances anew by the "norm" revealed in Jesus Christ, and to reject those which are incompatible. It is called to publicly confess and repent of complicity in any such incompatible allegiances; to meet together for prayer, reflection and mutual support; to enact in appropriate cases faithful and prophetic patterns of refusal, redirection, and renewal, both as individuals and as communities of faith; and to transcend national loyalties in covenant with the whole church as a sign of God's reign of peace through Jesus Christ.

Questions for discussion and action.

In light of our covenant responsibilities to God's peace, what witness are the WARC member churches and congregations prepared to make in regard to our confession of faith, worship, liturgy, and (re)interpretation of scripture?
In light of our covenant responsibilities to God's peace, what witness are the WARC member churches and congregations prepared to make in solidarity in regard to the continuing nuclear threat? in regard to the increasing militarization of the nations of the world? in regard to the biblical imperative of peace and reconciliation?
What actions and/or life-style changes will be required by our response to questions one and two (above), and how can these be enabled in the life and witness of our member churches and congregations?

Covenanting with God's creation

God's covenant embraces the creation. This is the biblical truth which forms the foundation for upholding the integrity of creation, and provides the basis for the church's response to the perils threatening the life of the world.

God's action as creator did not consist simply of God making the world. Rather, as creator, redeemer, and sustainer, God chose the creation; God entered into covenant with creation (Gen 8-9). Through grace alone, God identified the world as the beloved creation. "For God so loved the world".

Reformed theology has omitted this fundamental perspective from its understanding of the covenant; Reformed theology has assumed that the scope of covenant is only God and humanity. That limited view of covenant has contributed to the churches' inattention to the crisis facing the world's environment. The assumption that God's promises extend only to humanity has left little room for regarding the creation as central to the message of Christian faith. This has allowed a human centred bias to dominate our interpretation of the biblical message. Further, attitudes which sanction the ruthless domination of nature have been theologically tolerated and even strengthened from the view that God's promises and covenant have no practical relevance for the earth.

Reformed faith today must renew its theological tradition through recovering the central place of creation in the biblical message of the covenant. This means more than simply acknowledging present environmental problems which need urgent attention and remedy. Rather, we must recover the theological basis for witness against the modern mindset which places human power and glory at the centre of the universe and presumes the right of human "mastery" and dominance over creation. In short, we must develop a theology which calls us and all humanity to conversion: in Jesus Christ, we must free ourselves from the ways of thought and life which are hastening the earth's destruction.

The following are interrelated threats to the creation which call for urgent attention by the church. These issues must be addressed and reversed, and cannot be ignored, for the sake of enabling the ongoing gift of life in the world.

The "Greenhouse Effect"

A dramatic rise in the temperature of the earth over the next few decades, which scientists now say could occur, would result in global destruction second only to nuclear war. To prevent this catastrophe governments of industrialized countries must reduce the burning of fossil fuels by 50 percent in the next twenty-five years. Alternative, renewable energy resources throughout the world must be encouraged as essential to global stability. Sustainable agriculture less dependent on chemical fertilizers - another cause of the greenhouse effect - must be aggressively promoted. In short, every effort must now be made to ensure the "salvation" of the world's climate and atmosphere.

Deforestation

The devastation of tropical forests throughout the world poses critical threats to the creation and all humanity, but especially to people of the third world. Deforestation creates water shortages, and contributes to drought and desertification. In addition, deforestation is the chief cause of species extinction, as well as adding to the "Greenhouse Effect". Curbing such deforestation, and planting trees can be a vital form of the church's witness for the preservation of creation's integrity.

Acid rain

The contamination of the atmosphere particularly from the burning of fossil fuels has already destroyed many forests and lakes, as well as human lungs, in many regions of the northern hemisphere. Crossing political and ideological barriers as it is carried in the atmosphere, acid rain is causing increasing destruction to the environment throughout the globe. The church can encourage the international cooperation, as well as the changes in energy policies, which are required for preserving air that gives life rather than death.

Population expansion

The issue of global population cannot be considered in isolation from questions of lifestyle and consumption of resources, cultural realities, and prospects from economic justice. But neither can the population issue be ignored by the church. Even with reductions in the maldistribution of global resources, the unprecedented expansion of population over the next few decades will stretch the carrying capacity of earth to its breaking point. Population growth must become an ethical and theological issue addressed by our churches.

Unlimited economic growth

Industrialized societies continue to believe that they can grow economically without any limits. The power elites of "developing" third world countries often press their societies towards this same goal. Yet, scientific analysis, as well as practical common sense, make clear that the limits to the earth's resources impose constraints on the level of economic development. The church must encourage the search in modern societies for new understandings of economic life which are rooted in ecological realities. Biblical wisdom underscores the inescapable harmony between human economic welfare and the integrity of the created order. Our world today stands in critical need of such a prophetic and saving message.

Unbridled biotechnology

Modern society's dominance over nature has been carried to its logical extreme by recent developments in biotechnology. The invention, patenting, and future industrialization of transgenetic animals is the most dramatic illustration of this. Recent bio-technological innovations include combining genetic characteristics of cows with pigs, inserting bovine growth material into salmon creating superfish, and uniting the phosphorescence of fireflies with tobacco plants. In addition, some industrial applications of biotechnology may contribute to economic oppression throughout the world. For example, many exports of plant-derived commodities, such as vanilla, cocoa, oil palm, and countless fragrances, flavours, and nutrients can be dramatically affected by the production of such substances through these genetic engineering techniques by the corporations themselves. Small farms and developing countries dependent upon income from such commodities face certain economic losses, which could be devastating in various cases. Further, industrialized countries are researching the use of genetic engineering techniques for military purposes. There are of course some potential applications of this technology which can result in the improvement of health and agriculture. Yet, the reality is that this technology is setting its own rules and carrying out activities which assume there are no limits to humanity's power over the created order. The church must strongly counsel caution in all those areas of biotechnology which pose unanswered ethical questions and assume unprecedented changes in humanity's intervention in creation.

These issues are examples of potentially catastrophic challenges to the world "God so loves". Never before has the need for restoring the wholeness of creation been more urgent. The environment of air, water, earth and fire (energy resources) sustain and nurture life itself. As the environment deteriorates, life for all human and non-human beings is endangered. And when life-sustaining resources are degraded, eroded, or exhausted, life itself becomes threatened and precarious. In the face of the present degradation of our environment, God calls the church to new forms of covenanting and witness. And for Reformed Christians, the ground, hope, and power of our witness is in what we claim, or what claims us, of God's covenant with creation through Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the Lord of creation. From him and through him and to him are all things. Nothing that was made came to be without him. Hidden in the humility of his incarnation is the purpose of creation itself (the creator's self-giving love to the creature). Through his cross and resurrection all things are destined to serve and receive the glory of God's love with thanks and praise. He is preeminent over all things, which hold together by the mystery of his freedom and love. The creation of all things - of which he himself is the meaning - is therefore unquestionably good. It is good even in its limitation by death and by all the other frailties to which human beings are heir. It is good even in the midst of adversity and judgement. For God is still a very present help in time of trouble, still to be called upon in the hour of distress, and still the one upon whom all our anxieties may be cast.

Jesus Christ is the Lord of creation. We reject the false teaching that faith in Jesus Christ is compatible with efforts to overthrow the limits of creation by means of technological domination. Respect for the integrity of creation means respect for the integrity of limits. Although boundaries are not always easy to draw, no effort at technological mastery born of greed, sloth or pride can be condoned and sanctioned by the gospel. Disregard for the limits of creation is an exercise in practical atheism. For it finally amounts to a disregard for the preservation, the judgement and the deliverance of creation as enacted in Jesus Christ and grounded in the covenant of God.

Jesus Christ is the Lord of creation. At a time when oceans are dying, when forests are disappearing, when the earth's warming trend portends catastrophic consequences for people and creation, when soil is being exhausted, lakes and rivers polluted, and species driven to extinction, the church is called to self-examination. The church is called to confess, as need be, its slowness to recognize the technological endangerment of creation and its complicity in contributing to it. In developing and developed countries, but especially in the latter, the church is called to challenge and give witness against all forms of human exploitation of creation; to make its own life conform in concrete ways to Christ's reconciling presence, upholding the creation; and to covenant with the whole body of Jesus Christ and all concerned persons in the wider society, for the sake of faithful stewardship of the earth.

Questions for discussion and action

In light of our covenant responsibilities to God's creation, what witness are the WARC member churches and congregations prepared to make in regard to our confession of faith, worship, liturgy, and (re)interpretation of scripture?
In light of our covenant responsibilities to God's creation, what witness in solidarity are the WARC member churches and congregations prepared to make in regard to our own land holdings, energy use, architecture, and so on? in regard to the ecological destructiveness of unbridled technology and unlimited economic growth? in regard to developing innovations in biotechnology and genetic engineering?
What actions and/or life-style changes will be required by our response to questions one and two (above), and how can these be enabled in the life and witness of our member churches and congregations?