wfn.org | Lambeth Conference adopts tough stand on international debt

["Lambeth98" <storm@indigo.ie>]

ACNS LC100 - 7 August 1998

Lambeth Conference adopts tough stand on international debt

by Nan Cobbey
Lambeth Conference Communications

A Lambeth Conference resolution on international debt and
economic justice approved Thursday (August 6) demands action by
governments and banks, but also by churches.

Bishop Peter Selby of Worcester (England) told the world's 740
Anglican bishops the goal had been to provide "the kind of
resolution that could be taken home by all members of this
conference" no matter what country or what national political
positions had been taken on debt. 

The tough stand on debt will also have an impact for the
churches, Bishop Seby warned. "We thought it critical," he said,
"to put a resolution before you that was not a moral free lunch .
. . not an exhortation to other people to do something, but that
affected our lives as churches and as a Communion."

The resolution asks the bishops to challenge their dioceses to
set aside funds from their own church budgets to help fund
international development programs and to cooperate with people
of other faiths in advocacy programs. The bishops are also asked
to commit themselves to supporting a series of requests to both
creditor and debtor nation governments, including establishment
of a Mediation Council which would include developing nations.

  

The "vast expansion" in the power and quantity of money and the
"huge increases" in borrowing, are "damaging," both materially
and spiritually, the resolution states.

It calls debt relief, including cancellation of unpayable debts,
"not sufficient," and recommends that negotiations be speeded up,
saying "children are dying, societies unraveling under the
burden." 

Amendment sharpens resolution

An addition to the resolution from Bishop Alfred Reid of Montego
Bay (Jamaica) strengthened the already sharp positions by
providing "for sanctions against private sector persons . . . who
act corruptly."

"It is important to condemn the corrupt and unjust tyranny of
power by transnational corporations and local private sector
elites," Bishop Reid said. Their powers "exceed the powers of
elected governments, both North and South. It is an unholy
alliance between the geopolitical designs of the North and
international private capital that creates poverty in the South
and makes third world debt unsustainable."

Bishop Keith Sutton of Lichfield Diocese (England) encouraged the
conference to pay attention to the lesson learned last May when
"tens of thousands of people descended on Birmingham" [England]
to deliver a message to the leaders of the G8 nations meeting
there. Their "summit" had originally refused to put international
debt on the agenda, said Bishop Sutton. The crowds, "the united
ecumenical witness of churches in the UK and beyond," changed
their minds, he said. 

"This is a vital ecumenical action which we can all take in our
own countries," said Bishop Sutton. "What better way of
celebrating the third millennium of Our Lord."

(For more detail on the report of the Lambeth discussions on
international debt, see Conference Press Release #87)

On August 5, the conference meeting in plenary session approved
11 "agreed" resolutions proposed by Section One (Called to Full
Humanity). In these the Lambeth Conference:

* Urges adoption and compliance with the United Nations Universal
Declaration of Human Rights in this its 50th anniversary year and
calls for its extension to refugees, uprooted and displaced
people. (I.1).

* Calls faith communities to protect as an absolute right freedom
of thought, conscience and religion; reaches out to people of all
faiths and pressures governments to create such just and free
conditions.(I.2) 
* Asks member churches to educate themselves and their
communities about the victimization of women and children by
political, economic, educational, cultural and religious systems,
then work to eliminate those abuses. (I.3).

* Condemns war, the use of violence for settling disputes,
production and proliferation of arms, encourage peacekeeping
forces and commits members to prayer and mediation. (I.4).

* Provides advocacy for refugees, displaced and uprooted peoples;
focuses attention on the reasons for their plight - debt,
oppression, religious conflict - and re-launches the Anglican
Communion International Migrant and Refugee Network. (I.5)

* Urges the Episcopal Church of the Sudan to establish
communication links with governmental, non-governmental, United
Nations and ecclesial organizations throughout Africa and the
Anglican Communion and urges Communion members to help by
providing the technology, equipment and administration necessary.
(I.7) 
* Reaffirms the biblical vision of creation, recognize human
responsibility for averting disasters of climate change,
overpopulation, unsustainable consumption, pollution, destruction
of forests and natural habitats, loss of plant and animal
species, even indigenous peoples. (I.8)

* Calls on faith communities, governments and transnational
companies to work toward sustainable societies which affirm
dignity and rights of all people and ensure responsible use of
natural resources; asks the Anglican Consultative Council and
Primates to consider appointing a coordinator of international
ecological network for the communion. (I.9)

*  Presses governments and United Nations for a treaty to stop
production, testing, stockpiling, usage of nuclear weapons and
sign international mandate to prohibit nuclear warfare. (I.11)

* Establishes a commission to track technological developments,
reflecting on them theologically and ethically and keeping
bishops and other church leaders informed. (I.12)

* Calls on all governments to ratify the Ottawa Convention
outlawing production and use of landmines, provide funding for
mine clearance programs, develop technology for clearance
initiatives, raise awareness of the problem and assistance with
the consequences. (I.13)

For further information, contact:

   Lambeth Conference Communications
   Canterbury Business School
   University of Kent at Canterbury
   Telephone: 01227 827348/9
   Fax: 01227 828085
   Mobile: 0374 800212

   http://www.lambethconference.org