wfn.org | WCC - Ecumenical team challenges basic approach to

["Sheila Mesa" <smm@wcc-coe.org>]

development

World Council of Churches
Update, Up-02-03
For Immediate Use
12 February 2002

Ecumenical team challenges basic approach to development

cf. WCC Press Release, PR-02-04, of 29 January 2002

An ecumenical team at the 28 January-8 February meeting of the
preparatory committee for the World Summit on Sustainable
Development called attention to the priority of sustainable
communities.  

In spotlighting the human dimension, team members built on a
tradition of ecumenical thought about international affairs,
including the declaration of the World Council of Churches' (WCC)
Harare assembly that the dangers in current patterns of
globalization should be countered with a focus on "just and
sustainable communities".  This means economic advance that
benefits and empowers all, not just an already-powerful minority.
 

Team members came from diverse regions and religious
communities, including Hindu and Shinto, and brought individual
interests in specific issues such as concern for handling water
resources or curbing use of fossil fuels.  But in their first
experience observing summit preparation as a team, they found
themselves in agreement on a basic approach.  

Peter Pavlovic, a Slovakian Lutheran minister who works with the
Commission for Churches in Society, an agency of the Conference
of European Churches, said governments generally acknowledged
that development must include the ecological and social aspects
as well as the economic.  But the ecumenical team was insisting
that all three of those aspects had an essential ethical
dimension.  "This still is not generally recognized," Pavlovic
said.  

Preparing for the World Summit

The United Nations (UN) Commission on Sustainable Development, a
body established in 1993 to follow up on the Rio Conference on
Environment and Development the previous year, is serving as the
preparatory committee for the summit sometimes called Rio +10, to
be held 26 August-4 September in Johannesburg, South Africa.  

This conference not only follows up on the Rio meeting, the
Earth Summit that produced Agenda 21 for sustainable development
in the 21st century, but continues the tradition going back to
the 1972 environmental conference in Stockholm.  Although the
word "environment" is not in the theme of the Johannesburg
summit, the term "sustainable" is understood to include
environmental concerns.  

The first, mainly organizational meeting of the preparatory
committee (prepcom) was held in spring 2001.  The second prepcom
began a discussion of issues and on the last day accepted by
consensus a summary document by chairman Emil Salim of Indonesia
that will serve as a draft for future negotiation.  More serious
debate is expected at prepcom 3, to be held in New York, 25
March-4 April, and the fourth and final prepcom, 27 May-7 June,
in Jakarta, Indonesia.  

Sustainable environment requires a just society

Preparing "talking points" for use at these future meetings,
team members called for "a healthy planetary ecosystem", but said
"environmental sustainability without social justice" meant
nothing.  

Reflecting the disappointment of team members over results of
the past decade, Jutta Steigerwald, who is based in Rome but
works with the Bad Boll Academy of Germany on climate change,
said the Johannesburg summit might better be called "Rio minus
10".  

"Environmental damage has increased, the gap between the poor
and the rich has increased, global warming has increased,
motorized transport has increased," she said.  While Rio brought
greater environmental awareness, Johannesburg needs to set firm
targets and firm dates for reaching them, she said.  

Elias C. Abramides, an Eastern Orthodox layman from Buenos
Aires, Argentina, suggested that the summit should look at the
reality that some forces had been "creating poverty" rather than
assisting development, a backward movement that he has witnessed
in his own country.  

On the positive side, Shanti A. Sachithanandam, a Hindu in Sri
Lanka who works for an agency funded by British churches, said
the process beginning in Rio had brought an advance in the number
of recognized "stakeholders".  "Government delegates have to
share the policy-framing space," she said.  

Moises Gutierrez Rojas, a Methodist Aymara from Bolivia who
works on indigenous and agrarian issues, expressed gratitude for
the support of the WCC that made an indigenous presence at such
UN events possible. "Our most important demand is to get back
control of our territories and resources," he said.  "That is a
precondition for sustainable development."  

While he and other team members were uncertain whether their
efforts would show up in the final document acted on in
Johannesburg, they agreed it was worthwhile to keep pointing out
the different kinds of actions that would be needed for the
development of sustainable communities. 

Jackie Moreau, an American member of the Roman Catholic Sisters
of Mercy, observed that even some government delegates, such as
those from small island states concerned about the effects of
global warming on water levels, did not always see results from
their efforts, but kept working nonetheless.  And she pointed out
that representatives of the various non-governmental
organizations helped each other through their exchange of
information and ideas.  

The ecumenical team is coordinated by the WCC in consultation
with the UN offices of the Sisters of Mercy and the Lutheran
World Federation.  

Linking financing with sustainable development  

Some members of the team have also served on another ecumenical
team which closely follows preparations for the International
Conference on Financing for Development, to be held 18-22 March
in Monterrey, Mexico, and pointed to its connections with the
Johannesburg theme.  

If Monterrey produces no new money, then Johannesburg will not
be able to launch any significant new programmes for sustainable
development, they said.  

Jeffrey M. Golliher, a priest on the staff of the Episcopal
(Anglican) Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, also
said the possibilities for any kind of development benefiting the
poor of the world would be limited by the increase in military
expenditures that had come since 11 September.  

For further information, please contact Media Relations Office, 
Tel:  (+41.22) 791.61.53   

**********
The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a fellowship of churches,
now 342, in more than 100 countries in all continents from
virtually all Christian traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is
not a member church but works cooperatively with the WCC. The
highest governing body is the assembly, which meets approximately
every seven years. The WCC was formally inaugurated in 1948 in
Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Its staff is headed by general
secretary Konrad Raiser from the Evangelical Church in Germany.

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