wfn.org | WCC FEATURE: Wealth and poverty challenge the churches

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World Council of Churches - Feature
Contact: + 41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org 
For immediate release - 18/08/2004

 A POOR RICH COUNTRY?
 WEALTH AND POVERTY AS A CHALLENGE TO THE CHURCHES

			   by Henrike M|ller (*)

Poverty  is  relative.	But  for  those who suffer from it, it is absolute.
"I've  always  thought	that  Germans  and  other  west  Europeans lived in
paradise,"  says  M.P.T. Basele, a pastor from Botswana. "For us it is very
important  to  find  out  that	there  is  poverty in Germany too, and what
poverty  means	in  western  Europe."  During  a  seminar at the Ecumenical
Institute  at  Bossey,	this African pastor was able to discuss "Wealth and
poverty  as  challenge	to  the  churches"  with 11 other participants from
Africa, Asia and the USA.

About  eight  million  people in Germany live below the so-called "relative
poverty line". Children and elderly people, working people and job-seekers,
families  and  single parents are among those who live on less than half of
the  average  net  household  income  in  the  country.  About	2.8 million
households  in	Germany  are  over-indebted. At the same time, with a gross
national  income  of about 515 billion euros, Germany is one of the richest
nations on earth.

In other parts of the world, every day means a renewed struggle to survive.
17,000	children  die  of under-nourishment every day. Three billion people
worldwide have less then two dollars a day on which to live. Nationally and
internationally,  the  gap  between  poor  and	rich  is widening. "But the
worldwide  view  should  in  no  way  make  the  situation  in Germany less
important,"  warns  Gundel  Neveling,  director  of  the  Centre for Social
Responsibility	of  the Evangelical Church in Hessen and Nassau (EKHN). "We
have  to  keep fighting for social justice in Germany, without losing sight
of the worldwide view."

Social justice means that "all people have what they need in order to live.
That  includes	income, work, education, living space, and participation in
cultural and political life," explains Ulrike Schmidt-Hesse, study director
of the EKHN's Ecumenical Centre. "A democratic state which guarantees equal
rights	must  make sure that everyone has certain basic material needs met,
since  otherwise they will not be able to exercise these rights. It must be
the job of the state to set limits on poverty - but on wealth as well." For
democracy can only live when "the gap between poor and rich does not become
too wide," she concluded.

The  worsening	economic situation calls for a more intensive policy debate
on  distribution  of  wealth  in Germany and worldwide. Globalised economic
structures  simplify  worldwide  trade,  but  also  require  a	responsible
examination of their social, economic and ecological sustainability.

International seminar in Bossey

A  contribution  to  a critical confrontation with the issue of poverty and
wealth	as  a  challenge  to  action by the churches was made by the recent
seminar  at  the  Ecumenical  Institute  Bossey  in Switzerland, as a guest
seminar  organised  by	the  Ecumenical  Centre  and  the Centre for Social
Responsibility, both institutions which belong to the EKHN, a member church
of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD).

At  the end of the week of shared discussions, lectures and working groups,
the  participants  had	developed  creative  concepts  for their respective
regional  contexts, so that at home they could focus on the issue of social
justice  and  the  responsibility  of  the  church  as	well  as  of  every
individual.

A  participant	from  Botswana	introduced  a  project	concerned  with the
education  of  children  from  indigenous  groups in the population who are
threatened  with  losing  access  to  the  society's  resources  because of
insufficient  education. A participant from Germany is planning to initiate
groups	of disseminators of information, to renew the discussion about fair
trade and to press local retailers to sell fairly traded products. A series
of  lectures on the ethical use of money is being proposed by a participant
from the USA.

"The churches have been quiet too long"

Besides  emphasizing  that  the  seminar  had  widened his horizons, M.P.T.
Basele	stressed  the responsibility of German churches for efforts towards
worldwide  social  justice.  "If the churches in our country try to talk to
the  government,  nobody listens to us. I am very grateful that the attempt
is  being  made  in  Germany  to  point out, to society and government, the
social injustice in many parts of the world." This discussion should not be
nipped	in  the  bud: "The churches have been quiet too long, and I am glad
the debate has been opened."

Important instruments in this debate are international church organisations
such  as  the  World  Council  of Churches (WCC). Through their ties across
geographical  and  confessional  boundaries,  they  have the possibility of
pursuing  their  goals	worldwide,  supporting	churches and groups who are
involved, and to hold conversations with other international organisations.
One  of  the goals of the WCC programme on "Peace, Justice, Creation" is to
look  for  alternatives  to  the  present economic model and to create just
relations between countries and people.

There  are  many and diverse ways towards achieving this goal. For example,
the  WCC  participates	in  the  work  of  APRODEV, an alliance of European
Protestant,  Anglican  and Orthodox aid agencies concerned with poverty and
wealth.  It  has  also given financial support and advice to Latin American
churches  in  developing consciousness-raising materials on economics, debt
and  trade. Other economic awareness-raising materials developed by the WCC
are   made   available	 to  churches.	In  February  2003  the  WCC  began
conversations  with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The
goal  of  these meetings was to have a critical discussion on the goals of,
and instruments for, development.

It's time something was done

The Bossey seminar is part of a project of the EKHN being run by its Centre
for Social Responsibility and Ecumenical Centre along with the local Social
Welfare  Agency (Diakonisches Werk). The project is contributing to keeping
up  the  questioning  about  responsible treatment of poverty and wealth in
both  national	and  global contexts, and to continually bringing the issue
back  into  policy  discussions  in  church  and  society.  In	view of the
increases  in  wealth,	while  poverty too continues to grow, the project's
initiators are especially asking about society's responsibility for wealth.

A  study  entitled  "Wealth  and  poverty  as a challenge for action by the
churches"   takes   up	 impulses   from   the	APRODEV  study	project  on
"Christianity,	Wealth and Poverty in the 21st Century", and refers also to
the  1997  joint  statement  by  the  EKD  and	the German (Roman Catholic)
Bishops' Conference, "For a Future in Solidarity and Justice".

This  study  and  the presentations in connection with it seem to meet with
widespread  interest  because they pick up what has by now become a burning
question. "These issues are on the agenda of current political discussions;
people	are  talking about cuts in social welfare measures, and savings are
being  made in places where people really should have support," says Gundel
Neveling. "It's high time something was done about it."

Besides   a  good  basic  documentation,  the  study  provides	theological
statements  which locate the topic in the biblical context. The equality of
all  people  before  God,  and	Jesus'	particular concern for the poor and
marginalised, provide the theological basis for the study. While we bear in
mind  that  wealth  is	not  condemned	in  principle  in  the Bible, it is
nevertheless  criticised when it becomes an idol, being desired for its own
sake  and  not	being  used  for  the  good  of others. "It's a question of
Christian  responsibility," says Ulrike Schmidt-Hesse, "for the churches to
do  all they can to help all people have 'Life in all its fullness', as the
Bible says."

What should be the criteria on which society is built?

What  possibilities  does the church have to draw attention to its position
in  public  discussion?  "To  open up spaces for discussion, to express our
positions  and	to  raise  public  consciousness"  are	the  decisive tasks
according  to  Schmidt-Hesse. "We are talking about the future viability of
our  society."	The church is expected to contribute to a discussion of the
basic  values for society. What should be the criteria on which the society
is built? How can solidarity be promoted and inequality kept within limits?

A  panel  discussion  with representatives of politics and economics on the
effects  of  globalisation  and  the  possibilities  for  controlling it; a
workshop on issues of tax policy; a theological workshop on the question of
how much wealth and how much poverty our society can stand; these are three
examples of presentations in the series.

Since  the  study  was	published,  two  issues  have  become  particularly
explosive  for	Germany.  On  the one hand, the growing gap between private
wealth	and public poverty is becoming more visible. "Further tax cuts will
not  help  us  get  out  of  the  economic  and social crisis", says Ulrike
Schmidt-Hesse.	"They  only  increase public poverty. Instead, higher taxes
must be levied on the capital factor and on fortunes."

On  the other hand, it has become clear that economic structures in Germany
and  worldwide	are  comparable.  The  attempt	to establish the neoliberal
paradigm  can  be  observed  everywhere. Thus the initiatives should not be
limited to Germany. "We have to try to carry out joint analyses and develop
strategies together," according to Schmidt-Hesse.

Ecumenical cooperation, which is very important to the organisers, opens up
a  variety  of	means of access. Social welfare groups as well as those who
consider  political  involvement  more	important,  initiatives targeted at
Germany  as  well  as  internationally-oriented  ones,	begin conversations
together  and  cooperate  as  a  sort  of  "justice-ecumenical	community",
bringing  together  different Christian traditions to work towards a common
goal:  to  raise consciousness of social injustice nationally and globally,
to  develop  possibilities  for  political  action  and  to  improve living
conditions at the concrete level.

Henrike  M|ller, a curate in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover, is
working in the Media Relations Office of the WCC in Geneva.

Further information on the Internet:

Information  on  the  WCC  programme  working on economic and globalisation
issues, in the programme area Peace, Justice, Creation, may be found at
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/jpc/economy.html 

The  Ecumenical  Centre  of  the  Evangelical  Church  of Hessen and Nassau
Website
http://www.zentrum-oekumene-ekhn.de

Information about APRODEV (Association of World Council of Churches related
Development Organisations in Europe) is available at
http://www.aprodev.net/main/index.htm 

Ecumenical Institute of Bossey
http://www.wcc-coe.org/bossey/index.html 

Additional information: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153  +41 79 507 6363
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