Church consultation in Geneva seeks action plans for ethical investing and climate protection

["Daphne Martin_Gnanadason" <Daphne.Martin_Gnanadason@wcrc.ch>]

This is a MIME message. If you are reading this text, you may want to 
consider changing to a mail reader or gateway that understands how to 
properly handle MIME multipart messages.

--=__Part5F7394BB.26__ Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

>World Communion of Reformed Churches 
>Media Alert
>24 March 2011

Church consultation in Geneva seeks action plans for ethical
investing and climate protection 

A global church organization known for advocating economic and
climate justice and a church-based educational centre are
convening a consultation in Geneva next week to set an action
agenda to address concerns about ethical investing, immigrantsâ??
rights and climate change. 

The World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) and the John
Knox Centre (JKC) are to co-host a three-day symposium entitled
Churches speaking truth to power: Christian communities as agents
for justice. 

The event takes place at the John Knox Centre in Geneva and runs
from 9:00 a.m. Monday, 27 March through to 6:00 p.m. Wednesday,
30 March. 

Organizers have invited theologians, justice advocates and
church leaders from abroad as well as a number of Swiss
participants to share information about their work on economic,
migrant and environmental concerns in their context. 

WCRCâ??s head of theology and mission, Douwe Visser, who serves as
president of the JKC Programme Commission, says the objective of
the symposium is to motivate church action not only overseas but
also in Switzerland. 

â??The theme touches directly on issues currently under discussion
in Switzerlandâ??, Visser says. â??We want participants to hear from
Swiss church and academic leaders about the situation in
Switzerland, especially concerning immigrants and the current
political environment. What motivates the Swiss voters to vote as
they do on issues such as whether to allow minarets on mosques or
forcing the repatriation of immigrants convicted of crimes? How
does the church speak in this situation? Or does it keep
silent?â??

>Programme highlights include:

Edward Dommen â?? Swiss economist and author â?? â??How should
churches invest?â??
Christoph Stückelberger â?? Professor of ethics and co-founder of
Globethics.net  â?? 
â??Can the church be a source of justice?â??
Otto Schäfer â??  Pastor and biologist at the Institute for
Theology and Ethics (Bern)  â?? 
â??Ecology and Climate Justiceâ??
Amele Ekue â?? Professor of Ecumenical Ethics at the Ecumenical
Institute Bossey â?? 
â??Migration: the challenges faced by Christian Communitiesâ??

>The full agenda for the meeting is attached.

MEDIA ACCREDITATION: Journalists wishing to cover sessions at
the consultation should contact WCRCâ??s Office of Communication
for accreditation.

WCRC was created in June 2010 through a merger of the World
Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and the Reformed Ecumenical
Council (REC). Its 230 member churches representing 80 million
Christians are active worldwide in initiatives supporting
economic, climate and gender justice, mission, and cooperation
among Christians of different traditions.

>Contact
>Kristine Greenaway
>Office of Communications
>kgr@wcrc.ch
>tel. (B) +41 (0)22 791 62 43; 
>(cell) +41 (0)79 508 20 43
>fax: +41 (0)22 791 65 05
>www.wcrc.ch ( http://www.wcrc.ch/ )

--=__Part5F7394BB.26__ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline

>--=__Part5F7394BB.26__=--