Churches told to invest funds in production not speculation

["Penny Blachut" <PBL@warc.ch>]

>World Communion of Reformed Churches  
>News Release 
>31 March 2011

Churches told to invest funds in production not speculation

Churches should invest their funds in ways that support the
poor, a Swiss economist says. Edward Dommen told participants in
a church-sponsored consultation on economic and social justice
that the church must use its wealth to produce goods and services
that support self-reliance. 

*The church must use its wealth to relieve distress,* Dommen
says. *Speculation in shares and investment in derivatives does
not contribute to the working economy.*

Dommen, a Quaker and former professor of economics, was
addressing the question of how churches can invest their funds in
ways consistent with the social and economic values of the
Reformed church tradition.

His presentation was part of a three-day programme for young
theologians, justice advocates and pastors co-sponsored by the
John Knox International Reformed Centre and the World Communion
of Reformed Churches (WCRC) from 28-30 March in Geneva,
Switzerland. 

While urging the church to invest in the economy, Dommen urged
that investing be based on principles in line with biblical
teachings such as ensuring that their money supports companies
which ensure a fair return of profits to labourers; take
*honest* care of the environment and workers rather than
doing whatever the law lets them get away with; and do not make
excessive profit.

The twenty participants at the consultation came from Africa,
Asia, the Caribbean, Europe and the Pacific and to address issues
of concern to parishes in their regions: the impact of migrants
on local populations, climate change, and economic injustice.

Douwe Visser, chair of the John Knox Programme Committee and
responsible for WCRC*s theology office, says the objective of
the consultation was to *motivate for action*. 

*We are asking participants to consider how their church can
speak to these issues in their local context,* Visser says.

In an address Tuesday on the impact of migrants on the life of
European churches, Amele Ekue, a professor at the Bossey
Ecumenical Institute near Geneva, told participants that the
importance of faith as a factor of social integration is not
given adequate attention in studies of the immigrant experience
in Europe. This leads to a one-dimensional appraisal of the
factors that influence integration, the researcher said.

Neglecting this aspect of the immigrant experience also means
that the contribution of immigrants to new forms of religious
expression in their host communities is under-estimated.

*Immigrants are part of a process of transformation in
cultural and religious contexts,* Ekue says. 
*[For example] members of immigrant churches often tell me
they have the mission of reconverting Europeans to Christianity
because they feel Europeans lack faith.*  

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. 

>Media Contact: 
>Kristine Greenaway
>Executive Secretary, Communications
>World Communion of Reformed Churches
>PO Box 2100, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
>tel. +41 22 791 6243; fax +41 22 791 6505
>dma@wcrc.ch <mailto:dma@wcrc.ch>; www.wcrc.ch
><http://www.wcrc.ch/> 
><http://www.wcrc.ch/node/542