wfn.org | Churches told to confront “moral crisis” in the world economy

["Franziska Surber" <Franziska.Surber@warc.ch>]

>World Alliance of Reformed Churches
>News Release
>20 February 2009

Churches told to confront “moral crisis” in the world economy

The multiple crises confronting the world are fundamentally a
moral crisis says the president of the United Nations General
Assembly.  In remarks recorded for a public hearing on
reconciliation in Geneva, Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann asks, “But
where are the prophetic voices of the churches today?”. 

“Capitalism tells us that to be more, we must have more,” says
Brockmann, a Roman Catholic priest from Nicaragua. Noting that
this contradicts Christian teaching about generous sharing,
Brockmann says Christians must “dare to speak out”.

The General Assembly president’s comments came at an event
called by the World Council of Churches (WCC) to mark the United
Nations International Year of Reconciliation in 2009.  Panellists
from Indonesia, the Vatican and Ghana responded to Brockmann’s
address with lessons learned from church engagement in
reconciliation and peace initiatives in communities around the
world.

Setri Nyomi, General Secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed
Churches (WARC), noted the tensions and divisions created by
economic inequalities within communities, warning, “So long as
overt and covert greed undergirds an economic system which
impoverishes people in many parts of the world, humanity is
building up fragmented societies.”  

Nyomi, a theologian from Ghana, attributes the resurgence of
hate crimes against minorities in a number of nations to reaction
to financial worries. “Immigrants and minorities in affluent
communities become the targets of hatred and exclusion,” he says.

Churches too are divided by the economic crisis Nyomi
acknowledges.  “When there are different forms of analysis, we
begin to see each other in terms of right or left, conservative
or liberal. So rather than operate together as Christians to
address the evils that lead to injustice, we live out these
divisions while many are dying as a result of global economic
arrangements.”

However, Nyomi refuses to accept this is a “time for
lamentation”, insisting this is an era which will lead to new
ways for churches to address the challenges of global economic
inequalities.  He notes WARC member churches seek to play active
roles in economic reform within their societies based on a 2004
agreement in which member churches agreed to work towards
creating a more just economy.  The agreement known as the “Accra
Confession” states, “We believe that the integrity of our faith
is at stake if we remain silent or refuse to act in the face of
the current system of neoliberal economic globalization.” 

>***

The World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) brings together
75 million Reformed Christians in 214 churches in 107 countries -
united in their commitment to making a difference in a troubled
world. The WARC general secretary is Rev. Dr. Setri Nyomi of the
Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana. WARC's secretariat is
based in Geneva, Switzerland.

>Contact:

>Kristine Greenaway 
>Executive Secretary, Communications
>World Alliance of Reformed Churches
>150 Route de Ferney
>P.O. Box 2100
>1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
>tel.  +41.22 791 6243
>fax: +41.22 791 6505

>web: www.warc.ch ( http://www.warc.ch/ ) 
>e-mail: kgr@warc.ch