wfn.org | Accra Confession: a covenant of justice

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

>Uniting General Council 2010 
>News Release 
>17 June 2010

>AccraConfession: a covenant of justice
>By Charles Honey, UGC news editor
>From financial meltdown in the United States to the earthquake
>in Haiti, the world’s economic and ecological crises cry out for
>Christians to get involved, say church leaders meeting in Grand
>Rapids, Michigan, in the northeastern United States this week.
>They are urging a renewed commitment to social action based on
>the Accra Confession, a statement of economic and environmental
>justice to be taken up by the Uniting General Council (UGC) that
>opens Friday. 
>“Here is a confession we must make in order to be faithful to
>God,” said Setri Nyomi, general secretary of the World Alliance
>of Reformed Churches (WARC). 
>Speaking at a panel discussion at Calvin College, Nyomi stressed
>that for Reformed churches, “The way we trace our identity has
>always included that we are saved to make a difference in the
>world.”
>He and others said the Accra Confession, adopted by WARC at
>Accra, Ghana in 2004, calls on Christians worldwide to do just
>that in the face of mounting social and environmental ills. The
>strongly worded document commits its signatories “to seek a
>global covenant for justice in the economy and the earth in the
>household of God.”
>“The Accra Confession is a call to the faithful to engage with
>the world,” said Philip Peacock, a lecturer at Bishop’s College
>in Kolkata, India. “It calls the believer to understand justice
>is the very substance of faith.”
>The discussion was part of a conference sponsored by Calvin
>College, “Reformed Mission in an Age of World Christianity.” It
>drew more than 200 participants including delegates to the UGC.
>Among them are panelists Peacock, Puleng Lenka-Bula of the
>University of South Africa and Ofelia Ortega of the Presbyterian
>Reformed Church in Cuba. 
>The Accra panel focused on issues that leaders expect will
>generate deep discussion at UGC, which will unite WARC with the
>Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC). While there is broad agreement
>around its advocacy of justice and care for creation, some have
>objected to its language such as “empire” and “neoliberal
>capitalism.”
>“It’ll be a test for the organisation early in its new life:
>just how much discussion or even dissension about such issues it
>can tolerate,” said Peter Borgdorff, REC president. 
>Lenka-Bula addressed criticisms, including the charge that
>theologians should not be so involved in economic theory. She
>asserted that promoting justice is “at the very heart of what it
>means to be Christian.”
>“Grace and love are God’s economic model,” added Ortega.
>Charity Majiza, a Uniting Church in Australia minister who
>attended the panel, said the confession needs to be lived out by
>“churches on the ground.”
>“It’s going to be tough in our different contexts,” Majiza said.
>“But that is the gospel imperative. We have no choice.”

The Uniting General Council 2010 in Grand Rapids, United States
(June 18-28) marks the merger of the World Alliance of Reformed
Churches and the Reformed Ecumenical Council to form the World
Communion of Reformed Churches. 

>Contact: Kristine Greenaway
>Executive Secretary, Communications
>World Communion of Reformed Churches

UGC News Room – Calvin College - Hoogenboom Center Room HC 204 
Cell phone: 1-616-826-5540 or 1-616-826-8636
email: kgr@warc.ch
web: www.reformedchurches.org (
http://www.reformedchurches.org/#_blank )