WCRC General Secretary welcomes news of Oikotree event

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

World Communion of Reformed Churches 
News release
November 11, 2010
WCRC General Secretary welcomes news of Oikotree event
 
The General Secretary of the World Communion of Reformed
Churches (WCRC) has welcomed news from a global forum of
church-based justice advocates released on Monday. 
 
“I welcome the news that sixteen movements from around the world
have worked together to plan common action on some of the urgent
issues confronting our world,” says Setri Nyomi.  “WCRC supports
this initiative which marks a continuation of our commitment to
justice issues.”
 
The forum in Arnoldshain, Germany, was called by Oikotree, a
worldwide movement of churches, individuals and networks that
share a common commitment to confronting and transforming systems
identified by church justice advocates as contributing to social
and economic injustice. The movement is a joint initiative of
WCRC in partnership with the World Council of Churches and the
Council for World Mission. 
 
Discussions during the four day gathering (1-4 November) focused
on sharing information about local initiatives in response to
concerns related to gender, economic and environmental rights.
The news report from the Oikotree Global Forum notes that
participants plan common action for “intensifying their united
goal of building life-enhancing community, cultures and
systems.”
 
“We commend what participants in the Oikotree forum have come up
with and invite our member churches to follow up on the plans for
common action,” says Nyomi.
 
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
theological study and unity among churches in the Reformed
tradition; economic, climate and gender justice; Christian
mission; and cooperation among different faith traditions. 
 
The Oikotree Global Forum release follows.
 
Media Contact:
Kristine Greenaway
Executive Secretary, Communications
World Communion of Reformed Churches
150 route de Ferney, PO Box 2100
1211 Geneva 2 
Switzerland
tel. +41 22 791 6243
fax +41 22 791 6505
dma@wcrc.ch
www.wcrc.ch
 
 ***
 
OIKOTREE GLOBAL FORUM
 
COMMON COMMITMENT TO ACT FOR BUILDING LIFE-ENHANCING COMMUNITY,
CULTURES AND SYSTEM
 
“Resist life-destroying civilization, build life-enhancing
communities, cultures and systems!” The participants of Oikotree
Global Forum held in Arnoldshain, Germany, from 1 to 4 November
2010 called churches, congregations, individuals, community of
faith, national and regional ecumenical organizations, networks,
and social/people’s movements to promote life-sustaining
alternatives to the prevailing death-dealing systems.
 
The Oikotree Movement, initiated by the Council for World
Mission, World Communion of Reformed Churches and the World
Council of Churches, brought sixteen faith based social movements
from all over the world for strategizing common commitment and
actions to transform the current Life-destroying civilization
into Life-enhancing Community, Cultures and Systems.
 
“Looking back at the last five years or so, appraising our
present global situation, we would have to say the churches who
met at Accra in 2004 were right.” Allan Boesak, a South African
theologian and former president of the then World Alliance of
Reformed Churchessaid in keynote address to the Forum.
 
“In the work of the Globalisation Project, following the
critical lead of the WCC’s Alternative Globalisation Addressing
People and Earth (Agape) Project, we paid special attention to
the role of financial markets. We foresaw the coming crisis
precipitated by the global neo-liberal financial market policies.
We have seen that crisis arrive, we are experiencing its
devastation still and we have also seen how the empire has looked
after its own. This unjust global economic system is defended and
protected by political and military might, and for the poor, it
has become a matter of life and death.”Dr Boesak drew attention
to the urgency of today’s destructive global economic system. 
 
In its Accra Confession (2004), the then WARC, now the World
Communion of Reformed Churches, called unbridled consumption “sin”
and urged member churches to resist “neo-liberal” economics. The
AGAPE process within the World Council of Churches (2006) urges
churches to work for the eradication of poverty and inequality
through the development of “economies of solidarity and
sustainable communities.” CWM in its theology statement, Mission
in the Context of Empire (2010), observes that in bringing the
love of God to the world and witnessing to God’s promise of
‘fullness of life’ we are called “to follow the example of
Jesus in his response to Empire.”
 
Recognizing the urgency of the current life-destroying human
civilization, the participating movements committed themselves to
seek to live faithfully amidst empire that has provoked
unprecedented economic and ecological crises in recent times.
 
“We have joined hands in solidarity to build platforms of
dialogue, critical reflection and activism for justice in the
economy and the earth.” Participating movements under the
Oikotree affirmed their common commitment to work toward a
Solidarity Economy and Life-sustaining Oikos. The name of
Oikotree is derived from the Tree of Life in Revelation 22 – “and
the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations”- and
the spiritual traditions of many indigenous peoples and faith
traditions.
 
Korean theologian and Moderator of the Oikotree Movement, Park,
Seong-Won said“aunique role of the Oikotree Movement  is to
provide an ecumenical space where churches, individuals and
social movements can come together, network and work for our
common task of shaping our planet into a Life-enhancing Oikos.”
 
“Visiting the diaconal project with unemployed people and the
Central Station Mission in Frankfurt, and hearing from the
student network on liberation theology and other social
initiatives I had the feeling that Oikotree spirit is largely
shared among the churches,” said Antonella Visintin from the
Waldensian Church.
 
The sixteen movements who came under the Oikotree identified
areas of convergence, built synergies and linked global, regional
and local agendas for fostering justice in all aspects of life. 
 
The Oikotree Movement also challenged faith communities, in
particular churches and ecumenical movements, to keep justice at
the heart of faith.
 
The Forum planned common action at all levels for intensifying
their united goal of building life-enhancing community, cultures
and systems.
 
 Action Plan available upon request at wcrc@wcrc.ch