Globaler Dialog in Südafrika: Krise als Chance für eine Bewegung für soziale Gerechtigkeit

Mohau Pheko: current crisis is ''a spectacular failure'' of the current system

(WARC) The global financial crisis is a golden opportunity for a movement for economic justice according to a South African businesswoman and political economist.

Mohau Pheko, Coordinator of the African Gender and Trade Network (GENTA), told a gathering of theologians, advocates, economists and senior church officials in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Friday (4. September) that the current crisis is “a spectacular failure” of the current system and calls for a radical reconstruction of the global economy.

“We have to smash the current paradigm so that it does not have roots and legs to rise again,” Pheko told the group of nearly 60 people from 23 countries who are meeting to focus on what churches can do to address inequalities in the global economic system.

The event, which organizers call a global dialogue, focuses on economic justice and concern for the earth’s ecology.  Organized by the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, the consultation builds on the organization’s statement on global economic justice, known as the Accra Confession. 

The statement, issued in 2004 during WARC’s global assembly in Accra, Ghana, declares “economic systems are a matter of life or death” and says “the policy of unlimited growth among industrialized countries and the drive for profit of transnational corporations have plundered the earth and severely damaged the environment”.

Pheko, an advisor to governments and trade organizations, told delegates the need for change is urgent, especially in Africa where there is not the money to weather the ill effects of the crisis due to cuts made as part of austerity programmes imposed by the International Monetary Fund.

Saying it is time to act now, Pheko calls for advocates of change to “crystallize” forms of protest already underway such as service delivery protests in South Africa and food protests elsewhere: “The streets already know the issues; we have to listen to the streets.”

The Accra Confession continues to spur action and debate among churches on how they can interpret and respond to the impact of the current global economic model. The dialogue in Johannesburg brings together churches whose understandings differ in order to seek their input in charting how the organization can continue to address economic and environmental issues in the future. 

In addressing those currents of concern, WARC has published a guide to the Accra Confession that points to the declaration’s importance to Christian ethics in the contemporary world.

Choose Life, Act in Hope, authored by Puleng LenkaBula, a South African academic from the University of South Africa (UNISA), was launched Friday as part of the programme of the Global Dialogue.

Clifton Kirkpatrick, WARC’s president, calls the book “a wake-up call to Christians not only in Africa, but also around the world, to the fundamental ethical calling of the Christian faith in our time.”

Describing it as “part history, part theological vision, and part a call for action,” Kirkpatrick says, “Puleng LenkaBula articulately expresses why this covenant for justice in the economy and the earth is the central commitment of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.

The study resource offers questions for discussion at the end of each chapter and encourages WARC members to popularize the Accra Confession and find ways to apply it in daily life.

“I enthusiastically recommend this book to every Christian who seeks to faithfully follow Christ in our world today,” says Kirkpatrick.

In her comments about the book, LenkaBula compares the current situation with that of the Roman Empire, when Christian prophets challenged the cooption of religion for the empire; when some church leaders did not align themselves with the poor and the marginalized but with the powerful.

“The lived reality for many African peoples and effects of the empire are still evident in structures and or relationships between Africa and the world,” say LenkaBula.

LenkaBula, who teaches courses on social, political, feminist and economic in the Department of Systematic Theology and Ethics at UNISA, focuses her research on economy, ecology and ethics, particularly the areas of the land, property, and intellectual property rights.

The Global Dialogue event concludes today (7. September).

For more information on the Accra Confession, including the full text, see:
http://www.warc.ch/documents/ACCRA_Pamphlet.pdf


Barbara Schenck

die reformierten.upd@te 09.2

Das reformierte Quartalsmagazin / Juni 2009
In diesen Tagen erscheint die neue Ausgabe von die reformierten.upd@te 09.2. Die Themen: Das Reformierte Zentrum auf dem Kirchentag und der Calvin-Festakt in Berlin - aktuelle Meldungen aus dem Reformierten Weltbund - die Predigt von Peter Bukowski zu Psalm 68 im ARD-Fernsehgottesdienst aus dem Französischen Dom zu Berlin am 12. Juli 2009

Jörg Schmidt, Generalsekretär des Reformierten Bundes, 10. August 2009

Church of Scotland begrüßt Entscheidung, den Lockerbie-Attentäter aus der Haft zu entlassen

''Eine Botschaft für die Welt, was es heißt, Schottisch zu sein''
Edinburgh (ENI). The (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland has said it fully supports a decision taken by the Scottish Government on 20 August to release the convicted Lockerbie bomber, Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi, on compassionate grounds. ''This decision has sent a message to the world about what it is to be Scottish,'' the Rev. Ian Galloway, convenor of the Church and Society Council of the Church of Scotland, said in a statement. ''We are defined as a nation by how we treat those who have chosen to hurt us. Do we choose mercy even when they did not choose mercy?''

Barbara Schenck
As Reformed churches worldwide prepare to celebrate the 500th anniversary on 10 July of the birth of Protestant Reformation leader, John Calvin, leaders of a global movement of Reformed churches have issued a statement calling on Christians to commemorate Calvin not as a saint but as a source of inspiration for responding to contemporary social and environmental concerns.

Pressemeldung des WARC, 8. Juli 2009

Reformierte Kirchen sagen: Calvin machte aus Genf die internationale Stadt, die sie heute ist

Genf: Stadt Calvins und Stätte eines internationalen Calvinismus
(WARC/RWB) In Genf soll am 10. Juli eine kirchliche Gedenkfeier den 500. Jahrestag der Geburt Calvins, des Vorkämpfers der protestantischen Reformation, markieren. Diese Feier soll dem Einfluss des französischen Reformators auf die internationale Ausstrahlung und das Profil seiner Adoptivstadt gewidmet sein.

Pressemeldung des Reformierten Weltbundes vom 7. Juli 2009

Reformierter Weltbund: Jugend in der Evangelisch reformierten Kirche Lithauens soll sich als David gegen Goliath erheben

In Erinnerung an Calvin als jungen Reformator ermutigt Generalsekretär Nyomi die Reformierte Kirche in Lithauen, jungen Leuten Raum für ihre Begabungen zu geben
(WARC, 24. Juni 2009) Youth should be entrusted with church leadership positions a senior Reformed church executive has told leaders of the Evangelical Reformed Church of Lithuania.

GEKE : Evangelische Kirchen mühen sich um Versöhnung 20 Jahre nach dem Fall des Eisernen Vorhangs

Wipf: Einsatz für Minderheiten ist ''Nagelprobe des Bekenntnisses zur Freiheit''
Erinnerung an Grenzöffnung 1989 verpflichtet zum Einsatz für nationale und ethnische Minderheiten – erstarkter Nationalismus stellt das Miteinander in Europa in Frage – Präsident und Generalsekretär der GEKE auf Gedenkfeierlichkeiten zum 20. Jahrestag der Grenzöffnung.

Sopron, 4. Juli 2009, Thomas Flügge, Pressesprecher Gemeinschaft Evangelischer Kirchen in Europa (GEKE)

Der GEKE focus 6 (2/09) jetzt im Internet

zum kostenlosen Download auf www.leuenberg.eu
Human dignity vs. Christian morality? - Die Kluft zwischen Arm und Reich bedeutet soziale Ausgrenzung - Demeurer avec son temps - We are above all interested in the practice of faith

Thomas Flügge, GEKE

CH/Graubünden: Ein Prozent Kirchensteuern gegen die Armut

Reformierte Bündner Landeskirche leistet Beitrag zur Halbierung der Armut im Jahr 2015
Die reformierte Bündner Landeskirche setzt 127.000 Franken ihrer Steuereinnahmen gegen die Armut ein. Der Kirchenrat hat jetzt die Empfänger bestimmt: Das Kirchensteuerprozent wird für Hilfs- und Entwicklungsprojekte in anderen Kontinenten eingesetzt. Denn das Engagement der Landeskirche geht auf die Uno-Milleniumserklärung zurück, die bis zum Jahr 2015 eine Halbierung der weltweiten Armut erreichen will.

19.06.2009 RNA/comm. / GEKE-Newsletter
Das Präsidium der GEKE würdigt in einer Erklärung den 20. Jahrestag der Öffnung des Eisernen Vorhangs: Das grenzenlose Europa bietet Freiheit und Chancen, gleichzeitig belastet eine neue Re-Nationalisierung das Miteinander.

Wien/Bern, 24. Juni 2009 / Thomas Flügge (Pressesprecher)

Moderator der Presbyterian Church of Korea (PCK) für Abgabe eines ökumenischen Zehnten

Spende der PCK an den Reformierten Weltbund als Johannes Calvin Geburtstagsgeschenk
The Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Korea (PCK) has told members of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) that he believes churches should be motivated to engage in a movement for ''ecumenical tithing''.

Pressemitteilung des Reformierten Weltbundes, 5. Juni 2009
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