Covenanting for Justice in the Economy and the Earth Project

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	Power to resist and courage to hope

The World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) has a long-standing commitment to justice. In 1997 the WARC 23rd General Council, held in Debrecen, Hungary made the historic decision to invite member churches and the ecumenical movement into a process of confessing in the midst of economic injustice and degradation of the earth. This decision has its historical references in the Barmen Declaration of the Confessing Church in Germany (1934), in the Ottawa declaration on the Apartheid system by the WARC general council (Ottawa 1982), and in the Belhar Confession (Cape Town 1986).

	Choose Life, Act in Hope, Puleng LenkaBula

In Accra, Ghana, 2004, when churches gathered for the WARC 24th general council, the defining moment came when delegates from around the world boldly declared that working to create a just economy is essential to the integrity of Christian faith. “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 Accra Confession proclaims that justice for life is a confessional subject, “not meaning a classical doctrinal confession…but to show the necessity and the urgency of an active response to the challenges of our time and the call of Debrecen”. (Accra Confession para 15)

The current programmatic focus on “living out the Accra Confession”. Regional covenanting for justice working groups have been established to support churches in their engagement with the Accra Confession as they seek to bring about change in the unjust, unfair, anti-life, idolatrous aspects of current trends in economic globalization and ecological degradation. The Alliance has also included race and feminist analyses and perspectives on three core issues in the Accra Confession - economy, ecology and empire.

Together with the Council for World Mission (CWM) and the World Council of Churches (WCC), WARC is working to build a global covenanting for justice movement of churches and partners, empowered for prophetic witness, transformation and renewal.

A Global Dialogue on the Accra Confession was held in Johannesburg in September 2009 with the objectives of: discerning the signs of these times and what is at stake - in these times of economic crisis and climate change, (re)contextualising the Accra Confession in light of today’s reality, having dialogue on issues of concern, lifting up signs of hope, bringing new energy to the covenanting for justice movement, and discerning a way forward (in preparation for the 2010 Uniting General Council and beyond). Click here for Message from the Global Dialogue.

Accra Confession resources:

Power to Resist and Courage to Hope, 2010

Choose Life, Act in Hope, Puleng LenkaBula, 2009

Renewing the Church. Resources for Celebrating Reformation Sunday, 2006

Overview of the Covenanting for Justice Project

Accra Confession pamphlet

Globalisation we can grasp

Empire, Reformed World, Volume 56, No. 4, December 2006

Reformed World, Volume 56, No. 1, March 2006

Reformed Faith and the Rejection of Economic Injustice, Reformed World, Volume 55, No. 3, September 2005


Moderator: Mr. Helis Hernán Barraza Díaz, Presbyterian Church of Colombia

Vice-moderator: Rev. Dr. Susan Davies, United Church of Christ, U.S.A.

Executive Secretary: Rev. Patricia Sheerattan-Bisnauth, Guyana Presbyterian Church

Administrative Assistant: