13.08.2004

Reformed Christians end meeting with public action on economic justice

Rainbow colours danced on the sea of worshippers. Reformed Christians from around the world passed small strips of cloth back and forth as if they were the new currency of hope.

This symbolic action took place August 12 in Accra, Ghana, during the closing worship service prepared by the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. The action concluded a covenanting ceremony on economic justice that was part of the service.

Covenanting is a central concept of Reformed Christian theology that declares a collective commitment to serve God. The rainbow is the Old Testament sign of God’s promise (covenant) to Noah to never send a flood again.

The delegates solemnly declared their commitment to “be part of God’s mission to confront the god of mammon [wealth]” and to work for “a just world economy and the integrity of creation.”

The declaration follows the council’s August 11 decision to adopt a faith-based stance against neoliberal economic globalization. “We reject the current world economic order of global neo-liberal capitalism,” said the council. The adoption of the faith stance follows a consultation process among Alliance member churches since 1997.

The delegates also read aloud a confession of faith written in the light of the council’s at times fractious discussions on economic injustice.

Fierce debate was unleashed in an August 11 plenary by a proposal to replace “confession” with “confessing” in the faith-stance text. “It was like dropping a skunk [a very smelly animal] into the middle of the room,” US delegate Anna Case-Winters said at the time.

The general council decided to keep the word “confession”, favoured especially by churches from the global south. But both versions of the word were used in the closing worship service. The text that was read aloud in four languages all at once, was headed “Confessing the Faith.”

Another highlight of the worship service was the installation of the Alliance’s new president Clifton Kirkpatrick and the new executive committee. All but one of the 40-member committee was elected August 9. (The outgoing president serves as a continuing member of the committee.)

Alliance president Kirkpatrick and the other committee members solemnly declared their commitment “to the purposes and work” of the Alliance.

The worship service was the second of two such services during the general council to include the celebration of communion. The worshippers were invited to dip their bread in wine held in a calabash.

Andreas Havinga, August 13 2004