Geneva, 30 October, (ENI)--The United Nations and the World Council of Churches have reaffirmed their commitment to collaborate during a meeting between the general secretaries of both organizations, says the Geneva-based church grouping. "As the UN faces the 21st century highlighting the interrelatedness of development, security and human rights, the WCC strongly believes multilateralism is the only way to respond to the challenges of today," said WCC general secretary, the Rev. Samuel Kobia, at a 29 October meeting at the UN headquarters in New York.

According to a WCC media release on 30 October, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed "deep appreciation for the work of the WCC". He told Kobia that the council is a key member of the UN constituency in terms of worldwide church representation, and because the two organizations share common objectives, and also because of the "significant contribution made by the WCC in the areas of democracy and human rights". In view of the WCC's conviction that, "religion has a big, positive role to play in the search for global peace and harmony," Kobia announced his organization is to propose to the UN that it declare a Decade of Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation for Peace. The proposal will be submitted to the UN in the coming year.

"It was a good and constructive first meeting as both leaders expressed their desire to continue strong and close collaboration," said the Rev. Christopher Ferguson, the WCC representative to the United Nations in New York. The meeting took place at the beginning of the WCC's 29 October-2 November United Nations Advocacy Week at the Church Center to the UN, in New York. Kobia thanked Ban for the participation of several UN officials in the week-long discussions that are being attended by some 80 church leaders, plus policy and advocacy officers from churches and ecumenical organizations all over the world.

Among the issues on the common agenda of the WCC and UN, the two general secretaries discussed climate change, "one of the most critical challenges the world faces today", according to Kobia. He told Ban of the concern of WCC member churches in the Pacific, who are "already preparing for the evacuation of entire populations" from some small islands to the bigger ones. Kobia also brought to the attention of the UN secretary general issues including the situation in the greater Horn of Africa, nuclear disarmament, and the struggle for peace in the Middle East, as well as the need to overcome poverty and economic injustice.
More information at: www.oikoumene.org/?id=2946 [431 words]

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Port of Spain, 22 October (ENI)--Leaders of the world's biggest grouping of Reformed churches have compared the effects of economic globalisation to the transatlantic slave trade, and said that Christians need to combat this modern form of "enslavement". "As a matter of the integrity of our faith, we must say, 'No' to slavery in all of its forms," said the president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick. He was speaking at an 18-28 October meeting in Trinidad of Reformed leaders from around the world.

"While we acknowledge this year the 200th anniversary of the passing of the transatlantic slave trade act by the British Parliament, we are painfully aware that slavery is still with us," said Kirkpatrick in his 20 October presidential report to WARC's main governing body, its executive committee. The 39-member WARC executive committee is holding its second meeting since 2004, when the alliance's highest governing body, its general council, last met in the Ghanaian capital, Accra.

Kirkpatrick explained how his own denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA) had been campaigning for the rights of migrant farm workers in the US, and underlined the need to fight human trafficking in all its forms. "But as we affirmed in Accra, an even more pernicious form of human enslavement is being wrought on millions through the process of neoliberal globalisation that is driving a dramatic and growing wedge between the rich and the poor", the WARC president stated. Kirkpatrick was referring to a statement known as the Accra Confession adopted at the 2004 assembly. In Reformed theology, "confession" designates a statement of 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 globalisation," the Accra Confession asserts.

Delegates at the 2004 meeting adopted this confession after they visited the cells at the Ghanaian port of Elmina, from where millions of slaves were transported during the transatlantic slave trade. "We all left Elmina with a firm conviction that 'never again' should Reformed Christians turn a blind eye to the enslavement and destruction of people," said Kirkpatrick. His statements were echoed in another report to the WARC executive committee by the Rev. Setri Nyomi, the Reformed alliance's general secretary.

"Two hundred years after the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, our oneness should have a strong tone of resolving to leave no stone unturned until all forms of slavery and enslavement are overturned," said Nyomi, a Presbyterian theologian from Ghana. In an interview with Ecumenical News International, Nyomi explained that the Accra Confession meant that churches and Christians needed to question whether their lifestyle and actions contributed to or hindered overcoming poverty.

He acknowledged, however, that some WARC members, "most of them churches in the global North", had questioned whether attitudes to the global economy should be treated as a "confession". These WARC members had said statements of faith should be restricted to doctrinal matters. "The response is very simple," Nyomi told ENI, "The Reformed family recognises the sovereignty of God ... We do not separate whether God is sovereign in the mundane and in the spiritual realm. Therefore our stance on social issues is consistent with the doctrinal claim of sovereignty."

The Geneva-headquartered WARC groups 75 million Reformed Christians from 214 churches in 107 countries. :: Web link: Covenanting for Justice in the Economy and the Earth (the "Accra Confession"):

warc.jalb.de/warcajsp/news_file/doc-159-1.pdf [586 words]

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Hong Kong 18 October (ENI)--Charity and social services not only help alleviate social problems like poverty and HIV and AIDS, they also help Chinese people to know about Christianity, the leader of the Amity Foundation, a Chinese Christian volunteer agency, has said. "In China, the basic need to feed and shelter 30 million people has not been answered. There are 300 million people in rural areas threatened by unhygienic drinking water," Qiu Zhonghui, general secretary of the Amity Foundation, said on 18 October at a meeting of the Council of World Mission/Nethersole Fund in Hong Kong. "We believe that through sharing in Christ more and more people begin to know what Christians are, and know about Christianity," Qiu said.

With support from CWM/Nethersole Fund, the Amity Foundation has launched rural development projects and HIV and AIDS prevention awareness programmes in mainland China. Qiu said that, as of July 2007, there were more than 214 000 known cases of HIV and AIDS in China, and that total was expected to grow rapidly in the next few years if there was no proper intervention beforehand. "We believe that the uneducated and the deprived should be empowered to participate in charity projects, and to help them to help themselves," Qiu said.

At the same occasion, the Rev. Deng Fucun, director of the social service department of the China Christian Council, said that providing social services, including assisting in AIDS prevention and providing basic health care services in rural areas, was the working priority of the council. He said that the Church was to there to serve its people by word and by deed, and thereby to promote a holistic gospel.

The Amity Foundation, which began in 1985, aims to promote education, social services, health and rural development in China. Bishop K.H. Ting, well known in international church circles, is the president of its board of directors. When the China Communist Party, the country’s ruling party, held its congress in Beijing from 15 to 21 October, rural development and health promotion were items on the agenda. [355 words]

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Bangalore, India, 17 October (ENI)--Despite India remaining the world's most populous and vibrant democracy, freedom of religion is steadily on the decline, says John Dayal, a journalist-turned-Christian activist, who is now secretary general of the All India Christian Council. "Many of the rights have been systematically diluted over the years by governments, courts and fundamentalist forces," Dayal told Ecumenical News International in an interview on 13 October about his soon-to-be-released book on religious freedom in India.

"A Matter of Equity: Freedom of Faith in Secular India" is a critique of religious freedom in the country. Dayal says that this freedom, or lack of it, ranges from the steady dilution of constitutional guarantees to harsh treatment meted out to Christians and minorities in every corner of the country. The book is a collection of articles Dayal wrote when he was a journalist, and before he became outspoken on issues concerning India's Christian community. In his writings, Dayal describes a steady upsurge in anti-Christian violence from the late 1990s, when the Hindu nationalist BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) emerged as a strong political force.

"Even before the BJP came up, religious freedom had been facing curbs both by the government and the judiciary," says Dayal, who lists several documents in his book to support his claim. He points out that the first anti-conversion bill, which restricts people converting to Christianity was introduced by the avowedly secular Congress party in the 1960s. The BJP, This, Dayal asserts, now emulates this legislation.

He adds that Christians enjoyed "better religious freedom three decades ago than now," and notes that often lower courts in several areas have been "hostile to Christian grievances where they get little relief". While India stopped allowing missionaries to enter the country decades ago, Dayal notes that, "Christian missionaries who have done exemplary service to the nation have been unceremoniously packed off by the government denying them visa extensions on one pretext or other."

Apart from that, the author says that the State machinery has been used to harass Christians and their institutions, even by secular governments. "In this context, one will wonder what is the meaning of the religious freedom spelt out under fundamental freedom in our constitution,” Dayal adds. "But, what we (Christians) have faced from 1990s has capped it all," argues Dayal, who has visited almost every troubled spot in the country following attacks on Christians.

"A Matter of Equity" cites systematic and orchestrated attacks on Christian targets by Hindu fundamentalist forces that the author laments as being rooted in a "belief in violence". Dayal says that during recent times India has recorded hundreds of incidents of deliberate violence against Christians, including the murders of priests, rapes of nuns, and brutal assaults on missionaries, besides attacks on Christian gatherings and buildings. On the other hand, following the steady rise in atrocities, Dayal says, churches have also begun to speak up and come out on to the streets.

However, Dayal says that church leaders have failed to provide strong leadership for the 26 million Christians in India, or "to demand from the government what has been taken away over the decades".

:: A Matter of Equity: Freedom of Faith in Secular India, by John Dayal, is published by New Delhi-based Anamika Publishers and Distributors Pvt Ltd, 500 pages, 800 Indian rupees. [565 words]

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