Alternative Globalization Addressing Peoples and Earth

47
“How do we live our faith in the context of globalization?” Harare
recommended (Together On the Way, WCC 1999:183) that the challenge
of globalization should be a central emphasis of WCC work, building
upon many significant efforts in the past.
“The vision behind globalization includes a competing vision to the
Christian commitment to the oikoumene, the unity of humankind and
the whole inhabited earth,” the assembly said, and recommended that
“the logic of globalization needs to be challenged by an alternative way
of life of community in diversity. Christians and churches should reflect
on the challenge of globalization from a faith perspective and therefore
resist the unilateral domination of economic and cultural
globalization.” 18
At its 23 rd general council in 1997, the World Alliance of Reformed
Churches called for a commitment process that included recognition,
education and confession regarding economic injustice and ecological
destruction. The WCC assembly acknowledged this call and encouraged
its own member churches to follow this process. It was also emphasized
that work on globalization should build upon and strengthen existing
initiatives by churches, ecumenical groups and social movements, support
their cooperation, encourage them to take action, and form alliances with
other partners in civil society working on issues pertinent to globalization.
One of the challenges formulated was the need for a critique, for alternative
responses to transnational corporate activity, to the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development, the International Monetary
Fund, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, the International
Labour Organization etc. and the multilateral agreements they generate.
The churches were asked to identify the harmful as well as the positive
impact of the policies of these organizations.
The January 2001 Potsdam, WCC Central Committee’s policy on
economic globalization
The central committee of the WCC meeting in Germany in January 2001
approved a policy on economic globalization that directed the WCC to
focus on searching for alternatives to economic globalization based on
Christian values in the following three areas:
• the transformation of the current global market economy to embrace
equity and values that reflect the teachings and example of Christ;
• development of just trade;
18
See Together on the way, the WCC assembly report, WCC 1999 pp. 183-184 and the
January, 2001, central committee minutes.