Alternative Globalization Addressing Peoples and Earth

2
alternative way of life of community in diversity”. 3 The assembly delegates
called for a vision of the oikoumene of faith and solidarity that motivates
and energizes the ecumenical movement to overcome the globalized
paradigm of domination.
Six years later, neoliberal globalization poses an even greater challenge for
the churches, for the peoples and the earth, and the need to develop
alternatives is ever more urgent. At the WCC assembly in Porto Alegre in
2006, churches and the ecumenical family are expected to move beyond
the critique of neoliberal globalization to develop a vision of a just,
compassionate and inclusive world, and to commit themselves to concrete
responses rooted in viable alternatives. The theme of the Porto Alegre
assembly, “God, in your Grace, Transform the World”, will appropriately
guide the AGAPE call to action.
Such a vision can become a reality only when economic and ecological
justice is addressed holistically, with democratic participation at all levels.
The vision cannot be achieved while the material over-abundance enjoyed
by a small part of the global community continues to grow side by side
with, and most often at the expense of, the abject poverty of a majority of
this community. This intensifies unconscionable levels of inequity in our
world. The unquenchable thirst for more power, more profits and more
possessions, which motivates corporate entities, and some individuals and
social groups, is unsustainable and deprives many communities of the ability
to meet their own needs in harmony with the environment.
The Women’s Voices on AGAPE summarized these lessons when they
told us: “We are not afraid to say that we live in a time of empire. In using
the term ‘empire’, we mean the coherence of economic, cultural, political
and military powers that constitute a global system of domination directed
by powerful nations and organizations” to protect and defend their own
interests. Women from the South and from Eastern Europe demanded an
end to unjust structures, institutions and policies and to the “insecurity
and frustration provoked by the neo-liberal model [that] are inflicted on
women’s lives from womb to tomb”. 4
An ecumenical group of 38 participants met in Geneva, Switzerland, from
22-24 June 2004 to prepare an initial document on “Alternative
Globalization Addressing Peoples and Earth” (AGAPE) in preparation
for the WCC’s next (2006) assembly in Porto Alegre. This is a document
from the churches to the churches. It outlines new challenges and
3
Diane Kessler (ed), Together on the way. Official report of the eighth assembly of the World
Council of Churches, Geneva: WCC, 1999, p. 258; see also Richard Dickinson, Economic
globalization: deepening challenge for Christians, Geneva: WCC, 1998
4
This phrase is from the Accra Confession, World Alliance of Reformed Churches, August
2004.