WCC > Programmes > Public witness: addressing power, affirming peace > Poverty, wealth and ecology > Study on poverty & wealth

Study on poverty, wealth and ecological debt

In the context of the WCC's AGAPE (Alternative to Economic Globalization Addressing Peoples and Earth) process, a 2003 study on “Christianity, wealth and poverty” indicated that wealth, as the reverse of poverty, is just as great a problem as poverty unless and until it is shared by everyone.  

This study asked whether excessive wealth can be defined as concretely as we sometimes define poverty; whether there is a wealth line (or “greed line”) above which no one should rise, just as there is a poverty line below which no one should not be allowed to fall; and what might be the indicators of excessive wealth. 

Within the framework of a new study on "Poverty, wealth and ecological debt" with a particular focus on Africa, a research consultant and a reference group will now pursue the thinking on these questions; the end goal is to help to translate gospel teaching on wealth into concrete and contemporary guidance to Christians. 

Together with the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC), the WCC will also form a task force and engage a coordinator to launch an ecumenical initiative to Overcome Poverty in Africa; this work will be done in close collaboration with WCC work on curricula development on poverty and wealth in Africa.

This text is based on the findings of a series of church consultations and studies on globalization organized by the WCC and other ecumenical organizations over the period since the 1998 WCC assembly in Harare.
This document is the result of work on economic globalization from Harare to Porto Alegre. It was prepared by the commission for Justice, Peace and Creation under the direction of the central committee.
Ecumenical conversation at the WCC's 9th assembly, Brazil, 2006, with sections on: overcoming health threats in the context of HIV/AIDS / bioethics and the challenges of new technologies / caring for the earth's resources / the agenda of racism / zero tolerance for violence against women and children.
Paper prepared for the WCC by the Ecumenical Coalition for Economic Justice, a project of Canadian churches. Contents: introduction; mobilizing domestic financing for development; trade; increasing international financial cooperation; debt; addressing systemic issues; conclusion, glossary, bibliography
This declaration is the result of a consultation held on January 11 – 14, 2004 in Stony Point, New York, USA. We gathered as people of God coming from churches in Canada, the United States and Mexico and also from other regions of the world.
Document issued at a high-level encounter between the three organizations at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva (22 October 2004)
The International Financial Institutions (IFIs) are concerned about their public image. They advertise and defend their goals and practices. Most captivating is the attraction by the flow of money they control and the power invested in them. The following paragraphs point to some of the traps and temptations in so many debates about the role and character of the IFIs in global economy and politics.
"On the eve of the third millennium, the jubilee assembly of the WCC must ponder God's jubilee command and Christ's proclamation, which affirms this vision." This document on debt was issued by the WCC's 8th assembly in 1998.

 
Related publications

The Debt Problem for Poor Countries

The papers in this book were presented at a workshop on illegitimate debt and arbitration, organized by the WCC in 2003 with the aim of assessing ongoing campaigns for debt alleviation in the light of current geopolitics. Awareness is growing that debt is the result of an unjust financial system and needs to be addressed from a justice and political perspective. Yet despite pressure on rich countries to "drop the debt" this has not happened, and civil society and the churches have realized that new strategies and strong alliances for continued pressure on the debtors are thus imperative.