News
By Martin Robra*
Closing worship in the evening of 12 March 1990: Participants from all continents and their hosts from the churches in the Republic of Korea are celebrating the results of the weeklong World Convocation on Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation in Seoul. They gather around a cross and a big globe representing planet Earth, the vulnerable home of humanity. They put their hands on the globe as a sign of reconciliation, healing and blessing, keeping it together in a fragile balance.
The days before, they had worked hard on the text of a final message with four covenants and ten affirmations in a fully participatory process. Despite all differences and tensions, which reflect the injustice, violence and brokenness of the world, they arrived at a common text and committed themselves together in the closing worship to the covenants and affirmations.
The World Convocation was the culminating event of the “conciliar process of mutual commitment (covenant) to justice, peace and the integrity of creation” (JPIC) that was initiated by the sixth assembly of the WCC 1983 in Vancouver, Canada. Addressing justice, peace and creation as interrelated concerns, the JPIC process began to explore the effects of structural violence and concentration of economic, political and military power on people and earth. The churches responded to the major threats to life that are inherent to the modern world and are further aggravated by the process of economic globalization that began to take shape in the last quarter of the 20th century.
Bringing together those among the churches who were struggling for social-justice, peace, eco-justice, gender justice and human rights, the JPIC process found resonance among ecumenical groups and churches worldwide. The First European Ecumenical Assembly 1989 in Basel marked a turning point in European history. The Conciliar Process gave energy to ecumenical cooperation across the “Iron Curtain” that divided the world during the Cold War. It contributed to the changes in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) that led to the fall of the Berlin wall later in the year.
The success of Basel though, supported expectations that the representatives of the churches in Seoul should come up with a clear and unequivocal call for peace. The vision of an ecumenical peace council can be traced back to the famous speech of the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1934 in Fanö, Denmark. The worldwide context, however, was much more diverse compared to those gathered in Basel. In Seoul, many insisted on the churches’ common witness for justice. The World Convocation had to embrace this situation and to respond to it. The Seoul covenants, therefore, targeted four vital concerns for life and survival of people and earth in very concrete ways:
- a just economic order and the debt issue,
- climate change,
- racism, and
- peace and security.
It was prophetic for the WCC to focus on climate change already in 1990 although critical questions were raised: the focus on climate change should not weaken the commitment to struggle against poverty and injustice. The World Convocation functioned as a common platform of different social movements and struggles for life. The World Social Forum that met for the first time in 2001 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, represents at the larger scale a very similar approach. The ten affirmations held together the concerns of power in politics and society (I), social justice for the poor (II), racial justice for all (III), gender justice (IV), truth and freedom (V), peace (VI), eco-justice (VII), Indigenous Peoples (VIII), the younger generation (IX), and - last but not least – human rights (X). Some saw in them a social catechism for the new millennium.
Ecumenical social thought and action were deeply challenged by the changing geopolitical context of the nineties of last century. Following the 1991 Canberra Assembly, the WCC Unit III Justice, Peace, Creation was charged with the continuation of the JPIC process. It explored the Seoul affirmations and covenants as framework of its ongoing work through 22 case studies of the Theology of Life Programme. The impulse of the 1990 World Convocation continued to inspire the Decade to Overcome Violence (2001 – 2011) and the call for a Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace by the WCC 10th Assembly in 2013 in Busan – again in the Republic of Korea. Until today, JPIC serves as a vision for common action of those who are concerned about the future of people and earth.
Learn more about the WCC work on Care for Creation and Climate Justice
* Rev. Dr Martin Robra, former senior advisor to the WCC general secretary