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A wide array of justice movements around the world are challenging churches to create new kinds of spirituality that will sustain them as they struggle against empire.
That is the finding of a an interfaith group of theologians, activists, pastors and educators from around the world who held a workshop 15 to 20 May in Cuba.
Spirituality of Resistance, Liberation and Transformation, which was held at the Protestant Theological Seminary at Matanzas, was sponsored by the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC), the Council for World Mission (CWM) and the World Council of Churches (WCC).
"We affirm that the problems of empire, amid which justice movements struggle, are not only political problems but spiritual challenges. Empire spawns its own destructive spiritualities, such as the religious right, and thus it seeks always to co-opt the powers of religion for imperial aims. New spiritualities are coming forth to oppose imperial spiritualities, and these should be supported," the group said in a communiqué released 26 May in Geneva.
"All organized religions have a special challenge of resisting the tactics of division, such as forms of denominationalism and fundamentalism, which often fuel ethnic, racial, nationalist and regional strife, and so strengthen the powers of empire.
Justice movements require a new solidarity among religious groups and all peoples of conscience (secular and religious) and thus we affirm and honour the full multiplicity of spiritualities that enliven such movements," the communiqué continued.
The participants from the three ecumenical organizations met in response to the initiative of the Oikotree movement, an ecumenical project that attempts to identify and live out spiritualities that put justice at the heart of faith. In addition there were participants of the Muslim and Hindu faiths at the Matanzas workshop.
The theologians called for a recognition of the leading role that indigenous peoples are playing in ecological justice efforts, with their earth-centred spirituality, which focuses on the interdependence of body, mind, land, community and spirit. And they affirmed the struggle of first nations for their land and self-determination.
They also warned that the so-called war on terror has created a virulent form of Islamophobia that exacerbates other kinds of racism and therefore they called for new spiritualities that will stand with Muslims and work with them for justice.
