by Nan Cobbey
Lambeth Conference Communications

A Lambeth Conference resolution on international debt and economic justice approved Thursday (August 6) demands action by governments and banks, but also by churches.

Bishop Peter Selby of Worcester (England) told the world's 740 Anglican bishops the goal had been to provide "the kind of resolution that could be taken home by all members of this conference" no matter what country or what national political positions had been taken on debt.

The tough stand on debt will also have an impact for the churches, Bishop Seby warned. "We thought it critical," he said, "to put a resolution before you that was not a moral free lunch . . . not an exhortation to other people to do something, but that affected our lives as churches and as a Communion."

The resolution asks the bishops to challenge their dioceses to set aside funds from their own church budgets to help fund international development programs and to cooperate with people of other faiths in advocacy programs. The bishops are also asked to commit themselves to supporting a series of requests to both creditor and debtor nation governments, including establishment of a Mediation Council which would include developing nations.

The "vast expansion" in the power and quantity of money and the "huge increases" in borrowing, are "damaging," both materially and spiritually, the resolution states.

It calls debt relief, including cancellation of unpayable debts, "not sufficient," and recommends that negotiations be speeded up, saying "children are dying, societies unraveling under the burden."

Amendment sharpens resolution

An addition to the resolution from Bishop Alfred Reid of Montego Bay (Jamaica) strengthened the already sharp positions by providing "for sanctions against private sector persons . . . who act corruptly."

"It is important to condemn the corrupt and unjust tyranny of power by transnational corporations and local private sector elites," Bishop Reid said. Their powers "exceed the powers of elected governments, both North and South. It is an unholy alliance between the geopolitical designs of the North and international private capital that creates poverty in the South and makes third world debt unsustainable."

Bishop Keith Sutton of Lichfield Diocese (England) encouraged the conference to pay attention to the lesson learned last May when "tens of thousands of people descended on Birmingham" [England] to deliver a message to the leaders of the G8 nations meeting there. Their "summit" had originally refused to put international debt on the agenda, said Bishop Sutton. The crowds, "the united ecumenical witness of churches in the UK and beyond," changed their minds, he said.

"This is a vital ecumenical action which we can all take in our own countries," said Bishop Sutton. "What better way of celebrating the third millennium of Our Lord."

On August 5, the conference meeting in plenary session approved 11 "agreed" resolutions proposed by Section One (Called to Full Humanity). In these the Lambeth Conference:

• Urges adoption and compliance with the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights in this its 50th anniversary year and calls for its extension to refugees, uprooted and displaced people. (I.1).
• Calls faith communities to protect as an absolute right freedom of thought, conscience and religion; reaches out to people of all faiths and pressures governments to create such just and free conditions.(I.2)
• Asks member churches to educate themselves and their communities about the victimization of women and children by political, economic, educational, cultural and religious systems, then work to eliminate those abuses. (I.3).
• Condemns war, the use of violence for settling disputes, production and proliferation of arms, encourage peacekeeping forces and commits members to prayer and mediation. (I.4).
• Provides advocacy for refugees, displaced and uprooted peoples; focuses attention on the reasons for their plight - debt, oppression, religious conflict - and re-launches the Anglican Communion International Migrant and Refugee Network. (I.5)
• Urges the Episcopal Church of the Sudan to establish communication links with governmental, non-governmental, United Nations and ecclesial organizations throughout Africa and the Anglican Communion and urges Communion members to help by providing the technology, equipment and administration necessary. (I.7)
• Reaffirms the biblical vision of creation, recognize human responsibility for averting disasters of climate change, overpopulation, unsustainable consumption, pollution, destruction of forests and natural habitats, loss of plant and animal species, even indigenous peoples. (I.8)
• Calls on faith communities, governments and transnational companies to work toward sustainable societies which affirm dignity and rights of all people and ensure responsible use of natural resources; asks the Anglican Consultative Council and Primates to consider appointing a coordinator of international ecological network for the communion. (I.9)
• Presses governments and United Nations for a treaty to stop production, testing, stockpiling, usage of nuclear weapons and sign international mandate to prohibit nuclear warfare. (I.11)
• Establishes a commission to track technological developments, reflecting on them theologically and ethically and keeping bishops and other church leaders informed. (I.12)
• Calls on all governments to ratify the Ottawa Convention outlawing production and use of landmines, provide funding for mine clearance programs, develop technology for clearance initiatives, raise awareness of the problem and assistance with the consequences. (I.13)