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Seize the Opportunity to Transform Global Finances, WCC Tells G20
Contact: Juan Michel, World Council of Churches, +41 22 791 6153, +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
MEDIA ADVISORY, March 30 /Standard Newswire/ -- The current global financial crisis must be more than just an occasion for "short term financial bail out actions." It must be viewed as an opportunity to seek "long term transformation based on sound ethical and moral principles". As a result, a "new financial architecture" should be developed "under the aegis of the United Nations where broad participation of all countries and the civil society could take place".
This is, in a nutshell, the proposal made by the World Council of Churches general secretary Samuel Kobia in a 27 March letter to UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown ahead of the G20 summit which takes place on 2 April in London. Brown holds the rotating presidency of the G20, an informal grouping of nations that includes the group of eight the most developed countries (the "G8") and a number of emerging economic powers.
In his letter, Kobia makes the case for "radical changes" in view of a "drastic transformation" of global finances, aware of the fact that this goal would take "brave and new measures". Welcoming the idea of a "global charter for sustainable economic activity" proposed by Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and Holland's Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, Kobia suggests 12 concrete proposals for the debate.
According to Kobia, values such as "honesty, social justice and dignity for all" need to be at the centre of a new financial architecture; in addition, mechanisms able to curb "greed [as] the basis for economic growth" are needed. Only in this way will the "moral and ethical dimensions" of the crisis be taken into account.
Setting the financial crisis in a broader context, the WCC general secretary states that "churches believe that fighting global poverty, the food crisis and climate change should be given the same attention" as salvaging institutions from the financial meltdown.
The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.
