ACT Alliance and its members came together to add their voices to the thousands of participants in the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches taking place in Karlsruhe from August 31 to September 8, 2022.
This global gathering of 352 member churches is a key moment for the members of the WCC movement to analyse, discuss and propose new partnerships and initiatives for change.
This event is happening while a number of complex crises are unfolding globally.
As our General Secretary Rudelmar Bueno de Faria said on the plenary stage today, “the world seems to head towards multiple crises. There is a confluence of broken economic and social values that threaten life in all its forms. Social, political and economic fundamentalisms are eroding the global multilateral governance as we know it. And this bears the question if these structures and values are fit for purpose any longer”.
Another panellist provoked the audience with the thought that justice cannot be greenwashed.
The urgency of ensuring social and climate justice seems to be a key element of the discussions that we had in the past few days in Karlsruhe. The climate crisis is increasing the divide between rich and poor countries and communities; and the humanitarian consequences are becoming magnified and difficult to cope with.
De Faria concluded, There are two major blocs today that are confronting each other. Those who promote exclusion, inequality and blunt neoliberalism and those who promote the opposite: solidarity, equality and justice.
We have a choice to make.
