Rev. Kenneth Mtata, director of the WCC’s program for public witness and diakonia, said the discussion focused on whether the church could witness in our times.
Dr Bertrand Ramcharan, former senior UN human rights official in Guyana, said: “Churches have always played a leading role as a community of thought. »
Ramcharan worked as an aide to then-UN Secretary-General Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was killed on August 19, 2003 during the attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad.
“We live in a time of profound convulsions within countries and adjustments in relations between great powers. And we must ask ourselves what is the basis of coexistence between these powers? Ramcharan said.
Non-governmental organizations and civil society are the conscience of the world, the former UN official said. Civil society, including churches, is part of the process and conflicts must be managed with respect for humanity.
Dr. Hanna Ojanen, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, researcher and assistant professor, spoke about global insecurity.
Part of this situation stems from climate emergencies, which are causing rapid changes in the living conditions of humans and other living things.
“We need preparation. And we need cooperation; we need a lot of thinking, but we are only sometimes capable of it,” she said.
Fight for justice
Uhuru Ignatius Dempers, director of social development at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Namibia, criticized the role of churches in the current economic system.
“The geopolitical situation in the world is dynamic and constantly changing. But the experiences of those who are victims have been and remain almost the same,” Dempers said.
“During the colonial period, people fought hard for their political independence. “But for many, the situation has not changed,” said the Namibian, whose country was colonized by Germany and South Africa.
“It is no longer about military and colonial presence, but other mechanisms have been used,” Dempers noted. “But what we have observed is that the prophetic voice of the Church has slowed down.”
He said that in the fight against South Africa’s apartheid ideology and in anti-colonial struggles, “the World Council of Churches supported us to achieve our independence.”
“We do not believe that the churches are in this new phase of the struggle for social and economic justice,” Dempers lamented.
A new era
Dr Nora Bayrakdarian-Kabakian of the Armenian Apostolic Church said: “The world is entering a new era – an era of uncertainty and unpredictability. »
This is happening on many levels, she said, and there is an escalation of conflicts, a transgression of international norms and multiple types of violence, new wars and artificial intelligence with actions carried out with impunity.
“Artificial intelligence technology has the power to influence everything about human conflict, including whether or not humans are involved,” she said.
Bayrakdarian-Kabakian said a digital revolution, without legal regulation, is sweeping the planet’s military forces. “This is the reality we have to face. Is this really what we expect from technological development?
Reaching Consensus
Professor Mats Målqvist, professor of global health at Uppsala University, said many of the global health problems of the 1950s and 1960s had been resolved.
Furthermore, “the proportion of absolutely poor people has declined in recent decades. But what we’re now starting to realize is that fossil fuels have fueled all of these health advances.
“We fed them using resources from pollution. And there is a direct correlation between life expectancy and ecological footprint.
Målqvist said this means the world is trapped and struggling with “an intractable problem”.
“We have to learn to live with uncertainty, without knowing, without clear solutions,” said the Swedish professor. “We must reach consensus without being right. And the Church has a big role to play in this area.
Source: oikoumene.org
