June 30, 2009
Written by Rebecca Bowman Woods

General Synod delegates on Monday adopted a resolution affirming the Accra Confession, an ecumenical document calling for more equitable and just global economic systems.

The 24th General Council of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) in 2004 adopted The Accra Confession: Covenanting for Justice in the Economy and the Earth. The UCC is one of 214 members of WARC, which has a combined membership of 75 million Christians in 107 countries worldwide.

The Synod resolution affirms the importance of the Accra Confession and calls on all UCC members, churches, Associations, Conferences and institutions to:

• read and study the document;

• learn about neoliberal economic globalization and other economic systems and study their impacts, particularly those that increase poverty and oppression;

• prayerfully consider what the confession's implications for our lives, homes, churches and institutions;

• advocate for policies "that will bring the reality of globalization more in line with God's vision for God's world"

The Rev. Sophia DeWitt of First Congregational UCC in Fresno, Calif., was part of the Synod committee that worked on the resolution on Sunday and Monday. She called on delegates to reaffirm the importance of the Accra Confession to the UCC's ecumenical partners, "particularly those in the global South who wonder what the U.S. church will say about globalization and the way it affects people's lives daily."

No one spoke against the resolution.

Justice and Witness Ministries, which submitted the resolution, and Wider Church Ministries are asked to implement the resolution.

The resolution also notes that WARC's North American Covenanting for Justice Working Group will make resource available for all settings of the UCC to use in studying the Accra Confession.

The General Synod also adopted resolutions dealing with economic globalization, in 1997 and 2003. For further information, go to http://warc.jalb.de/warcajsp/side.jsp?news_id=1157&navi=45.

World Alliance of Reformed Churches