Resolution D018: Addressing the Global Economic Crisis

Over the next few days in the lead up to General Convention, we want to equip YOU--our best allies and friends--to help us lead the church in to not only keeping and renewing promises made to the worlds poor, but taking it a step further and leading in new bold ways. Please join with us.

We will present to you the pieces of legislation that we will be focusing our attention on, equipping you with the resolution itself and some talking points for you to use when talking to your deputation or if you feel called--to testify!

As always, please email us with any questions. We are so thrilled to have such an amazing group of leaders who are mobilizing our church to heal the world.


D018: Address the Global Economic Crisis

Resolution D018: The full resolution and text, here.
Issue

To equip our church to begin to engage the global economic crisis as faithful, gospel-centered Christians.

Background

This resolution has four parts:

1. Makes the claim that we in the Episcopal Church are complicity in the financial crisis because we have embraced an unrestrained free-market form of capitalism that results in predatory practices of lending and income generation divorced of accountability,

2. Thanks the Archbishop of Canterbury for his leadership and teaching around Christian response to economic crisis,

3. Invites dioceses and congregations to focus on Lent 2010 as a time of penitential reflection on the brokenness of the global economic order

4. Urges diocesan deputations to address the global economic crisis in their own contexts using Public Narrative and community organizing models.

Talking Points

• This resolution asks Episcopalians to understand and confront our complicity in the current global economic crisis and to be converted anew through prayer, study, giving, advocacy, acts of mercy and ACTION.
  
• The global economic crisis is as much as spiritual, moral and ethical crisis as it is a financial crisis.
• Given the household of the world, we are threatened in our future existence because of an unsustainable economy and environmental practice that requires a turning around and a realignment of our values with God’s vision for the wholeness of creation.
  
• We do this by opening ourselves to God’s vision of unity for the world and how, as people of faith, both at home and to the ends of the earth – we can participate in a just, equitable, sustainable economy.
  
• God’s mission is to restore all people to unity.
  
• It’s not about the church.
  
• The question as Christians is – how have we participated or not participated in the economy of God?
  
• We are calling the church to a season of reflection, repentance, and amendment of life. This amendment of life would understand study, repentance and prayer as a foundation that leads to ACTION.
  
• We are calling on congregations, dioceses, individuals to seek models that assist in mobilizing people to act (Public Narrative being one such model) for a just economy.
  
• Utilize PN methodology to come together in their parish and dioceses to tell their stories in God’s economy, discover who we are together, and what we are called together to do given that we are on the brink of peril.
  
• We are asking that Lent 2010 be set aside by the church as a season of study, reflection, repentance, and action concerning the global economic crisis.

What's YOUR faithful response to God's defining moment?

Make no mistake, EVERY moment can be God's defining moment ... but there are moments we become more aware of that possibility. They are usually moments where our foundations are shaken, where the things that make us feel secure are stripped away, where we realize how much we really cannot make it on our own, and how much we really need each other ... and God.

The world will call these moments of crisis, moments of fear. But for us, Christ's Church, they are moments of opportunity. They are moments of chaos and uncomfortability where if we respond out of faith and not out of fear, we can let God use us to tranform the world.

We're in one of those moments right now. A global economic system based on hyperconsumption is predictably collapsing under its own weight. Decades of going into debt trying to find meaning through buying more and using income growth as the only measure of progress has led us to the brink not just of economic collapse but spiritual poverty.

It is a moment of crisis. It is a moment of fear. But more than that, it is a moment of great opportunity. This is God's defining moment. And we cannot be silent.

We are all crew of the Ship of Fools that is the Church ... and it's time for all hands on deck.

At Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation's board meeting last week, what emerged through our prayer and conversation was not a new mission for EGR ... but a focus for that mission. Our opportunity -- and that means you -- is to lead the Church in grasping this moment of economic crisis as God's defining moment, a moment where we don't run in fear from the shaking of the foundations but stand fearlessly firm and proclaim the Good News that what can rise from this is a world not of not riches for the few but abundant life for all.

What does that look like? That's where we need your help. That's where we need all hands on deck. We need you to pray, study, dream, think, discuss, experiment, create ... use all the gifts God has given you to discern what a faithful response to this defining moment in time might be.

This includes, but is not limited to:

*Practical, simple, actions and choices we can make as individuals, families, congregations, dioceses and as a Church to reject the call to fear and step out in faith for a world where "all may have life and have it in all its fullness."

*Educational and programmatic responses for our communities that can open our eyes to the theological reality and opportunity of this defining moment.

*Creative expression (music, painting, scultpture, poetry, whatever your media might be) that can engage people in Christ's presence in this moment and Christ's call to us in the midst of it.

*Papers or shorter musings on the theological and scriptural foundations for an economic system that benefits all humanity.

*Opportunities for building global relationship that can be transformative.

*Things you have tried -- whether you think they have worked or not -- to try to live faithfully in this time of crisis and opportunity.

Share any and all of these things -- and anything else that addresses what a faithful response to God's defining moment of now might be -- with us by sending them to EGR at MKinman@gmail.com. In turn, we will do what EGR does ... take the wisdom God has given you and make it available to all.

It is time for all hands on deck. And that means you are a critical part of figuring out what God is calling us to do and who God is calling us to be in this defining moment. We can't wait to see what happens next!