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The AGAPE process: a challenge for transformative mission and ecumenism in the 21st century.

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Abstract

This article interprets the links between the AGAPE (Alternative Globalization Addressing People and Earth) process, which the World Council of Churches (WCC) established to seek alternatives to the current process of economic globalization. The scope of this article is limited to the AGAPE process in as far as it contributes to transformative mission and in order to discern an understanding of ecumenism as a sanctuary for the flourishing of life in abundance for all The article also identifies areas that need further reflection.

The AGAPE process

The WCC's 1998 eighth assembly in Harare, Zimbabwe, posed the question, "How do we live our faith in the context of globalization?" This question, which is central to Christian faith, will need to be continually raised as long as a major part of humanity and the earth suffer. The initial phase of economic globalization was a period of euphoria, with an assumption that salvation had come to humankind; a corporate globalized market was expected to eradicate poverty and bring prosperity to all. From the beginning of the discussions on globalization, the WCC made a clear distinction between globalization as a multi-faceted historic process and the present pernicious economic and political project of global capitalism. This form of globalization is based on an ideology, which groups and movements involved in the World Social Forum have described as "neoliberalism". The Copenhagen Seminars for Social Progress introduced the distinction between these two understandings of globalization. (1) The 1998 Harare assembly gave the WCC the mandate to study economic globalization. The results of this study process are disturbing, to say the least.

One of the major conclusions of the ecumenical study of economic globalization is that the expansionist economics that drives economic globalization is based on the erroneous historical isolation of the subject from other aspects of life, which reduces human beings to homo economicus and "commodities" everything on earth, even relationships. This approach enhances the market logic of accumulation and exchange and reinforces the instincts of greed and individualism. This conclusion obliged the WCC, after its ninth assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 2006, to go further and study the issue of greed with a view to determine "wealth lines" and "greed lines". (2) This is in line with what the WCC general secretary, Samuel Kobia, described in his report to the Porto Alegre assembly: "Human greed and thirst for power have created structures that cause people to live in poverty, and systematically undermine the basis of life. Our very climate is in jeopardy. In an era when there is more than enough food to go around many times over, 852 million people across the world are hungry, up from 842 million in 2003. Every single day, 25,000 people are killed by hunger." (3)

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is now studying what it terms "the affluence line". (4) Do churches agree with the view that believes it is greed that largely causes social and ecological problems and that greed is at the centre of what drives economic globalization? When the AGAPE Call to love and action was presented at the Porto Alegre assembly's plenary on economic justice, there were marked differences in the responses of the churches to the call and even tensions between them. It has to be acknowledged that the positions the churches take clearly influence how they engage in mission.

The question remains, "Do the different positions and perspectives of the WCC's member churches play a role in influencing the debate about the theological and transformative missionary assessment of economic globalization? The key issue is that although some churches conclude that the current social and ecological problems facing the world cannot be solved by having the so-called free market as the sole driver of economic globalization, others do not share this perspective. It is disturbing to observe that, though it is self-evident that radical changes are imperative if the current economic system is to be transformed, churches are not united on this point. Moreover, even the use of the term "economic globalization" has many interpretations. For many who suffer poverty and marginalization, this term is synonymous with global capitalism, (5) through which the most powerful states and their corporations seek to control the world to their own advantage and which mainly benefits the world's mightiest corporations and richest countries.

Market and empire

The discourse on globalization will also benefit from a serious critique of the concept of empire, which is increasingly seen as a framework for reflecting on the structures of power. This concept emerged in Accra during the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) general council meeting in 2004 (6) and describes systems of economic and political domination. Ecumenical discussions on globalization and empire have sparked considerable debate, which has once again signalled divisions within the ecumenical community. The Covenanting for Justice and AGAPE processes have both revealed tensions and conflicts between churches across regions. There is an urgent need to bring together differing analyses and perspectives of the systems that are creating life-threatening socio-economic and ecological crises and to explore possibilities not only for articulating a clear faith but also for envisioning a future beyond empire. Feminist thinking needs to be part of the debates, as women have made strong statements about this. (7) It is imperative for the churches to take up the critique of empire as a missionary issue.

The empire as it exists today is not promoting pax Christi but pax Romana, as can be deduced from a quotation, which sums up the position of power: "The main reason we establish embassies around the world is to serve our own interests, which during the last half of the twentieth century meant turning the American republic into a global empire." (8) The global empire is, however, not the U.S. alone; it is, rather, a collection of corporations, banks and governments (collectively termed "the corporatocracy"), which use their financial,...

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