During an ecumenical prayer service on 4 October for the close of Season of Creation, World Council of Churches moderator Dr Agnes Abuom reflected on economic justice and care for the earth.
The theme for this year’s Season of Creation was “Jubilee for the Earth”—a theme Abuom said was very relevant and timely for a world coping with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“The pandemic has exposed and exacerbated many of the inequalities and inequities and injustices that are prevalent in most of our nations,” said Abuom. “The concept and practice of jubilee helps us to have insights into about five concepts: rest, restoration, replenishment, reconciliation, restitution.”
Caring for creation, Abuom reflected, involves a global economy that should be based on production and consumption of goods as per need—not greed. “It is also supposed to provide space for community participation, individual participation in the various sectors of society,” she said. “Brothers and sisters, this is the time again to confront and interrogate our economic paradigm because this economic paradigm that believes in exploitation, that believes in no limits to anything, is what has rendered most of our communities voiceless, poor, excluded from the tables of decision-making, contrary to what our Lord Jesus asked.”
Current economic practices cannot ensure sustainable relationships or sustainable living, added Abuom. “We can only survive together if we take each other as equally made in the image of our Creator,” she said. “Jubilee is about rejecting and exposing global and national forces that continue to steal, kill and destroy all forms of life.”
The current economic system has no regard for any form of life except maximization of profit, concluded Abuom. “Change is possible, brothers and sisters,” she urged. “Let us commit ourselves to advocate and accompany one another as we journey to restore God’s creation and the image of God in every living thing.”
WCC, oikoumene.org
