WARC Joins Global Churches' Call to End Poverty at U.N. Summit

The WARC president said that Reformed churches around the world must be at the forefront of the movement to end global poverty.

By Eunice Or , Gospel Herald Reporter

September 14, 2005|1:14 pm

The World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) declared its full support to the call on global churches for an end to poverty at the U.N. World Summit in New York City Tuesday.

"I am glad this consultation has taken place so that church leaders from different traditions can speak with one voice at the urgency of global poverty,” stated Setri Nyomi, general secretary of WARC, in a press release. “I am glad we are not only speaking to ourselves. But also to the United Nations and national leaders."

The declaration came after the meeting in Washington, D.C., of more than 30 leaders representing some of the largest Christian bodies in the world ahead of this week’s U.N. Summit. The meeting, officially known as the "Consultation of Religious Leaders on Global Poverty", aimed to call for a stepped-up role of the religious sector in alleviating extreme poverty and affirming the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

"It is indeed an outrage that so many people seem condemned to poverty,” Nyomi said in a statement released by the WARC. “Churches have reaffirmed our commitment to strengthen our resolve to be critical partners with governments, ensuring the voices of the poor are heard and that global poverty is addressed from its roots - including the challenging of systems of injustice that continue to impoverish.

"As we congratulate the United Nations in this 60th year, we hope all - governments, religious communities, and civil society as a whole - engage fully in comprehensively addressing global poverty," he added.

In a Sept. 10 address delivered at the World Association of Taiwanese Christian Churches meeting in Houston, Texas, WARC President Clifton Kirkpatrick said churches must act on poverty.

Kirkpatrick stated that Reformed churches around the world must be at the forefront of the movement to end global poverty.

"In a world where 24,000 people die each day from hunger and poverty, where countless millions are afflicted with AIDS, where terrorism and state sanctioned violence are rampant and where we are driving our environment to the potential for extinction, we have our task cut out for us," Kirkpatrick said.

"We are indeed called to be God’s agents of blessing, God’s agents for the fullness of life that this world so desperately needs.”

WARC is a fellowship of 75 million Reformed Christians in 218 churches in 107 countries.