The conference, under the theme “All of Us or None of Us,” aims to enable churches to respond appropriately to conflict, peace building, and healing. Bedford-Strohm spoke on how today’s ecumenical landscape relates to this theme. “The current global asymmetries in economic opportunities and wealth creation are consequences of centuries of economic injustice along racial lines, intimately connected with the violence colonialism,” he said. “The economic legacies of the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, continue to be felt across the African continent and are part of the reasons why many young Africans continue to perish in the Mediterranean Sea, in search of greener pastures.” Bedford-Strohm urged that no person shall be favoured or disfavoured because of race.
“Open racism is expressed in right wing populist parties, which have gained votes in many states of Europe and beyond,” he said. “The recent election of a man as president of the United States, who has called (non-white) refugees ‘animals’ is only one example for shifting of what can be said publicly by leading public figures.” We must be aware that racism and the violence, which goes along with it, is structural as well as personal, Bedford-Strohm said. “It is part of our heritage as European churches that we have played a central role in creating structures that have done and still do violence to human beings and non-human creation,” he said. “As a German I must recognize that really dealing systemically with colonialism in our own history and its implications for today lies still before us.” Antiracism has been central to the work of the ecumenical movement in the last decades, Bedford-Strohm reflected. “In short, the WCC has historically been a leading player in ecumenical and global efforts to overcoming racism, xenophobia, casteism, and many other discriminations,” he said. “Some member churches, especially in North America and Europe, have taken steps to tap into this rich history in the ecumenical movement.” Bedford-Strohm also spoke of the concrete challenges in overcoming racism. “There is a need to remain aware that racism thrives in the intersections of race, caste, colour, age, gender, sexual orientation, class, territorial borders, ethnicity, nationality, language, and disability,” he said. “To be the church today requires deliberate, consistent, and constant action in the struggle for racial justice.”
Learn more about the WCC work on overcoming Racism, Discrimination and Xenophobia WCC offers new anti-racist and anti-bias material for churches and communities | 
No comments:
Post a Comment