WCC News: From Malawi to the UK, churches demand fairer taxes now

G7 leaders met in Évian on 15–17 June, on the French shore of Lake Geneva, a few kilometres from the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Ecumenical Centre. On two continents, churches were pressing the case those leaders left unfinished: how the world taxes wealth is a question of faith. From Malawian church councils demanding an end to harmful tax incentives to UK Christians challenging Amazon’s tax record, a movement the WCC has backed since its 2019 Zacchaeus Tax Campaign is turning conviction into organised pressure. Photo: Sean Hawkey/Life on Earth Pictures 23 June 2026 The summit noted the debt pressures facing developing countries and welcomed steps toward stronger international tax cooperation. But civil society organisations, thousands of whom protested across the lake in Geneva, said it still fell short on inequality and the outsized profits of large corporations. In Accra, the Malawi Council of Churches used a continental roundtable in May to call out what it described as an unjust tax system at home. Rev. Alemekezeke Chikondi Phiri, the council’s general secretary, pointed to outdated treaties such as the UK–Malawi double taxation agreement. He also highlighted tax incentives the council says cost Malawi some US$87 million a year – revenue that might otherwise fund healthcare and education. He cited the 15-year tax arrangement granted to the Australian mining company Paladin Energy as an example of a system that benefits a small elite while the poor struggle. "The tax system in Malawi is very unfair since wealthier individuals and large multinational corporations frequently utilize tax exemptions, incentives, and offshore structures to minimize their tax contributions. The church in Malawi will continue to fight for a just tax system and the protection of the poor," said Phiri. The gathering, a Continental Round Table on Ecological and Economic Justice Policy Advocacy, organised by the All Africa Conference of Churches and hosted by the Council of Churches in Ghana, drew church leaders from Malawi, Rwanda, Liberia, Ghana, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, and beyond. The same conviction is taking a different shape in the United Kingdom. The JustMoney Movement has launched “Challenge Amazon: Break the Habit, Fix the Rules,” asking Christians both to reduce their reliance on the retailer and to press their government for fairer global tax rules, including reform through a UN Tax Convention. The campaign frames the choice as a collective one: millions of Christians and an estimated 40,000 churches across the UK, it argues, hold real economic influence in how they spend. “The global economy is broken. It’s driving inequality, environmental damage, and concentrating wealth in the hands of a few. The money we spend too often goes to large companies like Amazon that make excessive untaxed profits at the expense of local communities, low-paid workers, and the environment. Our Challenge Amazon campaign urges Christians to use their spending power to advocate for change, and to call for fairer global tax rules that address profit shifting, strengthen transparency, and ensure all countries can raise the revenue they need,” said Rosie Venner, director of movement building at the JustMoney Movement. Both campaigns draw on a framework the WCC helped build as part of the ecumenical New International Financial and Economic Architecture initiative. Launched at the United Nations in 2019, the Zacchaeus Tax Campaign, named for the tax collector who repaid fourfold what he had taken, calls for progressive wealth taxes, an end to corporate tax avoidance, and reparation for social and ecological debts. “Taxation is an important tool for sharing wealth equitably within and across countries,” the project’s concept note states. That work now runs alongside the WCC “Turn Debt into Hope” campaign, which links debt cancellation with climate justice. Athena Peralta, director of the WCC Commission on Climate Justice and Sustainable Development, framed the stakes when the tax campaign launched: tax justice, she said, is “an important and practical means of tackling inequality . . . and making reparation for the legacies of slavery and ecological devastation, especially climate change-related loss and damage.” For these churches, the G7’s unfinished business is theirs to keep pressing. JustMoney Movement: Challenge Amazon  New International Financial and Economic Architecture (NIFEA) Zacchaeus Tax Campaign  Turn Debt into Hope  G7 Leaders’ Joint Statements, Évian (16–17 June 2026)  See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa.  Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland