WCC news: GEM School to gather church leaders on debt and tax justice

What a government owes to foreign lenders, what it collects in tax, and what it receives to cope with climate change decide how much is left for public services. From 17–28 August, the World Council of Churches (WCC) will bring 22 church leaders to Panama City to study those systems and learn how to argue for changing them. It is called the GEM School, the Ecumenical School on Governance, Economics, and Management for an Economy of Life. In 2025, twenty church and youth leaders from 18 countries completed a two-week programme in South Korea that challenged profit-first economic systems. The group met at the Kwanglim Seminar House in Pocheon-si for the 8th Ecumenical School on Governance, Economics, and Management for an Economy of Life (GEM School), a component of the New International Financial and Economic Architecture (NIFEA) initiative. Photo: © GEM school participants 13 August 2026 “Churches have been speaking about economic justice for decades. What is needed now are people who can mobilise congregations around the vision of an Economy of Life as well as sit down with finance officials to argue the case,” said Athena Peralta, director of the WCC Commission on Climate Justice and Sustainable Development. Alongside the WCC, five partners will run the school: the World Communion of Reformed Churches, Lutheran World Federation, World Methodist Council, Council for World Mission, and United Society Partners in the Gospel. Participants will come from many regions and many churches. Some lead now. Others are stepping into those roles. The school rests on the 2012 São Paulo Statement, the WCC’s call for an economy that serves life ahead of growth. Its companion is the Ecumenical Action Plan for a New International Financial and Economic Architecture (NIFEA). From 26–28 August the GEM School will open into an ecumenical consultation on economies of peace – economies reshaped to sustain peace and dignity rather than fuel conflict. “Panama sits at the crossroads of global trade and finance, where the world’s money flows. It is a fitting place to ask: who does all that wealth and money ultimately serve?” said Dr Marie-Aimee Tourres, a development economist who lectures on global finance at the GEM School. Participants will visit an Indigenous community and learn about alternative Indigenous economies. The consultation will close by drafting a theological communiqué and an advocacy plan. Ecumenical School on Governance, Economics, and Management for an Economy of Life (GEM School) 2026 Sustainability and Economy of Life Panama’s faith communities issue urgent call for climate justice ahead of COP30 New book looks back on decades of Ulrich Duchrow’s ecumenical work in social theology and witness 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