WCC news: Churches set out an economy of peace for a militarized world

Peace cannot be built on an economy that runs on war. That is the assertion of a theological communique released by churches meeting in Panama City. It asks governments to redirect military spending toward poverty and climate, and it asks the churches to move their own money first. Faith leaders, theologians, and practitioners take part in the NIFEA Consultation on Economy of Peace in Panama City, from 26 to 28 August 2026. Photo: Robyn Sekula, Presbyterian Foundation  17 September 2026 The World Council of Churches (WCC) and five partner communions convened a consultation from 26 to 28 August. They work within NIFEA, the churches' campaign for a New International Financial and Economic Architecture: a financial system oriented toward justice rather than profit. The communique is written in three parts: what the churches see, what they affirm, and what they commit to do.  What they see They see first that the war economy is not an accident. "The economy we inherit was designed to extract, and it does so with precision, producing profits for the already-powerful and losses for the already-vulnerable." The numbers sit under that claim. Military expenditure reached 2.887 trillion US dollars in 2025, the 11th consecutive year of growth and the highest on record, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Military activity accounts for up to 6 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to Scientists for Global Responsibility and the Conflict and Environment Observatory. From there the text makes a theological move rather than an economic one. It discerns that "fossil fuelled, financialised capitalism is not a neutral economic arrangement but an ethical, moral, and theological problem." Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, of Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, put the same argument in practical terms. Peace cannot be secured without "a just transition away from fossil fuel-based, extractive economy": moving off fossil fuels in a way that is fair to workers and poor, climate-vulnerable communities. The same discernment turns to minerals, and to a question the communique leaves open: "critical for whom?" The metals needed for solar panels and batteries also build missiles, drones, and artificial intelligence. The digital economy resting on them is neither clean nor immaterial. Hyperscale data centres take energy, water, and land, including Indigenous land. It also discerns that economic instruments have themselves become weapons. Rev. Dora Arce, of the Presbyterian-Reformed Church in Cuba, gave that sentence a street. Since the fuel blockade, she said, "I have never seen so many hungry people in the streets of Havana." Humberto Shikiya, of the Evangelical Methodist Church of Argentina and the WCC Peacebuilding in Colombia Project, made the same point about land. In Colombia, he said, land and peace cannot be separated. Redistribution is the condition for any settlement that lasts. The Panama Canal is where the document does its own testing. Participants were cautioned not to idealize it, but "to let it teach us how to do theology,” a reminder of a place where peace has already been shattered. It was dug by Black Caribbean workers under a segregated labour system colonial history tried to erase. What they affirm The Guna people of Panama name the Earth Nabguana, and the communique affirms her dignity and agency, "kin rather than commodity.” They speak of Balu Wala, the balance between living beings, and of the economy of permission that follows: no territory is entered without asking. The text takes this as an operational proposal, not only a belief. It ties the practice to free, prior, and informed consent: the right of Indigenous peoples to be asked before any project begins on their land, and to refuse. What it wants is a just peace "built from the ground up rather than imposed from above.” Andrew Suderman, of Mennonite World Conference, described the churches' part. "As communities of disciples of Jesus, we (ought to) live out and then proclaim how society can be transformed into a world of justice and peace . . . we see and we offer glimpses of alternative ways of being in the world." What they commit Churches are asked to move their money out of the war economy and into renewable energy and community-rooted vehicles: local currencies, community banks, and debt-for-social-investment swaps. They are asked to press for a global two percent tax on billionaires, a 25 percent minimum corporate tax, debt cancellation, and living or peace wages. Governments are asked to stop financing weapons and wars. They are asked to regulate the trade in fossil fuels and critical minerals, and to end embargoes as a weapon of war. The document closes on a single line. "Neutrality, in the face of these realities, is not an option." The consultation sits inside the Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action (2025–2034). Its next key moments are the UN Biodiversity Conference in Yerevan, Armenia, from 19 to 30 October, and the UN Climate Change Conference in Antalya, Türkiye, from 9 to 20 November. Read the communique here NIFEA group calls for reimagined global financial alternatives Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action 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