Christianity, Poverty & Wealth
Poverty and wealth have been issues
for the Christian Church since her inception. More recently, they have
also been issues on the ecumenical agenda, both at the theological and
at the practical level through programmes and projects aimed at the reduction
of poverty and at a just and equitable distribution of wealth.
The project on Christianity, Poverty and Wealth in the 21st
Century originated in the context of ongoing discussions within Aprodev
about the distinctive character of the agencies as "Christian", "church
related", and "ecumenical".
The objectives of the project were to revitalise the debate about poverty
and wealth within the ecumenical family (and hopefully beyond) and to
discern afresh the responses required of the churches and the ecumenical
movement as a whole in the early part of the 21st century.
Following the symbolism of the 21st century, representatives
from 21 countries around the world were to be asked to participate in
the process leading up to an International Colloquium and in the event
itself, by producing case studies based on their national and local experiences
with the issue of poverty and wealth. The aims and suggested consultation
process was described in a Briefing Paper.
In the end there were 19 national case studies and 5 sectoral case studies,
listed below.
The main event was the International Colloquium on the topic which was
held in November 2000, in New Delhi, India. It was hosted by the
National Council of Churches in India and 52 people participated from
the ecumenical family worldwide.
The Colloquium did not generate many new insights but it did affirm the
need for greater involvement of churches and Christians in the topic of
poverty and wealth. It went beyond the "why" question to the "how" question,
and set out in the Working
Document which it produced Five Priorities for a possible Programme
to combat Poverty and Greed:
Case Studies
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