Advocacy for Economic Justice: Toward an Ecumenical Ministry of Presence[1]
ABSTRACT
The mode of advocacy serves as a new, meaningful and propitious mode of engagement confronting the ecumenical and civil society movements in working for a ministry of presence that contributes to the ideals of economic justice and transformation. This article explores the theological foundations that could potentially provide the resources necessary for the churches in this regard, drawing on the insights by Paul Tillich, H Richard Niebuhr, and José Comblin.
1.INTRODUCTION
The notion of advocacy, which has become a new buzzword in ecumenical and civil society networks in recent years, attests to a methodological shift taking place within the broader ecumenical movement vis-à-vis its mode of engagement in public life. A new era of economic globalisation and superpower politics is not constructively engaged through bilateral and multilateral dialogues on the nature of authority or questions around eucharistic hospitality, neither through the specific action of protest per sé as a key weapon of choice in the previous milieu. Rather, as some like T Maluleke (2005: 118) suggest, the appropriateness of "lament and lobbying" to "be honed as one of our main instruments in order to change the world" is currently in view.
Maluleke ponders the question of advocacy in post-apartheid democratic South Africa and contends: "I am not convinced that the churches have done enough advocacy, lamenting and lobbying… . I am not convinced that the churches have kept a close enough relationship with the poorest of the poor, the most vulnerable members of our society" (Ibid.). What challenges are posed to the South African Council of Churches (SACC), Economic Justice Network, congregations and parachurch organisations, in the light of these remarks? This article argues for a renewed vision of and commitment to an advocacy mode that could potentially contribute to the socio-economic ideals demanding attention in contemporary society through the constructive and transforming presence of the believing community within the manifold spheres of life.[2]
[1] This article is a revised version of a keynote address on "Advocacy for Economic Justice" for the South African Council of Churches – Parliamentary Liaison Office, the Western Cape Provincial Council of Churches, and the Economic Justice Network, on 26 July 2006 at the Ritz Hotel, Sea Point.
[2] For example, see Njongonkulu Ndungane, A World with a Human Face: A Voice from Africa (Kenilworth: David Philip, 2003), passim; "Poverty and the Church" in NGTT 45:2 (Supplementum 2004), 200; Keith Vermeulen, "The Role of the Church in Shaping Public Policy" at http://www.sacc-ct.org.za/kavchrch.html (April 2005); Nico Koopman, "Churches, Democracy and the Public Sphere" at http://www.sacc-ct.org.za/koopman.html (May 2005). See also Steve de Gruchy, "From Church Struggle to Church Struggles" in John W de Gruchy with Steve de Gruchy (Eds), The Church Struggle in South Africa, Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition (London: SCM, 2004), 254. The efforts by the churches in the ecumenical tradition attest to their attempt to wrestle with the question: "How do we live our faith in the context of globalisation?" For a recent, comprehensive and heuristic discussion of the churches and globalisation, see Alternative Globalisation Addressing Peoples and Earth (AGAPE): A Background Document by the WCC's Justice, Peace and Creation Team (Geneva 2005) at http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/jpc/agape-new.pdf (Accessed 06/2006). Another extremely resourceful contribution is by Greetje Witte-Rang, Hielke Wolters e.a. (Eds), Uitsluitende participatie: Theologische overwegingen bij globalisering (Utrecht: Stichting Oikos, 2005).