Conference will break new ground in Christian economic witness

At a conference in Birmingham on Saturday 29 March, Christian Ecology Link (CEL) will launch a two-year project which could transform the churches’ witness on economics and the environment. Joy in Enough will challenge the assumption that ‘growth is good’. According to CEL, campaigns on both inequality and ecological degradation will only be effective in the long-term if they also demand a shift to a sustainable economic model.

‘Joy in Enough: Awakening to a new economics’ takes place at Carrs Lane Church Centre, Birmingham, and is organised by CEL, in association with A Rocha and the student campaign network Speak. It will rethink how, as well as achieving social justice, the economy could also respect the earth’s natural limits and set people free from the obligation to consume.

CEL’s chair, Paul Bodenham, says: “We can’t have endless growth on a finite planet – it’s as simple as that. Maybe it’s a controversial message just as growth is returning to the UK economy. But look at the reality. Climate change is already hurting the poorest, and yet governments are at a loss about how to cut the rich world’s consumption of fossil fuels as much as scientists are demanding. Household debt is rising again and threatening another crash. The economic model is broken. There is an urgent need for the churches to advocate alternatives, and the Bible seems to offer a vision which can help us turn things round.”

Clearly many Christians agree – the conference was fully booked two months in advance. Those who attend will hear keynote speaker Dr Dan O’Neill, Chief Economist at the Centre for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy, outline how society can flourish without economic growth. Working groups will engage in theological reflection on a range of issues, from global competition to the impact of consumerism. The outcomes of the conference will be developed into a manifesto which CEL hopes will renew the churches’ vision for sustainable economic solutions to the needs of both people and planet.

Full details of the Joy in Enough project, the conference and the working groups which have prepared for it are available at www.greenchristian.org.uk/joy-in-enough

Steady State Economics is one of the alternative economic paradigms which will be considered at the conference. For further details visit http://steadystate.org/