Applications open for Ecumenical School on Governance, Economics and Management (GEM) 2020

by CWM Communications Team

Current and future church leaders are invited to apply for the Ecumenical School on Governance, Economics and Management (GEM School) for an Economy of Life from 17 – 28 August 2020, tentatively to be held in Taipei.

Jointly initiated by Council for World Mission (CWM), World Council of Churches (WCC), World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) and Lutheran World Federation (LWF), the GEM School responds to recommendations formulated for them in the Sao Paulo Statement: International Financial transformation for an Economy of Life and in the document Economy of Life for All Now: An Ecumenical Action Plan for a New International Financial and Economic Architecture (NIFEA).

GEM School seeks to develop churches’ competencies in economics, and strengthen their voice on global economics, so as to address the issue of the Church’s ethical and theological perspectives on the global economy having little impact on financial and economic policies, business practices and perspectives.

To do so, GEM School is aimed at building economic literacy in churches by equipping participants with the tools and languages to effectively advocate for urgent transformations in the global financial and economic sector.

“God’s vision of life-in-fullness for all creation, not just human beings, has never been more threatened than today,” said Rev Dr Seong Won Park of the Gyeongan Theological Seminary in the opening panel last year, emphasizing how the 4th industrial revolution and climate change are now converging with the ongoing global economic crisis and aggravating socio-economic inequalities and insecurity.

As part of the contextualising and re-learning about the economy, an immersion visit saw the GEM participants distributing food packages to a community of scavengers living along busy railway lines in Jakarta, Indonesia, a rapidly growing metropolis with many skyscrapers under construction.

The application deadline is on 9 February 2020. Selected participants will be informed by 24 February 2020.

Download more information here:

Invitation to apply
Application form
Participant guidelines
Programme and curriculum

Article contributed by Lena Cruchley

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