The London office of the Council for World Mission (CWM) hosted a Consultation on Ecological and Economic Debt from 12-16 May. The event was co-organised by CWM and the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC).
Attended by 22 participants from across the Global South, including representatives from CWM member churches and ecumenical organisations, as well as scholars, mission partners, and social justice activists, the consultation was a response to worsening global public debt.
The gathering was also a platform for various faith communities to collectively highlight climate debt as a form of reparations owed to the Global South, to develop concrete policy proposals and advocacy strategies that disrupt exploitative financial structures and prioritize the wellbeing of people and the planet, and to strengthen global alliances and grassroots movements for faith-based economic resistance and systemic transformation beyond 2025.
Global debt spiraling out of control
The topic of global public debt again became a deep concern when it surged to over USD100 trillion in 2025 while global GDP tripled. The ongoing crisis is particularly acute in developing countries where debt servicing often exceeds expenditures on essential public services such as healthcare and education.
Even as a successful international economic justice campaign that was mounted in 2000 saw the cancellation of much debt, several countries have since fallen back into the mire of endless debt.
The four-day consultation decried the fact that, while Western nations have bailed out their banks and corporations in the face of economic hardship, countries in Africa (including the African diaspora), Latin America, Caribbean, Asia, and the Pacific were instead urged to tighten their belts and privatise their resources, sending a clear message that some lives matter more than others.
In his keynote address, Rt Rev. Dr Anderson Jeremiah, bishop of Edmonton, Church of England, reiterated the crucial role of the church as one that would seek to be a sacrament which demonstrates a new liberated humanity with respect for the life and dignity of the human person.
“…any socio-economic structures that do not align with the demands of human dignity lived in community must be challenged and fundamentally altered,” Jeremiah added.
As the Catholic Church marked 2025 as the year of a biblical Jubilee, signalling the start of a God-mandated period of economic justice, land restoration, and the release of the oppressed, the consultation sounded a clarion call to mobilise the church to hasten a radical transformation in the global economy.
Speaking to the participants, Philip Vinod Peacock, WCRC Executive Secretary for Justice and Witness, reiterated the spiritual importance of the Jubilee. “The cancellation of debt is the prayer of every Christian when they say, forgive our debts as we forgive those who have debts against us,” he said.
Economic, ecological debts inextricably linked
Through vigorous dialogue, a strong consensus emerged during the consultation that advocated for the urgent need for debt cancellation as a moral imperative and a manifestation of Jubilee justice.
“The twin crises of economic and ecological debt are not disconnected—they are symptoms of the same exploitative system that treats both the Earth and the poor as expendable,” noted Rev. Daimon Mkandawire, CWM Mission Secretary for Ecology and Economy.
Mkandawire also added that the church must rise in such a time, not as a passive observer, but as a prophetic community of resistance and repair.
“Debt cancellation is not just fiscal—it is theological. It is about dismantling the architecture of greed, repairing the wounds of ecological violence, and proclaiming an economy where creation thrives and all life flourishes.”
The consultation also saw the reiteration of a joint commitment by churches and ecumenical partners to advocate globally for economic systems that respect dignity, justice, and creation.
At the closing of the consultation, a palpable sense of a renewed ecumenical commitment to campaign for economic justice through theological advocacy, international solidarity, and prophetic resistance to systems of exploitation was also evident, heralding a closer working relationship between CWM, WCRC, and their partners in the continual resistance against the empire’s ruthless economic shackling.
