Saving the World by Killing Communities in Wales?

The future of religion may depend on whether it manages to develop an edge or whether it continues to accommodate to the status quo. Today this edge shapes up perhaps nowhere more clearly than in the relation of religion and labour. After a seminar on religion and labour with the state- wide Texas AFL-CIO, a young organiser asked whether I was suggesting that labour should begin to lobby religion, just like it was lobbying politics. A better way to phrase this concern might be to talk about organising religion: people of faith—many of which are working people—can pull together and organise so that religion can reclaim its edge and recover some of its most powerful traditions. How else are we going to prevent the dominant powers from continuing to shape religion in their image?

Labour Radicalised by Religion

Just as labour can help us rediscover and reclaim the edge of religion, religion can help us rediscover and reclaim the edge of labour. This is not merely a matter of revitalising labour unions, just like merely revitalising existing religious communities would be missing the point. What would it take to reclaim the significance, the energy, and the power of labour? How would this be linked to reclaiming the significance, the energy, and the power of religion? None of this can happen when religion is treated like a cheap date for labour organising. Religion needs to be more than a place where labour organisers can recruit and mobilise warm bodies or “rent a collar,” as the saying goes. To begin with, religious traditions can provide important resources that help clarify the importance of labour and class at a time when these topics have become taboo. Next, religions can help generate a kind of critical thinking by asking questions about what really matters in life. In these ways, religions can help question the dominant powers of the age and identify alternative powers.

Production—still the basis for the accumulation of profit in the capitalist economy—may serve as an example for what is at stake. When viewed from the perspective of labour and religion, the perspective of production changes: Productive labour matters not just in terms of profit but in terms of the actual contributions that working people make to the community, shaping history from the bottom up. This perspective is supported by religious traditions that remind us that God stands with working people in the exodus from Egypt and, in Christianity, becomes human as a member of the working class.

Dr Joerg Rieger is Distinguished Professor of Theology at Vanderbilt University and holds the Cal Turner Chancellor’s Chair in Wesleyan Studies. He is Founding Director of the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice. He is also Affiliated Faculty of Turner Family Centre for Social Ventures, Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University. He is author and editor of 24 books and more than 170 academic articles.

CWM General Secretary Rev. Dr Jooseop Keum brought greetings to the 11th General Assembly of Cevaa, which also coincides with its 50th anniversary. With the theme “Let’s keep the flame”, it was held electronically from 4 to 8 October.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

On behalf of the Council for World Mission family, I bring you greetings of peace and joy in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. My heart is filled with joy as I see you virtually those in Montpellier and those participating from the respective countries. But, unfortunately, even though I want to be there physically to celebrate the longstanding partnership and close missional engagement between Cevaa and CWM, I could not come because of the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic.

The world today is facing numerous challenges. We are experiencing social, political, and economic inequalities; poverty, discrimination based on race, ethnicity, colour, and gender; geopolitical conflicts, and environmental degradation. In fact, the world is plagued with not just one pandemic but many. However, COVID-19 has changed our lives so much, disrupting our lives; creating fear, anxiety, and sorrow; and confining us to the screens and computers. It forced us to close our worship places, pause our missional activities, and halt our community projects. Most of our local and global exchange ministries have also been hindered. As a result, we are experiencing an unprecedented stagnation in our ministerial activities. In short, the COVID-19 has poured cold water on the fire of all our missional activities. It is in this context, I see the theme of Cevaa’s 11th General Assembly as well as the Jubilee, “Cevaa, Let’s keep the flame,” very relevant and important to rekindle the fire that is being slowly drenched by the ongoing challenges.

Apostle Paul, while going to Jerusalem with alms of support during his third missionary journey, encourages the church in Rome to keep the flame. He writes, in Romans 12:11-13,

11Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. 13Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

In the midst of all the challenges we have been facing today, the message of Paul is still relevant to our context. We need to keep the hope alive and be persevering while we continue to do the works of God. Let us not allow cold water to be poured on our zeal to serving the Lord among the people amid their challenges.

Let us continue to ignite hope and be fervent in Spirit. Let’s continue to feed the flame with our zeal keeping it alive. Let us continue to be watchful, resilient, creative, finding opportunities to serve God and the communities even in the midst of the Pandemic.

I firmly believe that Cevaa, as the Community of Churches in Mission, will continue to carry out the mission of God despite the ongoing challenges to the mission, keeping the flame on and igniting zeal to serve God and his people beyond the boundaries. And I assure you that the CWM accompanies and walks with Cevaa in this great mission.

Finally, I would like to congratulate all the leadership of the Cevaa for this successful conduct of the General Assembly and wish all the best for the Jubilee. I pray that God will continue to lead you and guide you in all the days to come.

May the blessings of our Triune God—God the Creator, and God the Liberator, and God the Comforter—be with us all, always.