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this page Resolutions from 1978
Resolution 2
A Response
The Conference believes that a response to the foregoing statement [Resolution 1] needs to be made at three levels.
First, we appeal to leaders and governments of the world:
1. to participate actively in the establishment of a new economic order
aimed at securing fair prices for raw materials, maintaining fair prices
for manufactured goods, and reversing the process by which the rich become
richer and the poor poorer;
2. to consider seriously all efforts towards a peaceful settlement of
international disputes;
3. to persist in the search for ways leading to progressive world
disarmament, in particular limiting and reducing the production of, and
commerce in, arms;
4. so to limit the development of nuclear energy that they guard against
the proliferation of nuclear weapons, at the same time applying every
effort to the development of alternative sources of energy;
5. aware that the world is one indivisable system in its operation, to
provide that those whose lives are affected by global decisions should be
heard in the formulation of policies;
6. to pay attention to human needs in the planning of cities, especially in
those places where growing industrialisation brings people together in such
numbers that human dignity is at risk;
7. to make provision for a new understanding of the place of work in the
life of individuals. If the human race as a whole is to reassess its
philosophy of economic growth in order to conserve our environment, we will
have to find new ways of human fulfilment, paying as much attention to
leisure as to paid employment. This needs re-education and a
redistribution of resources at national and international levels.
Second, we call on the Churches and in particular the Anglican Communion:
1. to make provision locally to educate their membership into an
understanding of these issues;
2. in the face of growing urbanisation all over the world to make urgent
provision for the training of lay and pastoral leadership in urban mission
and to concentrate the use of their personnel and financial resources
ecumenically in order to minister to the growing number of urban people
with little hope or freedom of choice.
We recommend that greater attention be paid to the work already being done by agencies both within and outside the Churches, that provision be made for communicating their findings in appropriate forms, and that greater use be made of the specialist skills of our lay members to inform the Church's decision-making on social, economic, and technological issues.
Third, we call upon members to exercise their rights as citizens of their
respective countries;
1. to create a moral climate which enables governments to act for the
benefit of the world community rather than sectional interests;
2. in situations where the interests of minorities are in conflict with
large-scale development schemes to give consideration to the needs of
persons rather than economic advantage;
3. to review their life-style and use of the world's resources so that the
service and wellbeing of the whole human family comes before the enjoyment
of over-indulgent forms of affluence.
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