The Accra Confession: A Caribbean Response – Nicole Ashwood
Until the philosophy that holds one race superior, and another inferior is finally, and permanently discredited and abandoned . . . Everywhere it’s war! [1]
With all respect to HIM Selassie and Bob Marley, there is one fundamental flaw in the logic of those words – the matter of superiority is not only restricted to race, it troubles the waters of classs, caste, religion, ethnicity and economics. One needs only to tune in to the news round about us to confirm the validity of the report. And yes, while this is a ‘sin problem’, probably rooted in “original sin”; today’s version of the problem could be problematized through the lens of Quality of Life.
Essentially, Quality of Life is
The general well-being of individuals and societies. QOL has a wide range of contexts, including the fields of international development, healthcare, politics and employment. [It] should not be confused with standard of living [for QOL] indicators … include not only wealth and employment but also the environment, physical and mental health, education and leisure time and social belonging.[2]
For me, a Caribbean minister, this is the essence of the call of the 2004 Accra Confession, and in effect, the root of its ill-favour in many religious circles. It has been 10 years since the historic signing of the declaration in Ghana, and it has yet to take root in the hearts of many churches, sparking much controversy and even dissent wherever it is raised as a topic for conversation.
The document now referred to as the Accra Confession was birthed from a challenge, issued by South Africans to the 23rd General Council of the then, World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) in 2004[3]. The challenge invited the General Council to …
enter into a process of ‘recognition, education and confession’ [to] ….break the chains of oppression and the yoke of injustice, and let the oppressed go free” as they … witnesses God’s gift of creation under threat’
Introduction – Accra Confession
And process they did. Reading the signs of the times, visiting the relics of the past, the Member Churches sought to express in words what they registered, the biblical/theological grounds for concern and then establish a basis for the way forward. The result – a powerful and profound document about the value of human life and dignity and the Quality of Life; which could almost rival the Declaration of Human Rights. Delegates departed Ghana suitably chagrined or empowered, commissioned to take home the good news and set God’s people free.
A round of consultations began, and even in the Caribbean, this document was open to discourse and reflection. But the sins of the past, the comforts of the present have served to slow the way forward in regard to implementation.
At a time when most Caribbean nations are on the brink of losing our hard-earned independence to violence, human trafficking, poor politics and failing (or generally faltering) economies, we have not managed to rally our forces for the sake of our common good. Hence, in the ‘secular’ world, Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has not been the success it was deemed to be, and the newly introduced Caribbean Single Market & Economy (CSME) and the Caribbean Court of Justice are already under threat of sudden infant death, as a result of failure of our political, judicial and economic leaders (in effect our people on the whole). This has a profound impact on the church as a regional instrument, as the unsettled state of affairs with regard to immigration and travel has not only affected the agreement that we may work in each other’s country but also has resulted in restrictions to entry of certain nationals in some of the more affluent Caribbean nations. This is reminiscent of the era of the non-started West Indian Federation, when the then more-affluent Jamaica did not support the call for regional unity and refused to ratify the agreement; to which the Trinidadian politician provided the simple equation to sum the demise of the Federation:
1 from 10 = 0 (i.e. 10 – 1 = 0)
Hurts from the cavalier non-commitment to the unity of the Federation are still in existence and our children’s interactions are still being fuelled by the fires of mistrust and travel restrictions.
Hear the declarations of the 23rd General Council delegates:
24. We believe that God is a God of justice. In a world of corruption, exploitation and greed, God is in a special way the God of the destitute, the poor, the exploited, the wronged and the abused (Ps146:7-9). God calls for just relationships with all creation.
25. Therefore we reject any ideology or economic regime that puts profits before people, does not care for all creation and privatizes those gifts of God meant for all. We reject any teaching which justifies those who support, or fail to resist such an ideology in the name of the Gospel. We believe that God calls us to stand with those who are victims of injustice. We know that the Lord requires of us: to do justice, love kindness, and walk in God’s way (Mic. 6:8). We are called to stand against any form of injustice in the economy and the destruction of the environment, “so that justice may roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Am. 5:24).
In a world, in a region, where the mantra seems to be “I wo(man) look out for I own self” (I am focused on my own success and no one else’s), where a visit to one of the other islands in the region could result in body cavity searches and premature and unwarranted deportations; the poor and the destitute are usually the first casualties of discrimination and abuse and the QOL factor is reduced to mere mockery. We have failed the vows, the confessions of the 23rd General Council and our sisters and brothers from South Africa who fought valiantly for freedom from hate, horrific discrimination, enslavement of the masses and wanton genocide.
Unfortunately political independence from Europe et al, has not materialised in economic independence or even agricultural independence for the region, as we have been pitted against nation states which have had the benefit of centuries of ‘freedom in nation-building’ and the strategic buffer of slavery and other alternate income sources to buffer their resources, and for the most part, the region has failed. Haiti, which once stood as the diamond of the Indies, the first independent African nation in the West continues to languish in the brutal system of embargoes and political corruption. Trinidad, the current diamond of the region enjoys a generally high quality of life, but has remained insular since the pain of the dissolved Federation continues to foster mistrust, even at the ecclesiastic level. Jamaica, once, the pearl of the region spurned integration while we thought we had it all together, and now are unable to secure grace, except at the hands of the IMF, which offers debt, debt and more debt – leaving little question about the state of our independent state.
This does not speak to life in fullness. This way of life in the Caribbean on the whole does not speak to a rejection of the old ways which favoured ‘profits before people’, nor does it value all creation and a sharing of gifts. It does not echo the sentiment of living simply so that others might simply live.
And yet, in the nether parts of the Caribbean Community, a lone voice cries out in the wilderness of fear, failure, mistrust and rejection.
It is the voice of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States.
Multiple countries – sovereign in their own right – sharing military, single currency, similar ethos and looking out for the interest of all. A lone voice daring to question the issues which continue to insist on our (economic and subsequent political) independence of the bigger nations; which has collaborated with the church to identify possible solutions to issues of debt cancellation and other evils which need to be eliminated. And their cry has been echoed by the Caribbean Conference of Churches, the Caribbean and North America Council for Mission, the Council for World Mission – Caribbean Region and several grass root regional/ecumenical entities which have not joined the clanging bandwagon of economic ‘stability’ at the expense of our children and children’s children having access to health and education. It’s a voice which cries for her children, like Rachel at the early Christmas time. It’s a voice grappling with the issues of discrimination, injustice, and suffering. It’s a voice which now is awakened and addressing issues. The Accra Confession speaks and is echoed in these voices.
Rev Diana de Graven (Reformed Church in Suriname) presents a case for regional ecumenical integration from the perspective of one of our more insular Caribbean neighbours; Ms Sanya Beharry (Presbyterian Church Trinidad and Tobago speaks to the issue of phobias, in particular homophobia and invites a revisiting of the script; Rev Nicqi Ashwood (yours truly) revisits Caribbean religious relationships, especially in regard to Haiti and those whom are spiritually other; and Pastor Kraig Deleon Deidrick (United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands) explores the troublesome issue of Human Trafficking. Each writer speaks passionately from their own context and out of a series of meetings held in the Caribbean exploring the significance of the Accra Confession in the region and sounding of the alarm on the issue of Human Trafficking.
Can you pause for a moment to hear the voices – will you listen? How might we move forward? Selah
There shall come a time when these children in rags who litter the streets, who know the crushing master of poverty, and the curses of dirt and slovenliness, Shall walk with their heads erect; proud owners of a NEW World. Admitting no inequality, feeling no inferiority, only a great humility and wonder; for the destiny that shall be theirs.[4]
The Rev. Nicole Ashwood is on secondment from the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands to the Caribbean and North America Council for Mission. She considers herself a nurturing empowerer and seeks to promote equity and voice for persons on the margins.
[1]Emperor Haile Selassie I’s address (in Amharic) to the United Nations General Assembly in 1963, immortalized in song by Bob Marley and theWailers under the title “War”, on their album Rastaman Vibration in 1976 (Island Records). A link to the song on YouTube is at the end of this article.
[2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_of_life 09/13/2014 Wikipeida quotes this definition provided by Robert Constanza et al in “An Integrative Approach to Qualoity of Life Measurement, Reasearch and Policy” S.A.P.I.E.N.S 1(1)
[3]The World Alliance of Reformed Churches joined with the Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC) in 2010 and is now known as the world Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC).
[4]H.D. Carberry in Digital Library of the Caribbean’s Jamaica Journal 6.7; December 1972 (Institute of Jamaica) p.33 [Emphasis mine. Transcribed 09/13/2014]