c. 1998 Religion News Service

VANCOUVER, British Columbia _ The Canadian church campaign calling on Western nations to forgive the debts of the world’s poorest nations has received a major boost by winning the support of Canada’s Roman Catholic bishops.

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, the governing body of Canada’s 13 million Catholics, voted in mid-October to endorse the aim of the Canadian Ecumenical Jubilee Initiative, which seeks to convince the leaders of lending nations to write off the debts of the world’s most impoverished nations by the year 2000.

Bishops attending the CCCB annual assembly voted unanimously to embrace the Jubilee Initiative’s plea that Western political and economic leaders take pains to make”the start of the new millennium a time to give new hope to the impoverished people of the world.” The Canadian Ecumenical Jubilee Initiative _ which is linked to the British-based coalition Jubilee 2000 that helped kick off the growing global debt-forgiveness movement _ was officially launched on Sept. 28th, with public demonstrations and special church services in 14 Canadian cities.

The Rev. David Havard, an Anglican priest from Vancouver, is doing his bit _ pinning up posters, holding dramas, leading workshops and gathering signatures _ to support the concerted Canadian debt-cancellation movement.

Havard, from St. Margaret’s Cedar Cottage church, said he believes Canadians are at the forefront of the global attempt to pressure world financial leaders to forgive poor nations’ debts.

A wide range of 18 Canadian church and inter-church groups now belong to the Jubilee Initiative, including the United Church of Canada and the Anglican denominations, as well as the Canadian Council of Churches, the umbrella body for the nation’s mainline Protestant and Catholic churches. The evangelical-based Citizens for Public Justice and World Vision Canada have also signed onto the campaign.

Jubilee Initiative members are cautiously pleased that Canadian Finance Minister Paul Martin, in principle, supports the idea of forgiving the debt of the world’s poorest 40 countries.

When Martin met with Canadian Ecumenical Jubilee Initiative members in Halifax early this month, he said”excessive debt and debt service is one of the most critical obstacles to economic growth and sustainable development.” The federal Liberal government, Martin said, has listened to the growing criticism from churches and other non-governmental organizations about poor countries’ combined debt, which the International Monetary Fund estimates at $220 billion.

The government recognizes, Martin said,”that much more must be done to reduce the crippling debt burdens of the highly indebted poor countries. Excessive debt service payments quite simply displace crucial spending on health, education and other vital human needs.” However, Canadian Senator Lois Wilson, a former moderator of the United Church of Canada and a Jubilee Initiative leader, urged Martin to go further than talk and show the kind of leadership on debt forgiveness that the Canadian government displayed last year in obtaining a global ban on land mines.”We call upon the Canadian government, along with the G-8 industrialized nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization to listen to the cry of the people of the world to cancel these unpayable debts,”Wilson said.

In his east Vancouver parish, Havard said the Jubilee Initiative is inspired by the Old Testament notion of the jubilee year, in which the faithful were expected not only to forgive the debts of their neighbors, but allow their farmland to renew, share their wealth and release captives.

Havard is finding churchgoers are enthusiastic about the ecumenical debt-cancellation campaign.”It’s not a very controversial issue for most Anglicans, and most people. They think of course we should do this, do something for the `economic captives,'”Havard said.

Vancouver Anglican Bishop Michael Ingham, for example, has agreed to make the debt-cancellation plan a major focus in his diocese in the next three years.

Canadian members of the Jubilee Initiative applauded in August when 800 Anglican bishops attending the once-every-decade Lambeth conference in England voted to urge Western nations to cancel Third World debt.

And the World Council of Churches, with some 330 Protestant and Orthodox church members, is expected to pass a similar debt-cancellation resolution when it meets in early December in Zimbabwe at its once-every-seven-years assembly, said B.C.-based Marion Best, who is on the WCC executive.

UNICEF has estimated that 21 million lives could be saved if $9 billion was invested in health and nutrition in Africa. But African countries are paying $13 billion a year _ sometimes more than 40 percent of their GNP _ to serve their foreign debts.

DEA END TODD