This year marks a significant milestone for the Ecumenical School on Governance, Economics, and Management for an Economy of Life (GEM School) as it celebrates its 10th anniversary. The World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC), alongside five ecumenical partners, has gathered 22 church leaders in Panama City for an intensive programme that equips them to engage boldly with the global economic systems shaping our world.

An Ecumenical Partnership for Justice

The GEM School is a flagship initiative of the New International Financial and Economic Architecture (NIFEA) programme, bringing together the WCRC, the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Lutheran World Federation, the World Methodist Council, the Council for World Mission, and United Society Partners in the Gospel. This partnership represents what WCRC General Secretary Rev. Philip Vinod Peacock calls “the best expression of ecumenism today,” a broad and committed alliance working together for the cause of economic justice.

The school responds directly to the 2012 São Paulo Statement, which called for a fundamental transformation of international financial systems to prioritise justice and the common good over growth. Its curriculum builds economic literacy within churches that the Ecumenical Action Plan for a NIFA identified as essential for effective advocacy.

A Prophetic Keynote on Luke 16

In his keynote address, Rev. Philip Vinod Peacock offered a reflection on the parable of the rich man and Lazarus from Luke 16. He framed the story not as a distant reality but as a direct indictment of contemporary economic structures.

Peacock shared,“The theme of this keynote is inequality. But a single question drives everything that follows: how can twelve people possess more wealth than 4.1 billion people, and how does such an obscenity become normality?”

Peacock challenged participants to move beyond theoretical analysis to genuine repentance – not merely asking which side of the gate they stand on, but whether they continue to pretend the gate itself is innocent. The task, he concluded, is “memory, and the repentance that memory, honestly kept, demands.”

An Ecofeminist Reading of Ruth

Muna Nassar, executive secretary for mission and advocacy, brought a Palestinian feminist perspective to the Bible study on Ruth 2:1–12. Drawing on Palestinian theology of land, she introduced the Hebrew concept of naḥălâ – not property in the modern sense, but a sacred inheritance across generations that no occupying power has standing to dissolve.

Nassar spoke of how this distinction between land as commodity and land as inheritance is lived daily in Palestine, disproportionately in the hands of women tending olive trees, keeping kitchen gardens, and storing oil through months of hardship. She described this work as sumud, steadfastness, the repeated physical act of staying rooted in land under constant pressure to be emptied.

“Every olive harvest tended by hand, every jar of oil pressed and set aside, is at once a domestic task and a theological one: a small, seasonal refusal to let the land become someone else’s commodity,” she said.

This was the lens Nassar invited participants to carry into Ruth’s field, not as an ancient story, but as the ground she and many others are actually standing on.

Indigenous Economies and Alternative Models

A highlight of the programme was an immersive visit to an indigenous village in Panama, reached by boat. The community welcomed participants and shared their traditions, crafts, and ways of life, offering a glimpse of alternative Indigenous economies that challenge dominant economic models.

Learning from Each Other

Participants from 20 countries presented their contexts, sharing deeply about their calling to be at GEM School, their hopes, and the realities of their home countries. Robyn Davis Sekula, vice president of communications and marketing at Presbyterian Foundations, noted: “We learn from the incredible teachers and instructors, but we also learn from each other.”

The school has been blessed by the chaplaincy of Rev. Dora Arce-Valentin, whose prayers and presence grounded participants in the importance of their work, and by Rev. Rosemarie Wenner, who provided devotionals and leadership.

As the GEM School celebrates a decade of equipping leaders for economic justice, the need for such formation has only grown. In a world where military spending soars while resources for climate action and social protection remain critically insufficient, the call for an Economy of Life – rooted in justice, sustainability, and the common good – has never been more urgent. 

Funding for NIFEA graciously comes from Otto Per Mille

Photos by Robyn Davis Sekula of Presbyterian Foundations