Here is the full text of Elenora Giddings Ivory's remarks at the White House signing ceremony last week for the Foreign Aid appropriations bill, from which she was quoted by Religion News Service.

Thanks to Barbara Kellam Scott for tracking down this statement, and to Ms. Giddings Ivory for her willingness to share it.

Rev. Elenora Giddings Ivory
Director, Washington Office
Presbyterian Church (USA)
110 Maryland Avenue, N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20002
202-543-1126



Mr. President, Secretary Albright, Secretary Summers, and Rev. Beckman, this is truly a great day. We come together to celebrate the Debt Relief legislation that has been passed by both houses of Congress. The notion of Debt Relief is not a new concept to those of us here who are representative of the religious community. The public policy notion of debt relief resonated quickly within the religious community, because it is reflective of the biblical concept known as the time of Jubilee which is a forgiveness of debt after fifty years. The Jubilee 2000 Campaign, as it came to be called, was and is a worldwide movement to achieve a debt-free start for the poorest countries as we head into the new millennium. For these poor nations, the future is almost hopeless because of this crushing debt. Hopelessness is what the biblical jubilee was designed to avoid and why it is time to lift the burden of fifty years of bad economic decisions that have created the present debt crises.

Religious groups, such as the Episcopal Church, the US Catholic Conference, the National Council of Churches, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations as well as my own Presbyterian Church (USA), came together in coalition with labor groups, development organizations and environmental coalitions over the issue of forgiveness of debt. In God's envisioned world, no person, no family, and by extension no nation is to be permanently impoverished. Oppressive debt is like peonage. Peonage is never an acceptable result of debt. Economic relationships are never to be allowed to make life hopeless. With debt relief, we have faced up to the reality that most of the debt of the poorest countries will not and cannot be repaid.

The poorest countries around the globe, are being paralyzed in their self development by an unbearable debt load accumulated over decades. Until now, borrowers and lenders alike have procrastinated in facing the reality that much of this debt cannot be repaid -- at least not without imposing morally unacceptable levels of sacrifice on innocent people. The ordinary people of these impoverished countries -- primarily the women and children -- suffer great deprivation as their governments slash education, health, transportation, sanitation and subsistence programs while orienting their economies ever more toward exports to generate funds toward debt repayment. This repayment has required unconscionable human sacrifice that falls heavily on the most vulnerable people in these debtor nations.

Until this debt is removed, indebted nations will continue being unable to spend even minimally necessary amounts on safe drinking water and other essential services. Only major shifts in national economies will alter those realities, and only ending the burden of crushing debt will make such changes possible.

To those who would say the United States and other nations should not support debt relief, I would say that it would be an act of injustice to not move forward. Debt relief is an act of justice. It is not to be put in political terms. Justice is not liberal or conservative. Justice is not left or right, democratic or republican -- JUSTICE is just justice. It is about fairness. Fairness is God's message to us all.

As we celebrate our nation's increased prosperity and that of many of the other developed nations around the world, we must remember that not all nations have experienced this prosperity due to long held past debts that are held by the prosperous nations. The Bible tells us that "to whom much is given much is expected" (Luke 12:48). The religious principles of many of us here today would dictate that much is expected of us when it comes to the poor. This is particularly true , if some action of our own has worked toward creating this increasing debt of interest payments due -- upon more interest payments -- that are past due.

GA actions ratified (or not) by  the presbyteries   

A number of the most important actions of the 219^th General Assembly have now been acted upon by the presbyteries, confirming most of them as amendments to the PC(USA) Book of Order.

We provided resources to help inform the reflection and debate, along with updates on the voting.

Our three areas of primary interest have been:

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