Livingstone Thompson, Guest Columnist
AS WE enter this new year, one of the issues facing the churches is how to respond to the challenges of a knowledge-based economy.
It seems to me that this is an important issue because there is growing agreement that we must understand the emerging regional economy as one based on the ability to create, store and sell knowledge. The Summit of the Americas, which was held in 2001 in Quebec, Canada, already arrived at this consensus.
According to the Final Declaration, a new economy is emerging, which is "defined by a vastly enhanced capacity to access knowledge and improve flows of information." It is safe to say that that new economy has arrived.
STRATEGY FOR COPING WITH A KNOWLEDGE-BASED ECONOMY
The declaration also noted that connectivity is the most effective way in which the region can respond to the challenges of this new economy. Connectivity refers to the creation of linkages between the governments and peoples of the region designed to maximise the possible gains from the emerging economy.
The capitalistic ethic of competition is evident in the new economy, given the increasing emphases on "speed", "power" and "capacity". This is seen, for example, in the new generation of computers and digital equipment that are coming on the market. What we are having, then, is an expansion of the logic of capitalism to formally include the acquisition and sale of knowledge. Whereas the commodities in the early capitalist economies were goods and services, the commodity in the knowledge-based economy is knowledge itself. The speed, at which we create and access knowledge, as well as the capacity for storing, distributing and using it efficiently, is the imperative of this new economy.
It remains the case that "knowledge is power." Connectivity is a strategy to ensure broad-based benefits in a capitalistic economy. This conception of the immediate future is already shaping our thinking and has begun to influence the solutions that we propose to deal with regional problems. It means that whether or not the churches agree that the future (in fact the present!) has to do with how knowledge is managed, they will have to deal with the future in those terms.
There is, then, a theological challenge for the churches, when the task of participating effectively in the emerging society is construed as "a vastly enhanced capacity to access knowledge."
THE IRONY OF ANTI-ECUMENISM
Connectivity, in the form of ecumenical partnership, which was a potent idea in the churches 30 and 40 years ago, saw the birth of the ecumenical institutions of the region. In fact, the idea of a Council of Churches idea was discussed in Jamaica from the early 1920s. The United Theological College of the West Indies was formed in the 1960s. The Caribbean Conference of Churches was formed in the 1970s and other ecumenical groupings in Jamaica were formed in the 1980s. Conversely, the last decade has witnessed a weakening of ecumenical relations as churches fall back into the shells of their respective traditions, in order to resist the threat of the loss of identity that globalisation has caused.
At the same time, also, an increasing number of churches have been born that respond directly to the need for uniqueness and certitude. Two characteristics of these newer churches are (a) the effective use they make of the electronic media and the Internet and (b) their anti-ecumenical posture.
These churches have already bought into the definition of knowledge as a commodity and are truly products of the new economy. Having their counterparts in the other religions (especially Islam and Hinduism), these religious fundamentalists have experienced faster numerical growth then the churches at the more liberal end of the religious spectrum. The newer churches and religious movements have accepted the description of society as knowledge-based but they seem to have rejected the notion of connectivity, as a religious strategy.
In this respect the churches have mastered the ideal of capitalism, which is about using the facilities of the economy to maximise the growth of the "firm." There is emerging, however, an uncomfortable nexus between anti-ecumenism and growth.
THE REJECTION OF CONNECTIVITY
Therefore, although there is recognition that connectivity is a way in which the region can respond to the challenges of a knowledge-based society, the churches are moving in an opposite direction. In other words, there is suspicion about the virtues of connectivity and ecumenical partnership. The decline in the effectiveness of national and regional ecumenical bodies suggest that the churches need to resolve the question of how they will work together in the new situation.
In a certain sense the experience of the churches prefigure the experience of the countries of the region, as try to come to terms with the new knowledge-based market.
The prolonged discussion as to whether or not we should have a regional court of appeal, for example, is the political counterpart of the anti-ecumenism and anti-connectivity among the churches.
The immediate future for the Americas seems to be one in which those who have the means to exploit the knowledge-based economy will grow while those that are slow in getting their capacity developed will be left behind.
The issue that churches and indeed the nations of the region must then face, is the question of what strategy they will adopt if there is no truth to the assertion that connectivity is a critical means for coping effectively in this knowledge-based economy.
Rev. Dr. Livingstone Thompson, is president of the Executive Board of the Moravian Church in Jamaica.
