The Christian Churches of Europe met together in Budapest to study the effects of globalization in the countries of Eastern Europe. The conference, which was held in the Hungarian capital from 23 to 29 June, was promoted by the World Council of Churches, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (ARM) and the Conference of European Churches (KEK). In a document which formed a basis for discussion at the meeting, the representatives of the three church bodies cite a report of the United Nations according to which poverty is increasing in the countries of Eastern Europe. It is calculated that in the region of the former Soviet bloc there are some 147 million people who live on 4 dollars or less a day. In 1989 there were 14 million. According to the indicators of the United Nations, the levels of poverty have thus increased tenfold in the space of a decade. “In some countries, especially in Russia – the documents reports- life expectations are declining, and suicides and criminality increasing”. In countries like Poland, some 60% of children suffer from malnutrition, while in Russia – said the representative of the patriarchate of Moscow, Vsevolod Chaplin – “the process of liberalization of the market has led to the entry into the country of “able managers, often coming from the world of organized crime”. “True reconciliation – write the Churches – requires that the voice of those who have remained on the margins and who have been unjustly excluded from any chance of improving their condition be listened to”.
