Johannesburg and Zurich ...

The conference itself is taking place in a hotel and conference centre in Guarulhos, the second largest city in Sao Paulo state and, with more than 1.2 million people, a "suburb" of the city of Sao Paulo itself that is the home to the city's international airport. The conference rooms are named after destinations from the airport, and by a sheer fluke, the conference is occupying the two meeting rooms named "Zurich" and "Johannesburg". Somehow that seems strangely apt for a conference called into being in 2010 by the Uniting General Council of the World Communion of Reformed Churches. Zurich, after all, is one of the sources in Switzerland of Reformed Christianity; Johannesburg for a long time part of an unjust state which justified itself on the basis of Reformed theology.

At the same time, Johannesburg and Zurich also represent the global South and global North in the world economy today: Zurich, one of the major financial centres of Europe, Johannesburg a metropolis of the South. The partition that divided Johannesburg and Zurich (the meeting rooms of course) had been slid back to form one large meeting room. But will it be as easy as that to bring together the different interests of the South and the North, even at a conference such as this? Already in the discussions today, there were very different perspectives offered about what it means to work towards a new financial architecture. Does it mean denouncing injustice and strengthening groups at the grass roots working for justice in their own societies, or entering into dialogue with the financial and political "experts" - and what constitutes an expert, in any case? If this conference is to succeed, it must mean more than just sliding back the partition to create a superficial and temporary unity. Rather it will mean bringing together these different perspectives and insights into a lasting force for a new - and more just - financial architecture.