20.03.2025

Turn Debt Into Hope!

With Helmut Müller (front, right, behind the grey sign) UEM is also present at actions in Cologne, where a breakthrough was possible in 1999. Photo by: Daria Lanzet

The global campaign “Jubilee 2025” has set itself three goals:

1. End the debt crisis now: Cancel illegitimate and unsustainable debts—without economic policy conditions!
2. Address the causes of debt crises and reform the global financial system: Put people and the planet at the center
3. Create sustainable solutions: Establish a permanent, transparent, and legally binding debt framework under the umbrella of the United Nations!

The United Evangelical Mission (UEM) is a co-sponsor of the campaign: Global justice, and especially a just approach to financial matters, has been a priority of its work since its foundation as an international mission society in 1996. Coordinated by Caritas International, Christian and non-Christian groups will join forces in 2025 to advocate for an approach of justice to sovereign debt. After all, sovereign debt is one of the key reasons behind global injustices in the 21st century.

A Holy Year, Politically Implemented

On 24 December 2024, Pope Francis in Rome proclaimed the “Holy Year 2025”. In his bull announcing the Holy Year, he called on the “richer nations” to “cancel the debts of those countries that will never be able to repay them”. Many low-income countries spend more on debt repayments than on healthcare, education, and climate protection. According to the Pope, this debt relief is “not a matter of generosity, but of justice”. He also emphasised the ecological debt of the Global North towards the Global South. The “Jubilee 2025” campaign takes up this impulse.

Three key events throughout the year will also be central to the work of organisations in Germany: The launch of the global campaign on 27 December 2024, the 10th anniversary of the encyclical Laudato Si’ in May 2025 and the G20 Summit in South Africa in November 2025.

Taking action in connection with the G20 Summit has its tradition: In 1999, around 35,000 people encircled the city centre of Cologne, Germany, where world leaders were gathered for the G8 Summit. Events around the summit raised awareness of the global debt problem. The newly elected German government of the time took a leading role in the movement and expanded the HIPC initiative for highly indebted poor countries — a breakthrough in global debt policy. For the G20 Summit 2025 in South Africa, the global “Jubilee 2025” campaign plans to generate a similar momentum under the slogan: “Turn Debt into Hope”.

The UEM’s Commitment

Pastor Helmut Müller from the UEM’s Regional Service represents the UEM in the steering committee of the campaign and is actively involved in implementing the campaign in Germany. He explains the UEM’s commitment to this issue based on UEM’s mission: “At UEM, we work daily with churches on three continents. In the Regional Service, we support the international networking of congregations and church districts within the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland. How is this supposed to work if some of us live in massively indebted countries with extremely precarious living conditions, while others can afford to ignore the issue altogether? That is why this campaign is so central for us: It is about a dignified life for all people, about solidarity and justice. For the UEM Communion of Churches, these are central concerns — so that our spiritual balance within the UEM also becomes more and more a financial balance.”

Here you can visit the German language Campaign Website.