Berkley Center

Background: Michiel Hardon, former director of income monitoring at the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the founding director of the International Interfaith Investment Group (3iG), offered reflections on his nearly four-decade career in international development. He talked about the evolution of the WCC, from its early role in coordinating the development and relief work of churches to the current day, when it retains global importance but is “struggling to find and define its role.” Hardon discussed the work of 3iG, which assists religious orders to align the tenets of their faiths with their institutional investment decisions.

Before we talk about highlights of your career and “faith experience,” what are your reflections on your next steps as you talk of retirement?

I had a long and wonderful career, and am currently enjoying my return to the Netherlands and The Hague after living in Geneva. I have been, since 2002, a delighted grandfather and in the years ahead that role will be a central priority. It also shapes the way I look at both my past career and what I think about the future. Now my future horizons stretch out 60 to 100 years, and I ask what kind of world we will leave for our grandchildren. I come away from it all with a strong sense that the future belongs to people who believe in the beauty of their dreams, as Eleanor Roosevelt put it so well.

This leads me to focus and reflect on what I see as the leading issues for the future—issues like global poverty, the relationships between religion and culture, and climate change. I ask what, as private persons, we can do. I am excited by the idea of a movement of grandparents, who have wisdom, perhaps, as well as more time, and sometimes more resources.

Your career saw you working in various, very different institutions—the International Monetary Fund, Dutch politics, and private firms. But you also played central roles in two important faith-inspired organizations, the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the International Interfaith Investment Group (3iG). How did this come about and what do you see as highlights of your career?

Indeed, I worked for very different institutions over my career. The main linking thread was my concern to fight poverty, but I also enjoyed the variety of experience.

My first job was with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which I joined in 1968. And my final job was with the World Council of Churches (WCC); I spent seven years there, retiring in May 2008. Along the way I worked a lot with the World Bank, and enjoyed stints in politics, government and with private firms.

What about your political career?

While I was working at the IMF I was infected with a political virus. There, I was not allowed to engage, though my little daughters, as American born citizens, did once hold a rally for McGovern (at the ages of 3 months and 2 years). But when I returned to Holland I joyfully got involved in politics and was elected to the municipal government. I served as deputy mayor of The Hague for four years, and then as Director of Economic Affairs for the Rotterdam Region.

And the private sector?

I started to work in the private sector in 1989 after I had had enough of government which I had served at different levels for over 20 years. I joined an international consultancy group. After the Wall fell in 1989, we were deeply engaged in working in the former Communist states of Eastern Europe, on many topics, land titling, privatization, social reform and many others. That was my life for some ten years and I travelled and worked in all Central and Eastern European countries with the exception of Turkmenistan.

What brought you to the WCC after working for the IMF and in politics and in the private sector?

I have been a lifelong member of the Dutch Reformed Church, and have served it in various capacities. When I learned that a position at the WCC was open in Geneva, it seemed a natural. I admired the WCC dream and welcomed the chance to work in a Christian institution. I did expect that it would be imbued with Christian values. Once I was there, I soon noticed that the institution did not always live up to its ideals, that there were both positive and negative aspects. It was made up of human beings, after all.

How did you happen to join the WCC?

There was a good element of chance there. Actually at a housewarming party. I had just moved houses, a friend mentioned a job opening at the WCC. Moving seemed absurd at first but I was intrigued and attracted to the idea of the WCC, so I did apply, got the job and moved in 2001 to Geneva. What appealed most was the prospect of working on the links between religion and society, and seeing what could be done with this theme.

How did you see the WCC at first and how did your perceptions evolve over the seven years you spent there?

In its early years the WCC was an important institution and played an important role on many fronts. During its first 20 to 30 years, it was a significant platform for development work, inspiring and coordinating the work of churches for development. This was very important in the Netherlands but more broadly the WCC played critical roles in getting governments to support development aid. And much of that aid was channeled through the churches. Early leaders of development ministries of governments were heavily involved with the churches. Jan Pronk, Dutch development minister and a leader in development circles, for example, was very much involved in the WCC. The WCC served as a tremendously important platform for discussion of the key issues in development aid across Europe, in particular. It also played a key role in mobilization of emergency assistance. Acting Churches Together (ACT) within the WCC orbit played a role in bringing about coordination and consolidation of fragmented efforts in the field of emergency relief. ACT Development did the same in the field of development. Both organizations are in a process of merging into the ACT Alliance. The new organization is expected to contribute to the complex process of separating relief from development, defining principles for humanitarian aid, and defining the roles that development work should play.

Over time, though, the role that the WCC could play became more difficult to define. Christian institutions took on clearer roles and professionalism and it was no longer so clear where the WCC could fit. Basically, others could do better what WCC had done well at first. WCC often did not add value. And this continues to this day, with the WCC struggling to find and define its role.

I still believe that the WCC has tremendous potential, if it is able to find and define its role clearly. It has an important role to play in the search for more unity between its member churches. It can also do many important things through its member churches in the field of development aid. It can help Christian aid groups to work better together, to join forces. These are important issues for the future.

In Europe, the churches themselves are still an important part of the aid debate. In the U.S., the NGOs are much more separate and tend to work in different ways.

And the Evangelical scene is very different in Europe and the U.S. In Europe, the Evangelical movement is much more apart. And there is still a way to go to find a Forum where new and old churches can work together.

WCC thus faces challenges of working better with the Catholics, as this is only a partial alliance, with the Orthodox churches, and with the evangelicals, including specifically on development issues and practical issues of coordination.

But the ideal remains, to work together, learn from each other, and be able to respect the ideas and work of different groups.

What role is the WCC playing with the Orthodox Churches and what is their approach to these development issues?

The story of the churches in the former Soviet Union is a fascinating one. I first encountered it in 1965 when I first went to the Soviet Union as part of a student group. We wanted to go to church, but could barely find a church and the one we found was full of old women, no men at all. In the 1990s when I returned, the situation could not have been more different. Churches had made a huge comeback. There were huge crowds.

The politics of the WCC around the Orthodox churches has been complex over this period and is still evolving. At the WCC Assembly in Harare, the Orthodox came close to withdrawing, and it took a complex joint commission to work to find solutions. And amidst this all the aid agencies of the Orthodox churches have not had much to do with the WCC and its development wings and approach. WCC was only marginally involved in funding mechanisms for development in East Europe.

How has the WCC dealt with issues of corruption in development?

Not much is the real answer. The issue is raised from time to time, of course, but there has never been much real thought given to either the causes of the problem or to how the WCC could be involved with solutions. That includes the first step of looking at possible corruption in the member churches themselves.

How would you summarize your years at the WCC?

The WCC is an important institution with a wonderful dream. It counts some 600 to 650 million faithful as its constituency, and even though some 90 percent of those may have no idea what the WCC is, much less what it is doing, they are participating in and are being affected by WCC decisions.

The WCC was launched in Amsterdam in 1948, and has engaged in different work over its lifetime. Part of its mission is truly theological - seeking to bring unity to the church, for example on baptism, the Eucharist, and so on. And a major part focuses on development—on diaconia, involving the church in society. In its early years WCC was very western dominated but that has shifted and today the “southern” churches form the majority and are taking on much more active roles.

What interested you in the International Interfaith Investment Group (3iG)?

Religious institutions have huge assets. For example, the Church of Sweden owns some 8 percent of Sweden's forests, and manages them well. 3iG set out to explore whether these resources could be mobilized and used in better ways. The Church of Sweden supports a number of forestry projects of local churches in Mozambique and Angola. The inspiration was socially responsible investing, which we have come to call faith-consistent investing. In short, there is a very large and untapped potential for action and mobilization, and the aim of the 3iG is to find ways to define and exploit the potential.

What role has the church and religion played in your life and career?

I have always belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church but it may be helpful to explain how it has changed over the years. Reform churches in Holland have a rather complex history. There used to be two main Protestant churches: the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC), and the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (RCN). The DRC has been the larger one, with about two million members, the RCN counted some 700,000 members (2004 est.)They were divided for a long time, but after about 40 years of discussion began to come together. In 2004 a proposal was accepted by three church groups (the Lutherans were included also - they were a minor church in the Netherlands with only about 15,000 members). The three decided to become one and they merged into the Protestant Church of the Netherlands.

My father was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church—but he was a formal, not an active member. My mother was a member of the ‘Remonstrantse Brotherhood' and somewhat more active. But in effect after I was eight years old my parents did not involve themselves in my religious life, and I was essentially free.

When I was 12 or 13, I started to attend church with a friend. The church where we went had a pastor, a large, impressive man, with an inspirational, gravelly voice. I was intrigued and inspired. After church on Sundays, we met at my home or the home of my friend where there were lively discussions of politics and religion. So the church became an important part of my life and has been so ever since, not in any troubled or complex way but as a meaningful and important part of my regular life.

At university, I became a member of the Dutch student Christian movement, and served on one of their councils. I went to camps and retreats, and when I got married we were married in the church. When we moved to Washington D.C., I shopped for churches and at first was attracted to the Unitarian Church, All Souls. It was a diverse congregation, white and black, and in 1972 had a dynamic black preacher. I became active in the church, which was engaged in many aspects of D.C. life and politics, drug issues, addicts etc. It was not just Sundays, but all through the week.

When we returned to Holland I became a member of the Kloosterkerk community, a town wide church community in The Hague. I was active there, and went regularly to church. My wife became a Quaker—there was a small movement in the Netherlands. They asked me to be a member of the council for Government and Society, a major advisory group for the Dutch Reformed church. This involved me in pretty much everything, at the national level. In 1995 I attended the meeting in Edinburgh of the European Area Council of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. I was elected Treasurer, and was a member of the Executive Council. I found it all very interesting, with a good group of people. It was a good use of energy.

When I moved to Geneva, I eventually joined the English speaking Lutheran Church—a wonderful parish and church, with a great pastor, and eventually became their treasurer.

So being a church member has always been a part of my life, a constant, logical, agreeable commitment.

What about your interest in development and poverty issues? How did that arise and grow and where was the link to WCC?

I did a traineeship in Latin America right during the last year of my studies in Economics, and saw real poverty there for the first time (in 1967). I worked for seven months for a Dutch bank in Buenos Aires, followed by two months working with the UN Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA) in Chile, and came to the decision then to switch course, and work for the World Bank or the IMF. I had interviews with both organizations. The IMF came with a very attractive offer which I accepted. My commitment to work on issues of poverty became a life-long thread. And that was a major part of my decision to go to the WCC and my motivation for working there.

Both threads in my life—church and commitment to poverty—were there all the time and fortuitously came together with the chance to work for the WCC.

How do the church and education link in the Netherlands? I've heard that the role is substantial, a bit surprising in such a secular society. And how does this affect the growing Muslim minority?

This is not my area of expertise, but indeed the roles of churches are important, and rather complex.

The Dutch constitution provides that churches are allowed to create educational institutions, and there are criteria set out. If there are a sufficient number of students, the state will fund the schools. So church schools are entitled to funding at the same levels as municipalities and other institutions. This is still the case, and new questions are emerging as Muslim communities seek funding for schools. The content of curricula is also a matter for discussion. Universities are subject to the same rules, and there are several church-run universities.

Teaching about religion in schools is another important topic that is under active discussion. My impression is that the content, quantity and standards are not yet well defined. My impression is that teaching about religion is very marginal, and guidelines are far from clear.

In Holland, churches are privately funded, entirely. There is no state funding of churches though there may be financial support for churches as historic buildings. In particular there is often support for renovation work.

You may be one of the only people who has worked for the WCC and the IMF and with the World Bank. What threads of common concern do you see that links them or divides them from one another?

I can highlight some real similarities among the three institutions. They have great ambitions, and great potential. Their only problem is that they work through people. And they don't have angels or super people. All three have a roughly 65-year history, which has many tremendous achievements. There are also places where they got a lot of things just plain wrong.

The IMF, the World Bank, and the WCC had an interesting encounter that began around 2000—the idea being to explore the common missions of the three institutions. I must say that the human elements prevailed and the outcome of several years of meetings and dialogue was a personal disappointment. This was because both WCC and IMF/World Bank tended to look more at the negative sides of the other, and put therefore the other into a defensive posture. They fell into a common trap and never were able to get out of it.