News
Liberian information minister Lawrence K. Bropleh spoke Monday on behalf of his country's president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, in a keynote address to the ninth assembly of the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC). He called on African churches to regain and reassert their vision of bold leadership against a backdrop of global financial meltdown and political instability.
Bropleh, an ordained minister of the US-based United Methodist Church, previously served on the staff of the World Council of Churches at its United Nations liaison office in New York. He has been a member of the Liberian cabinet since 2006. The AACC assembly began in Maputo, Mozambique with Sunday morning worship and continues until Saturday 13 December. The theme of the assembly, based on John 11:43, is "Africa, Step Forth in Faith".
The assembly was preceded by a week-long educational event attended by more than 70 students from varied regions of Africa.
"Before this, most of our students had never been to an ecumenical gathering," observed Rev. Dr Silas Ncozana of Malawi, one of the organizers of the Theological Institute that provided a series of seminars and panels for young leaders of the African church during the week prior to the ninth assembly of the AACC. "We are introducing a new generation of church leaders to a vision of the church that is not parochial but universal. We are encouraging them to speak with a voice that will be heard beyond their own communities, a voice that will be heard across Africa and elsewhere in the world."
Convened at the initiative of Andre Karamaga, WCC programme executive for Africa and the incoming AACC general secretary, the institute provided higher theological training on such topics as church unity, spirituality and worship, mission and evangelism, ecumenical ethics and morality, Christian contributions to campaigns against diseases including HIV and AIDS, the churches' role in human rights, justice and reconciliation as well as in the eradication of poverty, illiteracy, violence and division.
More than 70 students attended the institute from varied regions of Africa. No two professors at the institute came from the same country, and international speakers brought greetings from the churches of Europe, Asia and the Americas. "It is very, very exciting," concluded Ncozana, "and we feel that it is a tradition that must continue at future ecumenical gatherings."