wfn.org | Tribute to Justice Annie Jiagge

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PRESS RELEASE			FOR IMMEDIATE USE		27 June 1996

            WCC TRIBUTE TO MRS JUSTICE ANNIE JIAGGE

"Justice Annie Jiagge was a notable woman.  We have much to learn
from her life and work."

That is part of a tribute paid by Dr Konrad Raiser, General
Secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), to Mrs Justice
Annie Jiagge, a former WCC president, who died at her home in
Accra on 12 June after a long illness.  She was 77.

In a message to her husband, Frederick, Dr Raiser recalled the
various ways in which "this distinguished professional woman" had
served the WCC and the wider ecumenical world.  "Annie was an
important personality in our orbit and we valued her wise
counsel".

Annie Jiagge, the first woman on the Supreme Court bench of
Ghana, came into the ecumenical movement via her involvement in
the YWCA.  In 1947 she attended the Oslo World Conference of
Christian Youth.

A regular attender at WCC Assemblies (1954, 1968, 1975, 1983,
1991), Annie Jiagge also served on a number of WCC committees
concerned with the laity and Inter-church aid, Refugee and World
Service.

^From 1984 to 1990 she was Moderator of the Commission of the
Programme to Combat Racism.  Konrad Raiser says of this aspect of
her work, "In those days...(South Africa's) security agents had
no qualms about crushing opponents of apartheid....In the given
circumstances, it was a bold stance for an African woman to
take".

Mrs Jiagge served as a WCC president from 1975 to 1983.

A member of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Ghana, the
church of her birth, Dr Raiser said Annie Jiagge taught us "our
denominations are not our last resting place; we need to press on
to the goal articulated in the high priestly prayer of Jesus
'that they all may be one', which is the objective of the WCC".

                             Ends.

Contact: John Newbury  WCC Press & Information Officer
              (+41.22) 791.61.52 (Office); 369.37.26 (Home)