wfn.org | Bishop Dandala's new role will be boon for Africa, CWS says

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

May 22, 2003  News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn. 
10-31-71BPI{293}

NOTE: A photograph of Bishop Mvume Dandala is available at
http://umns.umc.org/photos/headshots.html.

By Carol Fouke*

NEW YORK (UMNS) - The election of Methodist Bishop Mvume Dandala as top staff
executive of the All Africa Conference of Churches is great news for Africa
and its churches, according to the head of Church World Service.

CWS, a humanitarian agency with offices in New York, is seeking to bring
increased attention and resources to the struggles faced by most Africans. It
will launch the Church World Service Africa Initiative in January, a program
developed in partnership with the All Africa Conference of Churches, national
ecumenical councils and regional fellowships of churches across the
continent. 

Dandala's election in May to the All Africa Conference of Churches' top staff
position comes at a time "when many of the nations of Africa cry out for the
voice of the church in favor of peace and reconciliation," said the Rev. John
L. McCullough, CWS executive director and a United Methodist.

"His is a journey of integrity and courage," McCullough said, calling Dandala
a dear friend. "The Apostle Paul wrote about powers and principalities.
Mvume's ministry has long been characterized as one that has challenged
powers and principalities when faith demands such action."

Dandala, 51, is known for his efforts in conflict resolution in the 1980s,
especially at the height of the apartheid era in South Africa. In 1985, after
the declaration of a state of emergency in his country, he was detained by
authorities for 10 days without trial.	In subsequent years, he has been
called upon to mediate and work for nonviolent solutions in South Africa and
beyond.

He has served as regional secretary for Southern Africa of World Methodist
Evangelism, a program related to the World Methodist Council. In 1978, he
became the first black minister in South Africa to be pastor of a multiracial
congregation. Later, in 1991, he became senior minister of Johannesburg's
Central Methodist Mission, South Africa's largest multiracial Methodist
congregation. 

He was elected in 1997 to his current position as presiding bishop of the
Methodist Church of Southern Africa, which has 1.2 million members and twice
that number of adherents in seven countries.

Dandala also serves as president of the South African Council of Churches and
moderator of the Advisory Group on Regional Relations and Ecumenical Sharing
of the Geneva-based World Council of Churches.

He led a WCC multinational Living Letters delegation of church leaders to the
United States in November 2001 for dialogue with American church leaders in
the wake of that year's Sept. 11 attacks. 

He will begin at the All Africa Conference of Churches Sept. 1. He succeeds
Interim General Secretary Melaku Kifle, who was seconded to the organization
by the WCC for a year.

The conference, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, is a fellowship of 168
national churches in 39 African countries with a congregational membership
estimated at 120 million. National Christian councils are associate members.

CWS is an agency of the 36 Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican member
denominations of the National Council of Churches USA. It works with local
organizations in more than 80 countries to support sustainable self-help and
development, meet emergency needs, aid refugees, and address the root causes
of poverty and powerlessness.

"I look forward to walking the next part of the journey with Bishop Dandala,"
said McCullough, "knowing that he will have a profound influence on and
witness amongst the peoples of Africa."
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*Fouke is Church World Service's media liaison, with offices in New York.

 
 

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United Methodist News Service
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