wfn.org | "Walk With Us," African Ecumenical Leader Tells U.S. Churches

["Nat'l Council of Churches" <nccc_usa@ncccusa.org>]

For Immediate Release

Walk With Us, African Ecumenical Leader Mvume Dandala Tells U.S. Churches;
New All Africa Conference of Churches General Secretary Visits NCC, CWS

October 13, 2003, NEW YORK CITY - Determination to equip Africas churches
to respond powerfully to the continents pressing needs characterizes Bishop
Mvume Dandala, the new head of Africas leading ecumenical organization.

Dandala, 51, a South African who in September became General Secretary of
the Nairobi, Kenya-based All Africa Conference of Churches, does not mince
words when he describes Africas daunting challenges of tragic poverty,
HIV/AIDS and other killer diseases and conflict brought by political
despots.

But he doesnt stop there.  Sometimes when people see the wars that
continue to afflict us, they dont see the positive things, he says - a
continent trying to deal with its problems and the enormous potential of
Africas churches to equip, empower and protect the people.

Dandala, known for his work in conflict resolution at the height of the
apartheid era in South Africa, is the immediate past Presiding Bishop of the
Methodist Church of Southern Africa.  He led a World Council of Churches
Living Letters delegation to the United States in November 2001, meeting
with delegates to the NCCs annual General Assembly among others to wrestle
together with questions raised by the attacks of September 11, 2001.

October 6 in New York City, he met with staff of the National Council of
Churches USA, Church World Service and the United Methodist Church after
participating in a U.S. speaking tour and teach-in organized by Africa
Action, the oldest Africa advocacy organization in the United States.
Dandala also spoke at an October 5 breakfast forum at The Riverside Church
in New York City and co-officiated at Holy Communion at morning worship
there.

The All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC), established in 1963, is a
fellowship of 169 national denominations and 35 national Christian councils
across the continent, comprising an estimated 120 million members.

The AACCs program seeks to equip the members for witness and service in
such areas as Christian and family life education, theology, interfaith
relations, youth, women, development, refugee and emergency services, and
information.  Nov. 22-27 in Yaounde, Cameroon, members will gather for the
AACCs 8th  continent-wide assembly, under the theme Come, Let Us
 Re-Build.

Some of us are very passionate about what this network could do, Dandala
commented to CWS and NCC staff.  We want to be sure the churches come
together in a meaningful way.

That is easier said than done, he acknowledged.  Travel and phone calls
between countries can be difficult and expensive, letters can take up a
month to reach their destination and Internet access is scarce.
Interconnectivity, taking our future into our own hands, together, is key,
he said.

In response, Church World Service is assisting the AACC with computer
hardware, software and networking upgrades based on a needs assessment visit
last year.  The project is one of several collaborations between CWS - the
global humanitarian agency of the NCCs 36 member churches - and the AACC, a
longstanding partner.

This week CWS Executive Director John L. McCullough presented Dandala with a
down payment of three new laptops as part of the broader package of
assistance.  Dandala responded, Your commitment to help us with these
computers will help us strengthen our networks in a vast continent that
doesnt have much in the way of digital connections - but needs them more
than ever before.  Maybe CWS is just thinking that with computers our
letters can be written more efficiently, he said.  For us they empower the
church to speak with more authority to the things happening on the continent
at this time.

African church life is a mixed picture, Dandala acknowledged.  He expressed
sadness and distress at churches that take peoples money and give nothing
back.	In the HIV/AIDS and other crises, some churches are in the
forefront of the struggle to care but others are making things difficult,
teaching, for example, that AIDS is Gods punishment of Africa.

Dandala said the AACCs mission includes bringing African church leaders
together to consider the kind of Christianity we need in Africa -
ecumenical, socially sensitive, healing and transforming - the kind of
salvation that has a direct positive impact on peoples lives.

On the political front, Dandala called the establishment of the African
Union in 2002 something of a miracle at the moment.  The AUs predecessor
body, the Organization of African Unity, had as a cornerstone principle
non-interference in other countries affairs - predicated, ironically, on
respect for boundaries that had been imposed by colonial powers.

That principle has been the downfall of the continent since 1957, which has
seen the inability to do anything when evil takes place somewhere, Dandala
said.  But now the AU agrees that we have a moral obligation when one of
the leaders on the continent is destroying his or her country. For example,
he said, it was unthinkable a few years ago that heads of governments would
intervene as they did in Liberias civil war, convincing Charles Taylor to
step down as President.

We wish it could happen more, he said, expressing distress at watching
Zimbabwe destroy itself.  Its a fact that land distribution in Africa is
badly skewed against the poor, the ordinary people.  We need to find a
political solution that conveys that democratic values can be used
meaningfully in resolving conflicts on the continent.  Some of us as
churches have said that to (Zimbabwes President Robert) Mugabe.

Concluded Dandala, Churches are like the veins and arteries in the body of
Africa.  Yes, we are the church in Africa, but we are not alone - we are
part of the worldwide church.  Many world powers are interested in Africa
not to build but to plunder, not to empower but to frustrate, he said.  We
look to the churches worldwide and say the only bulwark that can protect us
is the powerful collective voice of the churches to say, Give the people a
chance, and to walk with us.

-end-

NCC Media Contact: 212-870-2252/2227
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