wfn.org | Resend of AACC President Challenges Churches to Address

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For Immediate Release
AACC Media Team: (011) 237 966 3059 or 3063

AACC PRESIDENT CHALLENGES CHURCHES TO ADDRESS AFRICA’S ILLS

Yaounde, Cameroon (AANA) - The church in Africa has been slow in speaking 
against ills like corruption and bad governance in the continent, the Most 
Rev. Prof. Kwesi Dickson, President of the All Africa Conference of 
Churches (AACC), said in an interview with a team of journalists covering 
the AACC 8th Assembly in Yaounde – Cameroon.

“It has taken the church too long to realize that it should speak out
on 
corruption, and bad governance for the sake of its integrity,” said the

Most Rev.  Kwesi..

He challenged churches and the National Councils of churches to find how 
best they could handle the problem of such vices, which had also permeated 
the church. He observed that the church had become hypocritical in most 
cases by going against what it preached, thus raising the question of the 
credibility of the message.

In apparent attack on the quality of Christianity in the Africa, Bishop 
Kwesi wondered how credible was the church in preaching about democracy to 
the ordinary people and the congregation!

He further noted that on the issue of women’s ministry, much as it had 
been talked about for the past 40 years, there was still some resistance 
by some churches. He said it was a matter for the church to have knowledge 
and courage on issues concerning women and not to speak from a point of 
ignorance. He advised churches to engage researchers or a team of people 
who could monitor things on the ground for them and discuss the same with 
them. He further noted that the church was in most cases being reactive 
other than to be proactive in response to issues.

He said the whole area of women issues faced problems in Africa simply 
because, “We do not take women seriously, and neither do they take 
themselves seriously,” something he attributed to the cultural
background, 
which made women to understand that certain areas were forbidden to them. 
Another obstacle was the lack of education among majority of women, which 
made them lack confidence in themselves.

He suggested that every organization should insist that women be given 
platform to articulate their problems, particularly on HIV/AIDS and to be 
encouraged to be part of the process in spreading news as a remedy that 
could be part of the solution.

On culture and the Christian faith, President Kwesi who is also a bishop 
of the Methodist Church in Ghana said there should be a distinction 
between the Gospel and people’s culture(s). He said that not every
aspect 
of Africans’ culture was in clash (conflict) with the Christian faith
and 
therefore should not be condemned.  He said that salvation did not mean 
one ceases to be African and therefore had to discard his/her identity, 
otherwise it would make people hollow.

The AACC President noted that Africa was under a lot of stress, socially, 
politically, economically, and many others, and that when they begin to 
bite, people want answers to the situations.

Answering question on AACC’s achievement since its inception 40 years
ago, 
he said holding of seminars for the youth and women, conscietizing the 
church to bring to bring the faith to bear over their members 
(congregation), laying fertile ground for the Gospel, and brokering peace 
in conflict areas were some of its achievements.  On peace mission, he 
particularly singled Sudan where AACC in 1970, AACC brokered peace, but 
which was later broken. He personally 

But he could not hide his disappointment on the issue of churches’ low 
response to the needs of the AACC, something he attributed to lack of a 
sense of ownership of the Conference by the people of Africa. He said that 
constituted his most single challenge during his tenure as the president 
of AACC. 

“Churches seem not to have a feeling that they own AACC. Many of them
do 
not pay their membership…forcing AACC to look for money
elsewhere”, said 
the Rev. Kwesi, to run its projects.

He said this is what he had to live with as the president of the AACC. 
Bishop Kwesi said something must be done to make churches have a sense of 
ownership of the AACC. People from the AACC, he said, could do this by 
speaking about it at organized synods. He emphasized on the need for AACC 
to popularize AACC even through the circular media.

The whole question of church and state relation should be reviewed while 
the church should be encouraged to work together with other religions as a 
way of promoting interfaith.

AANA News.

By Joseph K’Amolo

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