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World Council of Churches
Press Release
For Immediate Use
22 May 1997

AFRICAN ACTION PLAN PROPOSED

"We are determined to work out a vision that promises life with dignity for
the African people."  That is one of  the conclusions of some 100
delegates from 20 African countries at a meeting called by the World
Council of Churches (WCC)  to draw up a plan of action to prepare the
African Church to construct a different future for its people.

Meeting in Midrand, Johannesburg, 10-17 May, under the theme, "Jubilee
and the African Kairos: Towards a New Vision and Agenda for Life", the
gathering was the culmination of the Reconstructing Africa Programme
of the WCC s Unit III - Justice, Peace and Creation.

A  report  approved by the consultation describes the current situation in
Africa and contains 34 recommendations.  These cover: faith and
politics; faith and economics; Gospel and culture;  mission and
partnership.

The report also contains five resolutions.  Three are aimed at combatting
domestic and sexual violence against women.  The conference also
expressed a renewed  solidarity with African women who "continue to
be victims of famine and poverty", and concluded, "The liberation and
affirmation of women is integral to the liberating message of the Gospel".

The two other resolutions concern corruption which the report
acknowledges is rife in many African countries and sometimes involves
the churches.  However, participants also said corruption is a global
problem and not an African peculiarity:  "The notion that corruption is an
ingredient of African customs and morals lacks truth and should be
rejected with contempt";  wherever it occurred among public officials, it
must be declared a "sin".

The report is shot through with realism about the African situation today. 
 It acknowledges many on the continent live "lives of deprivation and
indignity";  "Economically Africa is fraught with contradictions.  While the
continent is rich in oil and minerals, its people are poor and starving, and
its nations are weighed down by unimaginable and unsustainable debt".

However, the consultation refused to accept the conclusion of many that
Africa is "a hopeless case".  It affirmed that amidst the hardships  many
lived lives of  "dignity and courage" and saw  as "a great source of
inspiration"  the birth of democracy in South Africa and the process of
reconciliation undertaken by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission,
which is based on traditional African ways of reconciliation and healing.

The Resurrection of Jesus led participants to believe "the history of our
continent, which has been plundered and sacrificed, can and should
have a different future".

WCC Unit III director, Rev. Dr Sam Kobia, told the meeting Africa had to
"harness the growing waves of democracy in our societies and nations"
and "to build a new ethic, as Africans, of hard work, accountability and
good stewardship with scarce resources".

The  report stresses the Church s role in building Africa s future.  This
includes the wide-ranging:  "The Church should inject a new moral
culture into politics", and the specific: "(the Church) must initiate and
develop practical income-generating projects".   Another conclusion is
that churches must neither "alienate" themselves from governments nor
allow themselves to be "coopted and become mere instruments of the
governing groups".

Delegates were under no illusion that reconstructing Africa will be easy. 
It would be "a long and difficult journey" but one that Africans must travel
together.  African Christians, the consultation agreed,  would travel this
road "armed with the assurance that Jesus our Saviour, God our Creator
and the Spirit our community builder and sustainer are in unity working
with us".

The findings of the WCC s Reconstructing Africa Programme will now be
fed into the programmes of the forthcoming assemblies of the All Africa
Conference of Churches (Ethiopia, October 1997)  and the WCC (Harare,
Zimbabwe, September 1998).

Rev. Dr Sam Kobia is available for interview.

**********
The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 332, in
more than 100 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian
traditions.  The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but
works cooperatively with the WCC.  The highest governing body is the
Assembly, which meets approximately every seven years.  The WCC
was formally inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.  Its staff is
headed by general secretary Konrad Raiser from the Evangelical Church
in Germany.

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