wfn.org | SOUTH AFRICA: PRIMATES MEET

[a.whitefield@quest.org.uk]

July 21, 1997
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE
Canon James M Rosenthal, Director of Communications
Anglican Communion Office, 
London, UK
Tel: [44] (0)171 620-1110   Fax: [44] (0)171 620-1070

97.7.4.7

SOUTH AFRICA: PRIMATES MEET

(CPSA) It was time for the sleeping giant of Africa to rise up and take
its rightful place amongst the nations of the world, the Anglican
Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Revd Njongonkulu Ndungane, told
Anglican Archbishops from Africa at a consultation in Johannesburg this
week.

He added that the rich heritage of Africa was no longer up for grabs as 
people of old had seemed to think it was, and it was not to be forcibly 
taken by the greedy of the world.

Archbishop Ndungane was speaking at the opening of a consultation of
African Archbishops and their representatives, at the St
Martin-in-the-Veld Anglican Church, Rosebank. The purpose of the
consultation is to reflect on Africa, and the state of the Anglican
Church on the continent.

The Archbishop said that recent occurrences in Africa led him to fear
that the naked face of tyranny was appearing in new forms on the
continent. Referring to the attacks on pro-reform demonstrators in Kenya
in recent days, he said it was of the utmost importance that such
occasions did not recur.

This was because Africa was now taking its destiny into its own hands.
He said that a recent study by the Economist Intelligence Unit had
calculated that five of the worlds fastest growing economies are in
Africa.

"That is remarkable and we need to build on this positive fact," he
said.

On the issue of world debt, Archbishop Ndungane said the Churches in
Africa could not allow the countries in which they minister to incur new
debts which they will be unable to service.

"This has happened in the past, and the Church has to bear a large
portion of the guilt for failing to act as an ecclesiastical economic
watchdog in ensuring that these untenable debts did not occur.

"The disparity in wealth between north and south also directly impacts
on us in Africa. There is an international groundswell towards Jubilee
2000 [the movement calling for the cancellation of the debts of
developing countries] amongst people who are prepared to do something
about the debt - even people who would not normally easily be persuaded
by moral arguments.

"Now is the moment to pull out all the stops and to harness the energy
of a world that, once in a century, seems prepared to use the
opportunity of the new millennium to do something that is morally and
ethically right - that is the cancellation of the debt."

Archbishops attending the consultation include those of Uganda, Zaire, 
Central Africa, West Africa, Seychelles, the Indian Ocean Islands, and 
Francophone Africa. The Archbishop of Nigeria, Archbishop Joseph
Adetiloye, was unable to attend, as his government confiscated his
passport earlier this year.

Bishop James Ottley, Anglican Observer to the United Nations, is
attending the meeting.