wfn.org | African bishops pledge To work toward renewal

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

April 3, 1998	CONTACT: Linda Bloom, (212) 870-3803, New York
(10-71B){211}
					
NOTE: This may used as a sidebar to UMNS story #210.

by United Methodist News Service

Methodist bishops in Africa have pledged to work together toward the
renewal of the continent.

At a March meeting near Johannesburg, South Africa, bishops from both
United Methodist and autonomous Methodist churches agreed to engage
their governments about the future of Africa.

"We can't afford to be spectators," said Bishop H. Mvume Dandala,
Methodist Church of Southern Africa. "We've got to affirm, we've got to
connect, we've got to support, we've got to hold accountable."

The bishops also agreed to share ideas and hold each other accountable
on pledges of social action, he added.

A planned joint action will be the organizing of demonstrations
throughout Africa calling for the cancellation of the continent's
international debt.

That plan is still in formation, according to Dandala, but will be
completed before the bishops' next meeting in Nairobi in March 2000.
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