wfn.org | WCC Assembly Must Focus on African Concerns

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14-September-1998 
98290 
 
    WCC Assembly Must Focus on African Concerns, 
    Says Leading Official 
 
    by Eunice Mafundikwa 
    Ecumenical News International 
 
HARARE, Zimbabwe-A leading official from Africa's main ecumenical 
organization, the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC), has called on 
Africans to ensure that the World Council of Churches' Eighth Assembly 
focuses on African concerns when it takes place in Zimbabwe in December of 
this year. 
 
    Canon Clement Janda, the AACC's general secretary, is in Zimbabwe with 
an AACC delegation to express solidarity with the people and churches of 
Zimbabwe as they prepare to host the ecumenical gathering, which will take 
place in the Zimbabwean capital of Harare. 
 
    The WCC holds its Assembly, the most important event in the ecumenical 
calendar, every seven to eight years. 
 
    Janda said it was important that African concerns were discussed at the 
Assembly rather than other issues, such as homosexuality, which were 
subjects of debate in other regions of the world. 
 
    Speaking on Aug. 24, Janda, a member of the (Anglican) Church of the 
Province of the Sudan, said he was "satisfied with the plans which are in 
place.  I am particularly impressed by the commitment of the local churches 
to this event," he said. 
 
    He said the AACC, which has 144 Protestant and Orthodox member 
churches, would do everything possible to help Zimbabwe host the Assembly 
in a way that would truly make it an African event. 
 
    "The Assembly will definitely have to have an African stamp," he said. 
Responding to a question from journalists about the AACC's position on 
homosexuality, Janda said every opportunity would be utilized to make the 
world's churches aware of African concerns and not be 
diverted by the issues of other regions. 
 
    Despite numerous statements by the WCC that homosexuality is not on the 
Assembly's official agenda, sections of the Zimbabwean press have claimed 
that the international organization is putting the issue up for discussion. 
Zimbabwe's leader, President Robert Mugabe, and many other Zimbabweans, 
including some church leaders, have described homosexuality as a Western 
vice. 
 
    "It's important for everybody to understand that the [WCC] Assembly is 
a world forum and that whether it takes place anywhere in the world, people 
will bring their different issues there," Janda said.  "Ours as Africans is 
not to be sidetracked by other people's issues and agendas, but we should 
be thinking about how best to articulate our own issues." 
 
    Debate on homosexuality was not a priority for Africa, he said.  "We in 
Africa would wish this Assembly to pay great attention to the burning 
issues of the African society."   He said he wanted the world's churches to 
focus on conflicts on the continent, some of which had roots beyond Africa. 
 
    Other African issues which demanded the attention of the churches, 
Janda said, were poverty, the heavy debt burden, environmental concerns and 
diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria. 

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