wfn.org | Church Federation Will Help Great Lakes Region, Horn of Africa

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17-March-1999 
99107 
 
    Church Federation Will Help Bring Peace 
    to Great Lakes Region, Horn of Africa 
 
    by Sam Gonza 
    Ecumenical News International 
 
NAIROBI, Kenya - Faced with a series of devastating conflicts, a group of 
churches and Christian councils in the Great Lakes region and the Horn of 
Africa have created an organization "to actively participate in seeking and 
facilitating peaceful solutions to the region's problems." 
 
    The Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in the Great Lakes 
and Horn of Africa (FECCLAHA) was established on March 3 at the end of a 
four-day meeting of officials from Christian councils and churches in 
Kenya's capital, Nairobi. 
 
    In the 1990s, new and long-standing conflicts have caused the deaths of 
thousands of people and brought about massive violence in many of the 
countries of the region. A desire to help overcome these problems is the 
main reason for the initiative to set up FECCLAHA. 
 
    FECCLAHA, based in Nairobi, was set up by the Christian Council of 
Tanzania, the National Council of Churches of Burundi, the National Council 
of Churches of Kenya, the Protestant Council of Rwanda, the Sudan Council 
of Churches, the New Sudan Council of Churches, the Uganda Joint Christian 
Council, the Church of Christ in Congo, the Eritrean Orthodox Church and 
the Evangelical Church of Eritrea. 
 
    Announcing the decision, the organization's moderator, Mutava Musyimi, 
who also is general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Kenya, 
said that "alarming" evils have afflicted the people of the region over the 
years. 
 
    "These have included political instability, armed conflicts and wars, 
ethnic tensions, human displacement, and an influx of refugees from one 
country to another," Musyimi said. "We are even more perturbed by the 
increasing phenomenon of regionalization and internationalization of 
internal conflicts, including militarization of youth and influx of arms, 
insecurity, fear and mistrust among communities." 
 
    Musyimi said the promotion of justice and peace will be a major purpose 
of the new 
agency. Another, he said, is the facilitation of mutual understanding of 
critical issues in the region, the sharing of information and resources by 
partner churches, and the development of international solidarity. 
 
    FECCLAHA is the product of a series of meetings which began in 
Johannesburg, South Africa, in November 1996 under the auspices of the All 
Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) - the  continent's principal 
ecumenical organization - and the World Council of Churches (WCC), based in 
Geneva. Subsequent meetings were held in Entebbe, Uganda in March 1997, and 
in Kigali, Rwanda, in August 1997. 
 
    FECCLAHA's coordinator, Karimi Kinoti, told ENI that the organization 
will obtain funding from within "the ecumenical family" and from Christian 
agencies. The new body already has received some support from the WCC and 
the AACC, she said. 
 
    "FECCLAHA will not duplicate existing agencies,"Kinoti added. "It will 
be ... best-placed to feel the pulse in a deeply troubled region of the 
world and expeditiously alert the churches and councils." 

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