wfn.org | Africa Trade, Aid, Debt Consultation

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Contacts:  NCC News, 212-870-2227
Leon Spencer, 202-547-7503, e-mail woa@igc.org
Email: news@ncccusa.org  Web: www.ncccusa.org

JUNE 4-6, CHEVY CHASE, MD., CONSULTATION ON AFRICA TRADE,
AID, DEBT
National Council of Churches' Africa Office is Among
Supporters

62NCC5/25/99

May 25, 1999, WASHINGTON, D.C.. -- "Trade, Aid, and
Debt: Toward Economic Justice in Africa - A Consultation for
Faith Communities," will be held at the National 4-H Center,
7100 Connecticut Ave., Chevy Chase, Md., June 4-6, 1999

The keynoter (Friday evening) will be one of Africa's
strongest voices for economic justice, Anglican Archbishop
of Cape Town Njongonkulu Ndungane (Archbishop Tutu's
successor).  Other speakers include policymakers and Africa
advocacy community members. All persons with a commitment to
Africa and a desire to make a prophetic witness are welcome.

 "It is a timely theme," according to the Rev. Dr. Leon
Spencer, executive director of the Washington Office on
Africa, which along with the Stony Point (N.Y.) Center, is
planning the consultation.  The National Council of
Churches' Africa Office is among supporters.

"Two competing African trade bills have been before
Congress this spring," Dr. Spencer said.  "Every year marks
another Congressional battle to maintain our modest aid to
those in need in Africa; and the stunning debt burden of
most African nations destroys the hopes of millions of our
African brothers and sisters."

Planners maintain that the witness of the Church, both
here and in Africa, is intimately linked with the Biblical
call to affirm the dignity and worth of all persons.  That,
they say, can only be done if people of faith affirm the
strong Biblical theme of just economic relationships.

The consultation will feature a Kairos-style process,
made powerfully known in the anti-apartheid Kairos Document
of 1985.  Planners aim for a strong prophetic faith-based
advocacy document to emerge from the consultation and feed
back into faith communities for further reflection.  They
hope the process will form a solid basis for advocacy for
mutually beneficial and broad-based trade relations,
meaningful developmental aid, and significant debt relief.

The consultation follows on "Africa  in Perspective:
Prospects and Possibilities - The Role of the Church in a
New Africa," hosted by the Stony Point Center in May 1998,
where over 100 participants explored such key topics as
economic development, democratization, human rights, and the
role of women in Africa.
- end -
 -0-