wfn.org | Church in Africa urged to improve theological institutions

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

Seminary lecturers call for a theology of economic justice

WINDHOEK, Namibia/GENEVA, 23 July 1999 (lwi) - Lecturers from Christian
theological seminaries in Eastern and Southern African have called upon
churches in Africa to improve standards in their theological
institutions of learning in order to meet the challenges posed by
globalization.

During a recent seminar organized in the Namibian capital, Windhoek,
jointly by the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), Lutheran Communion in
Southern Africa (LUCSA), United Evangelical Mission (UEM) and the
Advisory Committee on Theological Education in Africa (ACTEA), the
lecturers also challenged the churches to work toward implementing a
theology of economic justice and development.

According to the Ecumenical Documentation and Information Center for
Eastern and Southern Africa (EDICESA), the librarians and lecturers in
the region met to map up strategies on how seminaries in Africa can
improve on the use of technology in order to cope with the challenges of
communication and documentation in the next millennium.

The participants agreed to facilitate the formation of a committee
composed of both lecturers and librarians, which will be charged with
the responsibility of establishing the standards set by libraries in
similar organizations around the world in order to develop standards for
seminaries in Africa.

Recommendations made by the interim committee focused on ensuring
improvements in the areas of staff development. There was emphasis on
the need to have an adequate budget allocation for seminary librarians
to enable them manage the institutions professionally and be able to
meet the challenges of new technology in documentation.

In a bid to reduce the limitation of documents in the libraries, the
librarians agreed to embark on a system of resource sharing among
similar institutions as a measure to promote the free flow of
information within the region as opposed to only depending on
information from the Northern countries.

According to EDICESA, participants in the workshop were also challenged
to implore seminaries to encourage indigenous publishing so that they
may obtain appropriate books written in Africa, by and for Africans.

In particular, the lecturers were challenged to address the moral crisis
in the society, government and church by including in their
institutions' curricula courses on conflict resolution and management,
peace making and reconciliation.

(The LWF is a global communion of 128 member churches in 70 countries
representing 58 million of the world's 61.5 million Lutherans. Its
highest decision making body is the Assembly, held every six or seven
years. Between Assemblies, the LWF is governed by a 49-member Council
which meets annually, and its Executive Committee.)

[Lutheran World Information is the information service of the Lutheran
World Federation (LWF). Unless specifically noted, material presented
does not represent positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various
units. Where the dateline of an article contains the notation (lwi), the
material may be freely reproduced with acknowledgment.]

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Lutheran World Information
Assistant Editor, English: Pauline Mumia
E-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org
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