wfn.org | All Africa Conference of Churches Postpones General Assembly One Year

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

April 24, 2002

                                                                 PRESS RELEASE

                                                 Eighth AACC General
Assembly postponed

The Eighth All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) General Assembly which
was due to be held in Yaounde, Cameroon in November this year has been
postponed to next year.

The Assembly which gathers church leaders from all over Africa will now be
held in November 2003 at the same venue (Yaounde, Cameroon).

This was announced today (Wednesday, April 24) by the General Secretary of
the AACC Rev. Canon  Clement Janda upon his return from a just concluded
meetings of the AACC Executive and Assembly planning  committees held in
Yaounde last week.

He said in a press statement that the main reason for postponement was due
to inadequate funding.

He explained that the two committees having noted that not enough funds had
been raised todate for the Assembly, and there being no clear indication
that within the next six months US$ 1.4 million will be raised to meet the
Assembly budget, decided on a necessity to postpone the Assembly in order
to allow more time for fundraising.

He expressed the hope that churches in Africa will in the meantime get
increasingly engaged into a process of thematic preparedness for the
Assembly, whose theme is "Come, Let us Build" (Nehemiah 2: 17-18).

He also expressed the hope that the churches will engage in reflections on
how to cope with dwindling funding in Africa.

Rev. Janda noted that the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks in New York
and Washington DC ushered in a global recession, adversely affecting AACC's
ecumenical partners who have not only helped fund the Assembly but also
AACCs' programmes over the years.

The same funding base has also been affected by the changing global
political mood causing some paradym shifts in global relations, he added.

AACC is a fellowship of churches in Africa with 164 member churches and
national christian  councils whose total congregational membership is over
80 million christians.

The Assembly, which is the highest policy making organ is held every five
years to address the concerns of christians in Africa and to chat out ways
in which they can be effectively addressed.

Traditionally, the Assembly is preceded by pre-Assembly meetings for youth
and women from all over Africa during which christian youth  and women
leaders meet to discuss their specific concerns for presentations to the
General Assembly for deliberations.

The eighth Assembly was planned to address the destruction that Africa has
suffered from, in various ways including the moral, political and economic
dimensions and chart out the path the Church in Africa could take to
influence the rebuilding of the continent.

Rev Janda noted that at the political level, impressive efforts were being
made towards reconstruction of Africa which included the new initiative
dubbed 'NEPAD' (New Partnership for African Development), as well as an
aspiration towards a united Africa, hoped to be realised through the
aspired African Union.

The Church he said, has a definite role to play in these initiatives.

The last General Assembly was held in Addis Ababa in October 1997.

For further information contact:-

Mitch Odero
Information Officer
E-mail:  infodesk@aacc-ceta.org OR mitch@insightkenya.com