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AACC PRESIDENT CHALLENGES CHURCHES TO ADDRESS SOCIETY'S ILLS

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Nov. 20, 2003, Yaounde, Cameroon (AANA) - The church in Africa has been slow
in speaking against ills like corruption and bad governance in the continent,
the Most Rev. Prof. Kwesi Dickson, President of the All Africa Conference of
Churches (AACC), said in an interview with a team of journalists covering the
AACC 8th Assembly in Yaounde. - Cameroon.

"It has taken the church too long to realize that it should speak out on
corruption, and bad governance for the sake of its integrity," said the Most
Rev. Kwesi..

He challenged churches and the National Councils of churches to find how best
they could handle the problem of such vices, which had also permeated the
church. He observed that the church had become hypocritical in most cases by
going against what it preached, thus raising the question of the credibility
of the message.

In apparent attack on the quality of Christianity in the Africa, Bishop Kwesi
wondered how credible was the church in preaching about democracy to the
ordinary people and the congregation!

He further noted that on the issue of womenbs ministry, much as it had been
talked about for the past 40 years, there was still some resistance by some
churches. He said it was a matter for the church to have knowledge and
courage on issues concerning women and not to speak from a point of
ignorance. He advised churches to engage researchers or a team of people who
could monitor things on the ground for them and discuss the same with them.
He further noted that the church was in most cases being reactive other than
to be proactive in response to issues.

He said the whole area of women issues faced problems in Africa simply
because, "We do not take women seriously, and neither do they take themselves
seriously," something he attributed to the cultural background, which made
women to understand that certain areas were forbidden to them. Another
obstacle was the lack of education among majority of women, which made them
lack confidence in themselves.

He suggested that every organization should insist that women be given
platform to articulate their problems, particularly on HIV/AIDS and to be
encouraged to be part of the process in spreading news as a remedy that could
be part of the solution.

On culture and the Christian faith, President Kwesi who is also a bishop of
the Methodist Church in Ghana said there should be a distinction between the
Gospel and peoplebs culture(s). He said that not every aspect of Africansb
culture was in clash (conflict) with the Christian faith and therefore should
not be condemned. He said that salvation did not mean one ceases to be
African and therefore had to discard his/her identity, otherwise it would
make people hollow.

The AACC President noted that Africa was under a lot of stress, socially,
politically, economically, and many others, and that when they begin to bite,
people want answers to the situations.

Answering question on AACCbs achievement since its inception 40 years ago,
he said holding of seminars for the youth and women, conscietizing the church
to bring to bring the faith to bear over their members (congregation), laying
fertile ground for the Gospel, and brokering peace in conflict areas were
some of its achievements. On peace mission, he particularly singled Sudan
where AACC in 1970, AACC brokered peace, but which was later broken. He
personally 

But he could not hide his disappointment on the issue of churchesb low
response to the needs of the AACC, something he attributed to lack of a sense
of ownership of the Conference by the people of Africa. He said that
constituted his most single challenge during his tenure as the president of
AACC. 

"Churches seem not to have a feeling that they own AACC. Many of them do not
pay their membershipb&forcing AACC to look for money elsewhere", said the
Rev. Kwesi, to run its projects.

He said this is what he had to live with as the president of the AACC. Bishop
Kwesi said something must be done to make churches have a sense of ownership
of the AACC. People from the AACC, he said, could do this by speaking about
it at organized synods. He emphasized on the need for AACC to popularize AACC
even through the circular media.

The whole question of church and state relation should be reviewed while the
church should be encouraged to work together with other religions as a way of
promoting interfaith.

AANA News.

By Joseph KbAmolo

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