November 20, 2003
By Joseph K'Amolo

Yaounde, Cameroon - 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 women's 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 people's culture(s). He said that not every aspect of Africans' 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 AACC's 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 churches' 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 membership.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