March 11, 2005

"It is nice to see how the money for aid to Africa comes from ordinary people," said Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, while going from house to house in the snowy streets of Copenhagen. "Some Africans rather associate help from Europe with big organizations and states." During his first visit to Denmark as WCC general secretary, Kobia lent a helping hand to the DanChurchAid Lenten appeal ‘Stop the silent hunger,' which raised a record 15 million Danish Krones (2m Euro) in just one day.

Denmark (4-7 March) was Kobia's last stop on a tour of WCC member churches in Scandinavia, including also Sweden and Norway. In all three countries he met with WCC partners, church leaders and government representatives. In Denmark, Kobia visited representatives from the National Council of Danish Churches, including the Baptist and Methodist Churches, and talked with the minister for church affairs, Bertel Haarder.

In Norway (1-4 March), Kobia met with Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, who was very interested in WCC's role in inter-faith dialogue. Bondevik underlined the need to increase this dialogue within the international community. Bondevik and Kobia also discussed the peace process in Sudan, expressing their gratitude to the states and the churches involved. On the present situation in the Middle East, both men were optimistic about new possibilities for achieving peace.

The leader of the Church of Norway Sami Council, Oddvar Andersen, challenged the WCC in a meeting with Samuel Kobia to continue in its solidarity with Indigenous Peoples. Andersen stressed the importance of this work for the self-understanding of the Sami people. The general secretary also met with HRH Crown Prince Haakon of Norway at the royal palace in Oslo; the prince had just visited Sierra Leone as goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme.

In Sweden (26 February – 1 March), Kobia preached at a eucharist service in Uppsala Cathedral presided by Archbishop Karl Gustav Hammar, and held a public lecture hosted by the Nordic Africa Institute and the Faculty of Theology at Uppsala University on "The church in Africa and the new global realities."

World Council of Churches