| Has Africa come of age? |
January 2005 indexCrosslinks’ General Secretary Andy Lines reports on his attendance at the 1st African Anglican Bishops’ Conference in Lagos, Nigeria.
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October
marked the publication of the long awaited Windsor Report,
commissioned to address the issues raised by the actions on human
sexuality being taken in the Episcopal Church of the USA and the
Anglican Church in Canada. Well before this issue came to the fore a
conference had been planned for the Anglican bishops of Africa, to
deal with issues facing their churches such as:
The immediate aftermath of the Windsor Report threatened to overshadow this agenda in precisely the way that the organisers had wanted to avoid. Nevertheless, on 26th October the conference went ahead as planned. Attending the conference I was privileged to be invited to this conference hosted by the Anglican Church of Nigeria, and attended by more than 200 bishops from the 12 Anglican Provinces of Africa. Time was spent discovering the many issues they had in common and ways were discussed as to how they could work more closely together. These were incorporated into a number of conference resolutions, details of which can be gleaned from the conference website: www.aabc-ng.org The theme was: “Africa comes of age – an Anglican self-evaluation”, and the emphasis was on more responsibility and less dependency on the West. Where the rubber hits the road The truth is that Africa has relied very heavily on Western and especially American financial backing for many years. Some of the African Provinces such as Kenya and Uganda have decided that, although grateful for past support, they should no longer receive support from churches that have abandoned biblical Christianity. Whilst this may be healthy in the long-term, some programmes cannot make such an immediate adjustment and need transitional support. One such is TEE: the Theological Education by Extension programme in Kenya. Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi has asked Carlile College to help provide a thinned-down service. The college’s Principal, Crosslinks mission partner David Williams, has in turn asked Crosslinks to help fund this vital programme for the next two years: particularly vital for the areas of traditional Crosslinks work in Northern Kenya. We have offered a grant for £22,000 over two years. There may be other areas where we need to help those who say that the Gospel is not for sale. If you would like to stand with us in financially supporting them, please contact Andy Lines: gensec@crosslinks.org or phone 020 8691 6111. |
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