Church agencies, African bishops see need for stronger ties
5/11/2001 By Larry Hollon* PHOENIX (UMNS) - United Methodist agency leaders and the church's African bishops will propose a meeting in Africa as the next step in developing closer collaboration and a strategy for ministry on the continent.
The decision came during the Consultation on a Holistic Strategy for Africa, held May 4-5 in Phoenix. The recommendation for the Africa meeting will go to the Council of Bishops' executive committee.
During the consultation, African bishops, clergy and lay people told church agency leaders that the denomination must see its global mission from "Angola to Alabama and beyond."
"We must see the world as our parish," said Bishop Joseph C. Humper of the Sierra Leone Annual Conference. "As a church we must be together. The problems and the promise are ours."
Similar calls for collaboration came throughout the two-day meeting. Despite extended discussion, no consensus emerged on priority issues. Participants decided that ongoing discussion is necessary to address Africa's pressing needs.
Many of the needs are interrelated, said the Rev. Erlene P. Thompson, a local church pastor in Liberia. She noted the linkages among economic empowerment, education and the role of women in African societies.
"When you empower a woman, she will empower her children," Thompson said. "She will empower her neighbor's children, and she will empower her sisters in her neighborhood."
Participants discussed a long list of concerns, including the need for leadership education for clergy and lay people, financial aid for children in elementary and secondary schools, and scholarships for college youth. In addition, the ministries of the church in evangelism and church growth, Christian education and adult education received attention.
In the wider society, the consultation focused on health needs arising from the HIV-AIDS pandemic and widespread deaths due to malaria, along with land-mine removal, conflict resolution training, economic development, immigration and refugee policies, gender equality, human rights and ethnic conflict.
Given the breadth of the issues, the group agreed that a meeting of general secretaries and bishops of African annual conferences should be convened in Africa. New conversations about partnerships will be held focusing on how the general agencies, Council of Bishops and African churches can hear the needs of the people and develop coordinated responses.
"The tangible outcome demonstrated our oneness and our desire to strengthen missional witness in sub-Saharan Africa," said Bishop Felton E. May, chairman of the consultation and leader of the church's Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference. "Mutual respect and cooperation were demonstrated through pointed, yet compassionate, sharing of issues and crises. Mutual accountability was called for and affirmed so that missional directions that were described and affirmed can take place. I was personally energized by the possibilities."
The consultation brought together 35 to 40 church leaders, including 10 of the denomination's 11 African bishops (Bishop Christopher Jokomo of Zimbabwe was ill and could not attend); lay and clergy representatives from each of Africa's three central conferences; all of the general secretaries from the churchwide boards and agencies, each with an additional staff member or director; and two bishops representing the Council of Bishops.
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*Hollon is general secretary of United Methodist Communications.
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