African Seminaries
Dear Partners,
I am grateful to God for the opportunity given to me to share some of the highlights of the activities I organized for the first semester of this year 2020.
As the head of the Department of Theology, Interfaith Relations, and Ecclesial Leadership Development, I succeeded to organize several activities but also I participated in several meetings across the continent. In this Newsletter, I am going to give the highlight of a few activities.
- Seminar on African Theology of Mission “Revisiting Arusha 2018”
The AACC under the department of Theology, Interfaith Relations, and Ecclesial
Leadership Development in collaboration with the WCC held a one-day Seminar on African Theology of Mission “Re-visiting Arusha 2018: Highlights of Africa Missiology” on February 13, 2020, at the Desmond Tutu conference center in Nairobi, Kenya. The seminar was initiated by the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism of the WCC as a follow up of the Arusha Conference in March 2018. The Arusha conference was the most African and the most Ecumenical of any Ecumenical Conferences since the World Mission Conference, Edinburgh 1910, and was a huge success in many ways. Many highly competent African theologians were able to make themselves visible and audible in the conference. The one-day theological seminar was attended by 70 participants drawn from various churches and organizations in Kenya.
- Peace Mission in Cameroon.
Cameroon is going through a difficult time in terms of peace. A group of young men separatists from the English speaking part of Cameroon took guns to fight government forces. AACC conveyed a meeting in Nairobi in January 2020 where Cameroonian church leaders in Cameroon and some ecumenical partners attended. One month later AACC I was invited to Cameroon with my colleague Rev. Dr. Lesmore Gibson Ezekiel for a fact-finding mission. We had the first meeting with religious leaders in the city of Douala and the second meeting with the Cameroonian Prime Minister in his office at Yaoundé-Cameroon. Both meetings aimed to think and plan how to bring the young fighter separatists (Amba Boys) out of the bush to normal life. We also have planned after COVID-19, to bring Cameroonians, religious leaders, at Nairobi for advocacy training.
Ten Theological Theses for COVID-10 PandemicI was busy developing the Ten Theological Theses for COVID-10 Pandemic. The document has been adopted by the AACC Executive committee on its March 2020 meeting. I am now organizing virtual meetings on zoom with theologians to engage them for further discussions. On June 5, 2020, a virtual conference has been scheduled via zoom for English speaking theologians and on June 12, 2020, another conference is scheduled for French-speaking theologians. After these theological engagements, we will publish a brochure on the Ten Theological Theses for COVID-19 pandemic.
Thank you very much for your continuing support for our ministry here at the All Africa Conference of Churches.
Bosela Eale serves with the Peace, Diakonia, and Development Office of the All Africa Conference of Churches in Kenya. His appointment is made possible by gifts to the Disciples Mission Fund, Our Church’s Wider Mission, and your special gifts.