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The Seventh General Assembly:
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Theme: Troubled, But Not Destroyed
2 Corinthians 4:8-9 1-10
October, 1997
Sub-Themes of the
Assembly
• Problems and Promises: What Hope for
Africa? Because Africa is paying four times more for debt
repayment than basic healthcare, this committee called for
debt cancellation. With children again becoming a primary
concern of the Assembly, the commission called for the UN
Charter on Rights of Children to be distributed to the
churches. Because one million Africans died each of the last
five years largely due to political strife, the Church must
act for peace and change! Recommendations included:
•
Urging the IMF to include its client countries in
decision-making
• Intensifying AIDS outreach
•
Lobbying for better human rights and justice commissions.
• The Church Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: Challenges
and Perspectives: Echoing Lomé’s call for increased ecumenical
research, the committee asked the Church to produce studies on
African spirituality and fundamentalism. While the commission
called for many of the same actions as other groups, original
recommendations were:
• Cease negative proselytism
•
Strengthen pastoral care
• Dialogue with fundamentalist
groups.
• Peace and Righteousness: A Quest for
Liberation and Reconstruction: This committee called the
church to act as a prophetic voice to the government, like
Nathan was to David. While serving in this capacity, the AACC
needs to figure out 28 whether its job is to implement or to
facilitate programming. Networks among churches - across age,
gender, race and denominational lines are a must. Proposals
highlighted these needs:
• Church should lobby for
equitable access to land
• Work on the structures causing
conflict
• Raise funds to eliminate poverty
• Church
should make sure that children are allowed to be children
• Alleviate discrimination against women
•
Resource Building: All God’s People Working Together: The
section proposed:
• Creating a database of all the
professions represented among member churches so they can
better utilize the gifts of their own members
• Reverse
the brain drain of African intellectuals
• More cooperation
with the Diaspora
• Use the Economic Literacy Manual from
the Women’s Desk,
• Look ahead to develop a stance on
genetic testing
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