All Africa Conference of Churches: Church leaders debate whether clergy should accept gov’t appointments….

Cross section of participants at symposium

Church leaders in Africa have debated whether the clergy should accept government appointments, the limitations of Church-State relationship, among others.

This was in Nairobi, Kenya, during the 5th Annual Theological Symposium on Misleading Theologies, which began October 28 and ended November 1.



It was organised by the All Africa Conference of Churches, AACC. The international ecumenical symposium held under the theme “the role of governments' regulations on churches and religious institutions in Africa”. 

It brought together church leaders, theological scholars, members of governments and politicians. 

In his opening address as keynote speaker, the General Secretary of the AACC, Rev Dr Fidon Mwombeki, emphasised that while the Church must exercise its freedom, the state also has a duty to ensure the safety of its citizens. He wondered whether “we can accept that all authorities are ordained by God”. 

During deliberations, several questions were raised such as whether pastors should accept government appointments, the limitations of Church-State relationship, who regulates the regulator, lessons that can be learned from Rwanda which closed over 6,000 Churches. 

Other issues debated included lessons from the Shakahola massacre in Kenya where over 400 people were killed in the name of churching, lessons from Zambia which declared itself a Christian state or nation and what will happen if a Moslem becomes president of the country, and lessons from Malawi, whose President is a politician and pastor?

 

Gov’t’s’ actions against ‘false’ prophecies

Participants noted that there are some nations that have already decreed that any prophet who makes a prophecy that does not come to pass will be jailed. These nations hold that such prophets “incite citizens into rebellious actions out of frustration”.

It was also noted at the symposium that there are followers who now take their pastors to court for exploitation and fraud, either by urging them to sow financial seeds for breakthrough in particular situations and they never materialised.  

Other intellectual debates centrered on the creation of National Christian Councils or Associations for self-regulation and to be jointly accountable to each other. The example of Nigeria was highly commended.

Another area of debate was the idea of religious discrimination practiced by many African nations where certain religions are given pride of place. 

It was clearly asked why a ministry and minister would be appointed for Islamic affairs and the government sponsors their faithful to Mecca for pilgrimages when the same is not done for others like Christianity and Christians.

 

Church leaders urged to uphold integrity 

African Church leaders and Churches were also urged to live up to expectations by upholding integrity and financial accountability. 

They were told that for churches to decry excesses of the government in terms of corruption and other vices, Church leaders must be free and open to sincere auditing of their financial management.

Discussions also focused on contextual governments' incentives to religious personalities and institutions and their impacts on Church-State working relations.  These included tax exemptions, diplomatic privileges and State interference in the contexts of regulations and controls.

It should be noted that these debates held within the backdrop of AACC's fight against contextual misleading theologies.

According to one of the participants at the symposium, Rev Ngomo Dibo Mathias, a pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, PCC, a misleading theology is “any theology that does not uphold the supremacy of Jesus Christ".

Rev Ngomo Dibo said the AACC, in its plan of action from 2019-2023, had dedicated to combat these theologies that are actually ravaging Africa and AACC has done so yearly in addressing contextual misleading theologies.

This, he added, has been in the domains of “identifying, analysing, deconstructing misleading theologies (2019); the complexities of the theologies of wealth and poverty (2020); addressing contextual misleading theologies of health and healing in Africa (2021), addressing contextual misleading theologies of power and authority in African Churches (2022), and this year, the focus is on the role of governments' regulations on Churches and religious institutions in Africa”. 

Participants and delegations to the symposium were urged to act as Ambassadors and crusaders against misleading theologies in their various contexts, countries and Churches. 

The organisers also called on governments and politicians to grant audiences to these participants so that they can all join in the fight against misleading theologies whose victims are citizens.

 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3280 of Monday November 04, 2024

 

 

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