Archbishop Michael Stephen (Methodist Church Nigeria) speaks at the African Methodist Council summit. Photo courtesy MCSA.
On February 20-23rd, 2018, The Africa Methodist Council met in Nairobi, Kenya. Representatives, many of which also participate on the World Methodist Council, met to discuss issues and concerns relative to their respective churches, countries and areas of Eastern, Central and Southern Africa. WMC General Secretary Ivan Abrahams gave the keynote talk at this summit. The video and transcript are available online.
Official Communique
The Africa Methodist Council (AfricaMC), at the Kenya summit held in Nairobi from the 20th -23rd of February 2018 comprising participants from Eastern, Central and Southern Africa arrived at the following:
Left to right: Rev. Charmaine Morgan, General Secretary of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, and World Methodist Council General Secretary Ivan Abrahams participate is a session at the AMC summit. Photo courtesy MCSA.
The summit affirms that youth, being the majority of Africas’ population, AfricaMC acknowledges the need to involve the young people in decision making processes, to enhance their contributions towards achieving the SDGs in Africa
AfricaMC to develop a contextualized theology for Africa, to represent and project Africa stories accurately in order for the world to appreciate the richness of Africa’s social economic heritage through collaborative research and partnership with our universities and seminaries.
The summit acknowledges the urgent need to continue with capacity building of women and to mainstream them in the leadership and decision making organ of our churches in order to achieve inclusiveness and address gender parity issues within the church and society.
AfricaMC recognizes and affirms that Africa is well resourced to drive the agenda of the church in mission and evangelism.
As 2021 marks 229 years1 of Methodism in Africa, AfricaMC should pick up the challenge of ensuring Methodist Church presence in un-reached parts of Africa.
The summit affirms that the issue of migration touches every part of Africa hence should be a concern of the Methodist Church. This calls for a coordinated advocacy on the issue of migration for the AfricaMC especially as it relates to irregular migration of Women and Youth.
The summit strongly affirms the need to develop study material that can be used by the churches to address the issues affecting the communities through publications and research on the underlying factors and make recommendations on the same.
A business meeting of the East, Southern and Central Africa regions summit, was convened on Thursday 22nd February and the following resolutions were made:
- Arising from communiqué emanated from Cote d’ivoire, AfricaMC should intensify efforts at reconciling the Methodist families in the country and expand the visiting team to include president of the UMC of Sierra Leone.
- That the summit agreed that AfricaMC first General Assembly be held in Kenya between the 6th – 11 th March 2019.
On behalf the summit we express our gratitude to the Methodist Church in Kenya for generous hospitality. We further appreciate the willingness of MCK to host the first AfricaMC General Assembly in 2019.
(1) In 1792, freed Methodist slaves arrive in Sierra Leone. See http://www.methodistheritage.org.uk/missionaryhistory-whathappenedwhen.htm#7
