Abortion to be discussed at church leaders’ meeting

When religious leaders converge on the Tanzanian city of Arusha for the 14th World Conference on Mission and Evangelism, the contentious issue of abortion is set to emerge.

This is after the Sunday Gleaner newspaper of Jamaica reported the country’s new president of the Council of Churches, Rev Merlyn Hyde Riley, would “push Christians to rethink approach to women considering abortions”.

Rev Riley is a minister of the Barbican Baptist Church.

A World Council of Churches (WCC) source hinted that, the minister will be leading a session on the emotive subject at the Arusha conference scheduled for March 8 to 13.

POSITION

Rev Riley reportedly told the paper: “Whatever position the Church adopts on the issue of abortion, sanctity of life, the moral grounds and so on, the Church must also pay attention and seek to empower women. Many women who end up choosing abortion, as illegal as it is, find themselves in situations of desperation…”

First meeting

Abortion aside, the 1,000-plus delegates set to descend on the Ngurdotu Mountain Lodge & Conference Centre have their work cut out for them.

The conference will be returning to Africa 60 years after a similar one in Achimota, Ghana, in 1958.

That was nearly 50 years after African and Asian Christians at the 1910 World Missionary Conference—the precursor of the upcoming meeting—told off fellow Christians from Europe and the United States: “Please don’t export your disunity to us.”

The pre-independence generation of Kenyans will recall a time when African Christians were so divided along denominational lines that it was common for children to walk for miles on end to attend a school of their denomination, when another Christian school was next-door.

The rebuke in Edinburgh did not only capture the mood of the moment; it set the tone for later meetings, which have tended to be driven by contemporary politics.

HOPE

The Moderator of the Central Committee of the WCC, Kenyan-born Dr Agnes Abuom, flashes back to the Achimota gathering, just a year after Ghana became independent.

At that time, she says in a WCC website post, most African states were negotiating their independence from colonial rule.

“Thus, as the African church was being weaned by the missions and missionary enterprises, the continent was experiencing a glimpse of hope amidst wounds, divisions, dislocation of communities, and unjust socio-economic and political structures,” the first layperson, the first woman and the first African to occupy the WCC CentCom Moderator position says.

It is significant that the Arusha conference is coming at a time the Church is experiencing ‘wide ecumenism’.

Known for its firm doctrinal stance, the Catholic Church happens to be a member of the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism—the convener of the Arusha conference.

Not surprisingly, therefore, erstwhile strange bedfellows—Catholics, Evangelical and Pentecostal churches—will be rubbing shoulders as full members of the 25-member commission in Arusha.

500TH ANNIVERSARY

The proposal to meet in Africa was made in Trondheim, Norway, at a 2016 commission meeting. Explaining ‘why Tanzania’, Commission Director Jooseop Keum said they recognised the “the African continent [as] one of the most vibrant regions of world Christianity… It is important that the spirit of Africa pervade the conference from planning through to delivery” as a significant number of speakers and participants would be from the region.

More than that, the conference comes hot on the heels of year-long celebrations of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, of which Lutherans—the dominant Christian community in Tanzania—were key players. It is, therefore, a fitting tribute to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania that they are the conference hosts.

The organisers will be praying that the meeting allows participants to learn about African ecumenical mission initiatives, which provide hope for a continent ruptured by tribalism and clannism.

CONFLICTS

The conference comes against the backdrop of what Dr Abuom describes as high and low profile conflicts, human trafficking and forced migration, racism and xenophobia, including abject poverty.

Notion of discipleship

It’s thus understandable that she is challenging the Church to “re-imagine and re-conceptualise the nature of the call and notion of discipleship in order to change the narrative for a better Africa, one that is anchored in peace, tranquillity, dignity and equity.” Her words underpin the conference theme: “Moving in the Spirit: Called to Transforming Discipleship.”

A series of conferences have followed the inaugural 1910 Edinburgh meeting.

Much has changed in Christian mission work since then.

Dr Keum notes that from the early approach to mission that focused on conversion to Christianity, Church practice has evolved to focus on work with people living in conflict zones, in regions affected by climate change, and in situations where economic survival is threatened.