Dr Williams: African summit 'significant'

Episcopal News Service   |  25 Aug 2010     TEXT

The All Africa Bishops Conference comes at a "significant moment ... with Anglican churches in Africa putting development issues at the top of their agenda," Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said on his return from a three-day visit to Uganda.

More than 400 Anglican bishops from Africa are being joined by international partners, diplomats and representatives from relief and development organizations for the Aug. 23-29 conference in Entebbe, Uganda, to focus on issues of conflict, poverty, corruption, disease, and effective leadership for sustainable development.

Dr Williams said the bishops' desire to make development issues a priority "has been welcomed by other churches and politicians in the region and internationally, as they recognize that the African church has the willingness and the skills to make them best placed to set their development agenda. Their challenge will be in finding the imaginative opportunities for unlocking this potential."

Convened by the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa, the conference theme is "Securing the Future: Unlocking our Potential," based on the biblical text from Hebrews 12:1-2.

"I valued opportunities to hear from bishops ministering in the heart of conflict situations in countries such as Sudan, DR Congo, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, and learned much from presentations on the serious threats to the well-being of women and children, as well as the potential of the church to respond to these issues."

Dr Williams also met with Uganda President Yoweri Museveni and visited children at the Mildmay HIV Centre outside Kampala. 

Among those attending the conference are the Rev. Canon Petero Sabune, Africa partnerships officer for the Episcopal Church; six staff members from Episcopal Relief & Development; and staff from Trinity Church, Wall Street.

Comments on this story

Ronnie Smith

Tuesday 31 August 2010 5:54:05 pm

And not a word about the hosting Archbishop of Uganda's vilification of homosexuals!

No doubt, now that the CAPA Conference is over, and the Primates' Statement has been issued - reflecting the same anti-gay sentiments as Abp.Orombi - the ABC will ponder on his own publication -'The Body's Grace', in which he takes trouble to affirm the place of gays within the Church community.

Archbishop Rowan is undoubtedly *between a rock and a hard place* on this subject within the wider Communion, but it would have been better for him to quietly discuss his own findings on the subject with the African Bishops, than to have let them repeat their calumny towards those of us who happen to have been blessed with the 'grace' of a different sexual orientation from the 'norm' - whatever that may be.

To divide the Communion on the lines of a spurious assertion of moral superiority - straight versus gay - is to ignore the tenor of the Gospel. Or as Archbishop Desmond Tutu might have said: "In Christ, there is neither male nor female, Greek nor Jew, Black nor White, Straight nor Gay!

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