Evangelicals Together in Africa

It was Kenya’s independence day when the Pan African Christian Leadership Assembly (PACLA) “went public” by means of an open-air evangelistic meeting. Estimates vary (up to 55,000) on how many people crowded onto the hillside overlooking downtown Nairobi; additional thousands saw the gospel rally on nationwide television. Among the viewers, according to a message sent to evangelist Billy Graham, was the hero of Kenyan independence, President Jomo Kenyatta.

Mission-school-educated Kenyatta was not the only African leader with an eye on PACLA, a ten-day conference that attracted about 800 delegates from nearly all of the continent’s nations. Graham, a speaker at the rally as well as at the assembly itself, said participants believed all African governments were watching the event. Church and mission organizations were observing, too (see December 3, 1976, issue, page 53). Black and white South African delegates were so convinced their government was listening that they expelled reporters who attempted to cover one delegation meeting.

The “Cairo to Capetown” gathering, observers agreed, was worth watching by anyone concerned with the future of the continent. It was the most representative assembly of African church leaders ever convened. It was organized by Africans, and most of the speakers were African. The assembly was also significant in that it sought no consensus and issued no call for a new organization.

What PACLA did establish was an informal network of relationships. In the words of white South African Michael Cassidy, the program chairman, these relationships should survive no matter what happens politically. He insisted, however, that the “network” would not take the shape of an organization but would be only a communications and fellowship linkage. “There is a great temptation to organize,” Cassidy explained, “but we have given our word that we will not.”

Gottfried Osei-Mensah, chairman of the planning committee, said of PACLA’s future, “Only the spirit of PACLA will be alive; the organizers themselves will disband after the follow-up materials are completed.” PACLA’s Nairobi office, scheduled to close in April, plans to produce one book each in English and French and some audio-visual presentations.

The spirit that Osei-Mensah mentioned at the conclusion of the assembly was not evident at the beginning. The Kenyan government had been slow to grant visas to whites from South Africa and Rhodesia, approving the applications just a few days before the conference began. There was a communications gap between French and English speakers. And advocates of the somewhat separatist Association of Evangelicals of Africa and Madagascar (AEAM) were suspicious of personnel active in the ecumenical All Africa Conference of Churches (A ACC).

Halfway through the assembly a breakthrough on the racial issue occurred when David Bosch, a Dutch Reformed Church clergyman and professor from South Africa, spoke. Emotionally relating his own experience of accepting blacks as brothers, he got a standing ovation. Throughout the conference hall, delegates of various backgrounds wept and embraced one another.

As the assembly got past the opening days, the language barrier also seemed less formidable. English- and French-speaking delegates were purposely mixed in many of the small group sessions.

Leaders of both the more “ecumenical” and the more “evangelical” wing of African Christianity kept their commitments to speak. John Gatu, who as chairman of the last AACC assembly raised the missionary moratorium issue, was a speaker. Moratorium was not one of the main issues at PACLA, however. John Mbiti, the Ugandan who directs the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Institute in Switzerland, also spoke. He struck a responsive chord when he said, “We have no choice other than to be first Christian, and then African, come what will.” Sam Odunaike, the Nigerian who is president of AEAM, spoke. There were also such diverse voices from the platform as those of Zairian evangelist Mavumilusa Makanzu, Egyptian Bible Society director Abd-el-Masih Istafanous, regional secretary Isaac Zokoue of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, Anglican archbishop Bill Burnett of South Africa, and Ghanian diplomat Philemon F. Quaye.

The genius of the meeting, many of the participants agreed, was that no one speaker dominated. Various platform personalities ranged into strong political or theological viewpoints, but they returned to clarify their own born-again positions and to stress the importance of evangelism. The central theme remained evangelization of the estimated 200 million on the continent who have not responded to the Gospel.

Observers noticed development of a family spirit as delegates prayed, sang, and discussed the Scriptures together. There was little difficulty in establishing an evangelical togetherness that accepted a concept of the Great Commission centered on biblical revelation and stressing the necessity of the new birth. Africans who had been working largely within their own denominations and countries found a brotherhood.

In his address to the delegates early in the assembly, Graham set the tone for the discussion by emphasizing the place of the Bible in his own ministry. “I am not advocating bibliolatry,” the evangelist declared. “I am, however, fervently urging a Bible-centered proclamation, a gospel presentation that says without apology and without ambiguity, ‘Thus saith the Lord.’ ”

At this critical hour in Africa’s history, Graham said, “let us be clearly conscious of the fact that only the Word of God can bring true peace and true liberty to men’s hearts and nations. Only the Word of God, preached by the power of God, can bring the love of God and unselfish brotherhood to men and communities.”

There was no attempt to get any kind of legislation approved by the assembly. Even though most of the delegates are prominent in their own denominations or para-church groups, none came as official representatives. Osei-Mensah stressed that all came as individuals, submissive only to the authority of Scripture. Because of this kind of planning, he explained at the beginning of the conference, “the program is not going to be limited by anything.”

At the end of the assembly the planning committee that Osei-Mensah headed did issue a document named “The PACLA Pledge.” It was distributed to all delegates, but they were not asked to affirm it before leaving for home. They were urged to study it and to recommend it, if possible, to the various groups in which they work.

The pledge affirms “that we are brothers and sisters in God’s alternative society, knit together in the indissoluble bonds of Jesus Christ, transcending denomination, colour, race, and tribe. We thus pledge ourselves in the Name of Jesus Christ to be active reconcilers across every divide, believing that it is Jesus Himself who has committed to us this ministry of reconciliation.”

Also included in the document is a pledge “to be true to the Scriptures as God’s authoritative and inspired Word … [and] to resist all error, all distortions of the truth, and all practices and behaviour incompatible with Christian holiness and biblical ethics.”

In a section on evangelization, there is a pledge to “resist all forms of syncretism and universalism which would deny the necessity for every person whether in Africa or elsewhere to be given the opportunity of hearing and receiving the message of Jesus Christ.” Resistance is also pledged to “any concept which separates the personal and social dimensions of the Gospel and which either refuses to relate the message to society or else relates it exclusively to society at the expense of the personal and eternal needs of the human soul.”

In the closing days of the assembly delegates began formulating plans for evangelistic thrusts. They were talking, not only about work within their own sections of Africa, but also of the possibilities of missionary activity on other continents, including those that have long sent missionaries to Africa.

The idea for PACLA was born in 1974 at the International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland, but the assembly was not sponsored by the follow-up Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization (LCWE). The initial ad hoc committee was composed of Cassidy, Anglican Bishop Festo Kivengere of Uganda, and Bible translator John Mpaayei of Kenya. They invited more than thirty other leaders to form the planning committee, which named Osei-Mensah as its chairman. He is a Ghanian living in Nairobi, where he works as executive secretary of LCWE.

Looking Up

Church and synagogue attendance in the United States rose in 1976—the first time that has happened since 1958, according to a Gallup Poll. The poll interviewed 13,398 persons over age 17 in more than 300 localities during nine selected weeks. Forty-two per cent said they had attended church or synagogue during the preceding seven days, an increase of 2 per cent over the past five years. A high of 49 per cent was recorded in 1955 and 1958, said Gallup.

The study shows that 55 per cent of Roman Catholics are in church in a typical week, 40 per cent of Protestants. Women still make up a majority of those in the pews; 46 per cent of the nation’s women attend, 37 per cent of the men.

Least likely attenders are people living in the West and people under age 30; those in the South and Middle West have the best attendance record.

On another topic, 45 per cent of the interviewees said they think religion’s influence on American life is decreasing, 44 per cent said it is increasing, and the rest offered no opinion.

Sadder But Wiser

Several activists who were prominent in the anti-war movement of the past decade held a press conference in New York to announce that the Communist government of Viet Nam had rebuffed their efforts to secure the release of political prisoners. The war protesters also said the Vietnamese government had refused to accept an impartial inquiry into charges of violations of human rights.

Among those speaking out at the conference, sponsored by the International League for Human Rights, were Lutheran clergyman-editor Richard John Neuhaus, a founder of Clergy and Laity Concerned, and James H. Forest, co-chairman of the Catholic Peace Fellowship and editor of its magazine. They were among 110 anti-war activists who had signed an appeal to the Vietnamese government, according to a Religious News Service report.

Neuhaus and Forest said that during the Indochina war they wanted “desperately” to believe promises by the Communists to be tolerant and to uphold human rights. “I feel sadder but wiser now,” said Forest.

Some prominent anti-war protesters declined to sign the appeal, among them theologian Robert McAfee Brown and leaders of the American Friends Service Committee, an independent Quaker group. The AFSC people, who have been engaged in relief efforts in Viet Nam, say they still have confidence in the assurances of the Vietnamese government that human rights are being protected there.

Unlucky

Les Howell, 86, of Sydney, Australia, was fired after sixty-eight years as a Salvation Army solicitor of contributions. It all began, he says, when a relative gave him a lottery ticket that won $30,000. After news of his bonanza got out, two other members of the Army took out a newspaper ad that said “the Salvation soldier must have no connection” with gambling. Then Howell’s supervisor visited him and banned him from wearing the Army uniform and collecting donations.

“It was like somebody had knocked me to the ground,” the old man told reporters. A qualified pastry cook, he reportedly was already well off.

A hotel owner who donated to the Salvation Army regularly through Howell has called on fellow hotel operators not to permit Army solicitors on their properties until Howell is reinstated.

Religion in Transit

In a Norman Lear television comedy series, “One Day at a Time,” a major character named Julie became born again during a two-part segment this month and tried to express to family and friends how good the experience is. Descriptions and terminology familiar to evangelicals were blended with situation comedy, a sensitive first-of-its-kind on TV. Lear aide Virginia Carter conceded earlier at a meeting of the World Association for Christian Communication that religious people are often stereotyped on television because of limited knowledge on the part of writers and producers. Whether Julie represents a new generation of stereotypes remains to be seen.

Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod leaders say they are disappointed after a day-long meeting with representatives of the American Lutheran Church failed to resolve some basic concerns. LCMS president J. A. O. Preus requested the meeting to discuss a controversial letter by ALC president David Preus. The letter, circulated last spring, criticized the LCMS for adopting a conservative statement on doctrine that is “disruptive for all Lutherans.” Preus of the LCMS asked for substantiation of the letter’s assertions. The ALC representatives have promised a “more substantive response” next month.

The brief prayer that preceded the daily sitting of Quebec’s legislature has been scrapped by the newly elected Parti Quebecois, which favors separation from Canada.

More than 1,300 tons of rice valued at nearly $350,000 was sent from Bangkok to northern Viet Nam as a gift from Americans to help relieve a food shortage in that land. The rice was bought by a United Nations unit on behalf of three American relief agencies: Friendshipment, Church World Service (National Council of Churches), and Lutheran World Relief.

Money-raising efforts by a California-based pro-life publication, The Voice of Theophilus, are being investigated by the U.S. Postal Service for mail fraud, according to a report in the National Catholic Reporter. The anti-abortion newsletter, associated with the National Pro-Life Foundation of Encino, California, is run by a shadowy figure with several aliases, including Thomas Donovan, M.D., James Anton, Steve Savage, and Mike Nameth. Catholic officials have warned against contributing to the paper.

The 400,000-member, 1,063-congregation Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod celebrated its 125th anniversary last year with a thankoffering. The goal was $2.8 million, to help with college and church-extension projects. By last month commitments totaled $3.55 million.

“What’s It All About?” was named the best syndicated religious series in radio for the fourth year in a row by Billboard magazine. The popular-music-oriented show, produced by the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. (Southern), is heard on 750 stations in fourteen countries.

Deaths

SAMUEL MCCREA CAVERT, 88, United Presbyterian clergyman and pioneer ecumenist who was general secretary of the Federal Council of Churches and its successor, the National Council of Churches, from 1930 to 1954, and a founder and leader of the World Council of Churches (he is credited with giving the WCC its name); in Bronxville, New York, after a long illness.

W. HERSCHEL FORD, 76, well-known Southern Baptist pastor, denominational leader, and author of numerous books of expository sermons; in Dallas, of a heart ailment.

By a vote of 8 to 1, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a Missouri Supreme Court ruling that upheld the state’s tuition-aid program covering both private and public colleges. Americans United for Separation of Church and State had argued that the state’s seventeen colleges with religious affiliations have an essentially religious purpose, and that their students therefore should be disqualified for the grants of up to $900 per year.

A “substantial majority” of the seventy-five voting members of the Unitarian Church of Richardson, Texas, approved a resolution calling for the legalization of prostitution. The change would help to control crime and venereal disease, said a spokesman. The church got national publicity in 1975 when an exotic dancer performed a strip-tease during the “sharing” portion of a service.

Sister Gabrielle Lacelle was appointed an associate secretary of the Canadian Council of Churches. She is the first Roman Catholic to serve on the executive staff of the national ecumenical agency. The Catholic Church is not a member of the body.

Funding problems have led the board of Inter-Met (Metropolitan Theological Education, Incorporated), a five-year-old interfaith seminary in Washington, D.C., to announce the school’s closing this June, when five students will graduate. Six students will finish the year in a joint program with other schools; twenty others must transfer elsewhere by next month. Inter-Met, with no formal campus, specialized in training ministers through an apprenticeship in individual congregations.

Commissioner Paul Kaiser is the new national commander of the Salvation Army in the United States. A youth specialist, he has headed the army’s central U.S. region and held executive posts in Europe. He succeeds the retiring William Chamberlain.

Personalia

England’s perennial pop star Cliff Richard, an evangelical, recently learned that the millionth copy of his record “Devil Woman” had been sold in the United States. Its lyrics are directed against the occult. He got the word while on a concert tour to Bangladesh sponsored by evangelicals.

Singing evangelist Barry McGuire, 40, who hit it big in 1965 with the million-seller record “Eve of Destruction” and also with the New Christy Minstrels and as a star in the Broadway production of Hair, tells of his spiritual journey from LSD to Christ in a new autobiography: From Hair to Eternity.

Another ex-Manson follower tells of switching to Christ and being changed: Onjya Sipe, in Devil’s Dropout (Mott Media). The former prostitute and topless dancer says it happened when the Manson family took her baby daughter from her and she turned to her brother Paul for help. Paul first told her about Christ. The baby was later recovered. Following Christ has meant overcoming a lot of hardships and problems, says Ms. Sipe, but the “glorious freedom” from Satan has been worth it.

World Scene

Puerto Rico’s Catholic bishops have approved the controversial Latin American Bible for use on the island, saying it is clear and sound theologically. Criticism of certain photos and accompanying notes (see December 17, 1976, issue, page 34) is not sufficient to ban its use, explained Cardinal Luis Aponte Martinez. He had earlier forbade its use until the bishops had a chance to study it.

Viet Nam’s governing Workers party has renamed itself the Communist party and ratified a new five-year development plan under which a large-scale redistribution of population from urban to rural areas will take place, according to reports from Hanoi and Saigon. Little news of church life in Viet Nam is getting through. Some missionaries who formerly served there say they have learned that workers are permitted one day off per week—but it can’t be Sunday.

After the Communists took over Cambodia in 1975 they renamed it Democratic Kampucha. But there has been little democracy, and many former citizens, including Christian leaders, have disappeared. There have been reports of mass murders of educated persons and former soldiers. An epidemic of malaria now plagues the remaining population (it reportedly affects 90 per cent of the people), and there is a shortage of medicine and insecticides. With U.S. government approval, a Texas firm has sold Kampucha $450,000 worth of insecticides, and the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker agency, has sent $12,000 worth of anti-malarial drugs. The AFSC aid, the first by a private U.S. agency, was shipped by way of Communist China.

Delaying tactics continue to block new missionaries from entering Colombia. The government, though, did promise recently to issue visas upon satisfactory completion of detailed investigative questionnaires by each mission. So far, about two dozen of the fifty-three evangelical missions have submitted the information. The government has responded to five, in each case requesting replies to an additional page or more of questions.

Small lots of Portuguese Bibles have arrived in Mozambique in recent months, but the nation’s Marxist government is restricting the importation of larger shipments, according to Swiss mission sources. Requests by the Mozambique Bible Society to import or to print have been held up, they say. Church sources say church attendance is picking up again, especially on the part of young people. Meanwhile, a proposed three-year program of aid to Mozambique valued at $600,000 or more has been under discussion by officials of the World Council of Churches.

Nearly 500 clergymen, about 10 per cent of the pastors of the Church of Sweden (Lutheran), demanded that the mission board of the church discontinue relations with the World Council of Churches and other ecumenical organizations. The board, at its annual meeting, referred the question to the governing body of the church, which is studying the relation between the church and the WCC.

Pastor Douglas “Sir Doug” Nicholls, an aboriginal evangelical pastor and ex-soccer star who could not read or write until he was 21, was made governor of South Australia, the highest honor ever accorded a black Australian. For thirty years he has been campaigning for social justice and land rights for his people. He is a minister in the Church of Christ, an evangelical Protestant denomination with links to British Presbyterianism.

Catholics in Poland are complaining about how the state treats them. Church officials say that during 1976 twenty-seven dioceses applied to the state for permission to build 234 churches and chapels, but authorities okayed only 23 buildings. And only 23 of 129 applications to expand or restructure were approved. Meanwhile, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, the spiritual leader of about 95 per cent of Poland’s 34 million people, called on authorities in a sermon to stop mistreating workers arrested for demonstrating against the government over high food prices.

A number of Catholic theological faculty members in Holland over the years have left the priesthood to marry but have retained their teaching posts. In 1971 and 1972 the Vatican ruled that such persons must be dismissed. The Dutch bishops say they have observed this policy since it was spelled out, but they refused to apply it retroactively—and the Vatican reluctantly agreed.

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