scholarly journals Christian Advocacy Ministry on Pandemics: The Ghanaian Example on HIV/AIDS

Author(s):  
Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong

The study is an examination of the various Christian advocacy approaches that the church in Ghana has adopted in its role in the fight against the AIDS pandemic. The study seeks to make the Ghanaian experience available for Christian advocacy ministry for other pandemics. The study as a qualitative one focused on library research. Available primary and secondary materials on the church’s participation in the AIDS pandemic were examined and analyzed. Much attention was paid to reports, addresses, study materials and policy documents on the pandemic by the World Council of Churches, Christian Council of Ghana and the Presbyterian Church of Ghana. The study has observed that provision of leadership, capacity building of church leaders, education and awareness creation, the relevance of the Christian message of hope in a moment of despair and Christian advocacy ministry have made significant contributions to the Christian advocacy on the HIV/AIDS in Ghana. The study further provides insights for studies in church and society and the construction of public theology on pandemics in African Christianity. Keywords: Advocacy Ministry, Pandemics, Capacity Building, Church Leadership

1979 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-9
Author(s):  
Eugene Carson Blake

Eugene Carson Blake has in recent years been actively associated with the Christian citizens' movement, Bread for the World. Before retiring as Secretary of the World Council of Churches in 1972, he served both church and society in many leading capacities, as a distinguished pastor, the chief executive officer of his denomination (the United Presbyterian Church), university and seminary trustee, and president of the National Council of Churches. In 1960, he preached a sermon in the Episcopal Cathedral of San Francisco, where the late James A. Pike was Bishop. This sermon, welcomed by the Bishop, led to the establishment of the Consultation on Church Union. In the forefront of the civil rights movement, Blake was jailed, vilified, and denounced as a communist. In 1978, he was made the subject of a biography, Eugene Carson Blake: Prophet With Portfolio, by R. Douglas Brackenridge (Seabury Press). This present essay is a revised version of an address delivered at Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, as “The Willson Lecture.”


Author(s):  
Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong

The contributions of the church to the social, economic and political growth of Ghana have been locally and internationally recognized. There is the need therefore, to subject the nature, prospects and challenges of the Christian advocacy of the church in Ghana to intellectual scrutiny to identify the issues that must be addressed for the church to perform its advocacy effectively. The study is an examination of the Christian advocacy ministry of the church in Ghana. It used both primary and secondary materials to generate data. Minutes and reports were examined for some primary information. The analysis of the available information points to the fact that the church must pay attention to niche management, capacity building of church leaders, enhance its public theology, creation of platforms for reflections, address the attacks on voices of wisdom, and direct attention to the role of the non-clergy in the advocacy ministry for its future Christian advocacy ministry. The study has added to knowledge in the disciplines of Church and Society and Public Theology. Keywords: Advocacy Ministry, Public Theology, African Christianity, Capacity Building, Public Witness


2019 ◽  
Vol 131 (8) ◽  
pp. 339-347
Author(s):  
Jonathan Kangwa

The World Council of Churches (WCC) commemorated its 70th anniversary in 2018. Over the years, the WCC has engaged with issues that affect women in the Church and society. It has challenged patriarchy in Church structures; calling for justice, partnership in mission and the ordination of women. The WCC initiated a decade of Churches in solidarity with women (1988 to 1998) to promote the visibility of women in the Church. Using storytelling as a heuristic tool and in the spirit of the WCC’s decade of Churches in solidarity with women, the present paper documents the life and work of the Rev. Dr. Peggy Mulambya Kabonde of the United Church of Zambia (UCZ). Firstly, a brief narrative of her life and work is presented. Secondly, her work and experience in the Church is analyzed in order to engage with the issues affecting women in ordained ministry in Africa and other parts of the world. The paper concludes by proposing a model of ecclesiology that embraces inclusivity and the equality of men and women in the Church.


2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cornelius J.P. Niemandt

In this research, important policy decisions by the 2013 General Synod of the Dutch ReformedChurch on the missional nature of the church were investigated in dialogue with the newmission affirmation of the World Council of Churches Together towards life: Mission andevangelism in changing landscapes (2013). The research concluded that the new policy documentof the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (DRC) shows convergence with TTL and thatthe DRC finds itself within the current ecumenical discourse on church and mission. The DRCdoes have a comprehensive missional ecclesiology, understanding the church as missionalby its very nature. Church polity is informed by a missional understanding of being church.The DRC shows good governance in the sense that it has embarked on a process to revisethe church order in the light of the policy decisions and in the sense of the foundation laidby revising a number of important articles of the church order. The research also found thata missional approach affirms life in its fullness and allows and participates in the flourishingof creation. The deduction was that good governance in society entails a society where justiceis practised, sustainable lifestyles propagated and respect for the earth practised. The DRC,with its missional understanding of being church, can benefit in its discernment processesand prophetic witness by using an appropriate hermeneutical key in its participation in goodgovernance � to discern where life in its fullness is affirmed. The research found that the DRCfinds itself, together with a broader ecumenical community, on a journey towards life. It doeshave an appropriate basis for good governance in church and society.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The research calls for a change inthe traditional discourse on the role of denominations and brings together insights fromecumenical studies and missional ecclesiology that might assist the reformulation of churchpolity.


2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Council on Foreign Relations Milbank Memorial Fund
Keyword(s):  

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 74-93
Author(s):  
V.A. LIVTSOV ◽  
◽  
A.V. LEPILIN ◽  

The main purpose of the article is to analyze the emergence of opposition to ecumenism in the Rus-sian Orthodox Church (ROC) in the post-perestroika period of Russia. The article examines the issues of interaction between the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and the World Council of Churches (WCC), the aspects of opposition to the ecumenist movement in the Russian Federation in the post-Soviet realities. The author comes to the conclusion that in the post-perestroika period, a number of representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church were negatively disposed towards ecu-menism and considered this movement a heresy. The issues of this kind caused disagreement not only at the international level, but also within the structure of the ROC itself.


Author(s):  
Gerald O’Collins, SJ

This book opens by establishing the substantial convergence in reflection on Christian tradition proposed by a 1963 report of the Faith and Order Commission (of the World Council of Churches) and the teaching of Vatican II (1962–5). Despite this ecumenical consensus, in recent years few theologians have written about tradition, and none has looked to the social sciences for insights into the nature and functions of tradition. Drawing above all on sociologists, this work shows the difference that tradition makes in human and religious life. In the light of the divine self-revelation that climaxed with Jesus Christ, the central characteristics of tradition are set out: in particular, its relationship to and distinction from culture. The risen Christ himself is the central Tradition (upper case) at the heart of Christian life. All the baptized faithful, and not merely their ordained leaders, play a role in transmitting tradition. The ‘sense of the faithful’ amounts to a ‘sense of the tradition’. The essential, if invisible, agent of tradition remains always the Holy Spirit. Scripture and tradition function in mutual dependence, as shown by the emergence of the creeds, the image of Christ as the New Adam, and the doctrine of justification (on which a 1999 joint declaration shows substantial agreement now reached by Lutherans, Roman Catholics, and others). The full context of Christian life and history focuses the relationship between Scripture and tradition. The book deals with the challenge of discerning and reforming particular traditions. A closing appendix shows how modern studies of memory—above all, collective memory—can illuminate ways in which tradition works to maintain Christian identity and continuity.


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