Date: 2008-10-13 15:39:21
“No continent has the monopoly of peace. We all have our share of peace and pieces… Our task as Christian communicators is to decipher how we can use communication to foster peace, justice, community building, mutual co-existence and the promotion of human dignity. If other communicators use the power of communication to scatter, it should not be so with us. If others go to forums like this and make them "talk shops", let it not be so with us.”
Those are the words of an African ecumenical leader and communicator, Rev. Achowah Umenei of Ghana, President of the African Region of the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC), in Cape Town as he welcomed people to the WACC global congress last week. We bring you some accounts of this diverse and vibrant event this week. You can find out more if you click here.
Human dignity is at stake in a lot of places right now, with people’s lives threatened with upheaval in the wake of the global financial crisis. I wish I could offer words to calm us all. I can’t do that of myself – but I pray we will all know the peace that Christ gives, which is “not as the world gives” – and that as we are perhaps forced to learn about giving up things, we will also learn about giving. May our communication be life-giving, may we gather rather than scatter.
We are delighted to hear about an “alternative” Christmas Bowl dinner that sprung up when ours was cancelled – read all about it below. You might feel inspired to do likewise!
On a related note, it is Anti-Poverty Week - see What’s On for details.
And again related, read a critique of the NT Intervention as it has progressed so far – not a glowing report card.
You can also read heartening reminders of people of great courage during times of war and conflict, inviting us to be bolder in our response to events around us. You can read of an international dialogue on religion and peace with some very controversial dialogue partners, and of an international call to churches to become healers wherever patriarchy has diminished the dignity of women.
Happy reading – and may you remember this week how often Jesus told his disciples not to be afraid.
Glenine Hamlyn
When QCT recently had to cancel its anniversary Christmas Bowl fundraising dinner, one group of would-be participants simply organized their own – and had a great time. Why not do the same?
In his eloquent welcoming speech to an international congress of Christian communicators, a leading church media specialist from Ghana challenges the way Africa is communicated to the world.
The NT Intervention humiliates people, curtails their freedoms and causes continual disruption to daily life, Indigenous leaders said as they converged on Alice Springs on 1 October.
The ecumenical organization that draws together all the Councils of Churches in Africa, the AACC, has a new leader.
A close friend of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and first Moderator of the World Council of Churches, George Bell was “a fighter for peace and …truth”.
A global Christian organization for communication gives visibility to some of the lesser-known names of significance in the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa.
An extraordinary range of religious and political leaders took part in a dialogue on the role of religions in peacebuilding.
Churches have a role to play in overcoming patriarchy, helping men gain a new understanding of themselves as partners, family members and friends.
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