Over the last couple of weeks there have been some interesting reports about Presbyterian activities and politics in parts of Africa, but the reports of governing body actions have been too short to warrant a full post. So here is a post bundling news from Sudan, Ghana, and Malawi.
Sudan
There were two brief reports by Anyuak Media from the General Assembly of the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC) a couple of weeks ago. The first article is about the Rev. Philip Akway Obang being elected as the General Secretary of the SPEC. Rev. Philip (as the article refers to him) has a degree in business administration as well as theological training. The article says that he has been a church worker for 18 years doing evangelism and parish ministry, probably in a capacity like a Commissioned Lay Pastor. He completed his theological training four years ago and was ordained a pastor two years ago. One of the reasons for the article from Anyuak Media is because Pastor Philip is the only Anyuak pastor in the SPEC so there is cultural pride here.
The second article about the GA talks about establishing the first Synod in the SPEC. The article reports that the new Synod will have two presbyteries, the North and West, and have about 70 pastors. This is pretty much the extent of details on the new Synod and from a polity and connectionalism perspective it is not clear the role of the new governing body. The article almost makes it sound like it is the highest governing body and that it might be operating in parallel with the GA. Part of the confusion might be related to the church structure necessitated by the civil war in that country. According to Reformed Online the SPEC maintains separate administrative units in government held areas and rebel-controlled areas so this might be related to that division.
The Anyuak Media article also provides a brief overview of the Presbyterian church in Sudan and the Reformed Online site expands on that. The SPEC is the northern church while the Presbyterian Church of Sudan (PCOS) works mainly in the south. Unlike northern and southern US Presbyterians, this is not a result of the civil war but due to the history of their development. The SPEC began as a presbytery of the Egyptian reformed church while the PCOS was established by American missionaries. Both have parallel administrations due to the civil war and both have churches in the other’s regions, apparently without problems. The World Council of Churches web site says that they cooperatively run a seminary. The half-century history of civil war has kept the two churches from uniting.
Ghana
The Presbyterian Church of Ghana is one of the more active African branches and it enjoys a good working relationship with the civil government. A couple of news articles have appeared recently. One covers the installation of the new national executive committee of the Bible Study and Prayer Group of the Presbyterian Church in Kumasi. The featured speaker was the Right-Reverend Dr Yaw Frimpong-Manso, the current Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ghana. He reminded the new officers to live exemplary lives and to be agents of change. Another article covers the first graduation from a new campus at Okwahu of the Presbyterian University College. The ceremonies included a message from Ghana’s President John Agyekum Kufuor read by Ms Elizabeth Ohene, Minister of State in Charge of Tertiary Education. The message said “the Presbyterian Church had been a faithful ally of government in
providing the manpower needs of the country since it established a
primary school in 1843 and a training college in 1948.” The article does note that the GA Moderator was present at this ceremony as well. And finally, regional Presbyterian leaders have condemned violence in Bawku that destroyed property belonging to workers at the local Presbyterian hospital and is causing some of the workers to leave. The church is actively providing supplies to workers who lost property in the violence.
Malawi
This not so much news, but blog posts about visiting Malawian churches on the blog Swords into Plowshares, the Peacemaking Blog of the PC(USA). These blog entries record the visits, meetings, adventures, and worship services of a PC(USA) affiliated group as they traveled through this part of Africa. The visit included the Presbyteries of Blantyre and Dwangwa, and the Livingstonia Synod of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP). One major focus of the trip was the programs to combat HIV/AIDS in the country and caring for those with and affected by the disease. The PC(USA) has a significant presence in partnership work in the country. While the blog entries make no mention of the internal controversy in the CCAP, and I have heard no updates for a while, several of these governing bodies are involved in territorial disputes over church planting I have mentioned before.