Anglican Communion News Service

Mission and evangelism coordinators, clergy and lay representatives from all of the 12 Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA) and the Diocese of Egypt will gather in Nairobi from Easter Monday, 12-16 April, to develop the region’s strategy for mission work in Africa.

The conference theme is “Transforming Mission: Taking your place in mission in God’s world,” and will be officially opened by the Most Revd Benjamin Nzimbi, the Archbishop of Kenya, and later addressed by CAPA Primates on 13 April.

The meeting, which is jointly hosted by CAPA and the Church Mission Society (CMS), is significant as it comes at a time when the Church in Africa is engaged with the human sexuality debate and could easily lose focus on spreading the gospel, which is the primary mission of the Church.

Besides addresses by CAPA Primates, led by Chairman and Archbishop of Nigeria, the Most Revd Peter Akinola, the conference will also be addressed by Marjorie Murphy, the Director of Mission at the Anglican Communion Office in London, Dr Agnes Abuom, the President of the World Council of Churches, African Chapter and Dr Zac Niringiye of CMS Africa Regional Office among other prominent speakers.

The objectives of the conference are:

• To follow up on the Anglican Communion Mission and Evangelism Conferences: the Nairobi Mission Co-ordinators' Conference, in 2002 and the Mission Organisations' Conference held in Cyprus in 2003. This time the focus will be on the Anglican Churches in Africa, and how they can be agents of transforming mission.
• To create ownership of the mission and evangelism agenda by the key players in the Anglican Churches in Africa.
• To foster greater partnership and synergy in Anglican Mission in Africa and beyond.
• To develop common vision and goals for mission and evangelism.
• To assess the “unfinished work” within Africa and the global mandate.
• To encourage efforts of transforming mission by the Church.
• To create a database of resources available for transforming mission.

Article by Justus Waimiri

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