We, being around seventy Christians from a broad range of traditions and organizations – including African Instituted, Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Evangelical, Lutheran, Methodist, Orthodox, Pentecostal, Reformed, Salvation Army, All Africa Conference of Churches, Association of Evangelicals in Africa, Organization of African Instituted Churches, Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, various National Councils of Churches, International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, United Bible Societies, and the World Student Christian Federation (Africa Region), together with some members of the International and Africa GCF Committees – came together at the Hephzibah Christian Centre, Peduase, Ghana, from 16 to 20 November, 2009. The meeting followed an earlier Africa Consultation in Lusaka in August 2005 and the Global Christian Forum Meeting in Limuru, Kenya, of November 2007.

Participants were particularly drawn from Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, together with the continental organizations, with the hope that the vision, ideals and processes of the Forum might find expression within these contexts.  It is also hoped that these achievements will be shared throughout the rest of Africa in due course.

We were enriched by the opening address given by Bishop S N Mensah of the Ghana Pentecostal Council, and the keynote address, Christianity and the Unity of the Church in Africa given by Revd Professor Kwabena Asamoah-Gyedu of Trinity Theological Seminary, Accra. We also shared our personal faith journeys, and heard accounts of the relationships between Christian traditions and Churches in Africa from the continental bodies and the four nations. We discussed in groups what we could learn from these, and our hopes for the future; and continued to reflect upon these themes in confessional, and in national and continental groups. The reports of these reflections are attached, and the main points of our deliberations are as follows.

We have learned that:

1. The desire for Christian unity is felt across the entire continent.
2. We all share much more in common than is often acknowledged.
3. Our ecumenical journey needs to begin with those things that we hold in common, such as faith in Jesus Christ.
4. We should be more intentional in listening to one another.
5. The sharing of personal faith journeys fosters understanding of one another, and generates a generous and accommodating spirit among us.
6. Christian parents have been important in shaping the faith of most of us, and therefore supporting Christian parents should be a priority.
7. We can be firm in our own faith, while recognizing the confessional differences that exist among us and avoiding being judgmental.
8. Unity is a priority because Christ is not divided; however, unity is not uniformity and does not require us to give up our uniqueness.

1. The GCF process can continue to develop without establishing a highly structured organization.
2. The GCF will build upon the existing ecumenical processes to promote Christian unity, alongside other appropriate means.
3. The GCF can be an open forum for respectful conversation, dialogue and fellowship among the whole Christian family.
4. The vision of the GCF should be owned at all levels: global, continental, regional, national and local.
5. Each national group, together with the continental bodies working together, should be responsible for the process and means of facilitating the vision, ideals and processes of the GCF in their own contexts.
6. We will be intentional in extending the achievements of this meeting to the other nations of Africa in the future, including through means such as regional meetings.
7. The GCF should encourage the development of new generation of leaders at all levels 8. In future we should ensure a better representation of both women and young people.
8. The GCF should develop the existing website to enable sharing of experiences and the building of relationship at all levels; and to provide information on existing ecumenical resources available elsewhere.
9. The International and Africa GCF Committees should coordinate in ways to strengthen ownership and leading of the GCF process, and its sharing within the Continent.
   

We expressed the hope that the leadership of Africa’s continental ecclesial bodies (AACC, AEA, OAIC, SECAM) and other para-church organizations, might meet on a regular basis for prayer, fellowship and sharing.

We thank God for this opportunity to come together, sensing a powerful movement of the Spirit among us, and we trust ourselves to the Spirit’s leading of our future.

We extend our gratitude to the Ghana Pentecostal Council for their generous hosting and facilitation of our meeting.

Peduase, 20 November 2009

I. Reports form the national groups and the continental group

The four national groups and the continental group were guided in their discussions by the following questions:

1. Does the vision of the GCF speak to the situation in the country (the continent)? – i.e. to create a space where the largest possible range of Christian churches and national (regional) bodies can gather to foster Christian unity and common witness ?

2. How can the vision be promoted and implemented at the national (continental) level? What is the process? Which are the objectives to be set? What are some of the concrete steps to reach these objectives?

3. What are the resources (human, theological, other) that are required to initiate and carry forward a Forum process in the country (the continent)?

In response to these questions the groups reported as follows:

Question 1:

• Yes

1. There is a proposal of the National Christian Forum of Kenya as an expression of the GCF at a national level.


2. Objectives:
• Foster Christian unity and fellowship.
• Talk to one another.
• Jointly address issues of national concern.
• Maintain links with Ecumenical initiatives at regional and global levels.
• To explore theological commonalities and complementarities.


3. The participants of the African Forum of the Global Christian Forum will form themselves into a facilitating committee that will become the backbone of the progress of ecumenism.


4. Resources
• The facilitating Committee
• The Heads of Churches
• Present commonalities and complementarities
• Other resources once the vision takes root
  
  
5. Possible programs
• National Prayer Week
• National Prayer Day

This group was made up of 15 people from 10 different confessions - an evidence of the beauty of God’s creation.

Does the vision of the GCF speak to the situation in our country?

• The answer is "Yes."


• The space is already created through the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). CAN has five (5) blocks:
  a. Catholic Secretariat
  b. Christian Council of Nigeria (CCN)
  c. TEKAN/ECWA (Evangelical)
  d. OAIC (African Instituted churches)
  e. PFN/CPFN (Pentecostal)
  



• In CAN, we have about 85% of churches and denominations belonging to these blocks. Hence, we already have a formidable platform in Nigeria.



• In CAN we have five (5) directorates:
  a. National Issues
  b. Research & Publication
  c. Legal Matters
  d. Ecumenism & Inter-faith


• We also have a National Christian Centre which is not only serving as a worship place for all Christians in Nigeria, but as a tourist centre as well.
  
  
• The challenge we have in Nigeria is commitment among some of our church leaders.


• We emphasized the need for prayers for some of our leaders on ecumenical conversion


• Respect others as we deemphasize self.
  
  

• It can be promoted through CAN Executive using the Department of Ecumenism & InterFaith to promote and implement the ideals of GCF for Christians in Nigeria (December 1, 2009).


• Methodology: appoint a group to work out the logistics.

1. To create an atmosphere for better understanding among the five blocks in CAN.
2. To know ourselves so as to facilitate our work and witness among Christians in Nigeria.
3. To foster unity and common action even in the diversities we face from time to time.
4. To strengthen the work of the Directorate for Ecumenism & InterFaith through the various blocks we have.

1. Ecumenical conversations on doctrinal and theological issues.
2. There are theological content and context available to us in Nigeria.
3. There are theological publications: books, journals in our theological institutions and even the library of some big churches.
4. We have human resources e.g. theologians around us.
5. We also have a good networking system.

Question 1:
The GCF vision is relevant for South Africa in the sense that it will help us create space for the Christian denominations and bodies who are not part of the existing national bodies. This will be realized by;
- Entering into dialogue with all Christian leaders instead of creating another body.
- Creating space for all church leaders and Christian bodies to get to know each other more basing our unity in the high priest prayer of Jesus (John 17).

Question 2:

The GCF is going to be an agenda item during the National Church Leaders Forum meeting which is in January 2010. Such a meeting will chart a way forward in preparation for the general meeting to be convened before June 2010.

Question 3:

In South Africa we do have enough resources to take this process forward. However, resources will be needed for new participations especially during the first general meeting.

The South African participants in this meeting have agreed to assist each other and to use existing structures and bodies as far as resources are concerned.

Question :1

The vision of GCF is speaking very much to our situation.

• AACC has already a large variety of member churches.
• The Evangelicals are reaching out to various groups which are large in number. They are also working with all churches or denominations which are in agreement with what they do. In another way, they work with the Presbyterians, Methodists etc.
• With the African Instituted churches, the forum is creating a space for them to come through, be challenged and keeping them to reflect and be fully committed.
• SECAM feels the gathering of this nature is very important.
• To the WSCF this forum speaks to our situation nationally and not that much at the regional level.
• The United Bible Societies is collaborating with all churches and traditions. Ignorance of the Bible is ignorance of Christ.

• Share what we learn through the General Assembly of our organisation.
• Make sure we continue with the clarity of what GCF will be in the continent.
• Information should be shared at the national and regional levels and informal meetings should also be held in the parishes. The Final document of this meeting should be clear on the way forward, as this will be helpful.

• Break barriers which were erected by us for no good reasons.
• To work towards the promotion of the unity of the body of Christ.
• Some Christian traditions do not talk to each other, what does this tell the world?

We deliberated on a number of pertinent issues and decided on the following:

(1) Doctrines: The continual discussion of doctrinal issues at this Forum will destroy the beauty of the whole process. A platform must be created at a certain time and place for this discussion to take place. Doctrinal issues are absolutely important but we can only approach them when we are prepared to listen and know and understand each other. Such a theological discussion should be held in the near future but not now.

(2) Our identity makes us who we are and defines what we bring to the table. All our churches have heritages that we will not change.

(3) We as AICs have unique gifts that we bring to this Forum and that is the light in which we want to be seen by others. It is these gifts we bring to the circle to make it complete, and also to break down the prejudices. We agreed that in our diversity we have found the unifying force and that is what we bring to the GCF.

- We agreed that we are not looking for Christian unions that swallow us but for a Christian unity that can be maintained. Our fellowship and relationship are unique and we will maintain that and communicate with each other at all levels.
- As AICs we are prepared to dialogue and be dialogued with. This should be through bilateral discussions.
- We want to remain connected not only with each other at all levels, but be part of the GCF, journeying, fellowshipping and relating with the GCF. We likened it to the image of giving birth to a baby and naming it; it is an emerging process and it comes with its own entanglements, which we tried to sort out in our deliberations as the way forward for us.
- As part of our need to remain connected we have to establish and assert ourselves at the local level, walk with people, and be committed to the process at country, regional and global levels.

We have the responsibility to make use of spaces and opportunities that come our way, because we believe in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, which binds us together as children of God. We have to give people space and communicate with each other. There is the need to engage with those who have the “power” and strength to walk and talk with us. Above all we have to give people time to grow into this whole process.

- We agreed and decided to communicate with each other and assigned one of us to make sure that we keep the communication alive and open. That is one of the processes we have adapted to move ahead.
- The Africa Committee needs to bring its views to the table, in terms of what to do to move the process further.
- What is our contribution to the future?
- What role does the Africa Committee play?


We proposed that the country groups discuss the role of the Africa Committee in defining and determining the way forward.

We reflected on how Anglicans are very diverse. Among us you can find almost the whole spectrum of global Christianity. This is both strength and weakness. Our joy is that from the world-wide Anglican Communion to the personal level, we have strong formal commitments and close personal relationships with Christians of every background, and a great breadth of longstanding dialogues, some many decades old. It is often said that Anglicanism is part of the jam in the ecumenical sandwich.

Our pain is that some of the differences and difficulties of the global Christian family are also found among us. For example, two of the countries represented in this meeting were evangelised by the CMS, and Anglicans here generally see themselves as evangelical and protestant; while the other two were the mission field of the USPG and our churches have a far more Catholic self-understanding. This can complicate relationships even on this one continent. Yet often perceived differences are grounded in language use and styles of expressing ourselves, and therefore we hope that processes of listening and sharing as we have used here might help us better find one another and the faith we share.

We also wondered whether, and hoped and prayed that, such processes might also help in the current well-known disagreements within the Anglican Communion, where, sadly, intemperate and polarising language is sometimes used between, or about, people who have never met one another, let alone heard each other’s personal faith stories. Encountering one another as brothers and sisters in Christ might at least change for the better the atmosphere in which we tackle the difficult subjects with which we have to deal.

We agreed on the vital importance of good ecumenical teaching during ordination training, and in curacies, and regretted the fact that this does not always happen.

We noted that the Anglican Communion has supported the GCF from the beginning, and has affirmed this at a global level, for example at the Lambeth Conference in 2008 and in the 2006 meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council. The new General Secretary of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA) attended the 2005 Lusaka meeting, and we look to the Archbishop of Cape Town to update the Primates, CAPA, and others, on this meeting.

The Anglican Communion Office in London also fully appreciates the GCF methodology, in ecumenical contacts and beyond. For example, the Anglican-Lutheran International Commission had adopted a similar process of sharing so that members of the Commission could get to know each other more fully, and to ensure that the deliberations of the meeting were grounded in an experience of shared faith. The first meeting of the newly appointed Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order, which meets for the first time in Canterbury in December 2009 will also begin with a time of sharing, as people come together from across the globe and across the whole spectrum of Anglicanism.

We greatly enjoyed this time for fellowship and sharing together, and through it also deepened our understanding of one another and of the lives of our Provinces, and express our gratitude for the opportunity.

We pre-occupied ourselves with the question of what we want to achieve in this august Forum given our own background in ecumenical endeavors.

We realized that the late Pope John Paul II introduced a new move in the ecumenical endeavours by dialoging with the Pentecostals. This is an on-going dialogue because both parties have identified common points of agreement and have yielded a lot of fruits from their encounter.

That dialogue has to do with a specific Pentecostal group. This Forum (GCF) has given us rather a wider perspective. It is therefore an opportunity for us to reach out to the others who have hitherto not been reached by us.

• We recognized this Forum as a means of doing away with biases and stereotypes and the tendency of putting people in straitjackets.
• We are happy to have had an interaction with the many groups that are represented here.
• We reiterated that the fire of ecumenism must be re-ignited in the various local situations and this fire must remain unquenchable.
• We also recognized the ecumenical dialogues we have had with numerous Christian groupings and the volumes of documentation that we have. What is needed is the reception of what we have so far been able to achieve.
• We call on all partners in the dialogues to be part of this process of reception.
• On ethical issues – we paid a glowing tribute to quite a number of churches for their collaboration so far. We hope that they would continue to collaborate with us in our quest towards the upholding of human dignity.
• We recognize the pain of members of the Christian fellowship as far as eucharistic communion is concerned. We call on all to join in the theological search for a better understanding of the status of the eucharist and mutual co-existence.
• We appreciated very much the concerns of the other groupings. We regretted very much the lack of post baptismal evangelization that has actually made people yearn for other denominations.
• We have resolved to intensify the process of evangelization and re-evangelization so as to enhance the personal commitment to the faith in Christ. We vouched for new ways and methods of evangelization to facilitate this process.

• It is our fervent prayer that ecumenism may be decentralized so as to make impact felt on the community level.

1. What we are learning?

1.1 The terminology used by the various confessional groups differs, but we share a lot more in common than we realised. We all seem to agree that the beginning of the journey of faith is confession of Christ as Lord.

1.2 It is important to keep in perspective that the Forum is not the same as the constituencies from which we come. The idea that in each constituency or denomination, there are those the Lord has saved does not take away from the fact that the defining feature of a denomination is what the majority in that denomination hold as true for themselves.

1.3 The evangelical formula for salvation may be true without being adequate to capture the totality of how God saves. Yet it is of utmost important to underscore the matter of personal encounter with Jesus. It is in this matter where we might have a point of divergence with some.

1.4 Concern was expressed regarding our focus at the GCF meeting on experiential categories rather than truth/doctrinal fundamentals that ground our conversation of the way God saves people through the gospel. It is the integrity of this gospel - for which apostles were willing to lay down their lives- that is our concern.

1.5 We see a difference between dialogue for life – which is collaborating about matters threatening our lives together, eg HIV , dialogue for fellowship – which is seeking mutual understanding and irenic relationship with one another, and dialogue for truth/ faith, which is standing in the same trenches in defence of biblical truth.

1.6 We need to agree on a minimum requirement for fellowship.

2) What do we hope to achieve

2.1 We need to define points of agreement sufficient to motivate us to gather, eg essential truth such as the fact that Jesus is paramount to salvation.

2.2 Each group represented at the gathering should be invited to write a short statement on Christian salvation. This would enable a better discussion and reflection on the matter.

2.3 We hope to continue to participate ecumenically.

Methodist position :

1. In appreciation of the objectives and ideals of the Global Christian Forum "To create a space where the largest possible range of Christian churches and interchurch bodies can foster Christian unity and common witness", we observed the need to organise similar forums at national level, without setting up new structures, and to seek the way forward in our various national experiences.

2. We discern the movement of the Spirit and are of the opinion that the Forum process is pregnant with hope and possibilities, and that the Methodist people in the spirit of ecumenism are open to it.

3. We recognise existing bilateral conversations of Methodists with other denominations. We are encouraged by the experience of the Forum and are therefore even more encouraged to open conversations with other confessional groups.

4. As a confessional body we are willing to gradually commit resources to and help facilitate the process of the Forum.

We as Pentecostals declare that :

1. Notwithstanding our erstwhile marginalisation, in the spirit of Jesus’ prayer for unity our arms are widely open to embrace the space that the GCF has created, despite our late coming into the Christian fraternity.

2. We acknowledge the "excesses" of our movement and regret our spirit of arrogance and triumphalism.

3. Despite the fact that the Catholic – Pentecostal / Charismatic dialogue was among the first ecumenical efforts going back to the 1970’s, our spirit of exclusivity has left little room for a real quest for a deep sense of community with our fellow believers.

4. We have pledged to share experiences and information firstly to those within the Pentecostal formations and to facilitate a spirit of ecumenism that would allay our often unfounded fears.

5. In a spirit of humility we are willing to learn and contribute to the non-threatening respectful dialogical process of the GCF, while we ardently pursue our evangelistic mandate in the power and giftings of the Holy Spirit.

6. It is our conviction that it is still too early in the process to begin with theological discussions. We need to find ourselves first by affirm our faith journeys that have been articulated in albeit different vocabulary

7. Noting that the South African Apartheid challenge provided a common rallying point for common witness, the basis for essential Christian unity should rather be grounded upon sound common theology. This should form the bedrock of any basis for ecumenism. The GCF provides a starting point in its Guiding Purpose Statement.

8. Based upon this theological foundation, we welcome you all to our churches, conferences, crusades and homes and await your reciprocal invitation with eager anticipation.

This group included the participants from the Reformed / Presbyterian and Lutheran churches that were represented at the meeting. Brief presentations of each one of the churches were given, with a particular focus on ecumenism

The group observed that their churches had in common an open and affirmative attitude towards ecumenism. They are all holding membership in a variety of confessional and ecumenical groupings at local, national, regional and global levels. They are in dialogue with churches of other confessions. Christians of other confessions are welcome in their worship services and several churches have a policy of allowing them to participate in the Lord’s Supper if they so desire. Their churches take part in inter-Christian and inter-faith consultations on social and other issues of common concern. Their institutions of theological training are open to students of other confessions.

The group also recognized that their churches were very similar and that differences between them are mainly due to cultural and geographical factors. They have the same methods of evangelization through human development, social services, health care and programmes focussing on HIV/Aids, gender discrimination, harmful cultural practices etc.

The group affirmed the basic conviction of the churches of the Reformation that the church as a living organism is prone to change and cannot afford to remain indifferent to a changing world: ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda (the church reformed and always to be reformed). Its confession of faith in one God, one Lord, one Baptism is based on sola fide, sola gracia and sola scripture (faith alone, grace alone, Scripture alone).

This group learned from the Global Christian Forum to insist on reading the Bible with spiritual eyes. It has learnt that salvation is for all and that we are not the only group of people whose faith is accepted by God. This conclusion helps us to open our heart to others. Finally, through this exercise we have come to know ourselves even more.

We resolved to go with the vision of the Global Christian Forum whatever it may cost.

20 November 2009
Peduase, Ghana

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