Message from the Association of the Episcopal Conferences of West Africa at the end of its Constituent Assembly in Abuja, Nigeria 
1. Greeting: “How beautiful it is when brothers live in unity with one another…” (Ps. 133:1) We, the Catholic Bishops of West Africa meeting here in Abuja, Nigeria from December 05 to 09, 2007, give thanks to God the Father for enabling us to fulfill the purpose for which we came here. We send you, dear People of God in our Churches in the West African region, and you men and women of goodwill, greetings in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in whom we live and move and have our very being as Church, as individual members of the Body of Christ and also as your Shepherds. 
Present at this meeting have been a representation of our laity made up of youth, men and women, of our Clergy and Religious, and of course, we your Bishops, Archbishops and Cardinals from all the countries of West Africa. We have come from Senegal, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, La Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea-Conakry, Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger, Togo, Benin, and representations from Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde Islands, not forgetting our host Nigeria. 
2. Preamble: The goal of this Assembly was to bring to birth a unified Association of Episcopal Conferences of West Africa from the two linguistic conferences that exist in the region, namely CERAO (Conference Episcopale Regionale d’Afrique de l’Ouest) and the AECAWA (Association of Episcopal Conferences of Anglophone West Africa). 
This is a dream come true today. It started sometime after the 1994 Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on Africa (popularly called the African Synod), during which the African Church Fathers adopted the image “Church as Family of God”. This dream was given further impetus at a meeting at Yopougon in Cote d’Ivoire in 1997. The dream was again moved a step forward at the first Joint Plenary Assembly of Bishops of West Africa which took place during the celebrations of the Year of the Great Jubilee at Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso from November 16 to 19, 2000. There, the decision was taken to come to a merger within five years and for that matter a joint committee was put in place. 
It has taken seven years of prayers, meetings, papers and drafts of statutes to come to this day, and we are very happy to inform you, our dear People of God in West Africa, Africa, and all over the world that with effect from this day, Sunday, December 09, 2007, we are one under the name Association of Episcopal Conferences of West Africa. 
We have also approved and adopted the statutes of this union whose aims and objectives are: 
1) to maintain and foster relations between the constituent Episcopal conferences ‘in order to promote and safeguard their higher welfare” (Vat II, Christus Dominus 38. 5; Can. 459.1) 
2) to establish fraternal and useful relations between the episcopal conferences through their respective secretariats; 
3) to serve as the coordinating agency for studies of common interest and for forms of collaboration within the constituent Episcopal conferences and with other bodies (cf. Motu Proprio “Ecclesiae Sanctae” 1.41.5); 
4) to serve as an organ of liaison so urgently needed for the Church of the sub-region to address urgent matters like the proclamation of the Catholic Faith, inter-religious dialogue, inculturation, justice, development and peace; 
5) and other relevant collaborative efforts… 
At this meeting the following were elected as officers of our association: 
· President: His Eminence Peter Cardinal TURKSON, Metropolitan Archbishop of Cape Coast, Ghana’ 
· Vice President; his Eminence Theodore Adrien Cardinal SARR, Metropolitan Archbishop of Dakar, Senegal. 
3. Assembly in Abuja, Nigeria: Looking back at the very successful meeting we have had here in Abuja, Nigeria, and considering all who have helped to make it so historic, we take this opportunity to express our most profound gratitude first and foremost to the Church in Nigeria, her Episcopal Conference, to the Clergy and Religious, Seminarians and Novices, and most especially to our brother the Archbishop of Abuja and his wonderful flock of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja, for their extraordinarily warm welcome accorded us in this beautiful futuristic capital city of Nigeria. 
Next, we would also like to express a debt of deep gratitude, this time to His Excellency Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’adua, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, for receiving us at the State House and encouraging our effort at unification. In his welcome to us, he requested our spiritual, religious and prayerful support for the work of regional integration in the ECOWAS countries. He further exhorted us to be for those in political leadership in West Africa the mirror of moral righteousness and conscience so that God will lead this region into true peace, good governance and prosperity. 
The President of Nigeria also sent the Vice President, Dr. Jonathan Goodluck, to represent him at the Opening Ceremony of this Assembly and to address our gathering. He likewise called on us not to forget to pray to God for the good of Africa and especially West Africa. 
We must also thank the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr Mohammed Ibn Chambas, and his staff at the ECOWAS Secretariat for welcoming us, and offering the ECOWAS Conference Hall for the Opening Ceremony of our historic assembly. This offer is a very symbolic, auspicious and significant gesture, which encourages us to get ready to take our place in the ECOWAS Parliament in order to help build the region into that oasis of peace, security and prosperity desired by all the citizens of our countries within the region. 
4. On our theme: During our four days here, we prayed, celebrated the Holy Eucharist and delved into detail the topic “The Church, Family of God on mission in West Africa: “Go, make disciples of all the nations” (Mt. 28:19), and its various sub-themes namely Clergy, Religious and Seminaries, Justice, Peace and Development, Laity and Inter-religious Dialogue. 
We have looked at the great benefits of the new image Church-Family of God and have taken upon ourselves a greater commitment for its realization in our local and particular Churches as well as in the West African region. Looking at the challenges of our current economic, socio-political and cultural developments in the region, we have therefore agreed to set up five new commissions for the sub-region; namely 
· Seminaries, Clergy and Religious; 
· Justice, Peace and Development; 
· Laity and Family Life; 
· Inter-religious Dialogue; 
· Catechetics and Social communications. 
As we examined our theme, Church-Family of God and we took cognizance of the abundant fruits of the early missionary evangelization in our region, we could not but express our gratitude to the various missionary societies who sowed the seeds of evangelization in our countries in the past. Some of these orders are still working here to date. May all those pioneer missionaries who died in the course of the evangelization of the peoples of West Africa rest in perfect peace! 
We have come to the conclusion that it is now our task to bring about the new Church as Family of God in our region. This calls for the better formation of pastoral agents of evangelization, namely our catechists and seminarians, priests and religious, and particularly our lay women and men who are involved in the day to day socio-political and economic functions and leadership of our countries. 
This calls for a very good formation in the Catholic Social Teaching and the setting up of effective commissions of Justice, Peace and Development in our dioceses, countries and also in the region. 
5. Our hopes and aspirations: We are very encouraged by the realization of the desire to form one unified Association of the Episcopal Conferences of West Africa. We look forward to greater ecclesial communion and pastoral collaboration within our Churches in the sub-region. We would like to see our Clergy and Religious happily integrated with each other. We encourage exchanges among our local Churches and the various sectors of our Churches, no longer hindered by language or the artificial barriers of our colonial past. There is much more that unites us than indeed divides us here in West Africa. This is the time of a new Pentecost in our region. 
We, however know that the present situation of political and economic development in West Africa, the pandemic of HIV/AIDS, environmental degradation, increasing illiteracy and poverty, youth unemployment, child and women trafficking, child-soldiers and streetism, refugees and displaced persons caused by ethnic and civic conflicts, and the emergence of new forms of slavery in the sub-region, call imperatively for greater collaborative pastoral ministry and better regional integration now. 
It is very evident that no one bishop, nor local Church, can tackle these pastoral and social questions alone. Needless to say, no single national or linguistically based Episcopal conference can fully address them because these challenges transcend frontiers and languages. There is the need therefore for a larger and stronger regional cooperation in finding lasting solutions to these matters. 
We call upon our Heads of State and Governments in the ECOWAS region to do all within their power to find solutions to the above catalogue of woes and to ensure good governance, security and integral development for all our brothers and sisters living in our countries, especially for the poor and needy. 
6. Collaborative partnership with ECOWAS: We take this opportunity to commend our political leaders and the founders of ECOWAS for their good example of a united approach to the socio-cultural and economic problems and challenges of the region. We would like to take this opportunity to express our desire to establish a really collaborative partnership between our Association and the ECOWAS institution so that we can offer our contribution of spiritual and religious leadership for the good governance of the region. 
7. Conclusion: And now as we experience the Season of Advent, a time of great expectation, it is our firm hope that the Holy Spirit, the principal agent of evangelization and the architect of God’s kingdom here on earth will lead our united Association of Bishops to fulfill our desire to be truly the Shepherds of hope for West Africa and all her people especially at the dawn of the third millennium. 
Yesterday was the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, we prayed and celebrated Holy Masses in the various parishes of the Archdiocese of Abuja. We place our union under the maternal protection of Mary the Immaculate, and we pray that the Mother of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ whose birth we all await with great expectation at Christmas, intercede for our Church and unified Episcopal Conference of West Africa. 
Signed by 
His Eminence Peter Cardinal TURKSON, 
Archbishop of Cape Coast, Ghana &President of the Association of Episcopal Conferences of West Africa