AFRICA/TANZANIA - First Pan-African Congress on Evangelisation 16-18 January in Dar-es-salaam

Saturday, 13 January 2007

Dar-es-salaam (Agenzia Fides) - The first Pan-African Congress on Evangelisation followed by the 14th Plenary Assembly of the Symposium of Bishops’ Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) will be held in Dar-es-salaam capital of Tanzania from the 16 to 18 January. SECAM was founded by the Catholic Bishops of Africa and Madagascar in July 1969 in Kampala, in Uganda, to consolidate the Church in Africa, promote evangelisation, integral human development, ecumenism, inter-religious dialogue, formation and consultation on major problems facing the Church in Africa and in the world .
The Congress on Evangelisation will open on 16 January with an intervention by Cardinal Ivan Dias, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples and welcoming speeches by the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Tanzania, the Apostolic Nuncio, the president of Tanzania, and the president of SECAM, followed by the reading of good will messages. The participants will then listen to presentations on Evangelisation in Africa: Ecclesia in Africa in Retrospect and the Way Forward and this will be followed by discussion. The afternoon conferences will focus on Proclamation, Witnessing and Social Communications, followed by workshop in groups and general discussion.
The second day of the Congress, Friday 17 January, will focus on Inculturation with two conferences followed by discussion. The afternoon theme will be Dialogue, with three interventions on Islam, African Traditional Religion and New Religious Movements followed by discussion.
Justice, Peace and Reconciliation will be the themes for January 18, with conferences and group discussion. In the afternoon there will be a presentation in plenary on Development and Self-Reliance. The congress will conclude with the drafting and approval of Resolutions and Recommendations in favour of Evangelisation in Africa and the Islands.
The Congress will be attended by about 200 participants, cardinals and bishop members of SECAM, priests and some lay people, African cardinals and patriarchs, presidents and secretaries of the national and regional bishops’ conferences, representatives from Vatican Departments, delegates of Bishops’ Conferences, representatives of Superiors Major of religious institutes and guests. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 13/1/2007; righe 28; parole 341)


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