AICs celebrate 35 years of training in Africa
by Mennonite Mission NetworkPrint Article Email to a Friend
ACCRA, Ghana—In the past four decades, African Initiated Churches have moved from the periphery of the Christian world onto center stage. A crowd of about 400 gathered at Good News Theological College and Seminary Feb. 24 to celebrate this institution’s 35-year legacy in training AIC leaders for their role in the transformation.
In the anniversary address, Abraham Akrong, senior research fellow of the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana, noted that the African churches liberated Christianity from its captivity to Western values and taught the mainline denominations how to be African Christians. Those congregations demonstrated how to be African and Christian at the same time; both in worship forms, like dancing, and in spiritual values, such as acknowledging the reality of demons and employing spiritual gifts in the church.
Akrong dismissed the thesis that development and Africa are not compatible; he believes that just as the AICs liberated theology, now they must turn their attention to liberating development into truly African forms.—Mennonite Mission Network
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