New Voices Speak Out for Africa
About 150 African delegates and alternates to the upcoming General Conference gathered in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on Jan 4-7 Photo courtesy of Asaph Ally, UM News.
A relatively new group has been gathering work together on forwarding the needs of African United Methodists in the last year. The United Methodist Africa Forum. In April of 2023, they held their first gathering in South Africa, and in January of 2024, they hosted a forum for African General Conference delegates in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Since its inception, UMAF has expressed its position that African United Methodist Churches should stay as part of a Unified United Methodist Church. A press release from the group after the gathering states that, “delegates stood united against disaffiliation, solidifying their commitment to the Church’s unity and passionately embraced regionalization as a visionary pathway for the further of the Church in Africa. This stand is stark contrast to the organization African Initiative, which is closely aligned with the Wesleyan Covenant Association, and has spoken out against regionalization and announced an intention to leave the United Methodist Church.
Recently key leaders from the UMAF organization and participants at the Tanzania event gathered on a video webinar hosted by the Western Methodist Justice Movement. Rev Gabriel Banga Mususwa – General Secretary and other attendees shared about the impact of the meeting saying, “The gathering in Dar es Salaam sent a message, in fact, that is the message amplified what the bishops said during the College of Bishops [meeting] in Kinshasa in September last year. They said no to this separation. We said no to separation, and we said we were UMC. We are UMC. We continue to be UMC.”
He went on to say, “Only those that are for the division are against UMAF and what the gathering was in Dar es Salaam. And the message that went, we thank God, was not all [who] went there were in support of regionalization because of the misinformation they had, but we thank God because of the message now, that they received, that has helped to shape the geography or even the appearance. And the way people can think about regionalization and the unity of the church.”
The UMAF event in Tanzania gathered 190 people. Most were delegates to the upcoming General Conference. In addition, invited guests from United Methodist General Agencies and caucus groups were present. As described in their press release, the delegates were able to learn about several key issues, and adopted statements that:
Rejected Disaffiliation
Supporting the regionalization model proposed by the Christmas Covenant.
Supporting the Revised Social Principles, with an amendment to, “recognize marriage as a sacred, lifelong covenant between a man and a woman.”
Continued support for Africa University.
Urged the Commission on General Conference to do more to facilitate the visa application process for delegates from Africa.
Committed to a process of transparency and informed participation.
A public, and false, rebuke from Bishop John Wesley Yohannah of the Nigeria Episcopal Area claimed in a public press conference that the UMAF forum was advocating same-sex marriage.
Participants at the WMJM webinar shared their outrage that the bishop was spreading false information that was in direct opposition to the statements of the forum.
Looking forward, UMAF leaders see the role of the organization to dispel false information coming from other voices, including bishops and to educate African General Conference delegates about the issues of The United Methodist Church.
Rev. Naftal Naftal from Mozambique attended as a resource person and coordinated interpretation services. He observed how important it is for UMAF to, “educate the people in all levels. It's all levels. We're talking about church level, conference level, central conference level. Including those who go to the general conference as delegates. They have to be well informed about what is going on.” He also shared, “It sounds like the bishop has the last word, but we have to get to a point where we are brave enough to demystify all the lies that may be coming out there, no matter who is bringing them.”