By Jerry Van Marter of Ecumenical News International, reporting on the
African Instituted Churches and their interest in joining the ecumenical movement.
Leaders of a number of Africa Instituted Churches (AICs) gave a spirited defence of
their churches at the WCC assembly earlier this week. They denied the claim of critics who
have charged them with being "schismatic". Their detractors are hypocrites, they
said.
Though no accurate figures are available, AICs claim thousands of churches and more than
50 million members across the continent. They were all founded by indigenous African
Christians rather than by foreign missionaries.
AIC leaders use the words instituted, indigenous and independent to describe their
churches.
Speaking at an assembly padare session, Rufus Ositelu, archbishop of the Church of the
Lord Aladura (a West African adjective loosely translated as "divine
inspiration") in Ghana, made a point about diversity in church life.
"When you travel to the Netherlands or the United States," he said, "there
are thousands of different kinds of Baptist churches and no one accuses them of schism but
then they ask all these questions of the AICs.
"They should evaluate our churches by the word of God, not by their own opinions
about who is valid and who is not."
Western churches and the mainline African churches which they founded were sceptical, if
not hostile, towards AICs, according to Archbishop Njera Wambugu of Ethiopia, general
secretary for the Organisation of African Instituted Churches.
The reason, he said, was that "we had to break away from the missionary churches
because of a lack of training of our people to be church leaders, and because we resisted
colonial restrictions".
Prophetess J.E. Ahme, of the Eternal Sacred Order of Cherubim and Seraphim in Nigeria,
who, with Archbishop Wambugu, led the padare session about AICs, said that these churches
needed to be part of the ecumenical movement.
"Now we are excluded, even though we are Trinitarian, believe the Bible is the word
of God, and profess that salvation only comes through Jesus Christ." But, said Ahme,
AICs were not welcome in organisations such as the WCC "because of international
domination of the ecumenical movement".
Rigorously defending her church, she said, "There is a universal truth, found in John
3:16 ( For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes
in him may not perish but may have eternal life'), but it is applied in many different
ways."
However, seven AICS have been members of the WCC for some time, and three more have been
accepted as members in the past few days.
The AICs were not syncretistic another accusation frequently levelled at them Nduruso
Ngada, of South Africa, said at the padare hearing. "We understand God from the point
of view of being Africans. We have our cultures, customs and norms that are the base of
our understanding."
Recalling the humiliation of having to register in missionary schools with his
"Christian name and heathen name", Ngada said, "I see nothing wrong with
Africans worshipping God as Africans."
Wambugu told ENI that schism was a problem for AICs. Many of them had been established by
"divinely instructed" leaders and tended to split into rival factions when the
founder died. "This is a problem," he said. "Leaders had not thought of
succession when they received their call from God."
His organisation was trying to work with AICs "to help them with proper
management", he said.
Ahme told ENI after the padare session that AICs needed the ecumenical movement to help
them "move into the 21st century ... For too long we focused solely on
spirituality".
Ahme, who has a PhD from Oxford University, added, "We need to equip our people to be
more involved in civic life, in such areas as health, education and development, and the
ecumenical movement can help us if they will."
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