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Towards a More Ecumenically Oriented Christianity in Africa. A Roman Catholic Contribution
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Ecumenism has come to stay in Christianity. Now that it is accepted that the on-going global ecumenical process seems to have generally retarded, the situation in places where Christianity is still young demands extra attention and study. Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa got off on a platform of polarized denominations. As it is today, the young churches in this part of the world, whose members are yet to fully realize that Christianity is one religion, are still too closed up in themselves. This affects also the few ecumenical structures in this region; hence their hesitancy towards ecumenism. So, we intend in this research to identify the possible factors that occasioned the paucity of ecumenical life in Africa and propose answers to them. One major contributory factor to this situation is that a fraternal atmosphere, which is very vital for the successful restoration of global unity among Christians, is lacking. The other factor is the apparent gap between the churches’ official ecumenical positions and the concrete realities on the ground. Particularly noteworthy is fact that the current ecumenical process constitutes a sudden twist in the psyche and functional readiness of the young churches, like those in Africa, whose infantile and antagonized structures are still in their sprouting stages. Moreover, we note with no thanks to the current impasse on intercommunion, that being the work of the Holy Spirit, ecumenism can be greatly facilitated by more un-regimented and unprocessed interaction among Christians of various denominations. We reckon with the peculiarity of the root-causes and nature of Christian disunity in Africa, which have not been adequately addressed, in the merely institutional ecumenical arrangements so far made by the “mainline” churches. Such things agitate our minds as we set out not only to realise an engaging model of ecumenism in Africa, but also to make some contributions to the global ecumenical process.
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Project number:
3H050832
Duration of the project:
01.10.2004 - 01.10.2008
Onderzoek met eigen middelen
Nederlands
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