Yaoundé, Cameroon: A new Reformed organization linking the 59 African member churches of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches was launched here this week.

At its founding consultation, the Alliance of Reformed Churches in Africa (ARCA) issued a statement on mission in Africa today, and set HIV/Aids, poverty and youth as the three priorities for its future work.

Setri Nyomi, general secretary of the World Alliance, paid tribute to the courage of African Reformed church leaders in creating the new Alliance. He emphasized that ARCA was an African organization created by Africans, and they should be ready to see it stand and walk. He said that it was not a competitor to the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC), but a supportive instrument within the one African ecumenical movement.

The founding consultation took place just before the eighth general assembly of the AACC, which meets in Yaoundé from November 22 to 28 with the theme "Come let us rebuild" (Nehemiah 2.17).

Rt Rev Nyansako-ni-Nku, moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon and a member of the WARC executive committee, called on his fellow African church leaders to be committed to ARCA, and asked the women and youth present to press their churches for support.

Reformed church leaders from 21 African countries approved the ARCA constitution and elected an executive committee, with Rev Dr Massi Gams (Cameroon) as president and Dr Bukelwa Hans (South Africa) as vice-president.

The meeting also elected subregional coordinators. These include:

Central Africa: Mrs Monique Misenga (Democratic Republic of Congo)
East Africa: Rev Peter T Kenyanjui (Kenya)
Southern Africa: Rev Dr Felix Chingota (Malawi)
West Africa: Mr Baffour D Amoa (Ghana)

The new Reformed organization was formally inaugurated on Wednesday during the opening of the AACC women and youth pre-assemblies at the Église Presbytérienne Camerounaise Messa II in Yaoundé.

Rev Dr Mvume Dandala, AACC general secretary, spoke of the role of women and youth in the church and the problems facing churches across the continent - marginalization, poverty and disease, especially the HIV/Aids pandemic. He said that the AACC leadership would give the general assembly specific challenges on how the church in Africa could move forward.

Others present included Very Rev Dr John Gatu, who played a leading role in the creation of ARCA; Most Rev Prof Kwesi Dickson, AACC president; Rev Joseph Mfochive, president of the federation of Protestant churches and missions in Cameroon (FEMEC); and Rev Dr Emile Ngue, FEMEC general secretary. The ceremony was graced by choirs drawn from the local churches in Yaoundé.

ARCA will form a new area structure within the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. Hitherto, the only Alliance area on the continent was the Southern Africa Alliance of Reformed Churches (SAARC), created in 1989 to link churches in frontline states in their resistance to apartheid.

Achowah Umenei in Yaoundé
Páraic Réamonn in Geneva