A new Reformed organization linking the 59 African member churches of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches was launched in Yaoundé, Cameroon, in November.

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

Setri Nyomi, general secretary of the World Alliance, paid tribute to the courage of African Reformed church leaders in creating the new Alliance. ARCA was an African organization created by Africans, he said; it was not a competitor to the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC), but a supportive instrument within the one African ecumenical movement.

Nyansako-ni-Nku, moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon and a WARC executive committee member, 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 Massi Gams (Cameroon) as president and Bukelwa Hans (South Africa) as vice-president.

The meeting also elected four subregional coordinators:

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

If approved by the 24th general council (Accra 2004), ARCA will become a new area within the World Alliance. 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/Páraic Réamonn