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AMC Journal December,2010 December, 2010 Volume I Number 1 African Journal for Mission in Context, Volume I Number 1, December, 2010 Published by African members of the International Association for Mission Studies (Iams-Afric) Editor-in-Chief: Rose Uchem (Nigeria) Co-Editors: Felix Enegho (Nigeria) Joy Kirenga (Uganda) Munetsi Ruzivo (Zimbabwe) Review Editor: Cephas Omenyo (Ghana) 2 African Journal for Mission in Context, Volume I Number 1, December, 2010 African Journal for Mission in Context (AMC) is an online journal of the African members of the International Association for Mission Studies. AMC is a peer reviewed academic journal produced twice a year to promote research and dissemination of insights into the context, concept and practice of mission in Africa. Views expressed in this journal do not necessarily represent the opinion of the editors or the African members of the International Association for Mission Studies. For guidelines on the preparation and submission of manuscripts please see notes for contributors at the back of this journal. Manuscripts and correspondence are to be sent by e-mail attachment addressed to: The Editor Attn: Sr. Dr. Rose Uchem African Journal for Mission in Context c/o Department of Religion and Cultural Studies University of Nigeria Nsukka Email: [email protected] Books for review are to be sent to: Book reviews editor: Attn: Prof. Cephas N. Omenyo African Journal for Mission in Context Department for the Study of Religions University of Ghana, P. O. Box LG 66, Legon, Ghana 3 African Journal for Mission in Context, Volume I Number 1, December, 2010 CONTENTS Contributors 5 Introduction 6 Editorial 11 Articles Jesus and Harmony of Opposites via the Lens of an African Christian Augustine C. Obi 12 Mission Towards A Partnership Of Equals In Christian Communities Rose Uchem 23 Biblical Love of the Enemy: God-Model-Manifesto for Christian Action and Celebration in a Violent Nigerian Scenario Cosmos B. Wule 39 The Roman Catholic Church And Inculturation Within the Nigerian Cultural Setting Felix Ehimare Enegho 54 Assessing The Position Of The Anglican Church In Nigeria To Same Sex Marriage Wilson E. Ehianu 67 Notes for contributors 84 4 African Journal for Mission in Context, Volume I Number 1, December, 2010 CONTRIBUTORS Augustine C. Obi, Ph.D Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Kogi State University, Anyigba, Nigeria Rose Uchem, MSHR, Ph.D., Department of Arts Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria Cosmos B. Wule, Ph.D., Department of Religious Studies University of Jos, Jos, Nigeria Felix Ehimare Enegho, Ph.D Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Kogi State University, Anyigba, Nigeria Wilson E. Ehianu,Ph.D, Department of Philosophy and Religion, Faculty of Arts, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria 5 African Journal for Mission in Context, Volume I Number 1, December, 2010 CONCEPTS AND CONTEXTS OF MISSION IN AFRICA TODAY: AN INTRODUCTION Rose Uchem, MSHR, Ph.D. Welcome to the maiden edition of the African Journal for Mission in Context (AMC)! This journal is a project of members of the African Region of the International Association for Mission Studies (Iams-Afric). The idea of this journal was conceived at a regional meeting of Iams-Afric during the last IAMS general conference in Balaton, Hungary, in 2008. This is in recognition that missiological documentation is flourishing in some parts of Africa, southern Africa, for instance, but not equally the case in other parts of the continent. The purpose of the AMC, therefore, is to stimulate further documentation on the academic thinking and praxis on mission in Africa as well as among Africans both in the continent and in the Diaspora. It is hoped that this effort will promote specifically missiological research, documentation and dissemination of insights into the concept and practice of mission in the African context. By context of mission here is understood all the situations, processes, dispositions and activities that characterize the unique locations in which mission goes on. Context connotes not only geographical and historical considerations but also other factors such as the: political, economic, cultural, social and religious ambience of church and society. It also includes models of the world, church, and human person operative in a locality. To a great extent, the African context also reflects the global context, the world of the 21″ century, which on the one hand, is characterized by a growing culture of terrorism; threats to life and the accompanying sense of insecurity; the power driven culture of war with the resultant mass displacement of peoples; the 6 African Journal for Mission in Context, Volume I Number 1, December, 2010 environmental crisis; the HIV/AIDS pandemic; globalization and its ambiguities, producing intractable levels of poverty even in mega-cities; human mobility and migration together with its interface with mission; unjust economic systems as part of the shadow sides of globalization taking their toll on the poorest of the poor on the face of the earth; the resurgence of slavery and slave trade. On the other hand, there are increasing levels of participation of women in governance and public life in various countries; a growing awareness of the need for gender justice; a call for transformation of prevailing notions of masculinities. The concrete life situation in Africa is marked by lights and shadows. On the brighter side, Africans have a sense of solidarity, family and community; respect for life and a quest for children, not minding the fact that sometimes one finds that these values have been corrupted or abandoned. Africans have a strong sense of the Sacred, the Creator, and of the spiritual world. They live in a cultural milieu in which the sense of the numinous is palpable and the human hunger and thirst for God knows no bounds. These positive cultural values could otherwise be harnessed to enrich the global church and society as a whole and also to reverse the abject condition with which Africa is often associated. The emergence of several Africans as world icons is a source of hope for the next generation in the continent. Nelson Mandela remains an inspirational icon for peace-building. Barak Obama as the first African president of the United States of America has turned a new page for the world as did Ellen Johnson- Sirleaf as Liberia‟s first constitutionally elected female president; unleashing the power of precedence in our world! Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iwuala, an Igbo/Nigerian woman renowned for her high level of integrity, was up till recently the managing director of World Bank. Rwanda‟s parliament has the highest percentage of women in the world (56%). [However, statistics relative to life as we know it can sometimes raise other questions such as: What kind of women sometimes get elected or appointed into positions of governance in certain societies? What is their level of critical 7 African Journal for Mission in Context, Volume I Number 1, December, 2010 awareness and ability to challenge the status quo of unjust situations? Could it be that their election or selection is based on dubious criteria such as: those that are not likely to rock the boat; puppets that represent an extension of the power and influence of the dominant group?] The African context is sometimes characterized as a collective fact of misery, resulting from historical and current injustices; inequality; a general sense of insecurity and risks of possibilities of meeting violence any moment; the increasing poverty of many coupled with the insensitivity of many of the rich and privileged; political tensions and struggles for power without service; wars in some parts and absence of war in other parts, mistaken for peace but is graveyard-peace; ethnic divisions and rivalries for supremacy, sometimes manifesting in „God‟s own household on earth.‟ Related to people‟s quest for God are the proliferation and commercialization of church sects; fundamentalist spiritualities some of which pre-date the Council of Trent and Vatican I; untouched by the Vatican Council II renewal, resistant to change and transformation. In some African countries, Nigeria, for instance, the churches are experienced as “riddled with many paradoxes and contradictions.” On one hand, the churches are vibrant and flourishing numerically and from all appearances, have a very lively and nourishing public worship. On the other hand, there is a crop of highly educated laity and religious whose leadership gifts are not called into the service of their Church communities at whatever level – parish, diocesan or national – not in terms of house-keeping or fund-raising roles but real pastoral engagements. Only a tiny few have been called into Church leadership positions. This state of affairs has been described as becoming more and more a Church in which only the clergy matters. As many African countries gained independence Africans gradually assumed leadership positions in both civil and ecclesiastical offices. At the same time the number of expatriates in 8 African Journal for Mission in Context, Volume I Number 1, December, 2010 church leadership positions has progressively dwindled until the present. Consequently, most church and mission organizational personnel in many African countries today are mostly Africans. In face of these changing realities in Africa, questions arise: What does „mission‟ mean for the average African Christian, and for African theologians who focus on mission theory and practice? What theories of mission guide leaders and members of Churches and mission societies or missionary congregations as they send out their members whether on a short-term or long-term basis and what are the implications for their self-understanding? Furthermore, in Redemptoris Missio (RM), Pope John Paul II (1995) spoke about 'the new frontiers of mission' and referred to the new worlds of mission and new social phenomenon (RM. nos. 30, 32, 37). “There must be no lessening of the impetus to preach the gospel and to establish new churches among peoples and communities where they do not yet exist” (RM.
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