Retired African Archbishop calls for Ministry of Peacemaking

[David Virtue]

Retired African Archbishop calls for Ministry of Peacemaking

[All Africa News Agency] The Church in Africa has been challenged to
pursue the ministry of peacemaking and conflict resolution more
vigorously.

Retired Anglican Archbishop in Kenya, the Rt Revd David Gitari,
recently called upon Christians to embrace a culture of peacemaking and
conflict resolution, saying the two were fast becoming "central in the
pastoral life of the Church, due to their impact on the life of the
faithful."

Archbishop Gitari said this while presenting a paper titled Towards
Conflict Resolution, during a three-day theological conference (January
15-17) held in Nairobi, under the auspices of the Jesuits (Society of
Jesus).

The conference, whose theme was "Translating Theological Researches
into Lived Realities: The Case of Africa", attracted theological
scholars and students from various denominations, as well as
representatives from the secular community.

The retired Archbishop stressed that "in many aspects, if not all,
every one of us in Africa has been affected by the two issues
(peacemaking and conflict resolution), hence the need for all of us to
get involved in various ways of participating."

He called on Christians to not only be peace lovers, but to aspire to
become peacemakers, where both spiritual and physical contributions
could effectively be incorporated.

Citing Sudan and Somalia as cases at hand, Archbishop Gitari observed
that "many of the cases edged on conflicts, currently doing the rounds
on the African continent, were due to lack of commitment to peacemaking
among some of us." He stressed that "all of us must get involved in
this business."

He also underlined the need for people involved in peacemaking and
conflict resolution to incorporate cultural aspects on the issue.

"While each of the African community has been endowed with one or many
ways of peacemaking and conflict resolution, some of the people behind
peacemaking have neglected [cultural approaches]," he said.

Furthermore, he said that this would supplement the many cases we hear
of cease-fire agreements and roundtable meetings, some of which have
turned out to be "badly done and unsuccessful businesses."

Archbishop Gitari described the Church as a good avenue through which
peace could be built and conflicts resolved effectively. "But for this
to be realised, each of us will have to be committed, individually or
at community level," he said.

END