WCC NEWS: Weighing “My Home, My Future,” youth in Africa see the promise

More than 100 young people attended a 16 June webinar, “My Home, My Future,” hosted by the All Africa Conference of Churches, finding both inspiration and determination from speakers and from each other.  Rev. Dr Fidon Mwombeki, general secretary of the All Africa Conference of Churches, explained the deep meaning of the theme. “Africa is our home and Africa is our future," he said. “There is no better place.”  Arusha, Tanzania 2018. Photo: Albin Hillert/WCC 17 June 2021 That means youth will need to make that future work, urged Mwombeki. “When, in your home, your roof is leaking, you don’t go to your neighbor’s—but rather you fix the roof,” he said. “Ultimately, you have to fix the roof because that is your house. Africa is our house.” Mwombeki deeply believes that young people will bring about transformation in many ways. “This is the time for the youth to think about how Africa will be in 20 years or in 30 years, when all these young people will be 50 or 60 years old, and progressing,” he said. “This is the task.” Keynote speaker Hon. Prof. PLO Lumumba noted that the 16 June is a very important day because we choose to commemorate the African child. “This commemoration is born out of the events that commenced on the 16th day of June in the year 1976 in Soweto in South Africa,” he said, referring to the Soweto uprising, a series of demonstrations and protests led by 20,000 students in South Africa. They were met with police brutality and many were shot and killed. “I think it was the most dramatic demonstration of man's inhumanity to man,” said Lumumba. “But yet there is a sense in which Africa continues to be promising and disturbing at once.” The All Africa Conference of Churches is organizing a series of webinars to promote the campaign “Africa: My Home. My Future” in the run-up to the All Africa Youth Congress scheduled for 2022 in Ghana.   The All Africa Conference of Churches Youth in the Ecumenical movement See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 350 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 550 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC acting general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, from the Orthodox Church in Romania. Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches 150 route de Ferney Geneve 2 1211 Switzerland