AMECEA: Prior to the 20th Plenary Assembly, AMECEA Executive Board Revisits Previous Resolutions
AMECEA Executive Board Members during meeting at Donum Dei, Nairobi
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
As the 20th Plenary Assembly for the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA) is approaching in about two-month time (10th-18th July 2022 in Dar es Salaam Tanzania), the executive board members have revisited the resolutions for the previous plenary assembly held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2018, to discuss the completed and the uncompleted tasks.
The two-day board meeting which took place physically in Nairobi, Kenya, from May 10-11, brought together Bishop Delegates from all the AMECEA member Conferences, after almost two years of holding their meetings online due to Covid-19 restrictions.
According to the chairman of AMECEA Bishop Charles Sampa Kasonde, each delegate reported the resolutions that were implemented and those not yet implemented by member Conferences in the past four years.
“From the reports, we looked at the best practices, the pros and cons of some of the resolutions and other activities that took place in Conferences,” Bishop Kasonde of Solwezi Diocese, Zambia shared with AMECEA online after the meeting Thursday, May 12, adding that “it is from these current affairs shared by the delegates that help us generate resolutions for the next plenary assembly.”
“Amidst the effect of pandemic, the institutions were still running and we carried out some of those mandates. Of course, we lost a lot of time on a number of issues, but we responded according to what the Covid19 situation allowed us to do,” Bishop Kasonde continued.
Besides addressing the 2018 resolutions, the Executive Board also discussed the progress of the preparations for the upcoming 20th bishops plenary assembly which the chairman discloses is almost coming to completion.
“We have almost full program which is still a proposal but will soon be finalized after the meeting we are to have with our brother bishops in Tanzania where the plenary will take place,” Bishop Kasonde who has been chairman of AMECEA since 2018 narrated.
The AMECEA chairman said the delegates will visit TEC in the month of June to iron out some pending issues prior to the assembly and at the same time consolidate the programs and then await the exact period of the plenary.
Bishop Kasonde appreciated the fact that Executive Board members were able to convene physically after having virtual sessions because of the pandemic and to discuss about the plenary.
“This meeting is very important for us as AMECEA to help us look at all the efforts of evangelization and ways of being a Church together in Eastern Africa as we continue reflecting that spirit of Universality,” the chairman said and continued, “This is our motivation and our way of being a Church as the meeting has allowed us to reflect the spirit in our Conferences.”
He added, that the plenary on the other hand “offers us opportunity to reflect on ourselves, the way we are leaving and the way we are responding to the call of Christ.”
