SECAM Elects New Leadership
New SECAM officials
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
At the end of the 19th assembly of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), the plenary has appointed new leaders who promised to make the Church of Africa more visible and known to the people.
In the just ended plenary assembly, members of SECAM elected Cardinal-elect Bishop Richard Kuuia Baawobr of Wa Diocese Ghana as Chairman of the Symposium taking over from Philippe Nakellentuba Cardinal Ouédraogo of Ouagadougou Archdiocese, Burkina Faso who has been at the helm of the Symposium since July 2019.
The Bishops of Africa and the Islands also elected Fridolin Cardinal Ambongo Besungu of the Archdiocese of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as the first Vice President of SECAM and Bishop Lucio Andrice Muandula of Xai Xai Diocese, Mozambique as the Second Vice President.
Giving his remarks during the closing Eucharistic celebration of the plenary assembly at the Holy Spirit Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Accra, the new chairman of SECAM Bishop Kuuia who is among the 21 newly elected Cardinals, in the month of May, said the new team will work in collaboration with the leaders of the regional conferences for the realization of SECAM’s mission.
“You have seen the new team that was presented as the presidential council of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM). We are three, but beyond us, there are other people who are working in the Episcopal and regional conferences who together with us form the Standing Committee,” the new chairman highlighted and continued, “Together we will try to make the Church of Africa present in our society and respond to the call that we have all received from God.”
He promised that after the plenary has delved deeply into the matter of appreciating the symposium and on insecurity issues in the continent through the theme Ownership of SECAM: Security and Migration in Africa and the Islands, the new team looks forward to work in collaboration with all Christians to achieve its mandate on the concerns.
“We count on your prayers and we count on the support of the regional episcopal conferences in order to take this mission forward,” the new chairman concluded.
