Contents: ACOA AT AFRICAN CHURCH MEETING • RAN SUPPORT NIGERIAN DEMOCRACY STRUGGLE • Reverend Richard Wills Joins ACOA's Board • The newsletter says in October, ACOA President Wyatt Tee Walker and RAN Coordinator Reverend Paul Harris were in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to join the deliberations of the Seventh Annual Assembly of the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC). The newsletter says this Assembly brought together church leaders and representatives of women's and youth organizations from across Africa and other parts of the world to join in six days of intensive meetings from October 4 - 10. The newsletter says Wyatt Tee Walker and the choir from Canaan Baptist Church were key supporters...
Contents: ACOA AT AFRICAN CHURCH MEETING • RAN SUPPORT NIGERIAN DEMOCRACY STRUGGLE • Reverend Richard Wills Joins ACOA's Board • The newsletter says in October, ACOA President Wyatt Tee Walker and RAN Coordinator Reverend Paul Harris were in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to join the deliberations of the Seventh Annual Assembly of the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC). The newsletter says this Assembly brought together church leaders and representatives of women's and youth organizations from across Africa and other parts of the world to join in six days of intensive meetings from October 4 - 10. The newsletter says Wyatt Tee Walker and the choir from Canaan Baptist Church were key supporters of the Assembly; Dr. Walker gave the opening sermon and the choir provided musical support throughout the Assembly. The newsletter says Reverend Jon Chapman, Africa Secretary for Presbyterian Church, USA; Willis Logan of the National Council of Churches; and Reverend B.W. Smith, President of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, were among over 100 U.S. participants representing major U.S. denominations. The newsletter says Archbishop Tutu, opening the Assembly on Nigerian Freedom Sunday with a moving address, urged participants to pray for Africa. The newsletter says citing African nations such as Kenya, Sudan, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Algeria and Democratic Republic of Congo, which all face major human rights challenges, Archbishop Tutu focused on the special challenge facing Nigeria. The newsletter says this October, over sixty RAN congregations participated in prayers and advocacy in support of the campaign to restore democracy in Nigeria. The newsletter says since 1993, when the Nigerian military regime annulled free and fair elections, seized political power and stripped people of their most basic human and civil rights, Nigerians have been praying for peace and justice in their homeland and for the 7,000 activists who have been imprisoned, exiled or murdered by the military regime. The newsletter says in New York, RAN arranged for Nigerian exiles and political activists Hafsat Abiola, Jumoke Ogunkeyede and a torture victim to speak at local congregations, including Park Slope United Methodist Church, Canaan Baptist Church of Christ, Abyssinian Baptist Church, The House of the Lord -Church, Child's Memorial Tempie and The Riverside Church. The newsletter includes copies of resolutions in support of the international banning of landmines, continued U.S. development assistance to Africa and democracy in Nigeria. The newsletter discusses landmines, the United Nations, the Organization of African Unity (OAU), development, debt, Jubilee 2000, Canon Clement Janda, the Right Reverend Kwesi Dickson, RAN (Religious Action Network), torture, women, children, health, malnutrition, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLS), the American Baptist Churches, the Progressive National Baptist Convention (PNBC), the Nigeria Democracy Act, H.R. 1786, President Clinton, the Ottawa Treaty. Ken Saro-Wiwa, the Ogoni 8, the National Council of Churches (NCC), Congresswomen Maxine Waters, Representative Donald Payne, Charles Rangel, William Jefferson, Nigeria's independence from colonial rule, Calvin Butts, Governor Pataki, Herbert Daughtry, "Kudirat Abiola Corner". Ogoni, the Patrice Lumumba Coalition, Amnesty International, Moshood Abiola, the United Committee to Save Nigeria, imprisoned, and a democratically-elected President.
