Construing Newer "Window" of Ecumenism for Africa: A Catholic Perspective

Ecumenical Review, The, July, 2001 by Gosbert T. M. Byamungu

This African philosophy on religion hardly differs from the original Semitic thrust which is the original Christian religious philosophy, uncontaminated by the vision of the European Enlightenment. That is why Africa needs to judge herself in the light of these positive values and standards, and offer them to the world for a change for the good. So far exclusive Western standards are being proposed globally and appropriated as yardsticks, even as we hate, alienate, and uncritically fight each other in the name of God. The gospel is put aside even as a complex of cultural, racial, political and religious alienations take command in God's name.

As I conclude my thoughts are inspired by the thoughts of an American Jesuit scholar, John Schumacher, a former missionary in the Philippines who worked as a theological educator. Father Schumacher (whose German name literary means "shoemaker"), inspires me towards a journey which the African ecumenical reality needs to take. Africa needs to "put on shoes" for this journey, to act and move on smartly, as people who wear shoes should look like. Schumacher offers four suggestions to enable the entrance into the full life of the church of the peoples of the third world, acutely conscious as they are of their aspirations to national development and self-realization.(19)

The first is to recognize an essential cultural plurality in unity which exists within the universal church. This is an important impulse as African churches seek a unity: to recognize that Africa is diverse, that our church traditions and practices will therefore be diverse even as they reflect this vastness of the continent and the plurality of our cultures. This calls for an ecumenism that takes account of this cross-cultural penetration and counter-penetration, and that may not seek a uniformity which can only be artificial and dysfunctional. In the same vein, one may argue against the persistent tendency to replicate our religious experiences without seeking to inculturate them adequately. But in the process we must avoid absolutizing African culture, denying it the necessary appropriation of "foreign" elements that could be useful to Africa; that would deprive Africa of the benefits of intercultural and cross-fertilization.

The second suggestion is that churches in the South undo the process that vilified and demonized traditional religions, by probing the values which have been thrown away -- values which were sometimes so Christian that to throw them away as "pagan" is abominable and subhumanizing. This reminds us of the importance of the traditional African cultural values, as noted above, of unity, solidarity, peace and rapprochement.

Thirdly, the churches in Africa have a prophetic mission involving a contribution to the universal church: "to bring about a broader understanding of the role of the church as witness to the word of God among men". In this contribution the church needs to adopt a humbler, more servant posture among the peoples it encounters rather than the stance of domination. The symbol of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples at the last supper is captivating and apposite.