The General Secretary of the Nairobi based All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) Rev Dr H Mvume Dandala has expressed profound gratitude for the inauguration of the Pan-African Parliament, and called for more than the current observer status of the continent's faith community.
"The All Africa Conference of Churches," Rev Dandala told CISA in a statement, "welcomes with profound gratitude the official opening of the Pan-African Parliament."
"While endowed with the observer status at the African Union, we appeal for a greater role of the faith community in the consolidation of the gains already made in the establishment of this parliament," the Church leader said in a March 19, 2004 statement.
He welcomed the development as "a great milestone in the search for lasting peace and unity in the continent," and hoped "the parliament will certainly provide a new framework, through which the people of Africa will have a larger influence in the way they are governed beyond the Nation State boundaries that we inherited from colonial rule."
Rev Dandala suggested that "the restoration of the dignity of the African people" vis-à-vis globalization "ought to be on top of the agenda," as well the "alleviation of conflicts in countries such as Liberia, Burundi, Sudan, Somalia, Cote d'Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of Congo."
He foresaw the Churches in Africa strengthening their participation in serving the poor and alleviating the suffering of the people of Africa especially the victims of HIV/AIDS pandemic.
The AACC is a pan-African fellowship of churches and national Christian Councils in 34 African countries. Its members enjoy a congregational membership of an estimated 120 million Christians in Africa.