Records of the Pan African Christian Leadership Assembly - Collection 172

[Note: What follows is a description of the documents in this collection which are available for use at BGC Archives in Wheaton, Illinois, USA. The actual documents are not, in most cases, available online, only this description of them. Nor are they available for sale or rent. Some or all of this collection can be borrowed through interlibrary loan. ]

Table of Contents

Brief Description of This Collection

Title Page and Restrictions

Historical Background

An Essay on the Contents of the Collection (Scope and Content)

Other Information Which Will Be Helpful to Anyone Using This Guide

Staff
Program

Lists of Microfilm, Negatives, Oversize Materials, and Photographs in This Collection (Location Records)

Microfilm
Oversize Materials
Photographs

List of the Contents of Boxes of Paper Records in This Collection (Container List)

Restrictions

There are no restrictions on the use of this collection.

Historical Background

During the 1974 International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland, a group of forty-five Christian leaders from Africa met to discuss the possibility of a Pan African meeting of church leaders to investigate the needs and possibilities of the rapidly growing Christian community on that continent. The group asked Bishop Festo Kivengere of West Uganda and Michael Cassidy of Africa Enterprise to explore what could be done. Kenya leaders invited to an informal meeting in February 1975 were encouraging. Representatives from all over Africa were invited to a larger meeting in Nairobi by the ad hoc committee which was formed in February and chaired by Gottfried Osei-Mensah of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization. Osei-Mensah was elected chairman of the committee organized to organize a staff, arrange financing, and plan the assembly. The gathering defined eight goals for PACLA:

1. To gather Africa's rising Christian leadership from all walks of life in order to build within its political, racial, and cultural diversity a network of fellowship, understanding, and communication.

2. To discover what God would do at this time in Africa through its Christian leaders.

3. To renew, revive, and inspire the rising generation of Christian leaders to a deeper spiritual life and practical moral obedience in daily life.

4. To challenge, inspire, and motivate Africa's rising Christian leadership with the imperatives of the Church's mission in Africa at this time.

5. To face the factors and forces presently obstructing or complicating Christian witness and church growth in Africa (e.g. racialism, syncretism, poverty, urbanization, isolationism, the generation gap, etc.).

6. To stimulate endeavors to meet the ascertained needs of the continent's emerging leaders and to help them develop new skills and leadership qualities.

7. To clarify the contribution under God which the African Church, as part of the worldwide body of Christ, can make in the cause of Christian world mission.

8. To enable people to return to their regions and apply personally and corporately the practical plans discussed at PACLA.

After more than a year of planning and organizing, PACLA was held in Nairobi, Kenya, December 9-19, 1976. The Assembly was financed by offerings and gifts from individuals and from organizations such as African Enterprise, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, World Vision, and World Literature Crusade. Initially, the idea of PACLA was criticized by both the Association of Evangelicals of Africa and Madagascar (too much planned participation by liberal Christians), and the ecumenical All Africa Conference of Churches (participant selection was not representative enough, setting up a competition to AACC, introducing non-African theological differences to the continent). The difference of opinion with the AEAM was eventually resolved and that association approved the Assembly. Seven hundred thirty-seven delegates attended from forty eight African countries. A copy of the program is included in this guide. In 1978, Cassidy and Osei-Mensah published Together in One Place, a history of PACLA. This volume included the PACLA pledge, which was a statement rededicating the participants to "God, to His Word, to His people, and to His world. And we call all the churches on this continent to join us in this commitment." The pledge was prepared by the executive committee but not submitted to the Assembly for approval due to lack of time.

Scope and Content

The material in this collection consists mainly of correspondence, minutes, news reports, financial statements, and lists. The original folder titles have been arranged and are in alphabetical order.

The correspondence folders are probably the most helpful in tracing the beginnings and development of PACLA, especially folders 1-5 and 1-6 which contain the general correspondence for 1975 and 1976. There are many letters in these folders to and from Gottfried Osei-Mensah, Keith Jesson, J.E.H. Wilson, and Michael Cassidy explaining what the Assembly was trying to do and discussing participant selection. For example, a letter dated March 24, 1976, and addressed to African delegates to the 1974 International Congress on World Evangelization and signed by deputy coordinator Daniel Musoke Serwanga sets forth in some detail the origins of the Assembly and explains its purpose. There are letters from various African leaders suggesting issues which should be dealt with at the meetings. Letters from Z. Ndegwa Bacia Kaniya suggest the need for churches to be social and cultural centers as well as religious ones be discussed. There are also a few letters from Billy Graham and Walter Smyth confirming arrangements for the evangelistic rally at which Graham was to speak at the beginning of the Assembly. Some letters discuss funding sources for the Assembly. Much of the correspondence is about criticism the meeting received from two other Christian organizations in Africa, the Association of Evangelicals of Africa and Madagascar (AEAM) and the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC). The AEAM leaders were disturbed by the participation of liberal Christians in parts of the program but eventually their doubts were stilled and they endorsed the meetings. The AACC had a number of criticisms, such as the lack of representation by Roman Catholics and the method for selecting delegates to the meeting. They were also fearful that there was a hidden agenda to set up a Pan-African rival to the AACC. Letters from J.E.H. Wilson and others attempted to address these criticisms. One letter includes a discussion of how the representatives from various African countries were chosen. Other correspondents in folder 1-6 include Arthur Jack Dain, Gordon Landreth, Harold Lindsell, Nate Shuwalter, and Isaac Zokoue.

Correspondence in the folders of Michael Cassidy (1-1, 3-1 and 3-2) and chairman Gottfried Osei-Mensah (1-2) discusses much the same issues as are covered in 1-5 and 1-6. Cassidy's folders also contains correspondence with Leighton Ford, Keith Jesson, Sam Odunaike, Gottfried Osei-Mensah, Daniel Serwanga, Paul Virts, and Paul White. Cassidy's folders also contain notes and revisions made by the executive committee in the program of the meeting and many letters discussing the pros and cons of various speakers. There are also some brochures and reports from the National Congress on Evangelisation [sic] held in Nigeria in August 1975. Osei-Mensah's files include a list of all the participants in PACLA broken down by countries.

The actual mechanics of planning the conference and making the necessary arrangements can be followed in folders 2-10 to 2-19 which contain the minutes of the various planning committees. Especially important is folder 2-10, which contains the minutes of the executive committee. Also relevant are the financial statements (1-8), records on program planning which include copies of papers delivered at PACLA (2-9) and lists of delegates and their addresses (2-8). Folder 2-8 also contains brief biographies in English and French of program participants. Folder 2-20 holds press releases put out by PACLA before and during the conference. It also contains some articles written about the gathering.

Several folders (1-9, 1-10, 2-1 to 2-7) contain materials generated by the planning of the evangelistic rally on December 13. Especially interesting are the handouts for counselors in folder 1-9. These were intended to teach the Christians who volunteered to assist at the rally the best way to lead a person to Christ.

Folders 1-4 and 1-7 contain correspondence written after the conference from people describing their reaction to the meetings and their suggestions for following up its work. Folder 1-7 contains two reports by Yohana Mbogori and Sam Kamaleson describing the sessions of the Assembly. The correspondence in folder 1-3 and much of the correspondence in 1-1 concerns the history of PACLA, Together in One Place, commissioned by the PACLA executive committee and written by Michael Cassidy and Gottfried Osei-Mensah and published by Evangel Publishing House of Kenya in 1978.

Provenance

The material in this collection was received in October 1980 from the office of the Lausanne Continuation Committee in Nairobi, Kenya.

The collection was sent out for micorfilming ca. 1982 Actual filing was done at the University of Chicago on a contract basis.

Reel 1 - Box 1. 35mm, positive copy. Contents of Box 1

Reel 2 - Box 2. 35mm, positive copy. Contents of Box 2.

Posters advertising PACLA's December 13, 1976, evangelistic rally in Nairobi.

ANGOLA. Angola pastors photographed at Daystar Communication Headquarters, December 12, 1978. 1 b&w.

NTEMO, ANDRE. Andre Ntemo. 1 b&w.