Ghana- AATEEA Conference

All-Africa Theological Education by Extension Association Conference.

Theme: Mobilizing all God's People for Human Transformation and Ecological Restoration: The Role of TEE.

The conference was a great success, with representatives from 20 countries (South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Angola, Mozambique, Madagascar, Mauritius, Tanzania, D.R.Congo, Rwanda, Kenya, Sudan, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia). There were also a few guests and presenters who came from the UK, Germany and the USA.

During the week, we worshiped together, shared fellowship at meals, heard reports from each country's TEE program, attended workshops on the ecological challenge, human rights & gender justice, creating TEE materials, and curriculum to address HIV and AIDS, among others.

The main conference room.

The delegate from Angola making a report on the TEE in his country.
While it looks as if Kangwa is using three computers--small, medium and large (!).

The new website was "unveiled" and Ryan demonstrated how to navigate it.

We also had the chance to worship in local churches in the Accra area. We attended an indigenous Orthodox Church in Accra. They began as an independent indigenous church during the Ghanaian independence movement. they used the word "Orthodox" in the name of their church, without knowing of the Eastern Orthodox tradition. Then one of their youth leaders came across a book in the University of Ghana bookstore on the Orthodox church and circulated it among church leaders. A year later, the World Council of Churches was having its annual meeting in Accra, and the church leaders met Eastern Orthodox bishops for the first time. Shortly thereafter, they began the process to be received into the Eastern Orthodox Church, under the Patriarchate of Alexandria. For a more complete history of the Orthodox Church in Ghana, see here.

An indigenous Orthodox church in Accra, with whom we worshiped on Oct 3.

The conference was held at the Forest Hotel in Dodowa, a "suburb" just outside Accra. The amenities were quite nice, with a restaurant, pool, bar, air-conditioning, and a conference center area with several rooms. We ate in the restaurant every meal, enjoying the chance for less-formal engagement with the delegates and presenters. They served us huge portions--the plates were the size of serving platters, and there was usually both chicken and fish, a large mound of rice, vegetable dishes, and always fresh fruit for desert. We found Ghanaian food to be much more spicy than Zambian, and in fact our Zambian friends, and some of the other delegates, found it too spicy. Not us! (more on food in a future post). We also greatly appreciated the AC, since it was very hot and humid. We only swam in the pool once though, because we were usually too tired after 12 or so hours of meetings and workshops. After our free day, which we went with some others into Accra, swimming was the perfect end (more on Accra in a future post).

The Forest Hotel in Dodowa, just outside Accra, Ghana.

Enjoying the swimming pool at the hotel.