The Joint Action Group of Churches: A Catholic-Protestant Local Ecumenical Experiment in Kumba-Cameroon, 1970-1996
Journal Title: Scholars Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences - Year 2014, Vol 2, Issue 5
Abstract
The heightening of local ecumenism in confessionally mixed communities across the world was a spillover of the ecumenical revolution which gained intensity after the Second Vatican Council. Within this era, dialogues between Catholic and Protestant churches quite often culminated in the creation of local ecumenical movements. This was the context in which Catholics and Protestants of Kumba in South West Cameroon, led by their clergy, dialogued and launched the Joint Action Group of Churches (JAGC) in 1974. The overriding intention was to contribute to the new ecumenical movement in a manner capable of enhancing Christian unity, missionary endeavours and fraternal goodwill. The operation mechanism that was fashioned alongside the various sources of income that were identified enabled the group to engage in beneficial evangelical, social and economic activities. And prior to its dissolution in 1996, the group had successfully unbolted the doors of separation between Catholics and Protestants. This paper, based on primary and secondary data, is aimed at recording the history of this local ecumenical experiment. It opens up with an introductory background that contextualizes Catholic-Protestant cooperation. This is followed by an examination of the origins of the JAGC and its mechanism of operation. The paper further discusses the myriad activities of the group alongside the problems that resulted in its dissolution. The paper argues that the JAGC, in spite the impediments that caused its demise, offered the Kumba Christians an opportunity for engaging in joint ecumenical commitments that were not only beneficial to the local population, but also to the new ecumenical movement. Keywords: Catholics, Protestants, ecumenism, local ecumenism, Kumba, Cameroon
Authors and Affiliations
Michael Kpughe Lang (PhD)
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP380188
- DOI -
- Views 73
- Downloads 0
On the Development of Rights and Obligations Consciousness of Contemporary College Students
The formation of college students' right consciousness and duty consciousness is the main motive force to promote the process of democracy and rule of law in our country. However, the current situation of college student...
A Literature review of Chinese people's perceptions of Distributive Fairness
In recent years, with the Chinese society into the transition period, a series of Social group events caused by unfair distribution happened frequently. The Chinese public doubts about the equitable distribution seems to...
Depiction of the Economic and Occupational Activities of the Hausa of Northern Nigeria through Their Proverb
The article examines the place of Hausa proverbs in depicting the economic and occupational activities of the people. It argues that, the people’s proverbs are a mirror to the aforementioned activities. Just before that...
Fear Development, theStaged Approach
In modern empiric literature that is concerning the issue of business management especially about administration of changes (turnarounds, crisis recovery etc.,) fear is majorly treated as solid, negative and demolishing...
Prevalence of colour blindness among school going children aged 10-17 years in Jodhpur city Rajasthan
Color blindness in which subject is unable to clearly distinguish different colors of the spectrum. Due to this decrease performance at school, reduce employability and productivity, and generally impair quality of life....