Following a formal action of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s International Executive Committee during its Annual Council meetings in October, the Adventist Church in Africa has taken practical steps to form a new administrative structure. Church leaders in each of the new regions met in November to appoint new positions and reorganize existing ones, and to discuss church initiatives in their respective areas.

The steps were initiated during three constituency meetings in Yaounde, Cameroon; Nairobi, Kenya; and Harare, Zimbabwe.

The new structure provides a third division, or church territory, to be based in Africa, and adjusts the boundaries and renames the two existing divisions: the African-Indian Ocean Division and the Eastern Africa Division.

Effective Jan. 1, 2003, the territorial realignment will consist of the Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division, the East-Central Africa Division, and the Western Africa Division. The change is prompted in part by extraordinary rates of church growth on the continent. 

“The progress of the territorial realignment has been rather fast-paced,” said Lowell Cooper, world church vice president and chair of the Commission on Africa, a committee set up in 2001 to review administrative structures on the continent. “But the apparent smoothness of transition should not lead us to underestimate the enormous challenges the church faces in Africa.”

“We need to replace what we have lost in terms of membership and we need to encourage more entities to become self-supporting,” said Luka Daniel, president of the church in the Western Africa Division, an area that, with the reorganization, will be smaller. Several countries in that region are being transitioned to the East-Central Africa Division.

In a president’s address to Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division church leaders, Pardon Mwansa, president of the division, identified several strategic issues the church is committed to, including the three values identified by the General Conference Executive Committee last year as issues of strategic importance for the church—unity, growth and quality of life. Other items discussed were education, leadership training and the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Mwansa appealed to the church to address the HIV/AIDS issue head-on. “Our division, being the most affected region in the world, will address this matter very vigorously,” he said. “As others do their part, we also will do our part.” Mwansa identified ways the church can help prevent the spread of AIDS, and talked about caring for those living with AIDS and the care of orphans.

Geoffrey Mbwana was chosen as president of the newly-formed East-Central Africa Division. “In terms of thinking, there is a big shift right now, given the magnitude of the work that awaits us,” he said. “I’ve found myself taking a lot of time thinking and planning for the new division—we have to get some things started right now.”

“Participants in each of the organizational meetings recognized the urgency of seeking God’s guidance and blessing in order for the church in Africa to fulfill its mission,” Cooper added.

In considering the realignment, the Commission on Africa worked to ensure “geographic compactness,” and, where possible, group countries according to cultural and linguistic similarities. It was the intention of the Commission that no individual entity would be either financially benefited or penalized in the restructure, emphasized Cooper.

The Commission also considered the need to reintegrate the church in South Africa with its neighboring countries. The decades-long isolation of South Africa due to apartheid meant that the church there was attached directly to the General Conference, rather than included in one of the other African divisions.

The Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division (SID) headquarters is located in Harare, Zimbabwe; the East-Central Africa Division (ECD) headquarters is in Nairobi, Kenya; and the Western Africa Division (WAD) headquarters is in Abidjan, Coté d’Ivoire.

For a map of the realignment, see the news story at www.adventist.org.