« THE ICCG TO-DAY : 
WHICH FACES ?
 WHICH   VOCATIONS ?

For the first time in the history of the International Conference of Catholic Guiding, its next World Gathering and statutory Council Meeting will be held in Africa in answer to an invitation by the Girl Guides of Togo.

This important event should convey a double message:

• • To prove that an African country is just as capapble of organizing a World Gathering, with the same competences and assets, than an American or European country. The Girl Guides of Togo are particularly motivated : they were volunteers for this task and are now working together to meet all the challenges of the organization of such an event.
     

  • To attempt to show empirically that globalization cannot just be limited to models prevailing in rich countries ; to demonstrate that globalization should not be only limited to commercial transactions ; that it cannot be achieved without Africa, or against the interests of Africa.

Apart these two messages, there are also three good reasons for having choosen Africa as a venue :

• Togo has an imoressive network of women’s cooperatives. This aspect is of great interest to the ICCG because it aims to develop a sense of responsibility in women through Guiding methods. In the programme of the World Gathering two days will be spent working together alongsied these women’s cooperatives. These two days will not just be tourist visits, but shared work in the fields. It is important that African women should not only be considered as cultivators of different agricultural products but rather as producing intelligence and practical solutions for poor countries.
   

  • Other African countries are more likely to participate in higher numbers at this World Gathering because it will take place on African soil, as travelling is much more difficult in Africa than elswhere. This Gathreing should give an opportunity to create solidarity links between African countries other than those stemming from the heritage of slavery, racist contempt, humiliation and economical exploitation by Northern countries. Africa should not remain a country that has once been conquered by colonisation and to-day by world commerce, but should become her true self : a land of proposals and imagination, a proof of what the poorest are able to achieve when they become responsible of reality.
     

  • Africa reflects more and more an image of Christianity, even though it confronts Islam on a number of its regions. Churches are full, more and more masses take place, seminars have to be enlarged, faith soars and the teaching of the gospel thrives. It is therefore urgent to creqte meeting places for exchanges and confrontation between this young and growing African Church and the old European Church that suffers from a lack of priests, from empty churches and from a lack of interest in religious teaching. Even though in Europe there are also big religious gatherings, yet there is a big difference between European and African parishes.Misunderstandings are more and more likely to occurr as the behaviour of European Christians is often percieved as shocking by African Christians. The reverse is also true, and so it is quite urgent to engage in a dialogue.

The International Conference of Catholic Guiding has to be a place of dialogue and confrontation :

ICCG gatherings have to become an occasion for mutual enrichment, of deepeng our thinking, of accepting differences instead of persisting in mutual distrust and reject. The education of faith within Guiding can thus be enriched. We should not forget Latin Americas’s contribution to faith education in Guiding! The World Gathering in Lome should adopt theis perspective : « The ICCG to-day : Which faces, which vocations ? » It is not surprising therefore that the key words of its theme are in the plural.

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