Brethren on this forum, I greet you all in the precious name of Jesus. Firstly, i would like to say thank you to all of you for your friendship.

As an AMEC preacher on the mother of Africa, i have derived alot of pleasure, knowledge and lessons from this family thread since I started participating in 1999.

Sometimes i have raised issues that look useless and highly political from the point of view of you my dear brethren in the States.

Allow me to state that, what i have posted on this board has always been a true reflection of what goes on here in our Episcopal District.

To those that have taken offense at my postings, let me say that we your brethren share these matters purely to sample your opinions and for you to be aware of what issues affect US.

After having said the above, let me bother you again and please put up with me.

We are now a few weeks to before the AMEC General Conference commences. Africa has and will request for four (4) positions to be set aside for African born candidates. Right now, Africa has seventeen (17) aspiring candidates for Episcopal Office.

If this request is granted, who are the top four African born candidates do you in your Spirit feel and think will go through as Bishops of the AMEC?

Can you ably list down the names of all the 17 African born candidates?

How well do you know the 17 African born candidates and can you confidently can a vote for any one?

God bless you all, till i hear from you.

-- Anonymous, May 19, 2004

Answers

Brother Mwandi,

it would be most helpful if the bio of each canidate was made available on a site under the heading African Born Canidates for AME Bishop.

Pastor Wade

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2004

Brother J P from the State of Texas has an up to date list of candidates drawn from the whole globe.I cannot immediately recall the sites address but it is a "must visit" site. From the 17th point of view grateful you visit the following: http://www.mkwanaziforbishop.org/

Delegates to the South East Zambia conference of the AMEC held in Lusaka from 16-19 September 2003 responded affirmatively with a defeaning applause during and after Rev N.Jordan Mkwanazi, Candidate for episcopal office for the 17th Episcopal District outlined his "Vision 2004: A MUSE for increase." Accompanied by his dear wife Rev Henrietta Sullivan Mkwanazi who is also an Itinerant Elder in the AME Church and his assistant pastor at Bethel AME Church in Dallas Texas,Rev N.Jordan Mkwanazi impressed the delegates when he was given the platform to speak to the conference on Friday 19 September 2003 one hour before his departure for the US.

In his speech,he mentioned that when he takes over from Bishop Williams at the end the end of the 2004 General Conference,he will address the following issues:

1)MINISTRY - Develop the grounds for Spiritual renewal through evangelism,worship and discipleship

2)UNANIMITY - Cultivate an environment that will give the overseas districts a better understanding of the Connection and therby encouraging increased support to it.

3)STEWARDSHIP - Efffectively utilize the existing resources to improve the economic and membership status of the overseas churches.

4)EDUCATION - Develop academic and theological infrastructures to promote educated,visionary and effective clergy and leadership.

Out of well over 1500 Clergy, less that one third are either academically and theologically trained.This is inspite of the AME Church owning it's own colleges and univrsities in the US.

The apperance of Rev N Jordan Mkwanazi helped in clarifying the misrepresentation and misinformation that was going round the city of Lusaka that the 17th only endorsed one candidate as opposed to three. Bishop Preston Warren Williams said there were three candidates all of whom had been endorsed by the righful body of the 17th.

The delegates said that time had come for the 17th Episcopal District to gain from the work which was initiated by Bishop H.H.Brookins who personally invested in Rev N.Jordan Mkwanzi's development.The full scolarship awarded to him to attend Paul Quinn College in Waco,Texas by Senior Bishop John Hurst Adams leading to acquisition of his post graduate education was appreciated by all the delegates.

Rev Mkwanazi has a large following of volunteers and workers in the 17th Episcopal District.His Zambian based team is one of the most organised and has effectively reached out to three annual conference. The following are verified statistics which the campaign team has on file :

In the South East Zambia conference alone out of 1855 delegates, there were 1761 volunteers cards.

From the South West Zambia Conference,which is the headquarters of Rev Mkwanazi's campaign, out of 2330 delegates,there were 2251 volunteer cards.

From the North West Zambia Conference,out of 1345 delegates,there were 1220 volunteer cards.

The team is yet to cover the last North East Zambia annual conference which has been put off due to Bishop Williams departure to the US to attend to his ill mother in law.

Residing in the US has given Rev Mkwanazi a fair advantage as he has been accepted to be a bridge builder between Africa and the US thereby promoting the much needed conectionalism.He is being referd to as Nehemiah who has come at the "Right Time" to rebuild the fallen walls of Jerusalem.

Rev Mkwanazi had been on the Continent from August 2003 when he came to attend the AJC Harare,Zimbabwe.He was also privilegd to attend the only two annual conferences Harare and Bulawayo in Zimbabwe respectively.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2004

Something to ponder and consider. How will the election of indigenous African clergymen as AME Bishops help in responding to the humanitarian crises in and Nigeria? I read a deeply disturbing article today in the Wall Street Journal about the growing threat of genocide in Sudan and the on-going civil war in northern Nigeria. These and other like topics inside Africa, appear to not merit much attention from the US mainstream press or interntional agencies like the UN. This is both puzzling and depressing. QED

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2004

Rev. Mwandu is most kind, but I am not quite "up to date" :-). The address of the list is http://www.ghg.net/jlpayne/candidates.html. I, too, am looking for about 11 of the 17 candidates, but those candidates whose biographies are known are linked to their names in the tables.

With GenCon only 40 days away, I'll try to get a final update on the site on Memorial Day weekend.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2004

You realize that those persons from Africa will not be consecrated full bishops. There were several proposals from the AJC as to what they would be called. It was very clear that they would not be equal with the American bishops, nor would they be allowed to serve in a US Episcopal District. They will be somewhere between presiding elders and bishops; perhaps a super PE or junior Bishop. They will not get the pay and allowances of a bishop. I, for one, believe the candidates from the motherland ought to be elected and consecrated bishops with all the rights and privileges of the current bench of bishops. We cannot do less if we love the Lord and our church.

-- Anonymous, May 21, 2004

Rev. Mwandu, I have been told that you serve as the campaign manager for Rev Mkwanazi, is this true???

There are other candidates running for Bishop out of the 15,17,18 and 19th district. If you are really in support of the proposal of an African Bishop, it would only be fair to inform us of all the candidates. I can only assume that you, if you are the campaign manager, would know the name of those who are seeking the same office as your candidate, but that is only if you are the campaign manager.

I have heard of two candidates whose names do not appear on any listing or website, therefore leaves me to question the validity of the sites mentioned. I have tried to contact the webmaster of the Bishop listing with no success. I am curious to know how his listing was obtained. The two candidates that I speak of are Paul J. Kawimbe and Noah Nyamaropa both out of the 17th District.

It is my prayer that we as AME's serve as educated voters. It is bad enough that we vote without knowledge in our local government elections, let us not perpetuate the same mistakes within our church.

I was sharing with a friend that if we are serious about having the right people in leadership we should design a forum or a mechanism that would allow people to measure the candidates based on their personal values. I found a tool on the web, which I believe was linked to 2004Elections, where you could select your values and they would rank them against the then 19 candidates seeking presidential office. Based on my values - Edwards would have been my candidate and several others matched portions of my values. My recommendation is as we move forward - we consider investing in such tools that would allow our delegates to be educated voters.

My personal opinion is the right person is not necessarily the one elected for the position, but the person with the deepest pockets; the one that can buy the delegate mailing list, send information to the delegates, sponsor breakfast/lunch/dinner/reception at connectional meeting and the individual that have the right connections to get the right people to sponsor them. That sound so much like the capitalist society which we live and not the church in which we worship.

Finally, let those of us that read this board, began a prayer chain for our General Conference - each day at least one prayer.

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2004

A couple of pooints of clarification, if I may:

• Rev. Mwandu is indeed a member of the Mkwanazi for Bishop campaign, and has stated so on previous threads.
• Each candidate is responsible for his or her own web site. As I find out about them, I link to them as a courtesy to them and a convenience to those who ae searching for candidates on the web.
• I will be glad to add your two candidates to the table. I usually seek dual confirmation for all candidates so that the site indeed has "validity". My validating sources include the candidates' web sites, their literature, my own conversations with them, or the Christian Recorder. Validity is truly important, and I agree with you on making sure we have accurate information.
• I join you in your prayer for educated voters. The site began as a simple personal tool to keep track of the candidates in the last two quadrennia for my wife, who is a delegate. When the question about the candidates arose on this board four years ago, it was a simple matter to move my personal table to the web. Keeping it up to date and valid, though, has been quite a challenge :-).
• Your candidate survey Values Evaluation Tool is an excellent idea. Its only drawback - getting the stated position of all 60+ candidates.
• As I recall, all delegates from the previous General Conference received the Delegate Mailing list, and I believe it was at no additional charge. This provides candidates who have been delegates before with useful contact information.
• I join you in prayer for the General Conference. Another excellent idea.
• If I can get to the source files later this weekend, the Candidates' List will be updated. Still a lot to do, including reading about 6 back issues of the Recorder.

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2004

Thank you for your reply,

I am appreciative of your work. I know the challenges surrounding maintaining up to date websites. My note was not to offend or criticize anyone who is helping the church to become educated. I commend you on your efforts and your commitment.

I don't feel that we (the church universal) do a good job in communication. There are so many vehicles available to us, but we do not adequately utilize our resources. The ame-today website is a great example, hasn't been updated since Mid-2003; that is a sad state of affairs.

Is it possible that in 2008 the church provides means for the candidates to have at least a site that has their bio if nothing else and the platform for which they are running? That would be of great assistance to those who have been given the opportunity to elect their next bishop.

I probably have too many opinions, so I will just keep things to myself from this point forward. “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:14 NIV).

Thank you for responding, I love to learn more about our church and it's processes; especially those that are not written in the Discipline.

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2004

Thanks, everyone for your patience. After a busy week, the Candidates' List is updated with the latest sources and requests. The work continues, and I await this weekend's e-mails with any new information.

-- Anonymous, June 04, 2004

Having just left the Sunday School Convention a few minutes ago, I am shaken by two things: One, we had a discussion regrading the candidates for bishop and we were refering to the African candidates as "they" and the American candidates as "We"; and the candidates born in Africa now pastoring in the US as "American Africans". The second shock came when the presiding elder said he was "going down" meaning he was no longer going to be presiding elder, but not alone, but was taking someone with him. Since I am very outspoken in my views, I have to assume that means me. What would you do in my position?

-- Anonymous, June 04, 2004

Stand fast like Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Daniel, knowing that God will protect you in the heat of whatever fire you find yourself in.

Don't forget what happens to those who touch God's annointed.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2004