By IAPD Africa
May 22nd, 2024 was a great day in the history of the IAPD-Africa & Africa Union. It was the celebration of AFRICA SPIRITUAL DAY which was held in the Medium Hall of the AFRICA UNION under the theme: “EDUCATING THE AFRICAN PERSON TO BE SPIRITUALLY Fit in the 21st Century”.
More than 350 local participants took part in the event in addition to 27 Religious Leaders from many countries such as South Africa, Rwanda, Ghana, COTE D’IVOIRE, Nigeria, etc, and even from USA, Canada & UK.
Something to appreciate was that the foreign participants were all self-sponsored. Among the 350 local participants, were: Simon’s religious leaders invitees 36 people, Pastor Adane’s invitees 99 people, the Inter-Religious Council of OROMIA 15 people, Ethiopian Catholic Church 9 people, Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo church 11 people, Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council 15 people, and the total RELIGIOUS LEADERS 214 people.
And the remainder comes from different parts of civil society. Seeing Religious Leaders of different denominations coming together to celebrate the day was a so heart-moving event.
After the signature of the Memorandum of Understanding, here comes the realization of one of its contents, the Marking of the Africa Spiritual Day.
It has been a long since IAPD Africa decided to organize Africa Spiritual Day in the AFRICA UNION, but there have been many changes of dates due to already booked programs in AU. And, most importantly, IAPD Africa leaders wanted to proceed first with the signing of the MOU and secondly the Africa Spiritual Day as a milestone of the signing that comes to realize it.
Once the hall was filled with participants, the program started at 11 am ended by 1 pm. Rev. George OGURIE, IAPD Africa coordinator, and Mrs. HAZEL DIXON, CIDO official were the MCs of the day.
It started with the Africa Union anthem and a musical offering from the MESERET KRISTOS choir.
Overall, the program went well, except a change in the keynote Addresses wherein the African Traditional Perspective was skipped due to the Presenter absence. 4 different perspectives were given as Keynote addresses and we could, actually, feel participants were moved to see faiths stand on a common ground.
Right after the closing invocations of Cheikh IMAM MOUSSA DRAME & Rabbi BELAYNEH, people were directed toward the NELSON MANDELA Hall for a group photo. Lunch was also offered to all the participants.
And, in the afternoon, an interactive session was programmed for the foreign participants, so that they be more committed to IAPD and its purpose. However, this session was optional for the local participants because some of them might have work and engagements.
As a conclusion, I would say this is an historical event as it has never been seen such celebration involving different RL. This is a kind of nucleus or a model of the VISION OF OUR TPs to see all humanity coming together to realize ONE FAMILY UNDER GOD.
