By Joseph O. Sayon
A five Day conference of the West African Association of Theological Institutions (WAATI) has opened in Liberia with a focus to reduce poverty among member states.
The conference is currently taking place at the Liberia Baptist Theological Seminar in Paynesville.
WAATI’s President, Professor Stephen Ayankeye, said theological institutions are under obligation to help government address critical social issues including poverty.
Professor Ayankeye said the conference will develop and adopt a communique that would be used as a single instrument by all Member Countries with the same idea and focus.
“We brought the WAATI conference to Liberia because we realized that since Liberia is part of WAATI we must bring the conference here to make Liberia feel part of the Organization”.
“As Theological Institutions we are expected to be addressing the problems in the society and one of the major problems in the society today is poverty so once we reason together here we can go back to our various instructions to popularize what we learn in the conference and improve on them at our institutions.”
“We can use what we learn from the conference to address the issue of poverty in our respective theological Institutions.”
“This conference will inform the people of Liberia about the existence and importance of the Liberia Association of Theological Institutions”
“I want you to know that one of the things you need to know is that Theological Institutions are expected to be a thang think for the Churches and the Churches are expected thereby to strengthen the society”, he adds.
Like in Liberia we are aware of the poverty level but once we talk about poverty we are not just talking about material poverty, but once we meet time to time we can evaluate our work and once we do so we can make the society a better place to live.
Also speaking the President of the Liberia Association of Theological Institution (LATI), Dr. Amos Beyan said LATI is excited for the convening of the WAATI conference in Liberia.
Dr. Beyan noted that the conference is expected to bring more benefits to the Country including student exchange.
“Liberia has not been very active in WAATI but this conference as we expect there would be a lots of exchanges among Theological Institutions in Liberia.”
Dr. Beyan said the teaching of the Gospel also contribute to poverty reduction because what they teach change the minds of people and direct them positively in transforming their lives.
Using the Bible to reduce poverty
The President of Cuttington University in Bong County, Dr. Herman Browne reflected on the language use by the Bible to reduce poverty with the focus on human flourishing.
Dr. Browne said there are certain conditions that prevent and work against human flourishing to the maximum.
He named the conditions as ill-health; bad governance, corruption, political instability and others negative factors.
Dr. Browne challenged Churches to speak the Language of the poor and ensure that their voices are heard.
He said by doing so the poor will understand which side the church stands.
