The development of ministries appears to have slowed down somewhat in our Churches. This is why it seems of some importance to us to call this matter to every Christian believer's attention in order to give a new impulse to creativity.

In the way it chose to characterize the Church, Vatican II insisted on communion. The Church, as people of God is rooted in equality, a common dignity and the shared responsibility of all for the mission. 

The Council was unable to set aside the idea which predominated of a laity lacking the power to enable it to participate effectively in the leadership of the Church. Especially remarkable was that the insistence of an equal dignity still excluded women from any position of power. Today there is even evidence of tentative effort to reinforce the hierarchical centralization of the institutional Church.

It is consequently all the more urgent for us to bring back the schema on communion and to change the ministerial structure to which the Council failed to bring the necessary amendment. We believe that it is possible to do much more than what is now the present practice.

Our reflections on the ministries that we propose may be considered as criticism of certain past attitudes and certain actual practices only in so far as they open the way to future hopes. God is not dead; in Africa, the word is that he is not even asleep. The future lies ahead of us, not in the far distance but right at hand.