The Presbyterian Church in Cameroon will be celebrating its Golden Jubilee On November 11, 2007. The moderator of the Presbyterian Church is the Rt. Rev. Dr. Nyansako-ni-Nku. He spoke to the Press in Buea on the eve of the celebrations of the PCC and began by explaining why the change of name from the Basel mission to the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon:

"The name Basel derived from an organisation that was based in Basel, [Switzerland], but when we became independent, the idea was to establish it on the reforms of the reformed theology because even the Basel mission theology had been based on the informational theological Fathers like Martin Luther and John Calvin. That is why we call it Presbyterian meaning a church whose government is based on elected elders exercising authorities in established committees of the church."

On Achievements of the PCC 50 Years On

There is a lot in terms of the triumph of God's Grace to celebrate. When we started the P.C.C. in 1957, it was limited on that little strip called the Southern Cameroons. Today, the church has gone to all the ten provinces of Cameroon. The population at that time was about 59,000, but today we have close to a million people. When we had our independence form the Basel mission there was only one secondary school then, CPC Bali, but there are fifteen today. At the time there were no hospitals, only two health clinics, but there four General Hospitals today including a specialised eye centre in Bafut, with over twenty Health units. There's been a huge explosion in population growth of the church and internal movements: CWF, CYF, and CMF. Spiritually, the church has grown to maturity when you look at its impact on the life of this nation. Thus, the basis of the celebration is to thank God.

On PCC's Apparent Silence on Political Issues in Cameroon

It depends on the kind of interest that the media pays on the kind of statements that we issue. We were amongst the first to publish details of the crisis in the early 90s. We came out with a publication entitled "Crying Justice" which was later translated into German and had a wide publicity in the world. We have always come out stating our position very clearly on political issues--praising when necessary and condemning where we thought that things went wrong. We are wondering why the media doesn't seem to give much attention to these statements that we make.

On the War against Corruption

PCC Moderator

On Revivalism in the church

Any church that seizes to revive will soon die, Revivalism is not a problem as such, but it is what people make out of revivalism. The problem is that some fanatics behave as if the Holy Spirit is in their pockets and the church is nothing else but the Holy Spirit. While we agree that it is part of an expression, we condemn those who manifest the "Holier than Thou" attitudes.

On the PCC University Project

We are moving on well, and the papers have all been served in the appropriate ministry. We have acquired a huge parcel of land. We are trying to contact our partners overseas to see what contributions they can make. When we are through with the Golden Jubilee, we will re-launch the pro-ramidien in the congregation so that fund raising should start again. We kind of suspended it because we wanted to focus more on the Golden Jubilee. There is a committee on this with very dedicated and committed Cameroonians, working day and night to make sure that this project is realised.

The main campus will be in Bali, because that is where the first institution of higher learning of the Presbyterian Church was located. The other campus which will be school of social science and Theology will be in Kumba. Thereafter, depending on the circumstances, we will see how much further decentralisation can do. If for instance we are going to have a medical school, which is part of the university project, then the committee will have to see whether it will be crated close to one of the big hospitals so that the infrastructure serves as a Teaching Hospital.