I. Present-Day Challenges

72. The Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops was convoked so that the whole Church of God on the Continent might reflect on its evangelizing mission in the light of the Third Millennium and prepare, as I have said, "an or- ganic pastoral solidarity within the entire African territory and nearby Islands".137 Such a mission includes, as already mentioned, urgent tasks and challenges, due to the profound and rapid changes in African societies and to the effects of the emergence of a global civilization.