Open to mission

128. The Church in Africa is not called to bear witness to Christ only on the Continent; for to it the Risen Lord also says: "You shall be my witnesses to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). For this very reason, during their discussions of the Synod's theme, the Fathers carefully avoided every tendency to isolationism by the Church in Africa. At all times the Special Assembly kept in view the missionary mandate which the Church received from Christ: to bear witness to him in the whole world.244 The Synod Fathers acknowledged God's call to Africa to play its full part, at the world level, in his plan for the salvation of the human race (cf. 1 Tim 2:4).