To Africa, With Joy

Planting a Diocese in Ethiopia
by Grant LeMarquand

A few years ago there was only a marginal Anglican presence in Ethiopia. There was one parish, St. Matthew’s (quite a vibrant place really) in the capital, Addis Ababa. It was designed as a “chaplaincy” – an English-speaking church primarily for expatriates and under the authority of the Bishop of Egypt.

But then some time ago the Egyptian bishop, Mouneer Anis, a great friend of ours here at Trinity, began to receive letters from western Ethiopia. The letters said basically, “We’re here.  We’ve planted a church. We’re Anglicans. So you are our Bishop.” No mission society sent these church planters and no one was paying them a salary. Some of the leaders had been ordained, but many had not. None of them had much theological training. And most were refugees who had been driven out of their homes by persecution and war in southern Sudan. Some of the new Anglican churches were established in refugee camps, some in local villages, some meeting under trees, some building churches out of local materials (see a nice nine-minute video on You Tube – search on “Anglican Church in Ethiopia”). Remarkably, the You Tube video, made in March 2007, is way out of date. At the time there were 32 churches, most of them in the border area near Sudan around the town of Gambella. Now a year later there are 46 churches in Ethiopia.

One of the most wonderful developments happened in the last couple of years – one of the church leaders heard about a group of people living on the other side of the river from his village. These people (the Opo) had no written language, so no Bible, and no one had ever brought the gospel to them before. So this church leader, Gordon Rok, waded across the river, met the Opo people (some of whom spoke his language, Nuer) and explained the good news of Jesus to them. Now there are three churches among the Opo. Remarkable.

My wife Wendy and I first heard about the Anglican Church in Ethiopia when Bishop Mouneer was in Ambridge for a sabbatical. He convinced us to pray about whether God wanted us to be involved. In July 2007 I visited the new Area Bishop, Andrew Proud, and his wife Janice. Andrew and I traveled to the Gambella region together where I experienced a bit of the vibrancy of the church there – and saw the tremendous need.

Many of the Christians in western Ethiopia are poor, a good number are refugees. Although there are many needs, more than anything, they want education. Bishop Andrew had already established a program of theological education by extension in which local tutors were trained in weeklong intensive courses and then sent out to parishes to teach what they had learned. But they wanted more.

Bishop Andrew found the funds to bring together all of the pastors and tutors for a conference in January. I was to teach African Church History and Wendy (my wife is a physician) would teach Christian Perspectives on Healing and Health Care. My class began at 7:00 am, just as the sun was coming up. We taught under a tree in a small grass-walled enclosure on the compound of St. Luke’s Church in Gambella. A blackboard was tied to a tree and the fifty or so students from St. Philip’s School of Theology sat on benches. As the sun climbed we would shift around to avoid being in direct sunlight. We would break for breakfast at 9:00 and by 11:00 it was too hot to teach or to learn. From 11:00 until noon Wendy treated patients in the somewhat cool but rather dark church – and then we all slept for three hours or so.

My course was a joy to teach – especially since most of these pastors had never had a chance to learn about the rich history of the church on their own continent. We covered the church in Egypt and North Africa, discussing the great African theologians who shaped Christian thinking for all of us – Athanasius, Origen, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Cyprian of Carthage, and Augustine. We talked about the founding of the Nubian church in the 6th century and its final demise in the 16th century. We learned about the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and its history of 16 centuries. We spoke of the Portuguese explorers, the Arab and the Atlantic slave trades and how the ending of the slave trade in Europe sparked the missionary movement. We discussed African martyrs, evangelists, priests and bishops and discovered that foreign missionaries only played a minor role in African church history compared with the enormous accomplishments of African Christians themselves.

In the late afternoon Wendy taught her class (and then usually saw a few more patients). Her course started with a discussion of worldviews – comparing biblical, African, and modern scientific perspectives on healing and health care. She taught about community-based health care, about praying for healing and how various dimensions of healing and health care can be integrated.

In both of our courses the students were actively engaged, never really wanting to stop discussing and thinking through issues.

One of the great joys of working with Andrew and Janice Proud, and with these Anuak, Nuer and Opo church leaders is that we were able to see an amazing process at work: the emergence of a new diocese. Bishop Mouneer and Bishop Andrew believe that Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa will one day be an independent Anglican diocese. Wendy and I hope to spend a few weeks a year in Ethiopia over the next few years, God willing. And we hope to bring people with us next time.

[Note: Since the writing of this essay, Grant LeMarquand has heard from Bishop Andrew that many of the communities in western Ethiopia have been displaced by the government. Please keep the churches of these villages in your prayers.]

A Vibrant Community of Faith
by John Macdonald

During the late summer of 2004, the Rev. Stanley Ntgali, then Provincial Secretary for the Anglican Church of Uganda, met with me in my office at Trinity. He was on sabbatical in the US for several months and had recently been elected Bishop of the newly formed Diocese of Masindi-Kitara. This diocese was once part of the Diocese of Bunyoro-Kitara where Trinity’s first alumni bishop, the Rt. Rev. Wilson Turumanya served until his retirement at about that same time.

The bishop-elect had known that I had been to Uganda several times and was interested in having a team from Trinity go to Masindi in January, 2006, to lead a teaching conference for the clergy of the diocese. He knew that they were gifted in many aspects of pastoral ministry, but they needed deeper teaching on some of the basics of ministerial preparation lacking in their own theological training. His plight is typical for those in leadership positions in Africa and in other parts of the Global South. The commitment and the faith are high, but the training and the education is limited. One of the most oft-quoted statements about Africa is that “Christianity is a mile wide and an inch deep.” Would that we suffered from having Christianity being a “mile wide” in the West!

Masindi is a provincial city four hours northwest of Kampala in the Kingdom of Bunyoro. It serves as the gateway to Murcheson Falls National Park, one of the largest game parks in Uganda. The park is home to several thousand elephants, tens of thousands of antelope, and thousands of hippos, crocodiles, and giraffes – and lions and leopards, too.

Eighteen months after my meeting with Bishop Ntgali, I was leading a team from Trinity to teach the clergy on the theme of “Stewardship.” Thus began a relationship that has grown over the last three years, with the latest trip to Uganda taking place this past January 2008. The Bishop must have appreciated what we were doing, because the second year, he invited not only the clergy but the lay pastors for a conference on “Bible Study.” He has said on more than one occasion that Trinity has quality people. This past year, the numbers increased as we did training in marriage and family issues that included not only the clergy and the lay pastors, but their spouses as well.

Joining me on this team was Trinity’s new Church History professor, Dr. Phil Harrold. Charles Jenkins, a Middler student from the Diocese of South Carolina also accompanied us. Finishing out the team were Rob and Ginger Stage from St. Stephen’s Church in Sewickley, PA. Ginger is a licensed psychologist and counselor, and her insight into family systems was invaluable and helpful in spite of the differences in culture between the Ugandans in Masindi and the US. I had heard from a couple of mutual friends that the Stages were interested in going to Africa, and the topic on families seemed to be the perfect fit.

The theme for this past conference in January was particularly daunting because of what we knew about differences in family relationships, marriage, and child rearing. However, once we got into the topic and the Team had asked good questions of Ugandans whom we met prior to leaving and while traveling in Uganda to Masindi, the Lord put us all at ease and blessed us with material that was helpful and appropriate.

Phil gave the first talk on “The Family of God: An Introductory Overview to the Family in the Bible.”  I taught on “Marriage and the Family in Ephesians 5,” Ginger on “Understanding the Self in the Context of our Relationships” and “Anxiety and Responsibility,” and Charles finished with “From Suffering and Struggling to Hope and Grace.” Each talk was preceded by a meditation, and Rob blessed us with some special insights when he spoke on a passage from the Gospel of John. All the teaching was interpreted into Runyoro for the benefit of those who did not have command of English. Accompanying the teaching were times of prayer and praise – and just the experience of worshiping in that setting in Masindi was refreshing and renewing. Singing and praising God are not sedentary activities!

At the end of our time in Masindi, we were invited to attend a wedding of a clergy couple in St. Matthew’s Cathedral and the subsequent reception. This was a joyous occasion with hundreds of guests invited to the Bishop’s house afterwards for food and refreshments. We were entertained by singers and dancers who sang and danced in traditional dress to traditional music.

One of the joys of my work at Trinity is to take students and others to Uganda each year as this partnership with the Diocese of Masindi-Kitara grows and develops. There is a depth and richness to the culture and to their experience of the Christian faith that contribute greatly to our understanding of the gospel and how it can be used to change individual lives and society.  Even
though we went with a teaching role, we also went as students to learn and to grow – and to be transformed by this vibrant community of faith.

Students, Sunshine and Supplies of Hot Tea
by Justyn Terry

While the Most Rev. Dr. Mouneer Anis, now Presiding Bishop of Jerusalem and the Middle East, was at Trinity on sabbatical in the summer of 2006, he took a June Term class with me on “The Anglican Way of Theology.” He said how useful this would be to clergy in Egypt and for those in training at the Alexandria School of Theology, and asked if I’d be willing to teach the course in Cairo. It was in response to that request that I flew to Cairo with my wife, Cathy, and daughters Sophia (then 9) and Lydia (7) on January 8, 2008.

We had a few days to acclimatize and to do some sight-seeing before the classes began and we were able to visit Alexandria, where we went to the Alexandria School of Theology and met some of its teachers and students. This came shortly after the visit by “The Desert Saints” travel study tour, led by the Rev. Dr. Les Fairfield, that Dr. Theresa Newell wrote about for the last Seed & Harvest. We also went to Sinai and stayed overnight at St. Catherine’s Monastery before climbing Mount Sinai (the girls taking camels and Cathy and I walking quickly behind them, trying to keep up!). It was even possible to paddle in the Red Sea on the way back – which we must have done in a very English way judging from the amusement this brought to our drivers!

The teaching began on the Monday morning and had to be finished by Thursday evening. This meant covering a full semester’s material, already condensed a bit to fit into a five-day June Term week, in only four days – and having it all translated into Arabic! Thankfully, the text of my lecture notes and the quotations from the Anglican authors we were to study were already translated and copied for the 45 or so students who attended.

In many ways, it was meeting the students and discovering their way of life in Cairo that was the most fascinating aspect of the class. We met at Cairo Cathedral and had students not only from Egypt, but also from Sudan, Ethiopia, Libya and Jordan. In addition, there were a few from New Zealand, Canada, Holland, the UK and the US, mainly missionaries working in Cairo, but it also included Richard and Dawn Bates, students at Trinity. Richard is to be ordained by Bishop Mouneer in May and he and Dawn are preparing to serve in Cairo. It was a great privilege to see where they will be working.

The Principal of the Alexandria School of Theology, the Rev. Emad Azmi Mikhail, and several members of the faculty took turns translating as I lectured. It was a particular joy to have Shady Anis, Bishop Mouneer’s son and another Trinity student, on the team of translators. He is preparing to join the faculty of the Alexandria School of Theology to teach Systematic Theology, and it was a delightful thought that next time this material is presented, it might well be Shady teaching it! It was also a source of constant amazement to me that no matter how obscure the theological term or how quaint the English expression, everything was so readily translated. They must have coined their own Arabic term for “Latitudinarians” (the forerunners of today’s liberals and revisionists), which I imagine will one day find its way into Arabic dictionaries.

One of the things that helped students process the material they were being introduced to was the group discussion times. Bishop Mouneer, Rev. Emad and some of his colleagues, as well as Richard, Shady and I led groups to look at some of the writings of these Anglican authors. That meant that Richard and Shady, who were taking the class for credit and therefore writing papers, were able to think through some of the issues raised with others who were also working on it.

My lasting memories of teaching this class are of eager and able students, sunshine (though it was cool enough that I needed a scarf), constant supplies of hot tea (for which I was especially thankful!) and fresh supplies of food that seemed to be continually arriving at the Cathedral! As a family we enjoyed generous hospitality on numerous occasions, even being able to meet up with “The Desert Saints” study tour as they passed through Cairo when Bishop Mouneer invited us all to his home. The Bishop and his wife, Nancy, not only had us over for dinner on another evening, but even took us out to a local store to show us how to find produce to buy to make meals for ourselves.

Cathy and the girls were able to do more sight-seeing than I could, but I did get some sense of life for Christians in Cairo and to see some of the challenges they face in their life and witness. When we were visiting Alexandria, we were having refreshments just outside St. Mark’s Church when security police checked to see that our host was not in any way proselytizing us. It was clear that the witness of Christians in Egypt can be risky and costly, and we have all come back with a stronger commitment to pray regularly for the Church there.

The Rev. Dr. Grant LeMarquand is Academic Dean and Associate Professor of Biblical Studies and Mission; The Rev. Canon John Macdonald is Assistant Professor of Mission and Evangelism and Director of the Stanway Institute; and the Rev. Dr. Justyn Terry is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology.