Presiding Bishop set to visit Liberia
Episcopal News Service. December 17, 2009 [121709-01]
Lynette Wilson
Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is scheduled to visit Africa with a weeklong trip to Liberia in January. The visit will mark the first time she is the official guest of an African church
At the invitation of Episcopal Church of Liberia Bishop Jonathan B.B. Hart, Jefferts Schori will witness the work of the church, celebrate Mass at Trinity Cathedral in the capital Monrovia and visit Episcopal-affiliated Cuttington University, among other stops both inside and outside the nation's capital. In addition to meeting with diocesan staff, clergy and vestry members, the presiding bishop is scheduled to meet with U.S. Embassy and USAID officials and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the continent's first elected African woman president.
"It will be wonderful for the presiding bishop to go and identify herself with them," said the Rev. Emmanuel K. Sserwadda, Episcopal Church program officer for Africa. "It has been three years since the war ended and the country is still recovering and rebuilding."
Founded by the U.S.-based Episcopal Church in 1836, the Episcopal Church of Liberia was a diocese in the Episcopal Church until 1980, when it became part of the Anglican Province of West Africa. As part of that change of affiliation, the Episcopal Church and the Liberia diocese established a covenant partnership, which pledges each entity to mutual ministry and interdependence and calls for financial subsidies with an eventual goal of self sufficiency and sustainability for the Church of Liberia.
From 1983 through 2007, the Liberian church received close to $6.6 million from the Episcopal Church.
The most recent version of the covenant was adopted by Executive Council in April.
"To understand the significance of the presiding bishop's visit, you have to understand the history," said Bishop Herbert Donovan, deputy to the presiding bishop for Anglican Communion relations. "Liberia has long historical ties to the United States and the Episcopal Church established an early mission field there.
"What is especially significant is that Liberia has a woman president and we have a woman presiding bishop."
Both Jefferts Schori and Johnson Sirleaf took office in 2006. The Monrovia-based Daily Observer newspaper, in an article published Dec. 13, referred to Jefferts Schori as the country's most important visitor in many years.
First founded as an American colony in the 1820s as a homeland for freed slaves, Liberia became an independent republic in 1847, but kept close ties with the United States. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, Liberia was crushed by civil war, with more than 250,000 people killed and more than one million people displaced.
During the war, communication between the church in Liberia and the United States was difficult; still the covenant continued and the Liberian diocese worked to aid internally displaced people and refugees, said Sserwadda.
Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) also operates programs in Liberia. During the war ERD supported the diocese through emergency relief grants, providing food, shelter, clothing and transportation to children, women, handicapped people and others. Post-war, ERD has worked with the diocese to implement a long-term recovery program, said Danielle Tirello, ERD program associate for Africa and the Middle East.
Through its NetsforLife program, ERD has distributed more than 270,000 nets and plans to distribute another 150,000 in 2010, she added.
The diocese, with support from the Episcopal Church, operates social programs to meet the education, health and community development needs of the people of Liberia, as well as the work of spiritual development and financial sustainability. Among other provisions, the current covenant partnership includes a five-year development plan for reconstruction and rehabilitation.
Post-war, Liberia's infrastructure and electric grid remains in ruin, and 15,000 U.N. peacekeeping troops are still on the ground. Former president Charles Taylor is on trial in The Hague for alleged war crimes for supporting rebels in neighboring Sierra Leone.
"It's important for the presiding bishop to see what they are going through and the strength of their faith, which upheld them during their time of war," said Sserwadda.