Belize, Namibia Draw Sympathy of Council
Episcopal News Service. November 23, 1983 [83218]
NEW YORK (DPS, Nov.23) -- Beleaguered Anglicans in Central America and southwestern Africa commanded the attention -- and material support -- of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church as it wound up its work for 1983.
Meeting at the Episcopal Church Center here, the 40-member Council heard reports on recent inter-Anglican meetings in Belize and Namibia and later in the Nov. 16-18 session passed a number of resolutions of support and encouragement for those struggling Churches. Council member Pamela C. Chinnis of Washington reported to the Council on the concerns of Belize while Bishop Edmond L. Browning of Hawaii and Bishop Furman C. Stough of Alabama -- both Council members -- spurred the response on Namibia.
Chinnis reported on a meeting of the Anglican Council of North America and the Caribbean which took place in Belize specifically to help that tiny nation and Church find ways of ministering to the hordes of refugees to which it finds itself host.. The former British colony at the southeastern tip of Mexico is home to fewer than 200,000 people yet has been, for much of its history, a place of first refuge for those fleeing Central America's periodic upheavals.
One government minister told the Anglicans that "refugees have contributed to our country before and they will again," Chinnis noted but added that, in spite of that positive attitude, there were problems. She said that estimates of numbers of refugees -- mostly from El Salvador currently -- ranged from the official figure of 2,000 to the high, but widely accepted figure of 25,000. Most of these live in a remote camp -- the team visited it by Royal Air Force helicopter -- and water, food, and any means of livelihood are hard to secure.
Further, she said, there is a language difficulty. Belizeans are English speaking and of an English culture while most of those they play host to are Hispanic in language and culture and this has caused some friction which is exacerbated by the low per capita income of $1,000 upon which the people survive.
However, Chinnis assured the Council that the Anglican visitors came away convinced that the Church and the country as a whole were making every effort to help the refugees and to see their work as an opportunity for ministry. Council was also told that Province IX of the Episcopal Church was exploring ways in which the neighboring dioceses and Church relief and development agencies could share this work.
Stough and Browning both have spent time this year in Namibia, visiting congregations, touring the war zone and learning the needs of that country. Stough led a delegation of Alabamians there this summer in fulfillment of a Companion diocese commitment. Browning was part of an inter-Anglican delegation sent there this fall by Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie.
Although the team's report is only now being prepared for Runcie's action, Browning told the Council that he had made his observations of Namibia the subject of his address to Hawaii's convention earlier in November. He assured the Council that most Namibians wanted the Churches to support United Nations action to seek free and open elections and an end to the illegal occupation of that country by the Republic of South Africa. The war between South African forces and the guerrillas of the Southwest Africa People's Organization -- which in spite of admitted excesses holds the support of the people, Browning said -- has struck especially hard an Anglican strongholds in the north. Schools, churches, clinics and a seminary have been destroyed. Movement is restricted and South African and SWAPO forces both admitted incidences of subterfuge and terror against the natives.
When appraised of these conditions, he told the Council, the diocese of Hawaii responded with a pledge of $79,000 -- 10 percent of its budget -- to the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief for use in 1984 to create a fund for the rebuilding of the Church.
Stough, whose reflections on his visit (and photographs of tipsy, occupying troopers) have been gracing the pages of the Alabama Churchman for three issues, added that his diocese had committed itself to $125,000 for the same cause, but added a caution that money was not enough. He and Browning both cited a reluctance on the part of some Namibians to speak to Americans, until assured that they were Churchmen, because current U.S. policies are seen as supportive of South Africa.
It was also reported that the Diocese of Texas had contributed $100,000 to rebuild the bombed-out seminary. Council focussed on these examples in a resolution that offered greetings, prayer and support for the Church in Namibia and encouraged other Episcopal and ecumenical groups to follow the lead of the three dioceses. They went further with personal commendations to Runcie for sending the team and an endorsement of the UN resolution which lays out the course for the country's self-determination.
Runcie is expected to receive the report and recommendations of the Pastoral Visit team within a week. They will be disseminated throughout the Anglican Communion and the Council urged that the Episcopal Church give them careful attention.