Episcopal Press and News

Search the Episcopal Press and News

Year

All 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 1981 1980 1979 1978 1977 1976 1975 1974 1973 1972 1971 1970 1969 1968 1967 1966 1965 1964 1963 1962

Enter search query

Anglicans in Zaire Celebrate 100 Years

Episcopal News Service. July 25, 1996 [96-1535]

Rev. Patrick Mauney, Director of Anglican and Global Relations for the Episcopal Church

(ENS) A century after Ugandan catechist Apolo Kivebulaya crossed the snow-capped Mountains of the Moon onto the green hills of eastern Zaire, his legacy lives on in the vibrant faith of the burgeoning Anglican Church of Zaire.

Massive eucalyptus trees he planted in the village of Boga have grown like the church he started -- possibly the only province of the Anglican Communion founded and nurtured by non-European missionaries. Kivebulaya and his co-workers ministered for decades before the first white missionaries took up residence. Perhaps as a result, the church in Zaire today retains its strongly indigenous African character.

Trunks of the trees have been carved into font, pulpit and altar of the Cathedral of St. Apolo Kivebulaya in Boga, where 2,000 Christians from Zaire, Uganda, Europe, North America and Australia gathered in May to celebrate the centennial.

The Province of Zaire, formally established as autonomous only in 1992, now consists of five dioceses, with a sixth about to be inaugurated. Church growth is rapid, with half a million Anglican Christians now to be found throughout the nation.

Growth despite chaos

While there have been Anglicans around Boga for a century, the government's banning of many African independent sects in the early 1970s (they were considered a threat to political control) resulted in a dramatic influx of new members. Affronted by the colonial legacy represented in the dominant Roman Catholic Church and uneasy with the legalism of many Protestant denominations, these believers found a welcome among Anglicans. A similar movement of pentecostal Christians into the Anglican Church is happening today in parts of the country.

Perhaps surprisingly, the church has grown amid near chaotic conditions in many parts of Zaire. In a nation of 250 languages and dialects, communication is difficult at best. Telephones are unknown in regions such as Boga. Roads, bridges and railroads are crumbling. Anglicans less than 70 miles from Boga took 10 hours to reach the celebrations by truck. Civil servants and soldiers go unpaid for months. Looting and rioting are increasingly common.

"Years of empty promises in the years since independence and corruption in high places have bred cynicism among the people," says Bishop Mbona Kolini of Shaba. More recent civil disorder and growing unemployment have brought anxiety and even hunger to urban centers.

"I know people who haven't had food in three or four days, and yet I see them in church, singing and dancing. Why is this?" asks Kolini. "I can only attribute it to the work of the Holy Spirit. Step by step, people are being drawn to know that their only security is in the Lord. If you asked me about the state of the church, I wouldn't go for answers to the church buildings or services. I would go to the street, to the shops, to government offices."

Great need for training

Such a turn to the churches places a heavy burden on pastors and leaders. "Solid biblical teaching is our greatest challenge," says Kolini.

With the tragedy of neighboring Rwanda weighing heavily on Zairians, Christian formation also must include the Bible's social teachings, he added. In a land whose population was almost 100 percent Christian, ethnic blood proved stronger than baptismal water. Did the highly individualistic, otherworldly teachings of the church contribute to the horror of the genocide, in which one Christian killed another? Kolini said he and others wonder, and tremble.

Several Episcopalians with ties to the church in Zaire were present for the centennial celebrations in Boga: Sonja Hoekstra-Foss, a missionary nurse in the Diocese of Shaba; Susan Broaddus, a veteran theological educator now in the Diocese of Southern Virginia; the Rev. Nancy Vogele of the Diocese of New Hampshire, a former volunteer for mission in Shaba who serves as commissary or liaison in the United States for the Church of Zaire; and the Rev. Theodore Lewis of the Diocese of Washington. Lewis was a Foreign Service officer in Kinshasa in 1969 when he first visited the remote community of Boga. According to the Bishop Methuselah Muzenda of Nord Kivu, Lewis' report after his visit "gave impetus to the formation of the first Zairian diocese." (Boga was then part of the Church in Uganda.) A larger francophone province followed, which then included Zaire, Burundi and Rwanda.

The Rev. Patrick Mauney, director of anglican and global relations at the Episcopal Church Center, brought the greetings of Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning to the assembled celebrants in Boga.

"The Episcopal Church has been a generous and faithful partner," said Archbishop P.B. Njojo of Zaire, whose father, still living, was baptized by Apolo Kivebulaya.

Njojo singled out the United Thank Offering for special praise for its assistance with schools, hospitals, and other buildings scattered throughout the province. The Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief also was quick to send aid when dioceses adjacent to Rwanda were flooded with refugees. Many other Episcopalians have entered into partnership with the Province of Zaire, including Trinity Parish of New York, Sharing of Ministries Abroad (SOMA) USA, and Episcopal World Mission, which sponsors Hoekstra-Foss.