Missionary Team Confronts Stark Horror of Rwanda's Lingering Past
Episcopal News Service. October 17, 1996 [96-1590]
Tim Cherry
(ENS) In the Episcopal Church, "conflict resolution" is often thought of in terms of vestry meetings and parish consultants. But how does one start to minister to the broken Body of Christ while standing in the middle of a mass grave?
A team of missionaries -- including two Episcopalians from the Diocese of Virginia -- faced that question in a profound way in Rwanda.
While the country's recent bloody turmoil had seemed a distant if tragic event to the team members, the horror of the internecine slaughter was brought home as the team listened to terrible stories of the carnage told by members of both the Hutu and Tutsi tribes.
And while seeing first hand the terrible consequences of human sin, and ministering in the aftermath of enormous hatred and butchery, they also witnessed signs of reconciliation and the beginnings of hope. In response, they began the work of reconciliation with simple acts of faith.
The project was sponsored by Sharing of Ministries Abroad (SOMA), a worldwide organization with offices in seven countries that sends short-term mission teams throughout the Anglican Communion. Typically, local bishops invite SOMA to help equip local priests and teachers. In this case, Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey encouraged the Province of the Anglican Church of Rwanda to work with SOMA.
Among the members of the SOMA team to Rwanda -- 39 people from 13 countries -- were five Americans, including two from Virginia: Edwina Thomas, director of SOMA (USA), and Ron Davis. Both of are members of All Saints, Dale City, which is also home to SOMA's U.S. headquarters. The purpose of the trip was to try to reconcile former enemies with one another and with God.
In an interview with the Virginia Episcopalian, the diocesan newspaper for Virginia, as well as through her own written account of the mission, Thomas described a journey that was by turns harrowing and exhilarating, marked by moments of horror and grief, grace and reconciliation.
While SOMA has extensive experience with mission trips (the U.S. office alone has sent members to dioceses in 23 countries), the Rwanda team faced unusual risk. After a routine flight, said Thomas, the team arrived in Uganda and prepared to continue on. But sobering news stopped them short: press sources reported that a Rwandan militia leader had placed a bounty on the heads of all visiting Americans.
"If you were my mother, my sister or my wife, I wouldn't let you go," a U.S. embassy official told Thomas and Davis. Since five of the 30 members were American, the team took several days for individual prayer and self-examination. In the end, all five Americans chose to remain with the team. Thomas said that SOMA's worldwide network of intercessors, however, remained continually active in prayer for their ministry and safety.
As the SOMA team finally approached the Rwandan border by bus, they were surprised by what they saw. "We couldn't believe the beautiful countryside," remembers Thomas. "We were surrounded by lush green valleys, meandering canals, and neat buildings with red-tiled roofs."
But as the group divided into nine smaller teams and began their work in Rwanda's eight dioceses, a less tranquil picture began to emerge. At one bullet-scarred sanctuary, local church leaders described the day when Christians from both warring groups -- Hutus and Tutsis -- attempted to take refuge from the killings.
According to the church leaders, the militias came and ordered the crowd to separate by tribe. The people refused, declaring themselves all "one in Christ." All 13,500 were killed, the SOMA team was told. The Rwandans were buried together -- Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Baptists, Pentecostals -- in five mass graves.
In another nearby town, SOMA team members toured a local school, where room after room was filled with skeletons, many with hair or clothing still attached. An estimated 40,000 people had been murdered in a mere six hours.
Those reluctant to participate in the systematic killings were given a stark choice -- join the executioners or join the victims. The skeletons were exhumed and displayed, it was said, to show the world what had happened there.
One mother told team members how five of her seven children were killed, two after being betrayed by their own teacher. Others shared similar stories and described the killers as neighbors they had known for a lifetime. Countless women described losing their entire families. Those who survived the killing struggled to endure the pain and despair that followed. In some cases, those responsible for deaths have begged for and received forgiveness -- as happened between the mother and her children's teacher.
In an atmosphere where fear of poisoning had made eating together nearly impossible, the simple reality of a shared meal -- especially Eucharist -- represented a significant first step. (Clergy and lay people from different tribes had not worshiped together since the killings.) Likewise, acts of confession and passing the peace also included powerful recognition of what had gone before and what may lie ahead.
In one diocese, four married couples volunteered to serve as "reconciliation teams." They committed themselves to public ministry, despite the very real risk of death at the hands of those who oppose it.
Meetings organized by SOMA workers often included intense sessions of prayer as well as spontaneous outpourings of grief and pain. But many Rwandans also were moved to seek out those from the other side. And in a culture where weeping is strictly discouraged, a taboo, there were occasions when bitter enemies embraced and wept openly.
Many were led to ask for a renewed church to rise out of the blood-stained past. This remains a difficult proposition, for many church leaders were forced from the country and have not yet returned. Others have been charged with indifference, or actual complicity, in the slaughter. SOMA team members found deep divisions between local factions within the church -- sometimes to the point of total estrangement. (Open disruption during worship is commonplace in one cathedral.)
In the face of church conflict, SOMA arranged several face-to-face meetings. It was, at least, a series of first steps.
The task was too great to expect an easy solution or quick fix, but signs of hope did appear. "Who told you that sin has the final word?" asked Bishop Denis Sengulane of Mozambique during a five-hour public Eucharist.
For SOMA members, the true answer was not found only in the catechism. It was discerned in the praying, the fasting, the weeping evident to all who came together with their sisters and brothers in Christ. It was seen in the contrition of those seeking to repent of their sin. Most of all, it was seen in the faces of those who had suffered unimaginable pain -- and yet found a way to move toward forgiveness.
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