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Rwandan Church Rises to 'New Day' After Genocide

Episcopal News Service. February 26, 1998 [98-3005]

Ed Stannard, News Editor of Episcopal Life

(ENS) It was one of the horrors of the '90s -- neighbors, even family members, beating and murdering each other over whether they were Hutu or Tutsi. What made the pain of Rwanda even more unbearable was that clergy, including Anglican bishops, were implicated in planning and carrying out the slaughter.

Bishop David Birney saw the results of the 1994 genocide as a special emissary of the archbishop of Canterbury and it tore at his heart.

But Birney, the retired bishop of Idaho who now lives in Lexington, Kentucky, recently returned to Kigali, where he witnessed the enthronement of a new archbishop, the entrance of a new house of bishops, the rising of a new Episcopal Church of Rwanda.

"What happened in the Anglican Church was nothing short of a miracle," said Birney after the ceremony January 4 at the national stadium. "It was just a whole new day."

In his sermon, Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini set a new tone for the church in Rwanda, a nation that is still threatened by ethnic conflict.

The church stands "for servanthood and not [as] a symbol of power and prestige," Birney quoted the new primate as saying. "Discrimination has been uprooted, the church is not only salt but also light. ...The church failed to warn, to preserve, to give taste and to transform Rwandan society."

Many suspect that the truth is even more devastating than that -- that church leaders helped plan and took part in the murders of thousands of Rwandans. Four Anglican bishops, including former Archbishop Augustin Nshamihigo and Bishop Jonathan Ruhumuliza of Kigali, have been implicated, but it's unclear if the U.N. War Crimes Commission, now meeting in Tanzania, will seek to put them on trial, Birney said. One has been allowed back into Rwanda because of his age -- with no apparent retribution. "I think it's very telling," Birney said.

For years, the Hutu and Tutsi tribes, whose language and culture are nearly identical, lived alongside each other and in the central African nation. Intermarriage was common. After Rwanda's president died in a plane crash on April 6, 1994, however, the army and militias, who were mostly Hutu, began murdering their Tutsi compatriots. Half a million people died in three months.

The Tutsi-dominated Rwanda Patriotic Front fought back, forcing millions of refugees beyond Rwanda's borders. Now, although the country is relatively peaceful and recovering from the horror, Hutu militias are still threatening to attack from the former refugee camps in Congo (the former Zaire).

Rwandans also are struggling with rebuilding trust in their leaders -- both of church and state -- who misled their people and even drew them to their deaths. Priests would call their people to church -- and then massacre them all, Birney said.

"The bishop of Kigali [Ruhumuliza] was under increasing suspicion of having played a part in the genocide," said Birney. "He vehemently denied this...but there were groups coming into the cathedral on Sunday morning screaming that 'We will not receive Communion from someone whose hands were dripping blood.' It was just awful. And there was gunfire on the cathedral grounds."

To Birney, the churches' involvement proved that Christianity needed to be proclaimed in an entirely different way. "Obviously people had heard the message of Jesus Christ but they hadn't acted on it," he said.

The pain was personal for Birney, who taught at Bishop Tucker College in Uganda in 1969-72. Only one of his Rwandese students from that era is still alive. He also worked in overseas ministries for the national church from 1976-82.

The bishop said he does not know for sure whether Rwanda's Anglican bishops were truly involved in the genocide. But "I also know the African countries well enough [to know] that those people pretty well know what's going on...all I can say is where there's smoke there's bound to be fire."

Now, new bishops replace those who fled the country during the genocide. They were elected after the Anglican Consultative Council reluctantly declared the sees vacant in 1996. Before, all but one bishop was Hutu; now both ethnic groups are equally represented.

"In light of the past three years, I'm very optimistic," said Birney. "I think Kolini is a wise man, he's a gentle person. ...We cannot move forward as a church and as a nation unless we look at the forces that allowed the genocide to happen -- he's very clear about that."

The new government also gives Birney hope. "It is perfectly obvious that the government is deeply committed to Rwanda being a nation for the Rwandese, not for Hutus or Tutsis."

During the enthronement, Prime Minister Celestin Rwigyema urged the church to be the conscience of the government, but he also took it to task for its lack of conscience in the past.

Birney sees a lot of work ahead -- "What is the church's ministry going to be to these thousands of widows and orphans," who according to Rwandan tradition are considered part of their late husbands' families.

But the largest task will be to change attitudes. "They watch the refugees return and say that's the man who killed my husband," said Birney. "I just fear we're sowing the seeds for something to blow up in the next 10 years unless these feelings of anger and grief can be dealt with."

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