Massive Effort to Aid Refugees of Africa
Episcopal News Service. October 7, 1977 [77317]
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- Calling to mind the martyrdom of the Archbishop of Uganda, Presiding Bishop John M. Allin told prelates of the Episcopal Church of a massive drive to aid the spiritual and physical needs of thousands of refugees from Uganda and from throughout Africa that was being launched.
The appeal will be a major focus of the work of the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief and will be directed exclusively toward providing pastoral care and service, counseling, and social welfare support to the thousands of Africans displaced from homelands because of war, civil strife or natural disasters.
In his remarks to the House of Bishops, Bishop Allin recalled the shock the Church felt when it learned that the Anglican Archbishop of the Province of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Boga-Zaire, the Most Rev. Janani Luwum, had been killed while a prisoner of Uganda dictator Idi Amin.
He cited a eucharist service he celebrated in June with four bishops in exile from Uganda, a service which commemorated the founding of the Church in Uganda in the blood of martyrs 100 years ago. The service was held as part of a meeting in which the exiled bishops, staff officers of the Church, other Uganda leaders and the Archbishop of Kenya, the Most Rev. Festo Olang participated.
The meeting culminated in a statement from the Bishops in exile entitled "We Are One in the Spirit" which called upon Ugandans in exile to seek one another out and support one another and declared that: "It is only as a people sharing, helping one another, seeking one another out, giving thanks for what we have received through the Body of Christ that we will continue to be the Church, and continue to be one with our brothers and sisters at home."
While the plight of the Ugandans is the best-known at this time, it is only one example of a crisis that is striking at the fragile fabric of developing African life. Thousands have fled from their homelands for varied reasons and the vast majority of these find themselves totally incapable of self-support in their new temporary homes.
Counselors and social workers in major African cities are overwhelmed with requests from refugees for shelter, food, blankets and financial support. In Nairobi, caseworkers have an average backlog of 300 cases in their efforts to help.
Churches, governments and international committees -- such as the United Nations High Commission for Refugees -- are struggling valiantly with the almost impossible task of registering refugees so that they can get the necessary stipends; stipends which often fall below the subsistence level of the host country.
Jobs, the ability to earn a living and relieve the economy, are scarce and often menial. Children are unable to continue education and families are often separated.
While a large number of these refugees are Christian, it is difficult for them to form communities and more difficult to provide the pastoral support and sacraments to make these communities viable.
Responding to these conditions, the Presiding Bishop told the House: "In response to the suffering of these refugees throughout Africa, highlighted by the tragic condition of our Ugandan brothers and sisters in Christ, I call upon the people of the Episcopal Church to carry out Christ's command to care for those in need."
He told them that the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief was committed to launching a Churchwide appeal for aid for African refugees and pledged close consultations with relief efforts that have been undertaken by the Anglican Church of Canada -- through its Primate's Fund -- and with the African Anglican and ecumenical Churches on whom the burden of relief ministry has fallen.
The Presiding Bishop and the Board for the Fund will undertake the drive at this time, because the growing dimensions of the problems are overwhelming the understaffed, ill-equipped and financially poor churches which have committed themselves to providing for their homeless brothers and sisters.
Although the appeal will be for the aid of all African refugees, the focus will reflect the long, close relationship which the Episcopal Church has always had with the Church in Uganda and the circumstances there that have forced so many Christians to flee.
In light of this, one major facet of the work will be a plan which grew out of the meeting in New York of the Archbishop of Kenya and the bishops in exile. Hearing of the needs of the Uganda community, the Archbishop proposed a plan to provide and support direct, pastoral, episcopal care for Ugandans in exile by a Ugandan bishop and a staff of pastoral counselors and priests. This facet of the work -- as well as continuing support for the family of Archbishop Luwum and for theological students -- would be carried on a direct Church-to-Church basis with the Episcopal Church supporting the work of the Anglican communities.
A second facet, caring for the social welfare needs of the refugees. Here the Church will attempt to work either through the same Anglican Churches, or -- if they are unable to take up the work -- through ecumenical or other groups that already have the structure. This would include counseling services, to help refugees find homes, jobs and cope with the details of resettlement as well as the programs of food relief and blankets that are needed.
Persons wishing to respond to the Presiding Bishop's Fund's appeal for aid to African refugees may send their checks to the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief, 815 Second Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017. Contributions should be earmarked for the African refugee program and all such contributions will be used for direct relief work.
Diocesan world relief chairmen will be provided with information and will also be able to accept contributions for the appeal. The names of the diocesan workers can be obtained from the Episcopal Church Center or from diocesan offices.