Andrew Symes’ Congo Diary, Part 1
At GAFCON in Nairobi last October, the Archbishop of the Anglican Province of Congo , Henri Isingoma, and his Provincial Secretary Anthonio Kibwela were perusing the many stalls displaying the work of various ministries around the world. Anglican Mainstream was one of these. Six months later I received an invitation from Ven. Anthonio Kibwela, a regular reader of the AM website, to come to the Congo and give some teaching on Christian marriage to clergy and youth leaders, and in particular to explain the new ideas about sex and marriage that have taken hold in the West and now infiltrating into Africa. Another purpose of my visit would be to forge stronger links between Anglican churches in DR Congo and the English church, links which are not as strong as they used to be: many missionaries working in Congo have retired and not been replaced, others have left as a result of the terrible conflicts there, and communications with local churches are often difficult.
Preparation involved fundraising, the time consuming administration of obtaining a visa, thinking about teaching outlines, and of course brushing up on my French: the gift of a modern version French Bible from a friend helped a lot in this. I read a couple of recent travel accounts by intrepid journalists, which were useful for politics and history, although their descriptions were mostly of the Eastern forest region and not the areas I would be in. Thankfully, just a few days before my departure, at the ACNA conference in Pennsylvania I met an American couple who had just returned from Congo and Tanzania where they had been involved with a team who travel to that region regularly, giving encouragement, bible teaching and prayer/healing ministry. This couple were able to fill me in with more details about the state of the church, and pass on my situation to their own team of intercessors familiar with the needs of the region.
Day 1
I was still recovering from jetlag, having flown in from USA only 42 hours previously, when I boarded the bus from Oxford to Heathrow at 2am on 2nd July. My flight to Brussels was at 6am, and I managed to get across from one terminal to another in good time to board the flight to Kinshasa and the chance of a few more snatches of sleep.
Anthonio had asked me to wear my clerical shirt on arrival and I did so, having donned it in the aeroplane toilet, superman-style, as we began our descent. I was met at the entrance to the airport building by an off-duty immigration official who stood with me in the short queue for non-Congolese nationals; she shepherded me through passport control, baggage claim and customs so I was able to avoid any potential hassles. Anthonio and the Bishop’s chauffeur met me outside and took me the half hour ride to town, where they left me at a guest house run by Roman Catholic nuns. They had prepared a meal for me. It was now 8.30 pm. I slept well.
Day 2
I was collected from the guest house at 8am and taken along what was to become a familiar ride of about 2 miles to the small complex which houses the Provincial Offices, St Peter’s Parish Church, and Anthonio’s personal accommodation. After morning prayer I spent a short time with the Archbishop. He is not an old man but looks careworn with the responsibility of such a vast area with so many needs and so few resources (see next article for information on the historical context of the country and the church). Rt Revd Henri Isingoma was very pleased that I had come, and in fact sat in on the workshops for short period on both days.
Meanwhile young people from the parishes around Kinshasa were starting to arrive for the first workshop. There were about 25 in all, who had various responsibilities and ministries of youth leadership from a dozen or so congregations. Most spoke good French but a few did not so Anthonio had organised a Nigerian resident to interpret for me when my French failed – we proceeded with a mixture of French, English and Lingala. Beginning with Genesis 1:26-28 we looked at God’s plan for marriage and sex according to the Bible, what has gone wrong not just in that area but the whole of life, what Christ has done to bring forgiveness and transformation, and the importance of faithful marriage and celibate singleness in our Christian witness.
There was plenty of laughter, opportunities for small group discussion and feedback about local application, singing, questions and answers. It was clear that this is an evangelical church: I did not find a sacramental understanding of faith as with many Anglicans in South Africa for example. The Gospel of the cross of Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit was not new to these folk but of course they felt they needed help to live it and get it across as we all do. Although the Catholic Church is still very strong in DR Congo, there is a vibrant presence of innumerable new Pentecostal churches who have influenced Anglicans across the continent in their worship, experience of God and evangelism. However the teaching of many Pentecostal churches is often not consistently biblical; they are prone to leadership cults, prosperity crazes and church splits. African Anglicanism seems to provide a good balance between the extremes of ‘sacerdotalists’ and ‘anabaptists’ (as Cranmer envisaged: this is the true via media, not some kind of middle ground between truth and error as some people think!)
The homosexuality question came from the participants. I had been wondering how to introduce it but it was asked anyway. One of the comments thrown at them as they share Jesus with friends and invite them to church, is that the Anglican church is “for gays”. Interestingly although some of the young people said that this was irritating and gave them problems answering, none of them had experienced violence or bullying as a result of being associated with a “church for gays” – rather the impression they gave was that people wondered how it could be a real church.
During our discussion, these predominantly urbanised African young people were more than able to appreciate the difference between relating in a Christian way with same sex attracted people who may or may not be in gay relationships, and understanding and rejecting the ‘enlightenment’ philosophies of the West which have given rise to the redefinition of gender, marriage, family and sexual ethics. It was actually a really interesting challenge to try to explain, partly in French, why some Anglicans have completely accepted these new ideas and integrated them into a re-envisioned account of Christianity, and others have stood firm with “the faith once delivered”, and how this has led to the tensions and splits of GAFCON, ACNA and those cracks that C of E functionaries are desperately trying to paper over. The Congolese young people also understood how the Western sexual revolution was making inroads into urban African life. They themselves made a parallel with the need to resist with a clear understanding and practice of the Bible’s teaching new heresies from Europe and America just as they continue to resist old heresies, such as temptations to mix traditional African spiritual occultism with faith.
But more immediate problems face them with regard to sex and marriage: the stalking scourge of AIDS, (for girls) the threat of sexual violence, and (for the guys) how to find the money to pay the family of the bride. I wasn’t able to help with this latter problem!
We finished before 4, and Anthonio was able to take me for a brief tour of the city. The traffic, and the ‘dodgem’ skills required to negotiate it – well, don’t go there. The highlight was catching a glimpse of the pool of the mighty Congo River with Brazzaville capital of the “other” Congo state sitting opposite on the hill about two or three miles across the water. Evening meal spent watching football, back to the guest house and bed. A good day.
Revd Andrew Symes
Executive Secretary
Anglican Mainstream
+44 (0) 1865 883388
http://anglicanmainstream.org
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