Mission leader voices concern on
Kenya
Jan. 4, 2008 | NEW YORK (UMNS)
The interim leader of the United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries is asking all groups in Kenya “to put peace and
reconciliation ahead of personal or party gains.”
Bishop Felton E.
May | In a statement
released Jan. 4, Bishop Felton E. May stressed that “Africa
and the world cannot afford a civil war in Kenya, which has
for years been a place of stability and economic prosperity in
the volatile East Africa region.”
The outbreak of
violence following the re-election of Kenya’s president has
resulted in an estimated 300 deaths and calls for an
independent investigation into the election.
Citing
concerns for the welfare of Kenya and its people, as well as
United Methodists and Methodists there, May reported that all
missionaries and other denominational representatives were
safe.
“I commend United Nations Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon for his quick attention to the situation, and I join
with him and with the Rev. Samuel Kobia, a Kenyan who is
general secretary of the World Council of Churches, in their
calls for a negotiated settlement to the issues separating the
opposing groups,” the bishop said.
“I have a long
personal association with Kenya and its strong Methodist
heritage, and I have an enormous place in my heart for its
people, especially the youth and children.”
Nobel Peace
Prize laureate Desmond Tutu arrived in Kenya on Jan. 3 after a
call from Mvume Dandala, a former leader of South Africa's
Methodist Church and now chief executive of the Nairobi-based
All Africa Conference of Churches.
He told Ecumenical
News International that "the faith community is engaged here,
and that is positive in a way." The National Council of
Churches of Kenya reported that four churches - two in
Nairobi, one in Eldoret and one in Kapsabet - had been burned
down.
"There is nothing as distressing as reading about
people being burned in a church,” Tutu said. “We have been
there and we know how bad our sisters and brothers in Kenya
are feeling.”
Tutu told CNN that people are “incensed”
over the corruption in Kenya and that he was still hopeful for
a diplomatic solution to end the violence.
May’s full
statement reads as follows:
The General Board of
Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church and I, as its
interim general secretary, are greatly concerned about the
political chaos and violence that erupted in Kenya at the
start of the New Year. Our concern and our prayers incorporate
the welfare of the country and its people, the churches, and
the Methodist and United Methodist congregations, pastors,
missionaries, mission volunteers, other church personnel, and
church related institutions.
Let me quickly report
that as of January 4, all United Methodist missionaries
assigned to Kenya and other denominational representatives in
the country were safe. This includes a United Methodist
Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM) team from the Troy Annual
Conference.
We remember with compassion the families of
the more than 300 persons who were killed in the days
immediately after the violence began on December 30, 2007. Our
thoughts and our offers of assistance are with the some
100,000 persons who fled their homes, some becoming refugees
in Rwanda, to escape violence that broke out following the
disputed reelection of President Mwai Kibaki.
We, as a
Christian organization as followers of the Prince of Peace,
appeal to all parties to the political and ethnic
disagreements to put peace and reconciliation ahead of
personal or party gains. Africa and the world cannot afford a
civil war in Kenya, which has for years been a place of
stability and economic prosperity in the volatile East Africa
region.
I commend United Nations Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon for his quick attention to the situation, and I join
with him and with the Rev. Samuel Kobia, a Kenyan who is
general secretary of the World Council of Churches, in their
calls for a negotiated settlement to the issues separating the
opposing groups. I have a long personal association with Kenya
and its strong Methodist heritage, and I have an enormous
place in my heart for its people, especially the youth and
children.
Five of our missionaries in Kenya were out of
the country at the time that the conflict started. The Rev.
Chung Suk Song and his wife, Hyung Ran Song, assigned to
Mombasa, were safe in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, where they
had gone to take their children to boarding school.
Missionary John Calhoun and his wife, Noel, who works
for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in
Nairobi, and their young sons were scheduled to return from
Atlanta, Georgia, to Kenya in early January. Yema and Lahi
Luhahi, a nurse and teacher respectively, were also due to
return in the same time period after concluding mission
itineration in the United States. William and Jerri Savuto,
who serve at the Maua Methodist Hospital in Maua, were in the
US for a Christmas visit, with plans to return to Kenya later
in January. While travel delays may result, all missionaries
are expected to resume their work in Kenya.
We were
pleased to receive news that a United Methodist Volunteers in
Mission (UMVIM) team, which left for Kenya on December 28,
2007, is safe in Nairobi. This team, led by Gregory Forrester,
UMVIM coordinator for the Northeastern Jurisdiction, was due
to remain in Kenya until January 11, 2008. We also understand
that a Cursillo team from the Mississippi Annual Conference
was safe at Kabarak University, near the city of Nakuru, and
had completed its program, called a
pilgrimage.
Methodism has been in Kenya for some 145
years, arriving with British missionaries. The Methodist
Church of Kenya grew through support from both Great Britain
and the United States. That church, which became autonomous in
1967, is a long-time mission partner of the General Board of
Global Ministries and today has 500,000 members. The Rev. Dr.
Stephen Kanyaru M’Impwii is presiding bishop of the Methodist
Church of Kenya.
The United Methodist Church and the
Global Ministries are also represented in Kenya by a United
Methodist community, established in the latter years of the
20th century by refugees from other parts of East Africa.
Those congregations and ministries are part of the East Africa
Annual Conference led by Bishop Daniel Wandabula, who is based
in Kampala, Uganda.
Over its long history, the
Methodist Church of Kenya has started many social, health, and
educational institutions that serve the entire society.
Violent confrontations always threaten the operation of these
valuable ministries. Institutions of mercy and education are
much in our prayers for peace.
Its strategic location
and recent political stability makes Kenya a natural gateway
for church supplies and services moving into East Africa. For
example, the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR)
depends upon Kenyan facilities for receiving and transporting
relief supplies into Sudan and other countries of East Africa.
Regrettably, the pent up party and tribal competition
expressed in post-election violence threatens more than Kenya
alone.
UMCOR will initially respond to the
humanitarian crisis in Kenya in collaboration with the
ecumenical Action by Churches Together (ACT). Information will
be supplied separately on ways to support this ministry.
As I told Bishop Wandabula in an email message and
said to missionary John Calhoun in a telephone conversation on
January 3, we want to help care for those who are hurting and
we also want to call Methodists and United Methodists to be
“peacemakers above all” in the name of Jesus
Christ.
Bishop Felton E. May Interim General
Secretary General Board of Global Ministries
News
media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
Related Articles
Peacemaker Tutu slams Kenya elite
Kenya’s humanitarian crisis grows
WCC leader calls for end to violence in
Kenya
Resources
Board of Global Ministries
Kenya in Crisis: BBC
All Africa Conference of
Churches |