Historic church serves as refuge for poor, underserved

A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose The Rev. Jacob Freemantle greets visitors at Arthur Wellington Methodist Church in Ibhayi, South Africa.

PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa (UMNS)-Arthur Wellington Methodist Church has a history of being a place of refuge since its beginning in 1738, and the Rev. Jacob Freemantle is continuing that tradition today.

During apartheid, the church was a hiding place for political leaders trying to escape police brutality. Today it is a place of refuge for the poor, sick and underserved.

"We have a wounded past," Freemantle says.

"The ministers were prophets for those leaders, intervening with the government, telling them brutality was not the way," Freemantle says. He points out that Bishop Mvume Dandala was arrested in the church for preaching against apartheid and was imprisoned in Port Elizabeth.

"Many politicians still regard the church as a parental care spot for the community," he says. "There are politicians now who are worshipping here because of that past association."

Freemantle is assigned to the Port Elizabeth North Circuit, and he oversees nine "societies" (churches) with a membership of more than 4,000 people.

Members of the social and international affairs committee of the World Methodist Council’s executive committee heard about Arthur Wellington Methodist Church during a tour led by Bishop Ivan Abrahams, presiding bishop of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa. The World Methodist Council’s executive committee met Sept. 15-18 at St. John’s Methodist Church in Port Elizabeth.

A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose Joyce Tyaliti administers a home-based health care program at Arthur Wellington Methodist Church in Ibhayi, South Africa.

The church’s ministries include feeding programs, outreach to the elderly, street and orphaned children, and help for those suffering with HIV and AIDS.

Joyce Tyaliti, a member of the church and a retired nurse, is leading a group of volunteers who care for people with HIV and AIDS. "The numbers are so high, and the poor have nothing," she says. The South African Council of Churches has trained Tyaliti and four other retired nurses to work in HIV-infected homes. They are in turn training volunteers who help in the home-based care program.

"The community is in denial about HIV/AIDS," Freemantle says. "People are being chased from their homes. These nurses are teaching the relatives to accept these people. They are bringing care and love where there is none."

The church has established a Poor Fund, which is used to buy food, medicine and other essential needs for the community.

From that fund, the church pays for the education of eight children who otherwise could not afford to attend school. The church has also adopted nearby Empilweni Hospital, where it has donated blankets, sheeting and money to buy a laundry machine.

The Edward Cook Society is a program that feeds about 280 people in the community on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

"The church established this ministry because it would not sit idle and just wait for the government to help.

"It is an attempt by the church to eradicate poverty."

Freemantle says the Methodist church has an obligation to pastor to nearby schools-to both children and teachers. He says the church counsels children who are orphans and living in an environment of poverty.

Orphaned children, kids who have been abused or those battling difficult home situations make it hard for teachers to cope, Freemantle says. "We have a partnership relationship at schools to visit them and sometimes bring children into our offices for counseling sessions and also to provide support for the parents."

"My gift is counseling," he says. "On average I will counsel about seven people a day with different kinds of suffering-unemployment, divorce, lack of education, abuse, crime, drugs and poverty."

Many of those whom Freemantle counsels are children who have been "imprisoned" in Enkuselweni Place of Safety. The children are put in the center for shoplifting, begging on the streets or just having no place to live.

"Poverty is manifested in many ways," he says.

Arthur Wellington and the other Methodist churches in the North Port Elizabeth Circuit are reaching out to the community, not to increase membership, Freemantle says, but because that is what the church should do.

"Where there is a need for spiritual fulfillment, we are there for all those areas of emptiness."

*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer in Nashville, Tenn.

News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

Audio Interview The Rev. Jacob Freemantle: “I am counseling children.”

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