Conger

The Primate of Rwanda, Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini has welcomed the Anglican Peace and Justice Network (APJN) to Kigali for the start of the Anglican Consultative Council official network’s triennial meeting.

The APJN will meet from Sept 25 to Oct 3 in Rwanda and in neighboring Burundi, and explore the impact of violence and social unrest upon society.

Archbishop Kolini recounted the 1994 Rwandan genocide to the delegates from 17 of the Communion’s provinces, including the chairman of the AJPN’s steering committee Bishop Pie Ntukamazina of Bujumbura and Dr. Jenny Te Paa of New Zealand, the Network’s convener.

The AJPN’s visit to Rwanda was poignant for Archbishop Kolini, awaking memories of the violence that claimed the life of over 800,000 while the “world abandoned us.”
Archbishop Kolini preached from Genesis 12:2-3 on God’s call to Abraham to be a blessing to the nations, questioning how the Church and mankind could be an instrument of God’s blessings in the wake of such tremendous evil.

The Church had failed Rwanda, he said, as it had not spoken up and prevented the violence.  “It is easy to be religious, but very difficult to be the people of God. What went wrong was a problem of the soul,” he said.

Two survivors of the 1994 massacres, members of the International Anglican Women’s Network address the gathering and described their experiences and the horrors surrounding the killings.

Archbishop Kolini concluded his remarks by stressing the primacy of repentance and forgiveness.  While the roots of the massacre lay in the country’s turbulent colonial history and in ethnic hatreds, human failings were chiefly to blame.  Hope could only arise from confession, he said.  Confession of the Church of its failings and bypeople of their sinful hearts: “Hope begins there,” he said.

Following its tour of Rwanda the APJN will travel to neighboring Burundi, which has also experienced a decade of ethnic and civil strife and instability.