New Congo Primate Elected: CEN 5.01.09 p May 2, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of the Congo, Church of England Newspaper.add a comment
The Dean of the Anglican Church of the Congo writes that following a meeting of the church’s House of Bishops in Goma on April 28, the Bishop of Boga, the Rt. Rev. Henri Isingoma has been elected Primate and Archbishop of the Congo.
Two candidates, the Rt. Rev. Zachary Masimango, Bishop of Kindu and Dean of the Province and Bishop Isingoma stood for election. Following a secret ballot, Bishop Isingoma was elected by a vote of four to three.
Educated at the Congo’s Anglican Theological Seminary in Bukavu and at the Faculté de théologie évangélique in Bangui in the Central African Republic, Bishop Isingoma served as principal of the Anglican Theological Seminary from 1993 to 1997, and was elected Bishop of the southern Congolese diocese of Katanga in 1997, and is the church’s representative to the Anglican Consultative Council. In 2007 he was translated to the eastern Diocese of Boga along the Congo’s border with Rwanda.
Married with six children, the 58 year old archbishop-elect will be installed as primate of the province in July, upon the retirement of Archbishop Fidele Dirokpa.
In his announcement of the election, Bishop Masimango wrote the new primate would “emphasize faith in the Word of God, joined with work” in leading the church.
The majority of the 500,000 members of the Anglican church in the Congo are concentrated along the country’s Swahili speaking eastern region, the epicenter of two wars that have claimed 5.4 million lives over the past decade, a January 2008 report by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said.
Last year, war, disease and malnutrition killed an estimated 45,000 Congolese every month. “Congo’s loss is equivalent to the entire population of Denmark or the state of Colorado perishing within a decade,” George Rupp, president of the IRC said in a statement.
Sporadic fighting continues to erupt between rival warlords and tribal militias in the Eastern Congo.
In October a fresh round of fighting stranded Bishop Isingoma and 150 delegates to the Diocese of Boga synod. After the fighting subsided, and the delegates were able to return home, many found their homes and churches destroyed—some for the fifth time, the Congo Church Association reported last year.
Lord’s Resistance Army regroups in the Congo: CEN 1.16.09 p 7. January 15, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of the Congo, Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of Uganda, Episcopal Church of the Sudan, Terrorism.add a comment
Driven from its stronghold in the Garamba forest of the Congo, the Lord’s Resistance Army has regrouped near the Sudanese town of Maridi bringing death and destruction in its wake, the Anglican Bishop of Maridi reports.
In a Dec 31 email to the Bishop of Down & Dromore, the Rt. Rev. Harold Miller, and to the bishops of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan, the Bishop of Maridi, the Rt. Rev. Justin Badi Arama said Christmas was celebrated with “both tears and joy” in his diocese.
Beginning on Christmas Eve the LRA began its attacks. “Six people have been killed two by gunshot and the rest by chopping with pangas and axes,” the bishop said. “Sixteen people abducted, nine children and the rest are elderly men and women. Seventeen houses burnt and properties looted and destroyed, especially food items.”
Almost 5000 people have been driven from their villages to the South and East of Maridi, taking shelter in the town center, Bishop Badi Arama reported.
On Dec 14 elements of the Ugandan, Congolese and South Sudan armies, supported by Ugandan jet aircraft, attacked LRA base camps in the Garamba forest of the Bas Uélé district of the Congo. The strikes against the rebel group which has terrorized Northern Uganda came after LRA leader Joseph Kony (pictured) failed to appear at a Nov 29 meeting to sign a final peace agreement.
Ugandan church leaders had cautioned against military strikes, warning it would atomize the LRA. Past strikes against Kony’s troops have succeeded in breaking up his forces, estimated to number between 650 and 1000, but following the campaign the LRA has been able to regroup and recommence its terror campaign.
On Jan 3 the Kamala Monitor reported that according to sources in the Ugandan army, Kony had separated from the main body of his troops and was north of Maridi, along the fringes of the Garamba forest. A region of dense tropical forest not easily monitored by air, Kony can move south to Uganda from Maridi or West into the Central African Republic, using the forests to hide as he rebuilds his army.
While Kony and the LRA decide upon their next move, the people of Maridi have become the latest casualties of the 22 year old guerilla war. “Please pray for us that this situation may improve soon,” Bishop Badi Arama said.
Archbishop wants Congo action: CEN 12.12.08 p 1. December 14, 2008
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of the Congo, Church of England Newspaper.add a comment
The Archbishop of Canterbury has called for military intervention in the Congo to end that country’s civil war.
On Dec 3, Dr. Rowan Williams released a joint statement with the leaders of Britain’s Roman Catholic, Reformed and Orthodox churches calling for “an immediate strengthening of peacekeeping forces in the region to protect civilians and provide safe passage for the humanitarian aid, to the hundreds of thousands of vulnerable and displaced civilians, at risk of being caught up in fighting between various armed groups as well as being victims of targeted attacks against them.”
While military might was needed to stem the immediate humanitarian crisis, a “lasting political solution” that addressed “the persistent and underlying issues of justice, human rights, the integration of rebel forces into the national army and the management natural resources,” they said.
The church leaders applauded the work of the churches “on the ground” in the Congo who were seeking to “address the overwhelming physical and psychological needs of their communities.”
However, many Congolese “without shelter, in the middle of the rainy season” were “hungry, frightened and sick, [and] many also face daily intimidation and violence. These men, women and children cannot wait any longer for the international community to act,” the church leaders said and called for the UN to strengthen its 17,000-man peacekeeping force in the eastern Congo “in a matter of weeks not months.”
Called a “silent genocide” by the Congolese Roman Catholic bishops, the fighting between rival warlords and the Congolese army has displaced “over one million people” Anglican Bishop Bahati Balibusane of Bukavu said last month.
Men, women, children are living outside, in schools, in Churches and in some hospitable families. They don’t have water, food, materials, clothes, utensils and latrines. These people living in hardship are exposed to hunger, illness and death of some fathers, mothers and children,” he wrote in a call released through the Congo Church Association for “urgent spiritual, material and financial support.”
‘Silent Genocide’ unfolding in the Congo: CEN 11.28.08 p 7. November 30, 2008
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of the Congo, Church of England Newspaper, Terrorism.add a comment
Read it all at the Church of England Newspaper.
A “silent genocide” is unfolding in Central Africa, church leaders have warned, as soldiers loyal to rebel General Laurent Nkunda march upon government troops holding the city of Goma in the Kivu province of the eastern Congo.
In a statement released through the Congo Church Association, Bishop Bahati Balibusane of Bukavu warns that “over one million people” have been displaced by the fighting. “Men, women, children are living outside, in schools, in Churches and in some hospitable families. They don’t have water, food, materials, clothes, utensils and latrines. These people living in hardship are exposed to hunger, illness and death of some fathers, mothers and children,” he wrote in a call for “urgent spiritual, material and financial support.”
Church aid agencies report the fighting between Congolese troops and the rebels has led to widespread atrocities. The Barnabas Fund reports ” young men [have been] killed, women raped by retreating government troops, children kidnapped and forcibly recruited as child soldiers to fight a war that is not their own, soldiers and militias [are] pillaging and looting, and hundreds of thousands of displaced people [are] fleeing for their lives.”
Catholic bishops in the Congo report the UN’s 17,000 strong peacekeeping force has proven ineffectual. Widespread massacres, targeted killings of the young, and systematic rapes are taking place “under the impassive eyes of those who have received a mandate to keep the peace and protect the population,” the bishops said according to the Catholic charity, Caritas.
Church leaders have been shuttling between Kinshasa and Kigali, hoping to broker a ceasefire between Congolese troops and General Nkunda. Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi of Burundi last week led a delegation of church leaders from the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi to visit Presidents Paul Kigame of Rwanda and Joseph Kabila of the Congo.
“It is impossible for us to preach the love of God in Jesus Christ while keeping silent in the face of the effects of such a serious humanitarian disaster as the suffering of children fleeing into the bush with or without their parents, women atrociously raped, abused and sometimes buried alive, old people and innocent civilians cowardly killed, and the malicious destruction of property and community life,” the 5-man ecumenical delegation led by Archbishop Ntahoturi told the Congolese president.
The All Africa Conference of Churches commissioned Archbishop Ntahoturi, the Anglican Bishop of Byumba in Rwanda the Rt. Rev. Onesphore Rwaje, Bishop Dieudonné Mbaya Tshiakany, moderator of the National Synod of the Church of Christ in Congo, Bishop Jean-Luc Kuye-Ndondo wa Mulemera, president of the Church of Christ in Congo in South Kivu, and Dr Kakule Molo, president of the Baptist Conference of Central Africa, to intercede with government leaders.
On Oct 23 leaders of churches from the Great Lakes region met in Nairobi and called upon their governments to end the fighting. “People are tired and want an end to the war,” and “dialogue costs much less than armed confrontation,” they said.
Tribal jealousies, greed, and unresolved disputes from the 1994 Rwandan genocide are fueling the fighting. Following the 1994 genocide, a number of radical Hutus fled Rwanda for the Congo, forming the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), and have continued their depredations against Congolese Tutsis.
All the while rival warlords have clashed over control of the Congo’s natural wealth in the vacuum left by the collapse of the Mobutu regime. The UN meanwhile has stood back from the fighting, and has not disarmed the ‘genocidaires’ of 1994 nor the warlords.
Church leaders join peace talks in Congo: CEN 1.16.08 January 16, 2008
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of the Congo, Church of England Newspaper, Politics.add a comment
| All-party peace talks have begun in the Congo to seek an end to the civil wars that have plagued the Eastern Congo since the downfall of President Joseph Mobutu.
Over 800 delegates representing the spectrum of political and social life of the Eastern Congo have gathered in Goma on Jan 9 for the eight day conference. Representatives of the government in Kinshasa, the army, rebels loyal to General Laurent Nkunda, Hutu Interahamwe militants exiled from Rwanda following the 1994 genocide, and various militias known as Mayi Mayi are meeting with Church and tribal leaders, as well as foreign NGOs to broker a peace agreement for the region. Read it all in The Church of England Newspaper. |
 |
Archbishop Dirokpa of the Congo December 1, 2007
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Album (Photos), Anglican Church of the Congo, Primates Meeting 2007.1 comment so far
The Most Rev Fidele Dirokpa, Archbishop of the Congo and Bishop of Kinshasa. Photo take Feb 18, 2007 in Zanzibar.
Government is ‘failing Africa’: CEN 11.16.07 p 7. November 17, 2007
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of the Congo, Arms Control/Defense/Peace Issues, Church of England Newspaper, House of Lords, NGOs.add a comment
The Bishop of Winchester has lambasted the government for backing away from its commitments toward Africa. Bishop Michael Scott-Joynt told the House of Lords on Nov 7 his ears were “cocked for one word in particular-Africa-but cocked in vain,” as he listened to the Queen’s speech.
Bishop Scott-Joynt urged the government to turn its attention towards the Congo and address the on-going instability in the Great Lakes Region of East Africa.
He asked the government what it was doing to ensure land reform, the demobilization of militias, and the support of nascent democratic institutions. Why would it not “funnel aid through church-based organisations? How [did] the Government view the contemporary scramble for Africa by China and a range of Islamic states?”, he asked.
He asked the government to tell Parliament who was funding the wars across the region, “because it would be good to get to the bottom of the matter.”
“Who is running the Great Lakes region,” Bishop Scott-Joynt demanded to know.
“Human rights abuses and impunity from them” were the rule in the Congo, he said. While there had been great strides in democratic reform, the “the place is very little better,” he said.
“There is a crying need for the accountability of the justice and police systems to be worked at and, if security sector reform is not given priority, there will be no peace and security within Congo or along and across its borders, no containing of pillage of mineral resources, and no working at good relationships with the countries of the Great Lakes region,” Bishop Scott-Joynt argued.
He asked the government where had “gone the front-line commitment-the concentration of the last Prime Minister and the present one when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, on the Commission for Africa?”
It had been fobbed off “to a thing called the Africa Partnership Forum, whose latest report the Government have not thought worth bringing to Parliament,” Bishop Scott-Joynt said.
Stability and nation-building in the Great Lakes Region was a matter “of deepest urgency” he said, urging the government to honor its commitments to the people of Africa.
WCC 9th Assembly: Archbishop Fidele Dirokpa of the Congo 2.16.06 June 9, 2007
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Album (Photos), Anglican Church of the Congo, Church of England Newspaper, WCC.add a comment
The Most Rev. Fidele Dirokpa, Bishop of Kinshasa and Archbishop of the Congo at the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Feb 16, 2006. First published by The Church of England Newspaper.
