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Mennonite Church USA Delegation to Visit with Churches in Congo

ELKHART, Ind. — After more than three years of cautious exploration and joint discernment, two Congolese Mennonite conferences and Mennonite Church USA are preparing to take a significant step toward closer church-to-church relationships in early 2007. A delegation of 12 Mennonite Church USA representatives plans to visit leaders and congregations in the Democratic Republic of Congo for a two-week period in February 2007.

Delegates from the Congo Evangelical Mennonite Church (CEM), the Congo Mennonite Church (CMCO) and Mennonite Church USA first met at the Mennonite World Conference (MWC) Assembly gathering in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe in 2003, with the purpose of exploring a new church-to-church relationship.

“We didn’t know where this conversation would eventually take us but we wanted to be open to where the Spirit would lead us,” said Jim Schrag, executive director of Mennonite Church USA.

The February delegation will divide into smaller groups to visit Congolese Mennonite congregations and communities in different parts of the country. They’ll visit urban centers like Kinshasa, Tshikapa, Kikwit and Mbuji Mayi. The groups will also travel to visit with more remote rural congregations. “We want to get as broad of an exposure as possible to our brothers and sisters in Congo,” said Mennonite Church USA moderator-elect Sharon Waltner.

In March 2007, in connection with the MWC General Council meeting in Pasadena, Calif., Adolphe Komuesa Kalunga, pastor, theologian and national president of CMCO, and Matthieu Shimatu Kapia, pastor, the former general secretary of the Congo inter-Mennonite organization CONIM and current vice president of CEM, visited with churches in the Chicago area, northern Indiana and central Kansas.

Mennonite Church USA, CMCO and CEM already have many points of historical connections. Both of the Congolese conferences grew out of the work of the Congo Inland Mission — later known as the Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission — in the early 20th century. Since the early 1960's many Mennonite Church USA members have served with the Congolese Mennonite churches through Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). This new relationship reflects the desire of all three of the national conferences to relate to each other more directly as churches. For Mennonite Church USA, the growing relationship reflects the denominational priority on becoming a missional church by developing global connections.

In addition to listening to Congolese Mennonites and building relationships, the delegation wants to learn more about the churches in the Congo and the challenges they are facing and discern how the relationship can be nurtured in the future. The delegation also wants to find opportunities for its members to share what they’ve learned with Mennonite Church USA congregations and leaders when they return.

The delegation will include Executive Board members, churchwide staff, pastors, laypersons, young adults and journalists. Mennonite World Conference staff has served as consultants for this USA-Congo relationship from the beginning and MWC staff person Tim Lind is serving as coordinator for this trip. MCC is providing logistical support.

The Congolese churches and people face difficult challenges as a result of centuries of interference from outside powers and decades of a dictatorship that stripped the country of its wealth, resulting in the widespread collapse of the state and open rebellion in many parts of the country. A lengthy process of peacemaking and democratization culminated in national elections, which were completed in October of this year. It is not yet clear whether the decisions of these elections will be accepted by all.

A recent MWC census shows that the number of Mennonites in Congo is more than in any other country except the United States. In addition to CMCO and CEM, a third Mennonite conference, the Congo Mennonite Brethren Church, is made up of about 90,000 members. Mennonite Church USA and CMCO are the second and fourth largest church bodies relating to Mennonite World Conference.

Delegation members include Addie Banks, Bronx, N.Y.; Ron Byler, Goshen, Ind.; Ruth Keidel Clemens, Baltimore, Md.; Stanley Green, Goshen, Ind.; Anna Groff, Harrisonburg, Va.; Suzanne Lind, Three Rivers, Mich.; Steve Penner, Reedley, Calif.; Marathana Prothro, Newton, Kan.; Jim Schrag, Newton, Kan.; Vicki Smucker, South Bend, Ind.; Sharon Waltner, Parker, S.D.; James Wenger, Baltimore, Md.; and Keith Wilson, Chicago, Ill.