Over the next six weeks, members of the DCOH leadership team will write reflections of gratitude on six areas of ministry we have been given over the past twelve years, four years as a PEARUSA Network and eight years as the Diocese of Christ Our Hope. At the end of each reflection, we will pivot to look toward how that same ministry will be lived out in the next season of our life. We have much to celebrate, and much to anticipate! We could have easily picked any number from a dozen or more ministries. We could have had dozens of leaders write the stories. But we think you’ll agree that these particular ministries paint a broad-stroke picture of how the Lord has blessed us. We hope you will rejoice with us, and we hope you will look ahead with us. To God be the glory, great things he has done! Great things he will do!
Fittingly, I am sitting in a hotel room in Kigali as I write this reflection on God’s goodness in our life as a diocese: we owe an enormous debt of gratitude to this tiny, Vermont-sized East African nation.
The Anglican Church of Rwanda came to the rescue of US Anglicans in 2000 by starting the Anglican Mission in America, a way to stay fully Anglican and theologically orthodox and to get on with the business of Gospel mission and ministry. The AMiA began with less than 25 churches but quickly began planting churches. It grew to over 160 churches by 2011 and formed into loosely geographic networks charged with growing Gospel mission, vital relationships, and healthy congregations. Both Bishop Alan and I were AMiA network leaders, and we worked closely with Bishop Quigg as well, all before any of us “wore purple shirts.” From the beginning, we were deeply intertwined with leaders and churches from Rwanda, and we loved those friendships and ministry partnerships.
In late 2011, when the AMiA turned away from both Rwanda and the Anglican Church in North America, 140 churches and their clergy determined to stick with both Provinces. PEARUSA, the ongoing Missionary District of Rwanda, was born and welcomed into the ACNA as a subjurisdiction. Three large PEARUSA networks were formed, the Rocky Mountain Network, the Southeast Network, and the Atlantic Coast Network. Over the next three years, Rwanda and the ACNA, led by Archbishops Onesphore Rwaje and Robert Duncan, faithfully incubated those networks toward institutional maturity as full-fledged dioceses in the ACNA. In Fall 2015, the Atlantic Coast Network emerged from its infancy and became the ACNA Diocese of Christ Our Hope. The rest is history – our history – a WONDERFUL history rooted in this special relationship with the Anglican Church of Rwanda. Suffice it to say, Rwanda is the spiritual and institutional homeland of the DCOH.
Many of our values and commitments are traced back to our life and ministry with Rwanda:
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The transformative experience of being led by godly, skilled African leaders
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A tangible connection with the Church universal, and a heartfelt vision to share life with Christians from around the world
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Standing with courage, at risk of significant loss, in order to stay faithful to the Lord and his authoritative Word
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“Relationships, relationships, relationships” as a gift and principal strategy to advance the Kingdom of God
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A passionate, strategic commitment to reach unreached people through church planting
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Radical, sacrificial generosity that freely gives resources and assets away
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Willingness to extend ourselves to serve, nurture, and shape new, emerging institutional structures
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Serving Christ faithfully, even when our weaknesses and shame cannot be hidden: “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing glory may be of God, not of ourselves.” (2 Corinthians 4:7)
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Humility: “We have nothing but what we’ve been given.” (1 Corinthians 4:7)
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The continuing substance and power of the East African Revival, a call to follow Jesus, walking in love and walking in the light
These are not just nice-sounding words on a page. Every one of these values and commitments can be concretely illustrated by specific actions, events, and systems birthed in our Diocese out of our relationship with the Church of Rwanda.
The life of God we have received in this relationship keeps giving. We have many churches in the DCOH that are in active ministry partnership with dioceses or churches in Rwanda, and more are coming. Currently, four DCOH churches are “kicking the tires” about banding together to develop a partnership with the Diocese of Kigeme. Rev Martin Eppart, from All Saints Church, Newport, NC, senses the Lord’s call to spearhead this effort. Historically, Kigeme was strongly connected to Christians in the UK and Germany, but those partnerships have faded. The practical needs are great. But typical of a Rwandan leader, Bishop Assiel Musabyimana said as I introduced him to Martin+, “We are not interested in a partnership in which you give us resources without relationship. We want the relationship first, a friendship and love for one another. Then we can talk about ministry together. And remember, we want to serve you as much as you serve us.”
I mentioned three particular values we have received from the ACR in the list above – the transformative experience of being led by godly, skilled African leaders, a tangible connection with the Church universal, and a heartfelt vision to share life with Christians from around the world. That ethos has given us a heart to joyfully welcome friendships and ministry partnerships with new US residents from Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Congo, and Rwanda. The hunger to live in true community with Christians from East Africa is directly feeding the mission and church planting aimed primarily at ethnic populations in the DCOH: four Sudanese missions, two Kenyan churches, and one Congolese-Rwandan mission. We have nine East African clergy, plus beloved Bishop Adam Andudu, who live and serve among us. Ministry partnerships with dioceses in Sudan, Kenya, and Uganda are growing. Our Every Tribe and Nation Initiative is alive and well, a vision that is fueled by our decades-long connection with Rwanda.
I am privileged to be in Rwanda tonight as a trainer of GAFCON’s week-long Bishops Training Institute for the second time this year. This morning at breakfast, another bishop-trainer told me a story that has shaped his ministry of conflict mediation and reconciliation. Years ago, he was in Rwanda and asked his host, “How is it that Rwanda can emerge from something as horrible and demonic as the 1994 genocide to be the kindest, most open-hearted nation I’ve ever visited?” His host answered, “When we were coming out of the genocide, seeking to walk a path of national reconciliation, our president often said publicly, “You can either choose be right, or you can choose to be merciful and kind. And if you choose to be merciful and kind, you will find out that you are also right.” Christians in Rwanda bought into that president’s observation as a reflection of the Gospel and became prominent shapers of the reconciliation movement following the genocide.
Rwanda is not heaven on earth. Rural poverty is real. Political leaders have detractors and backers. The Church in Rwanda has its normal percentage of challenges, conflicts, bad players, and faltering churches. Yet in a key moment in history, the Anglican Church of Rwanda stepped up to the plate and took a materially sacrificial risk to give birth to a North American church planting movement of Anglicans. Fifteen years later, they gave their “child” away, urging us to become adult members of the Anglican Church in North America. The seeds of the future are in this story. We truly have nothing but what we have been given, and we have been given more than we will ever know from this tiny, miracle-story of a place called Rwanda.
ACR Archbishop Laurent Mbanda, accompanied by his dear wife Chantal, will be the preacher at the Convocation / Synod Eucharist Service at 4:30 pm, November 8, Church of the Holy Spirit-Roanoke. I’ll pass the episcopal staff and Bishop Alan will be instituted as the next Bishop Ordinary of the Diocese during that service. I hope many of you can join us there for a wonderful day of teaching from the letter of Philemon (by Bishop Paul Donison) and an evening of worship and thanksgiving in the Lord.
SERVUS SERVORUM DEI,
Bishop Steve