Below is the text of a talk given to the Retired Dublin and Glendalough Clergy group on the Topic of my mission experience 14th Oct 2008 - This was prepared but certainly not given word for word!
Before we begin let’s Pray
Heavenly father, I pray that as we look at the needs of your people around the world and take a glimpse into the Anglican Church is Zambia that you would speak and minister through me – In Jesus' Name Amen
Good afternoon and welcome to the College / Institute! – Dr Maurice Elliott approached me at the end of the summer and asked me would I speak today to you – I immediately said yes, since then I have wondered what I have got myself into.
I have entitled this talk – “Thoughts from a random final year ordinand” I did this because anyone of the ordinands from our year group could have spoken to you today. As you are aware at the end of Matthew’s Gospel Jesus commissioned his disciples to go into all of the world and preach the gospel … well this summer … we as a year group took that some what literally.
2 went to Canada
1 to California
1 to Paraguay
1 to Brazil
1 to Sixmilecross
1 to Omagh
2 to Dublin
1 to New Zealand
And myself to Zambia
All on official parish placements.
As I have sat down to try and put my experiences down in a some what systematic manner, to allow me to chat about them I have also become aware that they are, like any part of parish ministry quite random – Random because they do not fit into nice and tidy boxes. One particular encounter with an individual does not fit tidily into a pastoral issue or a simple meeting on a street.
And also random because they are my thoughts which are random anyway!
My Background
I am a native of Banbridge Seapatrick Parish – Through Sunday school, confirmation, youth group. In the early days of Sunday School I became extremely interested in Mission – through the Lenten projects – the idea of people away off in far flung parts of the world working for God really did appeal to me. I suppose subconsciously It was making me think – well there must be something in this Christianity thing if people were prepared to leave everything and up sticks to serve God overseas.
It was through our diocese that I was asked to go on my first mission trip – CMSI call them META – Mission Experience Teams Abroad – we headed out to Uganda – to Kiwoko hospital. It was there that I was first exposed to extreme poverty – our first few days were spent in an old church building with what can only be described as a extreme History – the horrors of the Idi Amin era
The slums around kampala – hope in complete hopelessness – We went out with locals to spread the gospel
Then north to Luweero – in the infamous Luweero triangle – the killing fields. Amazing life changing are what I would say about that trip.
It wasn’t doing anything deep and profound – what we were asked to do was to draw alongside the local mission team and help the in their schools ministry – going around secondary and primary schools with the message of the gospel.
We also were able to experience Kiwoko hospital – set up by a doctor from Ireland who went out to saw a need and felt the call to work out there full time.
A couple of years later I came back as a leader on a similar trip – knowing somehow that what I had experienced and seen
Again went out and met more of the locals who were still there 2 years later developing their schools ministry and still doing a lot of the stuff we had done earlier.
One of the crucial things I have felt throughout all of this is the idea of partnership to be extremely important. As you know – this is a profoundly biblical concept – throughout the Pauline corpus we read that he is thankful for the partnership in the gospel.
It was this idea of partners and mission partners which really attracted me to CMSI in the first place – the fact that they have people on the ground in the places which they work, people who are – for want of a better word – Inculturated into the community – working with the locals throughout their time in the field.
Last year I went out again as a leader to Zambia – with a group from all over the church of Ireland – people from cork, down and dromore, connor, Armagh Londonderry to a different part of Africa – to do different things on the back of one of the Sunday school projects and once again I was faced with new people but the same feeling that the idea of partnership was crucial in delivering the gospel message.
In Uganda the mission partners were the Quill Family – Andrew was an architect and Joanne a nurse – using their skills and passions they set up CHE programme – Community Health Empowerment which was basically Healthcare with a special emphasis upon discipleship – Spiritual and Physical lessons coming together.
In Zambia the mission partners were the Scott Family – Keith is an ordained Priest within the Church of Ireland who is lecturing at the Zambia Anglican Seminary. He also has a parish ministry in the mining township of Chambishi in the North of Zambia
By way of Introduction – Partnership is Key to all that follows. Both at a local and international level.
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I am quite aware that I am speaking to people with many, many years of experience in ministry under your belt – I wonder if I could draw on that experience for a moment and ask– What do you think the church should be focusing on ?
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This year I headed out to Keith and Lynn for an extended period of 2 months which were spent at the theological college in Zambia.
Student / Teacher / Parish Placement / Computer Programmer / Encouragement /
As this was over my summer holidays it was great to be able to do a little more study. Keith being a lecturer allowed me to sit in on his classes
* Justice, Peace and the Integrity of creation – Looking a development issues into the context of theological thought
* Ethics – When I landed in on this class it was on the whole area of sexual ethics and again looking at the homosexuality debate which of course was something which, this summer was at the forefront of the minds of the Anglican church
o This in itself was good to have a bit of time to think about such questions whilst outside my normal circumstances
o Sitting in a Global south country and getting information through the internet from many sources
* Homeltics – It was great to get teaching about drawing on cultural issues in the process of crafting sermons in Africa.
As a teacher – Before coming down to CITC I trained as a Computer Scientist and then as a secondary school teacher. In Zambia I was asked to do some training for the first year students as part of their “Study Skills” this involved basic work with Microsoft Word and research techniques on the internet.
At the moment the college in Zambia is about to bring in a Degree Programme which is underwritten by Canterbury University so the computer skills will have to be of a similar standard to those of our own students here in the UK or Ireland. It was a complete challenge to talk to a class who had little or no background what so ever with computer skills.
On the computer side of things – the college had invested heavily in various pieces of hardware and it was good to be able to set up various systems to help in the management of the resources – for example – printer and file sharing systems as well as a library system to help control books within their college library.
Within this side of my work I do feel I gained a lot more knowledge by doing these things than I gave and it was great by the end of the 2 months to see how much the class had actually taken on board and learnt from the whole. Being able to do reasonable complex things – some even were able to Word process their essay from scratch – so that was a feat in itself!
The parish placement side of the trip was truly humbling and generally amazing – actually getting out and meeting people, people who are living in the most basic conditions – people who are living on the less than a dollar a day – 50p / 65 Cent Which is amazing when one considers that the price of fuel in Zambia was verging on the same price as it is in Ireland.
I did come across some of those who are totally at the bottom of society – people who saw absolutely no future – people whose only escape from poverty was drinking – day and night - When one walked around the unofficial compound in Chambishi the number of Bars selling cheap beer and their equaliviant to potchine was completely heart breaking. It was in this place that I came across the first person I had met, who was dying of HIV/Aids who had absolutely no hope of survival – she was in the last throes of life. And yes I have set at bedsides of those who are dying, and yes I know the facts and figures of aids but it is completely heart breaking to know the problems in these communities.
I do get really passionate about this – what is the church doing in these circumstances – what responsibilities does the church in Zambia and the church in Ireland have to support our brothers and sisters in the world wide church. Huge Global issues.
The Parish placement saw me in various parishes all around the town of Kitwe and beyond – doing the things that an ordinand would be doing here in Ireland
Leading services, reading, preaching, visiting houses, praying with people and going to a Bible study.
This was an exhilarating amount of diversity. One of the bible studies I participated in was looking at trauma counselling – It was equipping the locals in how to talk to people who had had the most horrific stories – It was an African based DVD which looked at some of the people who had lived through genocide and other tragedies and how one should deal with it. One of the questions asked participant if they had had any experices of such.
Here I was sitting in Zambia – one of the most peaceful countries in Africa – but in that small group of people they shared some of the deepest memories of their times in various countries, recalling terror and violence. One particular person had lived through the apartheid regime in south Africa.
My immediate thing to this question of experiencing trauma was no but as the stories came out – My thinking changed – I hadn’t lived through the Idi Amin regime or apartheid but I had lived through Northern Ireland – through bombing, shootings, sectarianism at its worse and we are still sorting these things out. There is still such a lot of trauma from all around – on both sides. It was very strange to be having this conversation in Zambia.
On a lighter note, as a staunch evangelical, brought up in the United Diocese of Down and Dromore – the liturgical side of Zambia on my first trip caused me a bit of concern – being on the extreme side of the anglo-catholic tradition. But it was a strange sort of a mix the outward trappings were of white cassock albs, bells and plenty of smells however with an evangelical zeal to the preaching which as passionate and contained the range of views that we have here in ireland.
However I did make sure that there was no photographic evidence to incriminate me as a cassock alb wearing ordinand!
Turning to the challenge of the placement – Each time I have been to Africa I have been struck by the sheer polarisation between rich and poor and how they exist in sight of each other.
A mud house with thatched room on the side of the main road which carries billions of pounds worth of machines overhead runs twenty lines of power cable on mammoth pylons to a neighbouring country.
I was sitting in one of Keith’s churches in his parish – a couple of books – in a classroom which had a blackboard and a couple of hand made posters. During the service I looked outside – a couple of kids were collecting water from a well, on the road beyond a railway line barely used was the main highway – huge caterpillar machines where being driven up for the mining industry.
Which leads me on to the mines – this is the main industry in Zambia – thousands of people are employed in getting the copper out of the ground either in closed or open pit mines – The mine owners are getting richer and richer pumping money into the business of getting copper out quicker and quicker. The problem is that the profits are not going into the economy they are Chinese and Indian so the copper is being exported and then the profits too are being exported overseas. One of the huge questions which worries me is what happens as a consequence of this action – what will be left after all the copper is extracted? When the raw material dries up?
It is a crazy situation when you find literally new mountains of Slag built up over time within the areas of Zambia.
Children, The average lifespan, I presume due to Aids and other diseases is somewhere ludicrously short – 42/43 I think. So you have masses of young orphans who have to be taken in and looked after – this is causing a huge burden on the people – I met one Vicar General (between an archdeacon and a bishop) who invited me round for dinner – on my birthday – he introduced me to his own many children for whom he was responsible who were living in a 4 bedroom house.
All because their parents had died and he was the adult that was to take care of them.
On my first visit to Africa we heard horrific stories about the problems of AID’s where people thought the way to get rid of the virus was to sleep with a virgin – so girls were being infected by men.
Huge problems – few answers.
The church in Zambia is not immune to problems affecting the world wide church – Ask anyone here in Ireland what the problems affecting the church in Ireland and you will invariably end up with
Growing Consumerism
Attracting Young people
Shift Patterns of work
Attracting Clergy / people power
The church in Zambia has exactly the same problems but does not have the same resources as we have to throw at the problems
There is a need for increased people to come forward for ministry but then there is the problem of resources. There is also a need to go to the very basics. In outlying areas which have problems with water and basic communication how does one even try to come to terms with this
So with all of this is there hope …
… There has to be hope … we are Christians after all …
The church I told you about sitting in and looking out – these are the poorest of the poor. But they are a people with vision, a people who do not want to be in a school building – they want a church building they can call their own. So that group of people at the minute there are 10 or so of them now are tying to literally BUILD THEIR CHURCH from the ground up.
1 ant hill + 10 people and a heap of grass they have started each Wednesday to make block – the blocks are made from an ant Hill – It is the whole idea of empowerment – the natural resources are there – the knowelege is there within the community all it takes is a little bit of leadership in terms of the church and encouragement and they will succeed.
In Keith’s JPIC class a true story was told of an organisation coming in an setting up a community school, they funded the teachers and the building – this was all going great until the organisation looked at it budgets and priorities – the priorities changed and the funding was withdrawn the school lasted about three months – the teachers stayed on as volunteers but the problem was that the children no longer were happy – they stayed at home.
There was a few issues with this idea of development: It was a community school but the community had no ownership of the project. It was a top down approach – you need a school – we will give you a school.
One wonders if an empowerment model might have worked. One where the local people met together and said – we need a school and how do we get one?
They may have put into place something for the parents (many of whom were illiterate)
There needs to be an income generation source – maybe a community garden where vegetables could be grown both for food for the Childrens’ dinner and to sell to buy resources for the school and to pay the salaries of the teachers
The parents could be educated along with the children.
Thinking outside of the box may have allowed that community to lift themselves out of the poverty trap.
The idea of empowerment may have been an important consideration. This case, for me is another way of thinking about what the role of community leadership is all about in Africa – it is not all about asking for handouts but teaching how to do things for themselves. The training of church leaders in these things as community leaders is so appropriate and so essential.
One of the things which I am concentrating on this year as part of my dissertation is mission and how the church of Ireland responds to mission both at home and abroad. Using my experiences overseas as well as mission teams at home and asking fundalmental questions as to our understanding of what we are doing as a church when it comes to engaging with God’s mission in the world.
How what we do on a Sunday morning is helping to fulfil the Missio Dei – the mission of God in the world around.
Looking at concluding – this year I am hoping to do a piece of research enlisting the help up CMSI, Church Army, USPG and various other people including clergy and the synod’s council for mission looking at precisely what I got you all to do – what are our priorities as a church and also asking difficult questions as to the role of the church of Ireland in world mission – looking at my experiences in the light of mission questions.
Are we simply sending young people off overseas for a holiday or is there something more going on – what is partnership anyway? Those are the sort of question I want to be asking. .
Any questions??
