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THE BapTisT TimEsThursday, January 17, 2007

Ugandan Baptists aid Kenyan neighbours

By PAUL HOBSON

Maizefield

Bishop locked out of Turkish churches

By PAUL HOBSON

BAPTISTS in Uganda have been granted assistance from the Baptist World Alliance to help thousands of displaced Kenyans who have fled into their country. Hillary Wafula, a Baptist pastor in the border town of Busia, Uganda, appealed for aid in a letter to Alex Wanyama, general secretary of the Baptist Union of Uganda. Mr Wafula reported that 1,700 Kenyan refugees are housed in a primary school in Busia. Another 2,500 displaced Kenyans are in the Ugandan town of Malaba, which also borders Kenya, and an estimated 3,000 are in several villages bordering the two East African countries. Five thousand displaced persons are on the Kenyan side of the town of Busia, ‘who can cross any time’ into Uganda, said Mr Wafula. They have fled following the

riots in their country, sparked by the disputed general election on December 27. More than 600 people have been killed, and an estimated quarter of a million have been displaced. The needs of the Kenyans include food, medicine, shelter, and sanitation. Mr Wafula wrote: ‘The Baptist churches in Busia and Malaba are appealing to our mother organisation, Baptist Union of Uganda, and partners, to intervene and help the overwhelming burden we are experiencing in our homes and at churches.’ Baptist World Aid (BWAid), the relief and development arm of the Baptist World Alliance, has now sent more than £2,500 to Uganda to assist the displaced Kenyans. This follows £5,000 that was sent during the week of January 7 to the All Africa Baptist Fellowship for relief efforts in Kenya.

Picture: C hristian Aid

Bad weather - Many people lost all they owned when the heavy rains came Floods swamp Mozambique

Mr.Moya DirectorofWorks(MonzeDistrictCouncil)andMr.Hamududu(MP–Bweengwa)Duringa

US churches burn

FIVE churches in Alabama have been the victims of arson attacks. Two 21-year-old men, both professed Satanists, have been arrested in connection with blazes at Woodland Baptist Church in Phenix City, Goodwill AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Church in Crawford and Greater Bethelpore Baptist Church in Smiths Station at the beginning of the year.

factmissioninthearea

Still on the loose is the person who set fire to Providence Baptist Church in Chilton County last Friday, destroying the church’s fellowship hall, education space and church office. Maple Springs Baptist Church in Clanton, was burned in the early hours of December 29. The attacks follow a string of nine church-burning incidents in Alabama nearly two years ago.

TENS of thousands of people in Mozambique have abandoned their homes due to recent floods. An extended period of heavy rain has left the Zambezi river valley under water. Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi have also been affected. In Mozambique, many families who were permanently relocated following severe flooding of homes and harvests early last year are now having to uproot once again as areas deemed safe from seasonal flood waters have been affected by the recent deluge. At least six people have died and

50,000 people have been evacuated. The floods have affected all nine of Zambia’s provinces, destroying roads, bridges and crops, while Zimbabwe’s weather office reported the wettest December for 127 years. Both Christian Aid and Tearfund are working with partners in each of the countries to gauge the scale of relief needs. The rains have eased in parts, but with southern Africa’s rainy season lasting until March, the worse could be yet to come, according to Christian Aid.

THE HEAD of the Anglican Church in Europe, Dr Geoffrey Rowell, was locked out of six churches in Turkey as he tried to ordain a local convert to the priesthood over the weekend. The bishop was denied access to any of his own churches to conduct the ordination of Engin Yildirim, amid claims from Istanbul’s church council that the ordination would put Turkey’s Christians and the British community at unnecessary risk. The ordination was carried out in a small church on Dutch premises in Istanbul on Saturday. Turkey’s Christian community has been increasingly targeted in the last 18 months. Three Protestant missionaries were murdered by a group of teenagers who had posed as believers during a Bible class in the eastern city of Malatya in April last year. A Roman Catholic priest was shot as he prayed at the altar of his church in 2006 in the Black Sea port of Trabzon. An Armenian journalist was also shot dead in Istanbul. The common link between the incidents was that the attackers claimed they were defending Islam from Christian proselytising. Mr Yildirim is the first Turkish citizen to be ordained priest in the recent history of the Diocese of Europe. There are around 100,000 Christians in Turkey – less than one per cent of the population.

Uncertain future presents Kenyans with cautious hope

Tensions remain high in Kenya and its future is unclear. Gary Nelson reflects on the situation

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IT HAPPENED so quickly and unravelled almost overnight. That is what all my Kenyan friends and Canadian colleagues tell me. Kenya finds itself in crisis. Political statesmanship has been thrown out the window, replaced with the risky art of brinkmanship in which the sole desire is the gaining of power. Over 600 people have been killed in less than a week and at least 250,000 people displaced from their homes. Emergency shelters and refugee camps have been set up. The President of Ghana, John Kufour, who heads the African union, left early from his talks with the factions frustrated with their inability to come together. Pressure from old colonial powers only seems to make all the sides angry as they call for an ‘African’ solution. Right now however, as I write this article, any solution, whether ‘African’ or not, appears futile. Kenya is a familiar place for me. Since 1988, I have been traveling to this wonderful country on short term trips with Canadian Baptist Ministries. My role has been teaching and resourcing around urban ministry and mission among two wonderful indigenous church bodies (neither Baptist). My wife has been involved in a program to resource teachers in

the Kenyan public schools. Its people are our dear friends. Kenya has been a place of relative calm over the years in comparison to many of its surrounding African neighbours. Rwanda, Uganda and the Congo conjure up more violent memories. Kenya was the place of safaris, security and stability. Kenya however, has had the potential to explode for a long time. The calm cloaked an economic, social and ethnic tension that was smouldering just below the surface. An economic gap was increasingly disappointing the hopes of the majority of Kenyans no matter what their ancestral tribe. Poverty is a companion of most and the economic prosperity emerging in Kenya for a few remains a constant reminder of that imbalance. Some of the largest slums in Africa can be found in the city of Nairobi. Kibare is the slum that you hear the most about in the news at present. It is the place where most of the urban violence has taken place. Over 1.5 million people live there in conditions most in the West would consider unacceptable. Early in the morning of every day, hundreds of thousands of people flood out of this slum to their employment throughout the city in stores, homes and

businesses only to flock back to this shanty town of dirt streets, public latrines and homes of mud and sticks with metal roofs. These slums are a place of tribal mix like no other place in Kenya. These workers share little of the economic riches of the country but they are its cornerstone. Only blocks away from their mud shacks are some of the most palatial and opulent homes of the Kenya aristocracy. Only a few share in the emerging new wealth of Kenya over the last decades and most Kenyans know this. The economic and social gap has become a chasm of increased frustration and anger. People are angry at the injustice and the tragedy is that not unlike a time where you blow up in anger at a powerless moment and destroy your room in frustration, they are destroying their own homes and neighbourhoods. Do not compare this to the genocidal madness of Rwanda a decade ago as some journalists would like to do. Instead compare it to the socioeconomic tensions at work in our own cities in Canada and the United Kingdom. See it in the disillusionment of young people who have no access to the possibilities so obviously offered to the privileged.

The average Kenyan is fed up. Many lack the will to live this frustration with a simply a smile. They have heard the promises of politicians and are tired of the lies. One Kenyan told me that all their politicians are liars. ‘We should throw them all out!’ But I saw hope as I approached a church on the outskirts of Nairobi. It is a multi-cultural church of tribes and nations, and on their property that day were pitched numerous blue hiking tents. These tents are the result of the church’s response to the crisis. More than 300 displaced people (mostly Kikuyus ) have come there for shelter. These ‘strangers’ have been taken in. These ‘hungry’ were being fed. These ‘naked’ were being clothed and listened to. This is taking place throughout Kenya. It was the faces of those who were participating in the response that encouraged me. Many of the volunteers were young adults and youth, loading supplies, keeping records on laptops and pitching tents for the ‘least of these’. They are the average Kenyan - fed up but not interested in destruction, instead making a difference. They are the courageous and brave Kenyans living faithfully into the crisis, not willing to

give in to the forces of violence swirling around them I have long believed that the hope of Africa is in the young emerging leaders who are no longer willing to play the old games. These emerging leaders are not able to tell you where or when this crisis will end. They live in the tensions of a broken world in which irrationality often replaces reason and grasping for power often appears more appealing than serving one another. As I write this article, the prediction is that in a few days more violence is coming and as a consequence it would be easy to give up hope. All that I can tell you from Nairobi today is that the longterm hope is found in the imagination of these people that I have come in contact with over the years. They are as angry about the injustices around them as are the ones that suffer in it. Out of that people some day will come a new Kenya. The solution will be an African one but I am guessing it will be a deeply faithful African answer where people no longer say that they believe in Jesus but they also believe and act on things that Jesus believed in. Gary Nelson is general secretary of Canadian Baptist Ministries
THE BAPTIST TIMES Thursday, January 17, 2008

Season of violence Tensions between Christians and Hindu fundamentalists erupted at Christmas in Orissa, North East India, with Hindu attacks on churches and individuals. Bibhu Dutta Das , a Christian lawyer assisting victims, gives a personal view

THE YEAR 2007 ended with hatred and communal disturbance, at least in the state of Orissa. It was probably a memorable black Christmas for the local Christians there. Through national and international print and electronic media, the entire world has read about the shocking atrocities against tribal and Dalit Christians in the Kandhamal hill district of Orissa, India, where most of the churches have been attacked. The story has been stagemanaged by political activists spreading bigotry, the ideology of hate and violence to prevent Christians from preaching the message of salvation to unreached people. It is believed that there was a concrete plan for this riot. That is the reason the Kui Tribal people of the district had called a token strike on December 25 2007. The Church leaders after knowing this fact went and reported to the District Collector and the Superintendent of Police on December 22 and requested them to provide adequate security to churches and to the Christian community of that district. It is beyond doubt that the violence was premeditated, pre-planned and the work of a well-disciplined group to ensure simultaneous eruptions across the district within hours of the first incident, and to sustain it for five days despite the presence of the highest police officers in the region. The situation in the most affected Brahmanigaon and Barkhama villages of Kandhamal district is very severe. The Hindu fundamentalist group ransacked the village churches, looted the properties of the poor villagers and torched the houses of the new believers. The force was so tremendous that all the villages including women and children had to flee from the village to save their lives and some are now hiding in

the forest. Due to the blockage of the road by the activists by cutting down 300 trees, neither the media, nor the reserve police force were able to reach the spot immediately. In this communal violence 600 houses were burnt along with all their belongings and more than 3,000 people have been badly affected. Food grains have been burnt and livestock and other belongings have been looted. A total of 100 small shops were destroyed. Up to now people are in the relief camps, but out of fear some are in the jungle and some are missing. The official death toll has gone up to three. A fact-finding group of Church leaders made an extensive tour of the affected areas to assess the loss of properties in the riothit district. The furniture of the churches, musical instruments, communion cups, communion trays and Bibles were burnt in the presence of the police. The crosses over the churches were broken. Church vehicles were set on fire and the doors, windows and roofs of the churches were damaged. The police witnessed the entire episode, remained silent and allowed it to happen. When the Roman Catholic church was burnt at Baliguda, the fire station across the road witnessed the incident, but did not intervene. This shows the attitude of the district administration to the minority community. It is very evident from the preliminary report of the factfinding committee constituted by the Orissa Church Council that all the troubles had been fomented by the Hindu fundamentalist groups at Christmas to disrupt the church services. This is the first time in Orissa’s history that church worship services could not be held in many places on Christmas Day despite a police presence. The District Collector and Superintendent of Police of Kandhamal district and the local

police had prior knowledge of a group of people intent to fan communal riot. However they opted to be silent instead of taking any action. The churches in Orissa were dismayed and shocked at the inability of the Orissa state government to control the spread of the communal tension and violence. The administration has failed to adequately respond to people’s immediate needs. Relief provided by the government to the victims is grossly inadequate. One thin blanket for one family consisting of six members is just inadequate. Rice and dhal is being distributed in the relief centers for adults. No provision has been made for the babies and lactating mothers. The victims who have taken shelter in the forest and in schools need soap, oil and winter clothing. The administration does not allow any NGOs or churches to intervene in this area, for reasons best known to themselves. Records show that this kind of situation had also prevailed earlier, but because of the right kind of intervention by the district administration normality was restored within a few days. For centuries the Church has been playing a pivotal role in philanthropic activities. It had also intervened for relief and rehabilitation of communal victims irrespective of caste, colour and religion. But the present administration neither distributes the relief properly nor allows others to do it. Even now the local police refuse to accept first information reports (FIR) from the Christians. People still live in fear and hesitate to go to the police station. Church leaders have been falsely implicated. On the other hand the police have not registered the case against those who attacked Christians. We praise God that all over the country Christians protested and submitted memoranda to the president, the prime minister, the national Human Rights Commission and the National Minority Commission. Partner churches from abroad contacted the Chief Minister’s office for his immediate intervention to stop the violence and restore peace. After this, the Chief Minister ordered the deployment of Central Reserve Police, appointed a judicial enquiry commission and announced a relief package for the victims. The District Collector and the Superintendent of Police were transferred and the police inspectors in that area were suspended from

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duties. The National Human Rights commission and the National Minority Commissions have already started their investigations Now the situation is coming back to normality. However, evangelists in other districts are getting warnings and new believers have been constantly pressurised. But God is working here very wonderfully. God’s servants in this locality say that though property has been damaged, God protected their lives for a definite plan. So they prefer to stay and work there in spite of threats to their lives. They say that in the year 1967 the state of Orissa had promulgated an anti-conversion law, wherein a punishment of three years imprisonment is prescribed for any act of conversion using force, fraud or allurement. But by the grace of God, even after 30 years not a single pastor or evangelist has been convicted for the same. Though many cases have been registered for unlawful conversion against our priests by the police, not a single person has been proved guilty in the court of law. Because of growing Christian missionary activities in Orissa, some Hindu organisations are aggressively trying to counter them. Because of this, the reconversion drive of ex-Hindus (mostly Christians) by Hindu organisations in Orissa has become well organised and now they are trying their best to prevent Church activities by means of terror and violence. But I am sure that no one can prevent God’s work. Bibhu Dutta Das is an advocate in the Orissa High Court

Demolished - A church in Barkhama stands empty Picture: B ibhu Dutta Das

Picture: B ibhu Dutta Das

Destruction - Looters desecrated Christian objects

Picture: B ibhu Dutta Das

Relief - Survivors await food supplies

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