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2008-12-16 issue:

MC USA leaders visit two Congo groups

Congolese leader: ‘The best process is one that ... provides sufficient resistance.’

by Mennonite Church USA

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Two Mennonite Church USA leaders returned to Congo Nov. 11-24 to follow up on a church delegation visit of more than a year ago. They found resistance but concluded that the resistance was good because it provided the tension necessary to make progress in relationship building.


Celebrating their hopes for women in church leadership (from left): Mennonite Church USA moderator Sharon Waltner; Marie Claire Kamwanya Meta, national director for women’s work for Communaute Evangelique Mennonite (CEM); Florence Nsumbu, women’s president for CEM, and Josee Mbombo Bintu, women’s secretary for CEM. Photo provided.

Mennonite Church USA moderator Sharon Waltner (see photo at right) and associate executive director Ron Byler traveled to Kinshasa and Mbuji Mayi to strengthen church relationships with the two conferences: Communaute Mennonite au Congo (CMCo) and Communaute Evangelique Mennonite (CEM).

In Kinshasa, Waltner and Byler participated in the Mennonite World Conference (MWC) Forum, a three-year process bringing together youth, women and pastors with leaders of the two Mennonite conferences and Mennonite Brethren to talk about how they relate to each other and to Mennonites in other parts of the world.

“The best process is one that bothers us, one that provides sufficient resistance to enable progress,” said Toss Mukwa, the facilitator of the group. He cited electricity and gearshifts as examples of how resistance brings forward movement.

Mukwa encouraged participants to think about the future and the gifts each member has to share.

“How do we engage all our members in the work of the church, not just this small group?” Mukwa asked.


President Komuesa Kalunga and vice president Birakara Ilowa of Communaute Mennonite au Congo view letters from children attending the San José 2007 Mennonite Church USA convention. Children gave their offerings for medical supplies for hospitals in Tshikapa, Congo. Photo by Ron Byler.

Tim Lind, MWC staff, is assigned to work with Congo and Mennonite Church USA leaders. Rod Hollinger Janzen is director of Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission (AIMM). Waltner and Byler returned with the two men to Mbuji Mayi. They had visited the area 500 miles east of Kinshasa with a delegation in early 2007.

In Mbuji Mayi they met with Benjamin Mubenga, CEM president, Mathieu Shimatu, vice president, and more than a half dozen women and men who are key church leaders. Leaders of the two churches talked about the opportunities and challenges of being faithful churches in their respective cultural settings.

Leaders of CEM showed their incredulity at the realities of church life in the United States. How can the church community be the church when it only meets on Sunday morning, they wondered? In Mbuji Mayi, women, youth and other groups in the church meet at least weekly to support each other and to be involved in their communities.

“We help each other in times of difficulty, and we seek peace,” said Marie Claire Kamwanya Meta, national director of women’s work for CEM who is currently studying theology. “We encourage families to be self-sufficient.”

CEM and Mennonite Church USA leaders completed an agreement committing themselves in the future to the mutual sharing of gifts, face-to-face visits and responding to each other’s needs. The agreement calls for special attention to working together to train pastors, nurture women’s leadership gifts, increase youth involvement in the church and exchange experiences in church planting and peacemaking.

After meeting with the CEM leaders, MC USA church leaders met with several CMCo leaders in Kinshasa, including president Komuesa Kalunga and vice president Birakara Ilowa. The exchange remained formal until Birakara said, “Our people know that a U.S. delegation came earlier, and what has happened since then?”

Leaders acknowledged that relationships had not yet developed to the point where tangible progress was obvious.

“Your first visit turned a page for us,” said Komuesa. “When we get to know each other, we can build relationships much more easily. We want to find new ways for north and south to work together, including our congregations.”

Byler presented a book of letters and drawings from children at San José 2007 to children in Tshikapa. The children’s offerings in San José were for AIMM for medical supplies for hospitals in Tshikapa.

CMCo and Mennonite Church USA leaders agreed to work with MWC on a process that will result in an agreement when they meet in Paraguay for the MWC global gathering in July 2009.