Reconciliation is the best of us...

As I re-read yesterday’s post, I realized that I jumped right into the meat of the situation and forgot to share some of the neat moments that began the consultation. Our meeting began with worship where we celebrated communion, members of the choir from Trinity UMC in Naivasha led our music, and Rev. Dr. Peter Mageto, Vice Chancellor of Africa University, shared the sermon. A moment on Peter’s sermon. I was thankful for the way he set the tone for the two days of meeting with both the subject matter and delivery of the sermon. It was, from my mostly uniformed position, exactly what everyone in the meeting needed to hear. I was also humbled by being asked to serve communion, quite a highlight for the week.

After worship both Bishop Wandabula and General Secretary Fernandes gave opening addresses, and we were off to the races with presentations.

This morning we finished presentations by members of the General Agencies and a presentation by Rev. Dr. Mageto on Africa University and the role of higher education in the EAEA. All members of the delegation continued to listen well and work toward solutions for moving forward.

Just before lunch I had a short moment to share with the delegation. I thanked them for their good work that very few people will hear about and the important impact their work will have on the lives of numerous United Methodists in East Africa.

I am one of the most skeptical people that I know when it comes to institutions, especially the UMC, and I must confess my heart may have been strangely warmed by the good work of GBGM this week. I was truly impressed with the leadership of General Secretary Fernandes and the way the work was conducted. I did not know what to expect, but the meeting was hopeful, encouraging, and just good.

Each Annual Conference delegation spent time in the afternoon talking with leadership of the General Agencies working on concrete next steps for moving forward together in ministry. Not only did the members of the meeting listen well but they also worked judiciously on real next steps for ministry. You always make a meeting better when you make a plan on how to move forward when it is complete.

We are getting ready to start closing dinner, when it is complete, I will catch a cab to the airport to head home. I won’t lie I am ready to be home, and I have truly loved my time in Kenya. I will all but guarantee that I will not wait another 41 years to visit again.

More to come after I have had a few days of reflection,

Grace and Peace,

Luke

Why are we here?

Have you ever stepped into a party only to realize that while you were technically invited you may be out a little over your skis. Well, that started for me at 8:30 this morning when General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM) consultation with the East Africa Episcopal Area (EAEA) began. Attending the meeting are the presiding Bishop of the EAEA, three United Methodist General Secretaries, two GBGM board members, 10 other General Agency employees, the Vice Chancellor of Africa University, the District Superintendents and Conference Leadership from all four East Africa Annual Conferences, and me. While we gathered and participants mingled and introduced one another folks would look at my name tag with a confused look, but did not necessarily want to ask, “so, why are you here?” Enough about me working through unnecessary imposters syndrome. The bottom line is that in the life of the United Methodist Church in East Africa, this is an extremely important meeting.

A little background…Almost 12 years ago an internal audit raised questions about how funds from the Advance Special were used in the Episcopal office of the EAEA. When GBGM asked for documents to determine if there was any misappropriation of funds the office was unable to produce those documents. At that point distribution of General Agency funds was frozen and an independent audit was required. I am not certain about why it has taken so long to resolve this problem, there are many moving parts both political and otherwise that are outside of what I have learned in Kenya. I want to share one quote from the meeting last January; the meeting that preceded and lead to this meeting. The quote comes from a longer press release from May 2, 2023, that you can find here. “A leadership group representing both the East Africa Episcopal Area and Global Ministries then met in Atlanta in January 2023 to review the assessment and discuss a resolution, an in-person meeting that had been long-delayed because of the pandemic. Parties attending the January meeting met with the mutual intent of moving forward with a spirit of reconciliation and healing.” This consultation connects the decisions of GBGM and the EAEA to the leaders of the local churches in the 4 conferences of the EAEA and is working for a way forward.

From what I can tell this is the first meeting of this type in the history of the EAEA. This meeting is historic because it sets a new direction for the relationship between the EAEA and GBGM. Together both acknowledged their participation in the difficulty of the last 12 years and are obviously committed to a way forward. For me this is so important because at the end of the day it is the members of the UMC in the EAEA that need support from the global church.

As part of the day each of the Annual Conferences presented and we began presentations from the General agencies. It was a long day of listening to hopes, dreams, and the work of the church. What I can reflect is that the members of the EAEA listened well to the General Agencies and the members of the General agencies listened well to the members of the EAEA. Listening well for 10-12 hours is so difficult, and everyone worked hard to listen to each other. More tomorrow…

Peace,

Luke

168 Hours

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Whether you want to or not one of the first things that you learn as a pastor is that every 168 hours there is another Sunday morning worship service. And even when you travel to Moheto, Kenya Sunday morning worship comes. I woke up to the wonderful sound of rain falling, I say wonderful because it meant that the day would be cooler, and it is hot here. What I did not consider is that for a congregation that walks to worship, where the economy is based on agriculture, where rain changes every aspect of life, the sound of rain is not wonderful necessarily, it brings an added level of complication. On my way to First Moheto this morning Kennedy looked at me and said, “we will probably start late.” He explained that members of his congregation would not be able to make it on time, that the rain would slow them down and that we would be patient.

With all that said when we walked in the church there was music playing, a few members had arrived and everyone present was worshipping together. It was so fun. The music was upbeat and vibrant, and everyone was having fun. We waited for another 30-40 minutes before the formal worship service began. And when we began worship the singing, dancing, and praising didn’t stop. We sang for almost an hour with various aspects of liturgy integrated between songs; it was so much fun. Two things that I want to share from worship service. One, all age groups shared a couple of songs and Kennedy was telling me after that kids, youth, and adults share songs every week. Second, when it was time to take up the offering everyone in the congregation walked forward and put something into the offering plate. When I say everyone, I mean all the kids, adults, everyone. Every aspect of worship was full of participation.

Kennedy invited me to preach (as if they did not hear enough from me yesterday) and I shared from Philippians 4. I am so thankful for the ministry of First Moheto and the leadership of Kennedy. The church in Philippi was the first church in Europe and the gateway for Christianity to spread throughout Europe. While First UMC Moheto is not by any means the first church in Kenya, it is the first Reconciling church in all the continent of Africa. First Moheto stands for inclusion and sharing the love of God with all people, and I am so thankful that we are partners with First Moheto.

After worship we ate a quick lunch and then got in the car to travel part of the way to Naivasha, Kenya on our way to Nairobi. The total travel time was almost 7 hours, and it was so wonderful to see more of Kenya. When we passed Nakuru we saw fields of African tea as far as the eye could see. We traveled up and down and arrived in Naivasha about 8 PM. We ate dinner and went to bed.

As Kennedy and I shared dinner on Sunday evening we reflected upon the wonderful morning of worship and how it was so special for me to be in First Moheto. And in less than 168 hours our friends of First Moheto will be worshipping together again.

Peace,

Luke

PS: Sunday worship will be uploaded on the First UMC Moheto website by Friday January 19.