Ghana- AATEEA Conference

All-Africa Theological Education by Extension Association Conference.

Theme: Mobilizing all God's People for Human Transformation and Ecological Restoration: The Role of TEE.

The conference was a great success, with representatives from 20 countries (South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Angola, Mozambique, Madagascar, Mauritius, Tanzania, D.R.Congo, Rwanda, Kenya, Sudan, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia). There were also a few guests and presenters who came from the UK, Germany and the USA.

During the week, we worshiped together, shared fellowship at meals, heard reports from each country's TEE program, attended workshops on the ecological challenge, human rights & gender justice, creating TEE materials, and curriculum to address HIV and AIDS, among others.

The main conference room.

The delegate from Angola making a report on the TEE in his country.
While it looks as if Kangwa is using three computers--small, medium and large (!).

The new website was "unveiled" and Ryan demonstrated how to navigate it.

We also had the chance to worship in local churches in the Accra area. We attended an indigenous Orthodox Church in Accra. They began as an independent indigenous church during the Ghanaian independence movement. they used the word "Orthodox" in the name of their church, without knowing of the Eastern Orthodox tradition. Then one of their youth leaders came across a book in the University of Ghana bookstore on the Orthodox church and circulated it among church leaders. A year later, the World Council of Churches was having its annual meeting in Accra, and the church leaders met Eastern Orthodox bishops for the first time. Shortly thereafter, they began the process to be received into the Eastern Orthodox Church, under the Patriarchate of Alexandria. For a more complete history of the Orthodox Church in Ghana, see here.

An indigenous Orthodox church in Accra, with whom we worshiped on Oct 3.

The conference was held at the Forest Hotel in Dodowa, a "suburb" just outside Accra. The amenities were quite nice, with a restaurant, pool, bar, air-conditioning, and a conference center area with several rooms. We ate in the restaurant every meal, enjoying the chance for less-formal engagement with the delegates and presenters. They served us huge portions--the plates were the size of serving platters, and there was usually both chicken and fish, a large mound of rice, vegetable dishes, and always fresh fruit for desert. We found Ghanaian food to be much more spicy than Zambian, and in fact our Zambian friends, and some of the other delegates, found it too spicy. Not us! (more on food in a future post). We also greatly appreciated the AC, since it was very hot and humid. We only swam in the pool once though, because we were usually too tired after 12 or so hours of meetings and workshops. After our free day, which we went with some others into Accra, swimming was the perfect end (more on Accra in a future post).

The Forest Hotel in Dodowa, just outside Accra, Ghana.

Enjoying the swimming pool at the hotel.

Heading to Ghana!

We are going to Ghana for the third All-Africa Theological Education by Extension Association (AATEEA) Conference, October 2-8, 2010. We depart tomorrow, and will stay an extra week afterward, in order to explore the country a bit while we're all the way over in West Africa. (If you'd like to help sponsor part of this trip, check out the "donate" button to the right).

We plan to check out the capital, Accra, visit the Ashanti capital of Kumasi, see the old slave castles at Cape Coast, and relax on the beach and perhaps with the sea turtles (!) at Kokrobite Beach.

We will have overnight layovers in Nairobi, Kenya, both coming and going, so perhaps we will see a bit of that East African city as well.

Some Enlightening Coversations

Check out this Charlie Rose episode from last year on the theme of aid to developing countries, including conversations with Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo, author of Dead Aid (mentioned in a previous post); Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO and Founder of the Acumen Fund and author of The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World (very highly recommended); and Peter Singer, philosopher and author of The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty.

Meet the TEEZ staff

Ms. Edina Mbewe, Director's secretary and first face you see when you enter the TEEZ office. (Esther is sitting at the side, in the green dress).

Ms. Phyllis Chabinga, updates courses, does follow-ups for training programs and sends out reminders.
Ms. Esther Chishala, Registrar, corresponds with Tutors and students. There is always a large stack of mail on her desk.

Mr. Henry Mwengwe, produces training material. (next to Esther above).

Mr. Charles Chalwe, driver extraordinaire.

Mr. Muyunda Simangolwa, Mr. Fix-it, go-to-guy, he does various and many tasks around the office.

Mrs. Gladys Daka, accounting (photo will be forth-coming).

Mr. Knowledge Gondwe, accounting (photo will be forth-coming).


Rev. Kangwa Mabuluki, Director. Oversight of program, works with the board of trustees, fundraises, keeps everything going.

Rev. Ackson Banda, Training officer. In charge of scheduling and carrying out training courses throughout Zambia. We will spend aLOT of time traveling and teaching with Rev. Banda!

30+ Adult Baptisms at UCZ Buchi

Two Sundays ago, 12 Sept, we witnessed over 30 baptisms of youth and adults at the United Church of Zambia Buchi congregation here in Kitwe. (Buchi is one of the compounds/townships which is part of Kitwe--kind of like burroughs or neighborhoods in US cities. We live in Mindolo compound/township.) It was an amazing experience. Ryan and I had never seen so many baptisms at once in our lives! Rev. Mabuluki (TEEZ director), who was formerly the pastor for UCZ Buchi, assured us that this is not unusual--it happens every few months. There were 30-40 baptisms, along with another 30-40 confirmations, which all happened this Sunday morning. So this is what is meant that the church is growing in Zambia!

We went along with our friend Jenny Featherstone, who also lives in Mindolo. She brought a truckload of visitors: Ryan and I, along with two visitors from the Church of Scotland--Jennie and George, as well as a Zambian woman, Beatrice, who was our UCZ Buchi host, as she is a member of that congregation. After picking everyone up, we arrived and the service was already in progress, and the sanctuary was packed. So we were escorted around to the door which led to the chancel, and given the place of honor, to sit there in front of everyone. We were heartily welcomed, and invited to introduce ourselves. At Ryan's suggestion, I was the main speaker for the two of us, greeting them in Bemba "Mwashibukeni mukwai!" (Good morning), and bringing greetings from TEEZ and from Madison Avenue PC in New York.

The service was alive--4 different choirs sang, and during a few of the more lively songs there was drumming and some of the women deacons and others danced up to the choirs waving their chitenge (traditional cloth). Our camera was sadly out of battery that day, but George, visiting pastor from the Church of Scotland, took some great video of the service. I will try to upload it here for you to see. Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of George himself!

Things you'll see in the video:

The Baptisms-- the pastor performing the Baptisms was actually our next-door neighbor. She is the administrator of the UCZ Theological College, which is next door to the TEEZ office. We were surprised to see her when we came in! Before then, we knew her only as "Mrs. Nachilembe" but now we know she is "Rev. Mrs. Nachilembe"! She is not the pastor of UCZ Buchi, but is a "floating" minister, meaning she is available to preach, perform the sacraments, or otherwise participate in worship as needed and invited. Kind of like a "minister at large" in a US Presbytery, I suppose.

The men and women to be baptized were all wearing white shirts or blouses. The women were mostly wearing chitenge wrappers as skirts. Rev. Nachilembe told us though sprinkling is an approved method in the UCZ, she prefers to baptize at a river or other body of water. However, this congregation didn't have provisions for that. Then she told us she wanted to have a whole bucket of water for each person--but the congregation didn't really have provision for that either. So she merely poured a bowlful of water over each. Even still, the floor was pretty soaked and everyone pretty drenched using this method.

Joining the Church-- each of the newly baptized, or newly confirmed (those who were already baptized as infants) is officially joining the church as well. After being baptized/blessed, they receive a certificate of membership and a stack of offering envelopes--which I believe has an individualized number on it. Often proud deacons, mentors from the girls brigade, or family members will come up to the front to greet the new member with hugs, gifts and "snaps" (taking photos).

Deacons-- Here they can be distinguished as wearing red blouses or sport coats. They lead a great deal of the service.

Offering-- (not seen in this video) was collected by district. While choirs sang, everyone filed to the front, one pew at a time, and placed their offering cards in the proper slot. There was a basket for visitors like us. I estimated there were 20 or 30 cubbyholes for all the different districts.

Jenny Featherstone, our friend and neighbor, with Jennie who works for the Church of Scotland building partnerships in Africa and the Caribbean.

Jennie with Rev. Nachilembe, administrator, and Rev. Dr. Musonda Bwalya, principal, UCZ Theological College

Further (Somewhat Repentant) Thoughts on Prosperity Gospel

On Friday morning in the office, I was having a conversation with Esther and Mrs. Daka about American denominations. They knew that Molly and I were somehow different from each other professionally, but they couldn't figure out how. "So Molly is a student at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church but you are a Reverend?" they asked.

"No," I responded, "we are both Reverends, but Molly and I are from two different denominations--Molly is from the Presbyterian Church (USA) and I am from the United Church of Christ." They looked a bit confused, and somewhat disturbed.

"So you don't believe the same things?"

"Well, our denominations are pretty similar to one another," I said, "similar enough that we are part of an agreement called 'Full Communion.' The Presbyterian Church (USA), The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, The Reformed Church in America, and the United Church of Christ have agreed that the gospel is rightly preached and the sacraments rightly administered in each denomination, so we can all swap ministers if we want. Which means that as a UCC minister, I am allowed to work in a Presbyterian church, and as a Presbyterian minister, Molly is allowed to work in a UCC church." They smiled.

"Well that's nice. How many people are in your denominations?"

"There are about 1 million people in the United Church of Christ, and 2 million people in the Presbyterian Church (USA)."

"Wow. Those are big denominations."

"Not really, given how many people live in the United States. The US has much bigger denominations than the PC(USA) and UCC."

"Like Pentecostals?" Esther asked, smiling. "That's me."

"Yes," I said. "There are many more Pentecostals in the US than Presbyterians or UCCers."

"Like Benny Hinn and T.D. Jakes. Do you know them?"

"Yes, I know them," I responded.

"Do you like them?" Esther pressed me.

I paused. "Not really."

"You don't like Pentecostals?"

"It's not Pentecostalism that I have a problem with," I said. "It's what those particular preachers teach about money. They say that if you are a faithful Christian, God will make you very rich. I don't think that's necessarily true. I don't like that they are always wearing fancy suits and driving big fancy cars and living in big fancy houses."

"It's true that they are very rich," Esther said. "But they also give lots of money. Like once, a bunch of poor muzungus [white people] came to T.D. Jakes [an African-American], and he gave them money even though they were muzungus and he didn't care what color they were or where they came from or what-what. He just gave them money. And Joyce Meyer also gave lots of money to the American people that were suffering because of the floods."

I didn't have an immediate response. "Well, it is good to give," I said, rather dumbly.

"Yes, it is good to give," Esther affirmed. "You know, some people attack them very much, but they do many good things for people. People don't think so, but we are capable of listening to what they say and analyzing what they say and making up our own minds. Do you watch them very much?"

"No, I don't," I said. "Not very much."

"Well you should watch them more and tell me what you think. You have satellite, don't you?"

"No, we don't have satellite." Esther looked surprised.

"You don't have satellite?"

"We only get two TV channels at our house. But one is TBN [Trinity Broadcasting Network], so maybe I will watch some more and tell you what I think."

I went back to my office feeling a bit at a loss. I don't believe that it is always and necessarily bad to be rich or that wealth always and necessarily prevents one from being a faithful Christian--as Jesus said, while it is exceedingly difficult to be a wealthy Christian (it is easier, in fact, for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Reign of God), it is not impossible, for all things are possible with God (Matthew 19:23-26). If one is a wealthy Christian, however, it is important to be exceedingly generous, to share one's wealth with those who do not have the same degree of access to resources. If this is what people like T.D. Jakes and Joyce Meyer do, though, who am I to object?

I pulled out Philip Jenkins' The New Faces of Christianity:

Believing the Bible in the Global South, a book on the reading list we were given by Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church to prepare us for our work in Zambia, but which I had whizzed through in the rush of all our other preparations. I remembered that it had some interesting and provocative things to say about the prosperity gospel, but I couldn't remember exactly what. I found the relevant section. A few things stood out. First, Jenkins' definition of the prosperity gospel is much more generous than mine. While I defined it above as a false and simplistic doctrine that claims that faithfulness brings material blessing while unfaithfulness brings material woe, Jenkins defines it as "the controversial belief that Christians have the right and duty to seek prosperity in this world, to obtain health and wealth in the here and now," (p. 90). Defined this way, I do not find it nearly as repulsive; I have never understood the gospel of Jesus Christ to be limited to inward or otherworldly matters or to promise blessings only after death.

While Jenkins readily acknowledges the potential pitfalls of prosperity gospel theology, he argues,

Few mainline churches in Europe or North America would dream of promising health and wealth, which they would regard as a vulgarization of the faith. At the same time, though, they do not pursue their critique to what would seem to be the logical course, of offering their congregations an enticing message of "sickness and poverty." Rather, they fully agree with the prosperity churches that health and wealth are desirable goals, but that realistically , such blessings can only be obtained by secular means, through hard work, thrift, wise investment, and access to good medicine. Health-and-wealth churches assuredly exaggerate the potential role of prayer and godly behavior in securing material prosperity, but they might well respond by asking if Euro-American mainline churches allow any serious belief whatever that prayer can shape one's material conditions. Are Christian critics of "prosperity" arguing that faith and prayer are absolutely unconnected from material realities? Why then do most or all incorporate prayers for well-being into their services and liturgies? (p. 96)

Provocative questions indeed. Later, he quotes Kefa Sempangi, a Ugandan member of parliament-turned-pastor, who writes, "A religion that speaks only to man's soul and not to his body is not true. Africans make no distinction between the spiritual and the physical....If the gospel you are preaching does not speak to human needs, it is useless. It cannot compete with the witch doctor and the gods."

I think I needed to hear this perspective. It got me thinking--perhaps the prosperity gospel and the "community gospel" I'd been preaching and teaching are in some ways not so different. Looking around at the state of the Church on some days, I start to think that the hope of the Church becoming a true reflection of God's Reign is just as supernatural as the hope that God will make one healthy and wealthy by prayer and obedience alone. In truth, I have to admit that health, material prosperity (as distinct from material excess), and loving community are all real and legitimate aspects of the consummated Reign of God. Could it be that I arrogantly decided that human community was a more legitimate place to put my hope than health and wealth simply because as an American, I need and lack true community more? Could it be that I rejected health and wealth as legitimate objects of Christian hope because I am, compared to most people here, healthy and wealthy already?

This is not to say that I have suddenly become an enthusiastic fan of the prosperity gospel. Far from it. But perhaps, contrary to what I had thought, the big problems with prosperity gospel theology lie not in its doctrine of Christian hope--the hope of sick and materially impoverished people for health and material prosperity are indeed legitimate--but elsewhere. Upon further reflection, I have decided that my main critiques of prosperity gospel theology lie in three places:

1. Theodicy (the doctrine of evil, or, the perennial question, "Why do bad things happen to good people--and vice-versa): it is misguided, I believe, to assert that there is a one-to-one correlation between obedience and blessing, and disobedience and woe. As humans have lamented throughout history, bad things do indeed happen to good people (see, for example, the Book of Job) and wonderful things happen to people who are, by all accounts, despicable and undeserving (see, for example, the Book of Psalms). As mentioned above, such one-to-one correlations should have been laid to rest for Christians once and for all by the observation that our Lord, who led a sinless life, was rewarded for his obedience with worldly rejection and a Roman cross. Any theologically and pastorally coherent doctrine of theodicy must finally admit that the phenomenon of evil, human and natural, is as opaque to us Christians as it is to any of our fellow human beings, and that we cannot have any more ultimate knowledge of its purpose or reason for being, if indeed they exist, than anyone else. As many theologians have observed before me, God does not give us a reason for suffering and evil; instead, God gives us a person, his Son, who weeps with us, suffers with us, and offers us the knowledge of God's eternal and unconditional love in the midst of whatever evil may befall us in this life.

2. The Good Life and the Theology of Enough: It is my strong conviction that the picture of the Good Life offered by preachers such as T.D. Jakes, Benny Hinn, and Joyce Meyer are profoundly distorted. According to the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, it would require the resources of about six planet earths if the whole world lived at even the average American's lifestyle--and preachers like those named above are much wealthier than the average American. If our species and others are to have any chance of surviving on the limited resources of one planet, we must develop a vision of a good life that is much more modest. I am appreciative of the witness of "plainness" carried forth by the Historic Peace Churches (Mennonite, Brethren, and Quaker) as a way of conceiving a life that is neither materially deprived nor excessive, modest enough to sustain and abundant enough to thrive. As Shane Claiborne writes in The Irresistible Revolution,

   I would suggest we need a third way, neither the prosperity gospel nor the poverty gospel, but the gospel of abundance rooted in a theology of enough. As Proverbs says, "Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise I may have too much and disown you and say 'Who is the Lord?'" (Prov. 30:8,9). After seeing plenty of poor folks forced into economic crimes by their poverty and after seeing plenty of rich folks so content in their riches that they forget they need God or anyone else, I think we are all ready for something new.

   It is probably true that the vast majority of Zambians are in no danger of the gross over-consumption characteristic of the American way of life, and so warning them of its dangers may be something of a moot point. At the same time, the distorted vision of the Good Life which fuels the greed and corruption of African political elites is not helped by the parallel distortions of prosperity gospel preachers.

3. Political, Economic, and Social Analysis (or the lack thereof): It is unconscionable to even hint that the materially impoverished people of this continent have brought their suffering upon themselves. There are complex and undeniable historical, political, and economic reasons for the material impoverishment of the majority of Africa's people, and to pretend that the primary cause of their suffering is their own faithlessness is profoundly misguided. As the preacher at UCZ Buchi reminded us a couple of Sundays ago, "The African is notoriously religious." The assertion that it is African faithlessness that has caused the Continent's material poverty would be humorous were it not so cruel.

I am so grateful for the honest conversation of my Zambian coworkers that pushed me to think harder about my initial judgments of the prosperity gospel, and for the writing of a fellow Christian which gave me a broader and more nuanced perspective. As I continue in my dialogue, preaching and teaching in this place, I will be more careful not to dismiss the hope of others in a healthy and prosperous future, while challenging my sisters and brothers in Christ to a deeper social analysis, a more humble theodicy, and a simple-yet-abundant vision of the Christian life well lived.

It tasted just like Mom's!

That is, the spaghetti I made for dinner last night. Was it the ground beef in it? or the green peppers? or the bit of sweetness?

I was totally surprised, especially since when I started browning the "minced beef" we got from Shoprite, it didn't taste like ground beef as I remember it from the States. I thought to myself, "everything just tastes different in Zambia. I have to get used to it. ho hum." But then, once I was finished adding the green peppers and homemade tomato sauce I'd made the night before, an amazing transformation had taken place.

I told Ryan it was the most satisfying meal I've eaten here so far, and I think it was because it tasted just like the spaghetti that my mother and I would make together when I was growing up. It tasted like home to me, and that was satisfying to my soul.

Ryan also really liked the meal. "I could just keep eating this forever," was about what he said. We agreed it should be a regular on the menu--that we could handle it every week even.

Thus was established the first Jean-Dowell-Style Pasta Night!