By Jim Coggins

"THE FUTURE depends on how we listen to God and to each other," Emmanuel Kolini told CC.com.

The Anglican Archbishop of Rwanda was in Canada in late May to address the AIDS crisis in Africa and the unity crisis in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Help for AIDS victims

Kolini stopped first in Ontario, where he was one of the speakers at a conference called 'HIV-AIDS and the Churches: Responses to the Pandemic in Africa and Canada,' held May 14-15 at The Centre for Public Theology at Huron University College.

Huron is a college with Anglican roots, affiliated with the University of Western Ontario (UWO) in London.

Kolini also consulted with officials at UWO on its Western Heads East (WHE) project. The program trains African women to develop community kitchens, and to make available a probiotic yogurt developed by UWO faculty members. The yogurt boosts the immune system and improves the health of those with AIDS, and may even help to lower infection rates.

Kolini is well qualified to work on such projects. Among other things, he chaired the Rwandan government Commission on HIV-AIDS for five years.

The AIDS situation "is stabilizing in Rwanda, especially in urban areas," Kolini told CC.com. In fact, infection rates have fallen from about 10 percent to approximately three to five percent of the population.

One of the challenges, Kolini added, is to care for AIDS orphans and those already suffering from the disease; otherwise, the impact of the disease could "jeopardize the future" of the country.

Another important thrust is to prevent the spread of the disease. "We think we can stop it," Kolini said, but he admitted it will be difficult, since "AIDS doesn't need a visa to cross borders."

Some preachers in Rwanda called AIDS a "judgment of God," Kolini noted, and the disease has "a connection with sinful behaviour." But, he stressed, no guilt should attach to the many innocent victims -- women raped in the 1994 genocide, the children orphaned or infected by AIDS, and those infected through blood transfusions.

In fact, Kolini said, instead of just condemning the epidemic, churches in Rwanda have been very active in talking about the disease and helping to prevent it through education.

Some solutions proposed for Africa by the West are not necessarily helpful, Kolini suggested. Instead of just imposing rules such as 'Use condoms,' Western agencies should educate Africans and explain how condoms prevent disease.

Unlike the Roman Catholic Church, Protestant churches in Rwanda endorse the use of condoms to prevent disease, control population growth and improve health through family planning. However, they promote condom use for married couples, not unmarried young people -- which would "promote promiscuity." People are composed of body, mind and spirit, Kolini said, and a condom may cover the body -- but not the mind and spirit: "Emotionally, you still know something is wrong, and using a condom does not remove the guilt of adultery."

The Protestant churches of Rwanda also do not endorse abortion, Kolini said, even if some in the West promote it. It is important not to forget the trauma and guilt of abortion: "If killing is immoral, how strong is the guilt for killing your own child? If the cry of Abel goes up to the Lord of vengeance, what about the cry of the 50 million babies aborted in America?"

Consequently, Kolini stressed, "We need to be praying for governments, especially in the West, where governments pass laws against the standards of the church." On issues such as marriage and abortion, "governments should be listening to the churches -- because once the family is destroyed, it undermines the foundation of society."

'Barnabas' in fellowship

From Ontario, Archbishop Kolini flew to British Columbia with a quite different agenda: to visit churches of the Anglican Coalition in Canada (ACiC). The ACiC consists of churches that withdrew from the Anglican Church of Canada and came under Kolini's authority in 2004, in order to remain part of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

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Kolini downplayed his official position in regard to the ACiC, saying he had come for fellowship. "I come as a Barnabas, to bring a word of encouragement. The authority belongs to the Lord . . . Jesus is the head of the church, and we are just servants."

Kolini met with leaders of congregations of local ACiC churches at a tea May 22, and with ACiC pastors and spouses that evening. He preached at Calvary Worship Centre, an independent multicultural church in New Westminster on Sunday morning; and at an interdenominational celebration service in Richmond on Sunday evening. Also taking part in that service was Yong Ping Chung, retired Anglican Archbishop of Southeast Asia.

Like Kolini, Archbishop Yong and many other Anglican leaders from the Global South have encouraged conservative groups such as the ACiC which have left the Anglican Church of Canada and The Episcopal Church (in the United States) over what they see as destructive, unscriptural trends.

It may seem "crazy" for churches in Canada to be under the authority of an archbishop from Rwanda, Kolini admitted. But there is a simple explanation: "The door was open. When Rwanda was crying out for help [in 1994], no one would pay attention. So when others [the ACiC] cried out, we responded."

While the church in Canada generally, and the Anglican Church of Canada in particular, seem to be shrinking, Kolini leads an Anglican church in Rwanda that numbers more than a million people.

Asked why the church in Rwanda seems to be doing better than the church in the West, Kolini suggested: "Ask the Holy Spirit." Then he added that people in the West tend to "think they are educated and civilized, not sinners. But the angels were educated . . . Sin has no limit. The most educated and most primitive all need Jesus as their Saviour." It may be that because of their hard life, Africans "don't see any alternative" to trusting Jesus; but, maintained, "people in the West are more comfortable and forget God."

Kolini said he sees much confusion in the West: "Here, modern culture seems more important than the gospel. People don't allow the gospel to change culture, but let the culture define who Jesus is . . . Jesus is no longer considered the only way to truth and life. But if Jesus is not the only way, then why don't I go back to my tribal religion? No, I'm a Christian. Jesus is the only one who can take me to the Father."

Need for revival and grace

Kolini did not suggest that everything in Rwanda is perfect. A majority of Rwandans are nominal Christians. About 40 percent are Roman Catholic (down from about 60 percent) while many of the rest belong to Protestant and evangelical denominations.

Besides the AIDS crisis, the most obvious problem in Rwanda is the genocide, in which an estimated 800,000 people died.

Even though they had been living together for 500 years, poor political and religious leadership allowed Rwandans to start killing each other, Kolini said. Because of intermarriage, it wasn't just one ethnic group killing another -- but family members killing other family members, and church members killing other members of the same church. "The church has to accept its failure in 1994."

This killing of family members and fellow church members will be much harder to forgive, Kolini said, "but that is the power of the gospel." Perpetrators and victims have been meeting together, and grace is crucial -- for both those who need to be forgiven, and those who need to forgive.

Because of this, he stressed, the church in Rwanda has had to grow deeper.

"There is more understanding of what it means to be a Christian," Kolini said, "to love one another, to love the enemy, to be one nation, to be one humanity -- to understand that we need each other, and can't live in isolation."

A major revival started in Rwanda in 1935, and spread throughout East Africa. Some remnants of that revival remain, Kolini said, but "our prayer is that the Lord will bless us again."

The AIDS crisis and the genocide were serious blows to Rwanda, but Kolini is optimistic about the future of his country. The nation has a stable government, there is enough food to feed everyone, and efforts are being made to stop erosion and increase agricultural production. However, the country still needs to expand infrastructure such as roads and schools.

One encouraging trend is the establishment of an East African economic community, in which Rwanda and several of its neighbours will have a common currency, common trade regulations and a common parliament. This will allow Africans to help themselves, Kolini said, noting studies that show foreign aid may be a stumbling block to development.

When asked, Kolini said he was not worried that his support for conservative elements in the Western Anglican church might cost Rwandans help from the main Anglican groups in the West. If there is to be mutual sharing, he asked, why should the African churches still be expecting help a century after they were founded?

"The blessing goes to the one who gives, not the one who receives. If we are a living church, there will be a cost. We must learn to give sacrificially." He added that if churches are shrinking in the West but growing in Africa, the Western churches don't have much to give.

June 3/2010