Dec. 15, 2008 issue
Congo church overcomes conflict among leadership
By Mennonite World Conference staffPage:
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KINSHASA, Congo — Pascal Kulungu spoke jubilantly during a worship service Nov. 26 at the Christian University of Kinshasa.
Mutahiya Monique extinguishes burning documents from a four-year conflict among Congolese church leaders. The documents were burned in a reconciliation ceremony. Looking on is the ceremony’s moderator, Mutahiya Kamba. — Photo provided by MWC
“May Jesus Christ be praised, who has won the victory over this conflict!” said Kulungu, facilitator of a Mediation Commission for church leaders in Congo.
The reconciliation ceremony marked a step in resolving a conflict over the 2004 election of Adolphe Komuesa as national president of the Mennonite Church in the Congo, or CMCo.
Ambroise Kabeya, CMCo provincial president for East Kasai and another candidate for CMCo president, challenged the constitutionality of the election.
He and several other CMCo members from Western and Eastern Kasai put that challenge in a memo to church leaders and the Congolese government. They added the charge that that the CMCo had not taken seriously their desires for provincial autonomy and better representation in church decision-making.
An additional conflict involved allegations of financial mismanagement against Fimbo Ganvunze, former national president.
The reconciliation process grew out of a February meeting sponsored by the Church of Christ in the Congo — or ECC, the national Protestant ecumenical council — and Mennonite World Conference.
Komuesa, Ganvunze and Kabeya committed themselves at the ceremony to understandings they reached with the help of the mediation commission.
Together with eight CMCo provincial leaders, the ECC president and the MWC president, they signed a declaration that among other things guaranteed the following commitments:
- That in the future all conflicts will be handled within the church rather than in civil courts;
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