wfn.org | Concerns Over Ugandan Church

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3466 notes).

Note 3461 by UMNS on March 3, 1997 at 16:39 Eastern (4391 characters).

SEARCH: Uganda, United Methodist, Burundi, missionary, Hutu, Tutsi
Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT:  Linda Bloom                         107(10-21-71B){3461}
          New York (212) 870-3803                    March 3, 1997

Ugandan situation affects mission
with United Methodist churches 

                    by United Methodist News Service

     Political and cultural realities in East Africa have prompted
concerns at the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries over
how to maintain contacts with three church districts in Uganda.
     Mark Masters, a board missionary appointed to serve there,
left Uganda on Feb. 20 to avoid being detained by the government.
He and his family currently are living in Memphis, Tenn.
     During a Feb. 26 telephone interview, Masters said "it became
obvious" that until the Board of Global Ministries has legal
standing as a nongovernmental organization there, "it was best for
me not to remain in Uganda."
     Both internal tensions and external politics have made work
with the Ugandan church difficult, according to the Rev. Keith
Rae, an executive secretary for church development with the board.
     The denomination's African Central Conference has recognized
the Ugandan church as United Methodist and assigned its
supervision to Bishop Alfred Ndoricimpa of Burundi. There are no
reliable membership records, but Masters estimated the church's
size at 7,000 to 10,000 members.
     Ndoricimpa -- now living in Nairobi, Kenya, as an exile from
his own country -- is a Hutu, while the Ugandan government favors
the Tutsi tribal group. And many Ugandans, Rae explained, cannot
make the distinction between the United Methodist Church of
Burundi and the country itself.
     Some church people in Uganda have used the political
situation as an excuse not to acknowledge a bishop's authority.
"Even some concerns were expressed about the bishop's right to
appoint district superintendents," added Rae, who met with Ugandan
church leaders both in November and January.
     Masters and his wife Kathleen, who previously served as
missionaries in the Solomon Islands, moved with their two children
to Uganda in May 1996. They became aware of the problems and
tensions that resulted from the church being registered with the
government as an indigenous entity even though it is part of a
global connection.
     Tensions worsened in August, after Ndoricimpa decided to
divide the Ugandan church into three provisional districts. The
intent was to provide resources to all areas, not just the central
district that has benefited most in the past, he explained. But
the central district, which represents the registered body, had
some objections.
     Masters was instructed to pursue registration of the Board of
Global Ministries as a foreign nongovernmental organization, which
would allow the agency "to maintain an active and a legal
presence." Although not standard procedure, such registration has
been done as required in other countries, such as Senegal.
     The Masters family left Uganda in December at the board's
recommendation. Masters himself returned again on Jan. 14.
Agreement on how the church should operate seemed to be reached
with all parties after Ugandan leaders met that month with board
officials and retired bishop Forrest Stith, currently based in
Nairobi.
     But, according to Masters, "certain elements" within the
church made accusations against him, his family, Ndoricimpa, the
board and the United Methodist Council of Bishops with a special
branch of government security charging "outside interference in
Ugandan affairs."
     When a Ugandan district superintendent, the Rev. James Mwoho,
was taken from a seminary for questioning and accused of harboring
Masters, the missionary decided it was time to leave.
     Although the Masters remain committed to ministry in Uganda,
they and Rae agree to wait until legal status is obtained.
     Rae said the board also needs to develop a strategy aimed at
"building a relationship on more than money and projects;" address
the "real need" for pastoral training; and resolve "the whole
question of episcopal leadership."
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