wfn.org | Church action frees pastor detained in Switzerland

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Sept. 1, 2000 News media contact: Tim Tanton·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
10-31-71B{392}

By United Methodist News Service*

A pastor who was detained in Switzerland for five weeks was finally allowed
to return to the United States after the United Methodist connection went
into action.

The Rev. Samuel Ngale had been invited to attend two conferences, July 7-21,
sponsored by the World Council of Churches (WCC) at the Ecumenical Institute
in Bossey, Switzerland. Ngale, a Mozambican, serves as assistant pastor of
the Warwick (N.Y.) United Methodist Church and is pursuing his master in
theological studies degree at United Methodist-related Drew University
School of Theology. The churchwide Commission on Christian Unity and
Interreligious Concerns paid for his travel to the conferences.

The trip turned sour on July 21, when he attempted to board a plane for his
return flight from Geneva to New York City and was refused permission to
embark. What followed were five weeks of extensive teamwork on three
continents to certify that Ngale was in the United States legally to do the
work of a United Methodist clergy member.

"His detention in Switzerland was clearly a rush to judgment on the part of
officials in the U.S. Embassy," said the Rev. Jim Fitzgerald, a leader of
the Mozambique-New York Sister Conference Task Force. "They assumed Rev.
Ngale was not in the United States legally and connected their negative
assumptions in a way to confirm their worst suspicions."

Ngale has been working in the New York Annual (regional) Conference since
January 1999. He is in the United States through the efforts of the Sister
Conference Task Force and will return to Mozambique in 2002. Back home, he
is director of the seminary in Cambine, which trains most of the United
Methodist clergy in his country. The southeast African nation has one of the
most rapidly growing annual conferences in the world.

When he was barred from leaving Switzerland, Ngale notified Warwick church
members, and the connection went to work. Marilyn McCarter, a Warwick member
and an avid user of e-mail, notified others in the New York Conference.
Meanwhile, the WCC at the Bossey Institute gave the pastor room and board
for the five weeks. 

Initial efforts to resolve the problem were unsuccessful. The WCC liaison in
the United States worked with the National Council of Churches, and two U.S.
senators intervened on Ngale's behalf, but to no avail. U.S. embassies in an
overseas country have the final word to determine whether or not someone
enters the United States.

Attorney Ira Gollobin, who has specialized in immigration law since 1936,
was enlisted to help. Letters were written by Bishop Joao Machado of the
Mozambique Conference; Bishop Ernest Lyght of the New York Conference; the
Rev. Wayne Lavender, who had arranged for Ngale's visit in the first place;
and the Rev. Ernie VanderKruik, Warwick's senior pastor. The Rev. Skip
George, who has given ongoing support to Ngale, provided important
documentation. Fitzgerald, a staff member at the United Methodist Board of
Global Ministries, helped coordinate the efforts.

Ngale's supporters realized that he needed an advocate in Switzerland as
well. Ethel Scott, with the Salem United Methodist Church in New York City,
remembered attorney Deborah Enix-Ross, a Salem member and a former
conference trustee now working with the United Nations in Geneva. Though she
was on vacation, Enix-Ross volunteered the necessary time to advocate for
Ngale with the U.S. Embassy.

Warwick church members raised money for Ngale's legal fees. The pastor also
received prayer support from other people and congregations. "The
perseverance and skill of all involved would have come to naught without the
power of prayer for the pastor," Fitzgerald wrote. 

Ngale finally arrived back home in Warwick on Aug. 28. He was "exhausted by
thrilled to be home," McCarter said.

In an e-mail to supporters, Ngale wrote: "I want to say through this letter
that your efforts and prayers to help me get out of the immigration
situation that I was in resulted in my safe return home. I have no words to
thank you for all you have done. The e-mails that you sent me were a source
of support and comfort in a time of loneliness and waiting. God bless you
all."

"Everyone involved dropped what they were doing and did whatever they could
to help Rev. Ngale," Fitzgerald said. "This was truly a team effort."
# # #
*Information for this report was provided by the Rev. Jim Fitzgerald with
the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries in New York.

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United Methodist News Service
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