wfn.org | Zimbabwean church women combine spiritual, practical work

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

March 13, 2002  News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.  10-31-71BP{103}

NOTE: A photograph is available with this report.

By Dean Snyder and Jane Malone*

HARARE, Zimbabwe (UMNS) -- The United Methodist women of Zimbabwe make an
annual pilgrimage to Chin'gando, an informal gathering place under a tree
about a half-mile up the hill from Old Mutare Mission.

The United Methodist Church's roots in Zimbabwe reach back to 1897, when
Bishop Joseph Crane Hartzell began a mission in Old Mutare. The
"Riukwuadzano Rwe Vadzimai," or Fellowship of Women, was born under a
chin'gando tree on the outskirts of Old Mutare Mission 30 years later.

During the 1927 annual pastors' meeting at Old Mutare Mission, the pastors'
wives began rising early in the morning to gather secretly for prayer under
the chin'gando tree. They would return before their husbands awakened. From
1927 on, early morning women's prayer meetings became a daily tradition
during pastors' gatherings.

In the early days, the women prayed for the opportunity to attend school and
be educated, an almost unimaginable dream, according to Grace Musuka,
coordinator of women's, youth and children's ministries for the United
Methodist Church in Zimbabwe.

Later, they would pray that women might someday be ordained, she said. "They
prayed for all these things, and we found them happening."

While prayer was the primary agenda, the women also spent some time under
the Chin'gando tree "organizing for women's culture," Musuka said.

This dual emphasis upon the spiritual and the practical has characterized
the life of the Riukwuadzano Rwe Vadzimai ever since.

The Zimbabwe conferences' ministries for women include prayer conventions.
Last year, one five-day gathering attracted 9,000 women to camp at Nyadiri
to hear preaching and to sing and pray, and a gathering at Mutambara engaged
another 5,000 women in spiritual renewal. During the meetings, the women
live in primitive campgrounds and devote all their time to worship and
prayer. According to Musuka, the agenda of the prayer convention is entirely
spiritual.

An example of practical ministries is a skills training program to teach
women cloth dyeing and tailoring. Musuka recruits the United Methodist women
most skilled in the tie-dye, batik and screen-printing crafts to be
teachers. For the past four years, two women from each of the districts in
the church's two Zimbabwe annual conferences have been trained each
February.

Those women hold similar workshops in their districts to train
representatives from United Methodist circuits, who then share the skills
they have learned with women in their local communities.

In November, the conferences recognize women's achievements through a
tailoring show, where prizes are awarded for the best work submitted from
throughout the country. 

Tailoring clothes and dyeing cloth are income-generating skills that help
women become more self-sufficient, Musuka said. "The major factor that
affects women's ability to make choices is lack of their own income," she
wrote in a report to the Women's Division of the United Methodist Board of
Global Ministries. "Many women are becoming heads of families through death
of husbands, divorce and single parentship. ... Most of these women are not
employed and thus require skills to survive."

According to Bishop Christopher Jokomo, who leads both of Zimbabwe's annual
conferences, the economic vulnerability of women is a factor responsible for
the spread of AIDS in Zimbabwe, a country where as much as a third of the
adult population is believed to be HIV-infected.

The ministry to women, youth and children also sponsors workshops on
critical topics such as child abuse, drug and alcohol abuse, and AIDS
education. 

Because clergy spouses are often influential local leaders, especially in
rural communities, Musuka has continued a longstanding Zimbabwe church
tradition of training pastors' wives. About 400 women attend these events
and participate in workshops on topics such as self-sufficiency, personal
and home hygiene, and family planning.

Musuka produced a 96-page book, Basics for Healthy Living, summarizing much
of the material taught in workshops throughout the year. The book includes
chapters written by specialists in nutrition, breast-feeding, human rights
and AIDS. 

The role of the church in education is critical in rural communities, where
literacy rates are low and people do not have access to radio or television,
according to Jokomo. The only means of communication in these communities is
often the oral teaching people receive in church, he said.

Musuka is initiating a new project to advance Zimbabwean women toward
economic self-sufficiency. She hopes to buy two sunflower seed presses for
making cooking oil and two grinders for preparing peanut butter for use by
United Methodist women and youth in each of the 12 districts. These
machines, which operate without electricity and cost about $30 each, will
greatly enhance women's income from crops of sunflower seeds and peanuts. 

Rather than merely sell their crops for a few dollars, the women will be
able to sell processed foods for a much greater profit, and accumulate funds
to buy more equipment to employ yet more women.   

# # #

*Snyder is the director of communications for the Baltimore-Washington
Conference. Malone, a United Methodist laywoman and Snyder's spouse, is an
advocate for affordable housing. They are in Zimbabwe on a mission trip.

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
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