wfn.org | Bishops meet, pray, with president of Congo

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Nov. 7, 2003 News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn. 7 
E-mail:newsdesk@umcom.org 7 ALL-AA-AF-RM{540}

NOTE: Photographs are available.

By United Methodist News Service

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - The 32-year-old president of the Democratic Republic of
the Congo is asking United Methodist bishops to help his impoverished and
war-torn nation as he moves to bring peace and, eventually, free elections to
his people.

Thirteen bishops, including three from the Congo, met with President Joseph
Kabila during the Council of Bishops' six-day semiannual meeting in the
Washington Area.  Kabila was in the U.S. capital to meet with President
George W. Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell and executives from
international development organizations. 

Between prayers offered by the bishops, Kabila offered a frank assessment of
conditions in the African country, where more than 1 million United
Methodists live. He stated his commitment to change in the nation as it
emerges from a six-year war in which millions of Congolese died.

"The will of people is the will of God. It is the will of the people to live
in peace with their neighbors. Hearing this, who was I to go against the will
of God?" said Kabila, who became president in 2001 after the assassination of
his father, President Laurent Kabila. 

The elder Kabila had ruled since overthrowing dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in
1997. War erupted soon afterward, with surrounding countries taking sides in
the brutal fighting. Nearly 11,000 U.N. peacekeepers are working to maintain
a fragile peace.
 
Speaking softly in English from a single page of notes, Kabila said the Congo
needs to be a priority for the worldwide United Methodist Church. 

"The Methodist Church is found on each and every corner. It is very, very
active," Kabila told the bishops. He outlined his top priorities: economic
development, the fight against a fearsome epidemic of HIV/AIDS, and the
movement to elections and a democratic government. 

"Congo should become a priority area. It should be a priority in your prayers
(and) in your social concern," Kabila said. 

He asked the church to help him improve health care throughout the country.
"We hope to make sure that a pregnant woman won't have to walk 100 kilometers
to a medical center. Bring the medical center to her."

Kabila said he seeks ensure "that no single Congolese will go to bed without
eating. No father of children will be unable to send his children to
school... AIDS is like a war, but we cannot sign a cease-fire. We cannot
afford to lose this particular battle."

Bishop Fama Onema of the Central Congo Area opened the meeting and said
Kabila is committed to "peace, reconciliation and unity in our country."
Congolese bishops Nkulu Ntambo of the North Katanga Area and Kainda Katembo
of the Southern Congo Area, sat a few feet away.

Kabila told bishops he is committed to a peace process that will lead to
elections, but cautioned that he is walking a difficult road. "It's one thing
to talk of peace. It's another to make peace last...With 50 million people
with differences, it is important that they sit around the table and talk
with each other. This is a process because six years of war cannot be healed
in four months."

"When I think of peace in the Congo, I think of the verse in the Bible,
'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall inherit the kingdom of God.'
This was the driving force for the peace process in the Congo," Kabila said. 

Bishop Felton Edwin May, bishop of the Washington Area and host of the
council's meeting, responded to the president's remarks, saying Kabila
offered a "careful, clear message, stated with dignity and wisdom. ... The
people of Congo have put their trust in God, their faith, in you."

The meeting concluded with a prayer by Bishop Sharon Brown Christopher of the
Illinois Area, immediate past president of the council. "We know the
peacemakers are blessed," she said, and she thanked God for Kabila's "vision
of stability, reconciliation, development and health."

The United Methodist Committee on Relief is responding to needs in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo through UMCOR Advance No. 982353, "Global
Peacebuilding and Reconciliation." Contributions can be dropped in church
offering plates or sent to the agency at 475 Riverside Drive, Room 330, New
York, NY 10115. Credit-card donors can call (800) 554-8583.

 
 

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United Methodist News Service
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