wfn.org | FEATURE: "You Sometimes Feel Lonely and Forgotten"

["Frank Imhoff" <Frank.Imhoff@elca.org>]

FEATURE: "You Sometimes Feel Lonely and Forgotten"
Call for Sustainable Living, Working Conditions of Church Workers in
Africa 

WINDHOEK, Namibia/GENEVA, 14 November 2005 (LWI) - "All our life we
were used to the church paying for our rent, our electricity and our
water bills. Our car was church property and the church paid for the
petrol. But when retirement came, we faced many changes. We had to leave
the church house in which we had lived for many years. And we had to
look for our own accommodation and also pay all the bills."

Lissie Diergaardt does not complain, she is just describing a situation
experienced by the majority of pastors and their spouses upon
retirement. Their small pensions, if they are lucky enough to receive
one, usually do not even cover the basic cost of living.

Lissie and her retired husband Petrus Diergaardt, bishop of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia (ELCRN) from 1995
to 2001, have to make ends meet with NAD 500 (about EUR 63) per month.
There are, of course, pastors in Namibia who manage with their small
pension, Lissie points out. But if one has the additional responsibility
of children, grandchildren or great grandchildren, then the situation is
quite difficult. 

The couple takes care of five grandchildren, whose parents are either
divorced or have passed away. "You sometimes feel lonely and forgotten,"
Lissie told participants in the Africa Lutheran Church Leadership
Conference, taking place November 9-14 in Windhoek, Namibia.

More than 80 representatives of African Lutheran member churches of the
Lutheran World Federation (LWF), as well as from partner churches and
organizations worldwide, are attending the conference under the theme
"From Isolation to Communion: For the Healing of Africa."

Church Workers Often Live Under Difficult Conditions

Rev. Dr Ambrose Moyo, executive director of the Lutheran Communion in
Southern Africa (LUCSA), described how he, the son of an evangelist in
Zimbabwe, (formerly Rhodesia), was sent home from school because his
father was unable to pay the school fees. Sometimes, his father's bishop
would help out by paying the fees from his own pocket, he said.

He spoke of how he tried to fix his shoes himself, even when already at
high school, because of a continuous lack of money. But the state of his
shoes had just become worse, Moyo remembered. His shoes and their gaping
soles resembled, more than anything else, a fish. This led to prolonged
teasing and, eventually, his nickname "Fish." Today, he and his siblings
take care of their widowed mother, who receives no financial support
from the church.

As a pastor in Zimbabwe, he was often confronted with similar problems,
and many times did not know how to support himself and his family.
Later, as a bishop, one of his most painful experiences was to witness
the difficult living conditions of the church employees. He had even
seen some families sleeping on the floor.

One of his first projects as bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in Zimbabwe (ELCZ) therefore, with assistance from the Church of Sweden,
was to create an endowment fund to sustainably secure the ELCZ's
financial situation. The fund is currently being built up.

LWF General Secretary Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko called on the African church
leaders to do everything in their power to secure the financial
situation of Lutheran churches. To improve the living and working
conditions of church workers in Africa in a sustainable way, required
studying the level of sustainability in relation to the national
economy, he said.
 

Churches Should Practice What They Preach

It takes a long time to improve the quality of working life in the
church, said the General Secretary of the Union of Church Employees in
Finland, Ms Ritva Rasila. But churches should do everything to practice
what they preach: justice, social security, and adherence to human
rights. The union, founded in 1957, is rooted in an early 1930s
initiative dealing with the political and social instability, lack of
social legislation, inadequate health service and living conditions of
employees in Finland.

Rasila, who represents about 8,500 Finnish trade union members,
stressed the advantage of collective agreements. If every employee had
to negotiate conditions individually, the situation was much more
difficult. Unions were specialists in the field of labor laws, and could
negotiate as united and competent partners at the same level with
employers.

Rev. Dr Esko Jossas, general secretary of the Union of Finnish Clergy,
reported that in 1973 the council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of
Finland had accepted the current system just short of a consensus. There
had only been a very low profile discussion about pastors' right to
strike, he said. The church was never an island in society, he
continued. Today, churches and all local parishes negotiated collective
agreements with the unions representing the employees, with the
understanding that unions would not make unreasonable demands. The Union
of Finnish Clergy has 3,500 members, representing 90 percent of all
Finnish pastors.

The Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission (FELM) does not see itself as
a harmonious Christian communion in which everyone feels "deep
togetherness with everybody else," said Lauri Haavisto, FELM Director
for Finance and Administration. The FELM strives merely to be an
ordinary and acceptable employer, with employer and employees respecting
each other without any patronizing. "People, basically, should be
responsible for themselves and for their lives, not the FELM. But it is
our responsibility to keep conditions reasonable so that they can take
care of themselves," Haavisto noted.

Churches have an obligation to look after the working conditions of
those who, together with us, serve the Lord in the church, FELM
Executive Director Rev. Dr Seppo Rissanen stressed. Decent work, he
noted, was an integral part of good governance and should come naturally
to the church.

Referring to 1 Corinthians 1:9, Rissanen pointed out that neither did
St Paul claim that the right to preach the gospel was enough salary for
the one who was preaching. Work for the church should be recognized as
ordinary work. The underlying issue, before salaries can be paid, is
organization of the church's economic life, so it is able to support
evangelism in a sustainable way, he added. (1,029 words)

*	*	*

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran
tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF currently has 140
member churches in 78 countries all over the world, with a total
membership of nearly 66 million. The LWF acts on behalf of its member
churches in areas of common interest such as ecumenical and inter-faith
relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human rights,
communication, and the various aspects of mission and development work.
Its secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the LWF's information service.
Unless specifically noted, material presented does not represent
positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various units. Where the
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*	*	*

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