Note #9164 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:
06126 Feb. 22, 2006
Liberian Presbyterians see hope in renewed partnership with PC(USA)
Leaders say 'stagnant' church may declare itself independent from Cumberland Presbyterians
by Toya Richards Hill
MONROVIA, LIBERIA - The Presbyterian Church of Liberia (PCL), which has ties to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) dating to the formation of the country, wants to rekindle the relationship.
Fed up with limited resources that have left their church stagnant and "pathetic," newly installed officials of the PCL say they want to move away from their affiliation with the Tennessee-based Cumberland Presbyterian Church and renew their old ties to the PC(USA).
"We appreciate everything the Cumberland Presbyterian Church has done for us, but we have to move on," said the Rev. Ansumana Fahnbulleh, the PCL moderator. "The church has not made much movement. ... We have to rebuild."
That was the clear message Fahnbulleh and other PCL officials delivered last last month during an interview with the Presbyterian News Service in a small church office in downtown Monrovia. PCL executives talked about how difficult things have been for them, and about what they think must happen to bring their church back to life.
"We have a desire to go back to our roots," said the Rev. Robert Lee II, the PCL stated clerk, adding that he and his colleagues need to do it "in the shortest possible time."
The Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions started working in Liberia in 1833, sending black missionaries to the nascent country. In 1847, one missionary was among the signers of the Monrovian Declaration of Independence. The last missionaries arrived in 1887.
In 1928, the Presbytery of Liberia in West Africa became independent. Its subsequent mission work included establishing a school and a clinic in Liberia's Todee District in the 1940s. In 1980, the Presbytery of Liberia became a presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
Fahnbulleh and Lee, who have been in office since mid-December, said previous PCL executives talked about re-connecting with the PC(USA), but never made it happen. Now, they say, their goal is to move the PCL forward in a collaborative, meaningful way.
"We believe in transparency, in order for people to know that this church has got to move forward," Lee said.
Doug Welch, coordinator for Central and West Africa in the PC(USA)'s Worldwide Ministries Division (WMD), said the idea of developing a new partnership between the PCL and the PC(USA) is not new, but no formal progress is possible until the PCL is no longer affiliated with the Cumberland church.
"We've always been open to conversations with them," he said. But before such concrete action can take place, he said, "They need to declare themselves independent."
Then, he said, the PCL and the PC(USA) could "together explore" what such a partnership might mean. The PCL's becoming independent "opens the door for them to be in partnership ... with everybody," not just the PC(USA), Welch said.
Fahnbulleh and Lee said the PCL is still trying to find the best way to function without the Cumberland church, and has not yet notified the denomination of its intention to break away. The PCL leaders also have not made a formal inquiry about a partnership with the PC(USA).
The Rev. Robert Watkins, director of the global missions unit of the Board of Missions of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, confirming that his office has not been notified of the PCL's intention, said: "The Cumberland Presbyterian Church is primarily interested in the welfare of the Presbytery of Liberia. We are certainly willing to work alongside other denominations to see a stronger ministry in that country."
In the past 25 years, Fahnbulleh said, the PCL has lacked the funding it has needed from the Cumberland church. He said Liberian churches wracked by 14 years of civil war are simply impoverished.
They have no money to pay pastors; no vehicles to reach rural congregations; and very few cell phones in a country where land telephone lines are virtually non-existent.
"There are no provisions for anything," Fahnbulleh said. "We are wrecked."
There also is the fact that the PCL's mission in Todee has been lying dormant for years - totally destroyed by the war. The mission is a huge sore spot for the current PCL executives, whose dream is to revitalize the campus and transform it into a technical college.
All of those problems make evangelism extremely difficult, they say. People wonder how a church that can't even take care of itself can help them with their needs and issues, Fahnbulleh said.
"The church is not only for preaching," he noted. "It's holistic."
Watkins said the Cumberland Presbyterian Church is aware of the PCL's problems and has tried to work "amenably" with the PCL.
The lack of resources "has been an ongoing conversation between our Board of Missions and the Presbytery of Liberia," he said.
According to Watkins, the Cumberland church has tried to be "sensitive" to the human needs in the PCL, and has made "small disbursements" from time to time for such things as feeding programs and emergency assistance.
At the same time, he said, the denomination has been grappling with "the whole issue of not creating an unhealthy dependency of the presbytery upon the Board of Missions of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church."
The PCL has asked for funds to pay its ministers, Watkins said, but "we have said that we felt that it's better for us not to pay a ministerial supplement." He said the answer lies in PCL ministers developing "tentmaking ministries" outside the church to provide "a livable salary for their families."
"It really establishes a better foundation for the future of the church in Liberia," he said.
The PC(USA)'s Welch cautioned that a partnership with the PC(USA) wouldn't automatically mean that money would flow into the Liberian church.
On one level, the PCL and the PC(USA) are Presbyterian brothers and sisters in Christ, but that doesn't mean "that's going to turn open the tap," he said. "That's not going to happen."
Watkins said the Cumberland church also has been hesitant to send any money to the PCL for infrastructure because of the 14-year-long war, which ended in 2003.
"We've been somewhat frustrated in terms of whether it was wise to make an investment in facilities there," he said. "Until this recent shift in the administration, it was not a wise investment of resources. There was a strong possibility that the war would erupt again."
He said one PCL church near Monrovia, "we actually re-built twice. Every time that there was an upsurge (of fighting), then you saw destruction of those facilities."
Since 2003, United Nations peacekeepers have been permanently stationed in Liberia, and a massive disarmament program has taken thousands of guns away from would-be combatants.
On Jan. 16, Liberia elected Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as its new president, in a vote many hope will be the beginning of a period of stability in the west African nation.
That is the hope for the PCL, which church officials say desperately needs a revival.
Said Lee: "Some say the church is dead. But our spirit is not dead."
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