Eastertide 2007

News from

Bishop Andrew Proud in Addis Ababa

EASTER – AND THEN HEARTBREAK

I had a wonderful Easter – for me, it ranked among the best. Ten days before I arrived, St. Barnabas’ Church (where my hosts, the Annuak worship) in Gambella was blown down by gale force winds overnight. Having calculated that we could build a new church (bamboo poles supporting stretched plastic sheeting) for £300, the money was sent ahead and, by the time I arrived, the new church was ready. Due to a hiatus with the airline and then an explosion at the airport (really), I arrived a day late, on Maundy (Holy) Thursday – too late for our Eucharist and Watch of Prayer. And so, on Good Friday (an ordinary working day here; Ethiopian Easter not being until the end of April), we gathered at 5:30pm, for a solemn liturgy and preaching of the Passion that, by the end, had turned into an amazing celebration of the Cross. An hour later, the church was packed. As the beautiful, melodic Annuak drumming wound its way into the deepening shadows of early night, the congregation swayed, sang and ululated to salute the victory of the cross -  the children literally danced with joy. Except by that stage, all you could see were bright smiles swaying and bouncing up and down.  

Early on Easter morning, before first light, we gathered again outside the church, for the Easter vigil. As the first light turned everything into shades of grey/black, the fire was lit, the paschal candle prepared, the congregation sang, Easter readings were read, the resurrection was preached, more jubilant singing and drumming followed, 89 adults and children were baptised, the Eucharist was celebrated and a late breakfast was prepared for everyone who came. Believe me, after three hours, we all needed it.

It all seemed so natural; so right, this Easter joy. Gambella has been enjoying peace for the past two years. So much so that two major relief organisations – Medecines Sans Frontieres and the International Red Cross - have both left Gambella this month. Their work was done here – and there is always pressing work to be done elsewhere. By the time you read this, both organisations will have closed their offices and be gone.

What seemed such a positive sign weeks ago now seems premature.

As you know from our previous reports, the flooding of last wet season destroyed the crops of some 18,000 subsistence farmers. Now, there is drought. The mangoes hang invitingly from the trees, but nothing else is growing. People are hungry, many are unemployed, prices are rising and we’re beginning to see outbreaks of violent crime for the first time. John Gach, our Administrator, was ambushed two weeks ago and beaten with the hammer he was carrying. Still suffering the pain of broken ribs, he is not back at work and is fearful to cycle to the office at Dozer Olami, where the attack happened. Others have been attacked in the same way, in Gambella and outside the town. 

There’s more - when we arrived, we heard reports that the Nuer people living in Ochom were all in the process of being forcibly moved from their homes and resettled. Ochom is a cluster of three village parishes 12 kilometres from Gambella. The churches there had had their problems, but under the leadership Michael Anyar, their Dinka priest, there was fresh hope. Imagine their devastation when they were informed, during Michael’s absence, that they were all to be cleared from the land and resettled in Niningyang – a remote new town, without school or clinic, six hours walk from the river and any clean water. By the time Michael returned from taking his mother to hospital, the people had all gone. Another priest, Stephen Kuany, has been in Nininyang for the past nine months, trying to establish a new church there, so at least they’ll know someone there and we can begin to care for them there, but the implications of so many people arriving at a time when food and water are scarce is frightening.

As if that wasn’t bad news enough, we heard last night that the most of the Nuer people are about to be removed from Itang, too. Itang is a Mission Centre in its own right, serving six outlying villages, under the leadership of Simon Ker, a wonderful, gentle priest. When my colleague, Alemayehu, visited Itang yesterday, 30 Isuzu trucks were sitting there, waiting to take people who, it seemed, had been given no prior warning. When he met Simon and Moses (our TEE tutor-co-ordinator) they looked shaken and close to tears. We had been given assurances five days ago that Itang would escape these internal displacements – by the end of this week, Moses and Simon could be gone, too, we don’t know where.

There are even rumours that Lare Kuergeng might be next – although this is disputed by some. Lare, stands close to the border with southern Sudan and is our biggest Mission Centre, with ten satellite churches. The leader, Deng Mark, newly ordained deacon, is doing a wonderful job to unify the people and has built grass churches in all but one of the ten outlying villages. We have no way of knowing if the rumour is true. If it is, then everything will have begun to fall apart. All we can do is watch and pray. 

As you’d expect, the fear is tangible; groups of anxious men and women are meeting to share the few scraps of information they have. Others, we hear, are fired with anger and already promising resistance. We are desperately saddened by this turn of events and hope that peace, the peace we have done so much to foster in our churches and communities, Annuak and Nuer together, can be maintained. We have no idea how this will all turn out; all we can do is pray and trust in His resurrection. Whatever does happen, I am determined that when the dust settles and we can see clearly how things stand, we shall continue to work with these displaced Nuer, to plant new communities and build new churches in new areas.

In the meantime, with our Easter still a powerful and happy memory, it feels a little as if we’ve been thrust back into the agony of Gethsemane.  Heartbreak indeed; please pray for us all.

+Andrew