Our Synod Moderator Rowena Francis shares these reflections
following her first visit to our global partner church,
the Presbyterian Church of Mozambique
Nehemiah said ‘You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem and we will no longer be in disgrace.’ (Nehemiah 2:17). For Revd Ernesto Lange, the President of the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Mozambique, this is a key text for the churches synod meeting this year.
Mozambique is laid waste as a result of both the war for independence (ended 1975) and subsequent civil war (ended 1992). Schools and hospitals remain derelict all these years after the peace agreement which the churches played a large part in bringing about. Neither the government nor the church has the resources to rebuild the infrastructure, and so buildings remain held by the government, waiting for the capacity for someone to rebuild and use well.
The church is determined by the grace of God to rebuild to the glory of God – parish churches, sustainable land use, schools and hospitals, training centres and manses. As Nehemiah needed the partnership of the Israeli people settled in exile and the people he had lived amongst so the church in Mozambique needs support in this task. The partnership between Northern Synod and the Presbyterian Church of Mozambique is one small way such rebuilding can come about.
However this is a partnership and not a dependant ‘aid’ relationship. In Mozambique the church is growing and new churches are being established. I reflected with the Pastors in Maputo as to why this is the case. For them the God of Good Friday, suffering on the cross, is a God whom the people in a country of deep suffering can relate to.
For this God in Christ is clearly for a people who have suffered war and now grinding poverty and HIV/Aids. Revd Jane Rowell, the URC secretary for world church relations, who was also visiting in Mozambique shared how often we in the UK churches move from Palm Sunday to Easter day with little if any reflection on the cross. She wondered whether this is a factor in the church's lack of growth here.
This reflection challenged me. Maybe in order for the walls of God’s city to be built, for the city of God to be known on earth, the totality of Christ’s ministry is to be acknowledged and given thanks for. Not just the incarnation and its clear identification of God with creation; not just the suffering and cross that reveals the deep self-giving of our God; not just the resurrection of Jesus that shows we can have life in all its fullness; not just the ascension and taking up of Christ into glory – but the whole of Jesus Christ’s ministry.
The church is to share the good news of Christ in all its fullness. There can be no empty tomb without the cross, no cross without the manger. As we praise and give thanks for all that God has done in Christ then I trust that the walls of the city of God will be rebuilt and will once more stand tall and wonderful to behold.