Dastardly Deeds in Rwanda

It's been often said that the Church does itself no favours when it is seen to be riven with in-fighting. How true this is, and how difficult to explain to non-Christians that Christians are flesh and blood, and do not always behave as they should. This is not God's fault - He's certainly not pleased with us when we misbehave.

I've just come back from Rwanda (see my November blog), where I went to teach at Pastor Eneas Nsengiyumva's church. Eneas is leader of the Methodist Church in Rwanda, pastor of the church in Kigali, the capital city. Since the genocide in 1994, the authorities have been nervous of assemblies and organisations which are not registered with them. Even the churches have to have Legal Representatives, and in Rwanda Eneas is it.

Just before I set out, I was regaled by a pastor I had met and liked during a previous visit with details of Eneas' misdemeanours and with the information that he had been dismissed by a church assembly. Would I now kindly deal with the new Legal Representative and his colleague.
The new LR was non other than the pastor I had met and liked. "How could this be," I asked, "when you and Eneas were such good friends?" "Ah, "said the pastor, "he has gone bad." This pastor also obligingly sent me a link to a Rwandan newspaper which displayed a photograph of the "assembly" and a full-blown account of Eneas' many crimes, for which, the newspaper said, he was being prosecuted.

Great! Here I am about to commit a week to this villain in clergyman's clothing, and now I learn that, despite my high opinion of his integrity, he is a common criminal. Asked to explain himself, Eneas merely said the authorities would not listen to lies. A fellow pastor confirmed that the two disseminators of this lurid story wanted to take over the leadership of the Church, and were not to be trusted. So, with not a little trepidation, I left for Rwanda.

Now I don't think this sort of "heist" could be pulled off in the British Methodist Church, but in Rwanda, where there is no such thing as an investigative journalist, you pay the media to publish a story. Joseph (for that is the name of the pastor I had met and liked) and his sidekick Ildaphonse, who had put him up to it, had paid something like $2000 to the Rwandan TV news and the newspaper to publish this spurious story. The "assembly" he had called mysteriously included among its delegates some poor people from Eneas' own congregation, who were glad of the bribe money. The "dismissal" of Eneas and the "promotion" of Joseph were pure illusion, designed to draw funding and NGOs to the latter. The expectation was that ministries such as mine, and others who didn't understand Rwandan church politics, would simply fall into line with Joseph's so-called take-over of the Church, and cut Eneas out. However, I have seen the official documents which prove that Eneas is still very much in control, and Joseph is yesterday's man. Believe it or not, having failed to stop me seeing Eneas during my visit, he is now writing to me (or, at least, his sidekick, who can write in English), is writing to me, pretending to be Eneas with a new email address. Unfortunately, the real Eneas wrote to me with his usual email address just after the "false Eneas".

This is like something out of a poor man's James Bond. The pity of it is, it damages the Church and Christians in general in the eyes of the world, and given that it's becoming increasingly difficult for Christians to have a voice in the world, it's something we could do without.

It's fortunate that we have a big God who knows the truth about His people, good or bad. He's the ultimate judge, and that's good enough for me.