On a sizzling and dusty afternoon within the Kenyan army city of Gilgil, Cameroon’s solely Anglican bishop has a story to inform — one all-too-familiar throughout Africa — of struggling, resilience, and deep religion.
The Rt. Rev. Dibo Thomas-Babyngton Elango has returned to his place of refuge, a neighborhood 4000 kilometers from his West African homeland. The Anglicans of Japanese Kenya’s Nakuru area took in Elango and his household twenty years in the past, when threats of violence compelled them to flee for his or her lives.
“The apostolic marks on my face are due to the place of bishop,” Elango jokingly begins his August 30 sermon. He’s preaching on the service to welcome the Ven. Martin Kabiru because the chief of the Diocese of Nakuru’s newly-established Gilgil Archdeaconry.
The marks he references are the scars that stay from a 2005 bodily altercation that traumatized him and his partner, Mama Estel, prompting them to flee to Kenya as refugees.
“I survived. After a torturous visa course of on the time, we had been welcomed by the Diocese of Nakuru, a reception that included involvement with its Berea Christian Faculty for Built-in Research. I turned an errand boy for Jesus,” Elango says.
Elango wove recollections from his ministry at Nakuru’s Cathedral of the Good Shepherd by means of his sermon, whereas additionally urging the congregation to commit to at least one one other, to construct a trustworthy mission collectively, to embrace each other in trials, and to look in hope to the longer term.
“Church buildings are the identical in all places, battling comparable points (in several guises). Like in Kenya, we’ve got tough individuals in Cameroon too, used to their very own methods. Like some African presidents, a few of them are averse to succession planning. They personal the Church and can warn a brand new priest in opposition to introducing a recent method to points. Some people even personal pews solely to themselves. However God is looking us to humbly develop his Church,” he stated.
“When Estel and I had been final in Kenya, church was one of many worst locations to be, owing to ethnic divisions. Christians had been turning on one another, even after they belonged to comparable congregational ministries.
“Construct Gilgil not just for yourselves, but additionally Africa. We’re brothers, separated by geography. Throughout Africa, we share comparable languages, meals and priorities. Allow us to put together to serve our God out and in of season. The place there are individuals to hope, there’s God to reply,” he urged.
Talking the subsequent day at Nakuru’s cathedral, Dibo couldn’t disguise his pleasure.
“I’m completely satisfied to be again. After we got here right here in 2005-6, we had no hope for our ministry. We got here to Kenya as refugees. We had been merely ordered: ‘Get out of Cameroon. Get out of this assault. Go get some refreshment. Go get some relaxation someplace.’ We discovered ourselves in Nakuru. It was not the primary alternative of the place we had been to be despatched. It got here because the final choice.
“After we returned house after our expertise in Nakuru, we had been simply three monks within the Diocese of Cameroon who had been certified to be bishops. So, no one campaigned. No one gave their identify for consideration. Our names had been merely forwarded for consideration. We had wazees (elders) within the race, who had been manner older than me. Estel and I believed they might be thought-about in my stead. My shock election obtained me asking why, to which I used to be informed by the individuals: ‘The three of you’re evil. However you’re the lesser evil.’”
Ordained in 1999 and priested in 2000, Elango has now led the Church within the Province of West Africa’s Diocese of Cameroon for practically 17 and a half years. Nonetheless, he says he goals to be a staff participant.
“I’m not the bishop; I’m simply the pinnacle boy of the diocese. I work along with the opposite leaders. That is largely because of the late Bishop Emeritus of Nakuru Diocese Stephen Mwangi, who was our mentor and contributed significantly to eradicating us from our trauma. We will always remember that. We will always remember him. We will always remember Nakuru. This place is holy. It’s a place of fine individuals and prayers.”
The Elangos honored the deceased throughout their pastoral go to by means of a short memorial service at St. Christopher’s Menengai Parish, close to the cathedral, the place Nakuru’s present bishop, Antony Mwaura Mambo, led them in laying wreaths and providing remembrances and prayer at Bishop Mwangi’s grave.
“Cameroon is a nation of 250 tribes. You will need to know at the least 100 languages to talk to our individuals. There are some locations in our nation the place you have to begin to greet from the left heading to the best. If you happen to don’t, it means you’re a stranger and you’ll not be accepted. The alternate of cultures between our two nations has made Estel and I develop,” Elango stated.
Estel affirmed the worth of Nakuru’s classes.
“It has taught us that wherever you serve God, be sort to individuals, since you don’t know the place you’ll meet them once more. We by no means knew what the longer term can be. You’ll be able to’t determine who an individual turns into as a result of you aren’t God. It has been a really large lesson. Had we handled you badly, you wouldn’t have invited us for a cup of tea or requested us to return into your houses for prayer along with your households. Nakuru is our house diocese and we’ll all the time come again,” she says.
The couple will stay in Kenya after their go to for a convention of leaders of Francophone dioceses and ministries from throughout the Anglican Communion.
Jesse Masai is TLC’s East Africa correspondent, a longtime journalist and communications skilled who has labored in South East Asia and the U.S., in addition to in his native Kenya.
