Communications commission meets in Zimbabwe

By Linda Green*

HARARE, Zimbabwe (UMNS)-The governing members of the communications agency of the United Methodist Church made history when the airplane touched down at the airport in this sub-Saharan country on Jan. 3.

Twenty-nine members of the Commission on Communications, including staff from United Methodist Communications, are meeting in Africa Jan. 4-11, the first ever meeting of the commission outside the continental United States.

"We are making history and we are embodying a reality that is often spoken, namely, that the United Methodist Church is a global connection," said the Rev. Larry Hollon in a Jan. 4 address to the commission.

Calling Africa a "wonderful country of paradoxes," he challenged the commission to comprehend some of the realities that exist across the continent -- namely poverty, which has had an adverse effect on the people and the governments of the nations across Africa. "This is a continent of wondrous diversity and quite remarkable people," said Hollon, who is the top executive at United Methodist Communications.

The commissioners are in Zimbabwe not only to set policy and develop communication strategies for the denomination, but also to participate in a volunteer mission experience and communications training event at Africa University. The university is the first fully accredited private institution in Zimbabwe, established by the United Methodist Church to help train leaders in church and society who can address the concerns and needs of Africa's developing nations.

Commission members are exploring how to assist African communicators with training to communicate more effectively across the continent and within their respective conferences.

The proposed outcome of this meeting is two-fold. First, the commissioners hope to understand more fully why the denomination's Central Conference Communications Initiative should be continued and expanded to support communications in Africa, Europe and the Philippines.

"We in the United States take for granted an interconnection of communications that does not exist in other parts of the world," Hollon explained.

He hopes the meeting will provide commission members with the information needed to re-establish the communications initiative for the next four years. The initiative is about providing the necessary tools and training to enable communities to enter dialogue with themselves and others for the enhancement of life, he noted.

The second objective is to familiarize the commission with some of the living circumstances of the people of Africa, using Mutare as a microcosm to gain that understanding.

Hollon said part of the commission's responsibility is to lay a foundation so that people can communicate with one another about life concerns.

Andreas Elfving of Finland compared being global to having a swimming pool, noting that a global structure exists in the United Methodist Church that has offices and people all over the world which makes the church "fairly unique in the world in that sense," he said.

"But, until the church begins to fill its pool with water and use its structures in a fully and truly global way, we have not reached where we need to go," he said. "Our structures are nothing in itself. They need to be tools for God to do his work in the world. We have a unique opportunity and obligation to be very faithful to that calling."

The Rev. Cynthia Harvey of Houston, convener of the meeting, used the translation of Romans 11:8 found in Eugene Peterson's "The Message," to describe why the commission was meeting in Harare and at Africa University and at the ZOE ministries and orphanage.

Quoting Peterson, Harvey reminded her fellow commissioners that everything comes from God, everything happens through God and everything ends up in God and the only response is Always glory, always praise.

"This trip is about saying yes to changing the lives of the people we are going to encounter, including ourselves," she said. "We are here to represent what it means to be a global church, the people of the United Methodist Church."

After expressing delight that his "tribesmen" in communications have come to his country, Ezekiel Makunike of Harare, Zimbabwe, spoke of the importance of communications, including Christian communications in the Central Conferences.

Communication speaks differently to many people, said Makunike, a journalist and United Methodist layman. "It is simply sharing commonness," he said.

He described communications as the "nervous system of being" and there is not a part of the being that is not affected by communication. "If you pinch anything, communication is affected. So, the whole being of ourselves relates to communication," he added.

He stated his hope that the commission's entrée into Africa is a beginning in telling the people of the continent that communication is both central and important to their ministries.

Hollon told the commission that to generalize Africa is misleading because uniqueness is found in every nation but what is common to most of the continent is poverty. Makunike added that knowledge from communication is needed in an effort to eradicate the darkness that surrounds many people.

"Communication will help make our world smaller," Makunike said, pointing out that the essence of communication can be found in the notion that "people hate each other because they don't know each other. They don't know each other because they are separated. They are separated because they cannot communicate. They cannot communicate because they have barriers. They have barriers because they cannot communicate."

He acknowledged the importance of communication technology which can enable the 90 percent of people in Africa who are not on the "grid" to receive information.

Communication is both vertical and horizontal, according to Makunike. The vertical responds to the purpose of the church, why Christ began the church, the will of God in daily life and in the church. The horizontal, he said is being part of your neighbors.

"You have shown that we are your neighbors by being the Central Conference Communications Initiative," which enabled us "to know each other."

Hollon also said that United Methodist Communications and other churchwide bodies are living in a time that requires compelling change across the entire connectional system of the denomination "if we are to thrive and to continue relevant ministry in this broken and hurting world we inherit."

He presented four proposals being drafted by the top executives of the denominations boards, agencies and commission to present to the governing entities of the denomination. The proposals address the crises of leadership in the church of both clergy and lay; the need for congregational development and starting new congregations in a more aggressive and systemic way; the impact of poverty, a global issue destined to shape the mission of the entire denomination; and the need to focus on global health.

*Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.