Twenty-five years in one place is too long a time not to carry memories ÔÇô and so it has been for the Right Reverend Trevor Mwamba, the outgoing Bishop of the Diocese of Botswana.
He arrived in Botswana in 1987, a young priest from his native Zambia, to work as Provincial Secretary to the Province of Central Africa, which encompasses Botswana, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The iconic Bishop of Botswana, Khotso Makhulu was the Archbishop of the Province, and that explains why the headquarters of the Church of the Province of Central Africa was located in Gaborone. While Mwamba’s main work was as advisor to the Archbishop and other bishops in the province, he also had pastoral duties within the Diocese of Botswana.
Botswana of 1987 was in another world, and Mwamba has preached God’s word in that world, where the Mochudi parish met in the classroom of a local primary school, and the Kumakwane congregation worshipped under a tree.
You get a sense that when he states that his pastoral ministry was formed in Botswana, he is referring to the pastoral visits to the little hamlets, where the facilities are very modest ÔÇô and the only material possessions worshippers have are their prayer books.
In 2005, he was consecrated the fourth Bishop of the Diocese of Botswana. He calls it “my greatest honour”.
“Botswana has a special place in my heart,” he states. “I will never forget the privilege and blessing God gave me to serve His people here. I carry Botswana with me, and I leave with a sad heart.”
He is leaving the Diocese of Botswana next February to take up a new posting as Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Chelmsford and Rector of St Margaret’s Team Ministry, Barking in London, England. Ironically, he tendered his resignation as Bishop of Botswana on September 30th ÔÇô the day on which Botswana marks its independence from Britain.
He sees it as God’s time for him to move on and make a contribution in the Church of England and also join his family. His wife Mmasekgoa has been Deputy Secretary General of the Commonwealth since 2008.
He readily accepts that his time as the chief shepherd of the Botswana flock had many challenges.
Then he moves fast to define the context within which to view such challenges. Firstly, he explains, whenever one deals with people, there are bound to be disagreements. At another level, he talks of the challenge that comes with being a growing church.
“Often when you say I am a Christian or Anglican or Catholic, you are just attaching labels,” he says. “But what does it mean to be Catholic, or Anglican or Methodist? The Anglican Church has clear ethos in terms of worship and governance. When you are a growing church you have people coming from other denominations, and they think that things that are done in their previous churches can be done in the Anglican Church. But there is a different culture and discipline in the Anglican Church. My challenge has been of teaching so that people understand what it means to be Anglican in terms of our services and way of worship.”
It would turn out that one of the challenges is the lack of understanding of the church’s governance structure.
“Some congregations thought that Anglican is Congregationalist, but the Anglican Church is not Congregationalist. We are Episcopally-led, the Bishop being the leader. The Anglican Church is Synodically- governed and Episcopally-led,” he explains.
He talks of inculcating a deeper appreciation of the mission of the church.
“As a church,” he says, “we don’t exist for ourselves. We are in the community and must be seen to be in the community to address challenges that communities face. Often we forget about HIV, orphans and the needy. But the church is there to preach the good news and make lives better.”
Mwamba has had to appear in court to defend disciplinary action taken against some of his priests. He does not understand the reason for the confusion because, to him, the issue is quite simple: the priests had breached their canonical oath of obedience. Again, he sets the governance structure of the Anglican Church as the context within which the issue should be understood ÔÇô and that structure has the Bishop as the chief priest of the Diocese or head shepherd of the flock, so to speak.
“When a priest is ordained, he is ordained by the Bishop to help him in his work. It goes back to the days of the early church. Jesus appointed apostles. The apostles appointed leaders, the bishops. Bishops stand in the name of God. The priest is an extension of the Bishop because the Bishop can’t be everywhere. The priests are licensed to appear on behalf of the Bishop. When the priest disobeys the Bishop, the licence can be revoked. It’s Just like a lawyer can be debarred though he has the training,” he states.
With the passage of time, he is still convinced that he did the right thing because the priests in question were sabotaging his work, and even trying to remove him from office.
“I had to act, and that caused problems,” he reflects. “They went to court and that brought the church into disrepute. In our canon that is not allowed. The licence belongs to the bishop. No civil court can order that a priest be given a licence.”
But that exactly what happened. The court ruled in the priests’ favour. He chose to comply ÔÇô and not pursue the matter further. His explanation is that he decided to avoid further litigation to redeem the good name and integrity of the church. He thinks it was the right decision because now the turbulence is over, and the priests have come round. Throughout the time that this affair played out, he says he was aware of the external influence of an excommunicated bishop in Zimbabwe.
Let’s go back a couple of years, the period just before the 2008 Lambeth Conference, when the debate around ordination of gays and lesbians was so fierce that a major schism within the Anglican Communion seemed a real possibility.
I want to know what went through Mwamba’s mind at the time.
Of course, the lightening rod was the consecration of an openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, in the United States. Mwamba wonders why the consecration of Robison was made an issue when he had been elected (out of 122 candidates) according to the established legal process of electing a bishop.
“If they followed rules and the only deterrent, which is not even a deterrent, is that he is gay then he was elected procedurally,” he states. “Those who lost the bid within the United States Church then said, ‘let’s go across the ocean to our brothers and sisters who are conservative to help us fight this war’. They went to Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda. They were now starting a war.
Those in the United States who lost used Africans to fight their battle. What we should have done as Africans was to help the United States Church to resolve their conflict.”
His position at the time, which he still holds, was that Africa had much bigger worries to contend with such as HIV/AIDS, poverty, governance, malaria, environmental degradation, and development ÔÇô and homosexuality does not fall in that category.
“There are important issues for the Church in Africa to be focused on, instead of a non-issue. I hear people say Africans are not gay. Some say it’s incompatible with teaching of the scripture, but it’s there in society. In England, homosexuality used to be a crime. It has since been removed from the penal code, but we the former colonies still retain it. Why should a non-issue break up the Church?” he asks.
I ask him where Jesus would have stood.
“The example of Jesus is very clear for us,” he responds. “What company did Jesus find himself in? He is seen with the marginalized in society. He is seen with prostitutes. He is seen with people you would impeach. That is what made him controversial; when he says prostitutes will enter the kingdom before you bishops and popes. He did not condemn. Jesus is there not to condemn, but to open our eyes to the grace of God so that like God we love one another. He is standing on the side of gays and lesbians. We are all children of God and there are things we don’t understand about each other. Jesus is in the company of lepers. This teaches us that God is not exclusive, but inclusive.”
When asked if the threat of schism has receded, Mwamba responds enthusiastically, “by far”.
He was part of the initiative that brought together bishops from different countries to have dialogue around the issue. What has come out of that initiative, he states, is renewed realization “that there is more that binds us and we should focus on working together and doing God’s work”.
Then he wistful reflects that even the early church experienced its fair share of turbulence owing to disagreements over issues of doctrine.
“If you look at church history,” he states, “there was no time when everything was smooth. That history is saying to us that this is a way of life. Our focus should be on being faithful to God and to learn to live with one another inspite of our differences.”
