"Be steadfast in the work of the Lord," taken from 1 Corinthians 15:58, is the theme of the 12th session of the Eastern Congo Annual Conference, led by Bishop Gabriel Unda Yemba.
The meetings were held July 28-Aug. 3 in the conference room of the Centre Maman Lynn de Kindu in the town of Kindu, capital of Maniema province in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
At the opening service, delegates and visitors were joined by Corneille Katisamba Makubuli, vice-governor of Maniema province, and other political, administrative and religious authorities. The Vice-Governor was accompanied by several provincial ministers. The opening ceremony was also attended by the rapporteur of the Maniema Provincial Assembly, accompanied by a few provincial deputies.
The proceedings of the Eastern Congo Annual Conference were also attended by the Rev. Dr. Nelson Kalombo Ngoy, pastor of the local Wesley Franklyn Square United Methodist Church in New York, USA. Other visitors present throughout the Annual Conference included Professor Lumumba Kasongo and his wife, Professor Jacqueline Luhahi, respectively Rector and Secretary General of the United Methodist University of Kindu; Pierre Omadjela, Field Project Manager for UMCOM in Congo Central Conference as well as Jolie Mulebinge Shabani from Kivu Annual Conference and Aimé-Césaire Academic Secretary General of the University of Kamina from the Episcopal Region of North Katanga.
Makowa, Edmund Melusi also took part in the Annual Conference. M. Makowa is a United Methodist missionary with the General Board of Global Ministries, serving as an agricultural department coordinator with the East Congo Annual Conference.
As Bishop Unda retires and the Episcopal Region of Eastern Congo elects a new bishop in 2025, delegates held preliminary elections for potential clergy to stand for bishop at the central conference in March 2025.
During the conference's annual session, delegates also elected the conference's lay leaders, the incumbent Amundala Kalunga Pierre and his deputy Mwinyi Taluhumbu Jean.
With the Annual Conference Secretary retiring, delegates voted in a new team. Okende Ungu Dieudonné was elected Titular Secretary. He will be assisted by Pastor Paluku Daniel first and Wasso Rashidi second.
The delegates resolved to continue supporting the Yambasu Agriculture Initiative. After cultivating the several-hectare cornfield, the church is developing a pig farm and fish ponds as part of the project. The Yambasu Agricultural Initiative was launched by Global Ministries in 2020 in honor of Bishop John K. Yambasu of Sierra Leone, who lost his life in a car accident that year. The program aims to realize a vision shared by the late bishop, namely that the African Church and its communities can be self-sustaining if their resources are optimized through agriculture. Through grants and training, the initiative mobilizes existing land and human resources within the Church, improves community livelihoods and long-term food security, and builds the capacity of annual conferences for financial solvency.
Delegates at the Eastern Congo Annual Conference voted unanimously in favor of regionalization.
Pierre Omadjela Tangomo, Field Project Manager in Central Congo Conference, took time to explain regionalization to delegates. He stated that regionalization within The United Methodist Church is a process that allows church practices and structures to be adapted to local contexts while maintaining overall theological and missionary unity. This concept aims to strengthen local effectiveness by allowing regional variations while preserving the Church's fundamental commitments.
With regionalization, Omadjela continued, conferences will have the power to reject or modify parts of the Book of Discipline to better suit their specific missionary contexts.
He also stressed that regionalization aims to decentralize the Church and give more regional control and autonomy to the different regions of the world.
Delegates from the East Congo Annual Conference at the Charlotte, North Carolina, General Conference reported on the major events surrounding the Great United Methodist World Assembly. They reviewed information and facts relating to the conference, the major resolutions that could impact the church in Congo, and the major events that took place afterward.
Delegates focused on the importance of regionalization and how the church will work in the coming days in the context of regionalization.
After learning about regionalization, delegates reaffirmed their opposition to same-sex and human-animal marriage.
At the opening of the Annual Conference, Bishop Unda also distributed personal care kits to 200 women who recently completed a 10-month training and apprenticeship in various trades at the Mama Lynn Center. Pastors' wives, survivors of sexual violence and destitute women learn various trades at the center. Each woman received a reintegration kit including a sewing machine, 11 pounds of wheat flour, four pounds of sugar, a gallon of vegetable oil and two pounds of caustic soda.
As part of the reintegration of these women, UMCOR has released an emergency grant of $10,000 in solidarity with the Episcopal Region of Eastern Congo to meet the needs of the 200 women who attended the training. The emergency aid provided an additional kit for these women. The kit includes loincloths, basins, pots, spoons, underwear, towels and spoons.
Delegates encouraged illiterate women to enroll at the Mama Lynn Center to learn to read, write and acquire other skills.
In anticipation of the next Central Conference to be held in Kindu in March 2025, the Eastern Congo Annual Conference has set up an organizing committee. It will be chaired by Jean Tshomba Matayao.
Delegates voted a budget of 216 million CDF (75,789 USD) less than last year's budget due to the depreciation of the CDF against the US dollar.
27 new people were ordained: 13 ordained permanent deacons and 14 senior pastors, and 4 clergy retired.
The statistical report was positive, recording increases in some areas: 644,918 members; 612,943 participants in religious services; 324,545 participants in religious education courses; 4,824 professions or reaffirmations of faith; 866 adults and young adults in small groups and 5,847 missionary commitments.
- —Chadrack Londe, communicator and UM News correspondent in DRC.