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Cameroon United Methodist Mission Holds First Annual Meeting |
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Limbe, Cameroon, May 1, 2006—Pastors and lay delegates from 19 congregations met here the third week in April for the first Annual Meeting of The United Methodist Mission in Cameroon. Ten lay and local pastors and 14 lay evangelists received appointments for 2006-2007. The Cameroon Mission was established in October, 2005, by action of the directors of the General Board of Global Ministries, acting under provisions of the Church’s Book of Discipline (Church law). Previously, the work of missionaries and indigenous pastors in the country were part of a “mission initiative.” Status as a “mission” puts Cameroon under episcopal authority, namely that of Bishop Benjamin Boni of Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), who presided at the annual meeting. A Board of Ordained Ministry for the mission was convened and processed the first eleven persons who seek ordination in The United Methodist Church in Cameroon. In accordance with the action of the board, Bishop Boni made the first official appointments. Candidates for ordination in the immediate future will be processed through the Cote d’Ivoire Annual Conference. The annual meeting heard powerful stories of Christian witness, evangelism, church planting, and service to Jesus Christ. There was also great rejoicing that the mission is now official after many years of prayer, praise, and work. A United Methodist presence in Cameroon, a French and English speaking country in West Africa, goes back to 1999 when the Rev. Charles Garrod, a retired pastor in Grand Rapids, Michigan, contacted Dr. S T Kimbrough of the Global Ministries office of Mission Evangelism about the possibility of such an initiative. The idea had come from Cameroon citizen Victor Ayuk Enow who was a student at Calvin College at the time and had joined The United Methodist Church when Rev. Garrod was pastor in Grand Rapids. The next year, Kimbrough and other representatives of the mission board visited Cameroon to explore mission opportunities. In 2001, training schools—in French and English—were held to introduce The United Methodist Church and its beliefs, practices, and ministries. Over 50 persons attended and out of those events came many of the present-day leaders of the Church in Cameroon. In 2002, Global Ministries appointed missionaries to the country. Rev. William Warnock and Grace Warnock were the first and served for two years. Currently the missionaries in Cameroon are the Rev. Dr. Wesley Magruder, mission superintendent; Leah Magruder, area field executive, and Catherine Akale, a regional missionary based in Yaounde, who has responsibilities for ministries with women and children in a larger area. The 19 congregations have emerged since 2001, which is a remarkable rate of growth. An important aspect of the Cameroon Mission is the cooperative work between Global Ministries and the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry in the training of persons there for ministry in the French language. Some 20 percent of the members of The United Methodist Church, mostly in Africa and Europe, today speak French. Four years ago, the two general agencies began working together to develop a unified course of pastoral education in French. The curriculum is now completed and will go into effect in the fall of 2006. United Methodists from France, Switzerland, the Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, and Cameroon were engaged in the project. Kimbrough and Dr. Robert Kohler of the higher education and ministry board have worked with the Board of the Ordained Ministry in Cote d’Ivoire to set up a process to review and certify candidates for ordination in Cameroon and Senegal, another new area of United Methodist mission in West Africa. Each pastor and evangelist at the first Annual Meeting received a copy of the first ever French-language United Methodist songbook, entitled “Mille Voix Pour Te Chanter" (A Thousand Tongues to Sing to You. ) Kimbrough made the presentations. The songbook is the result of two years of work by a team of United Methodist pastors and musicians from France, Switzerland, Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, and Cameroon. It was sponsored and funded by the Global Praise Program of the Global Ministries’ Mission Evangelism Office. The new songbook includes French translations of Wesley hymns, songs from Africa, and new music and words for the world church. It also includes English-language texts, appropriate for Cameroon, which has two official languages. Dr. David Wu, assistant general secretary for New Mission Initiatives, brought greetings from the General Board of Global Ministries. The General Board of Higher Education and Ministry was represented by the Dr. Ellis Larsen, director of the Course of Study School at Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, DC, and Rev. William Lovell, Nashville, TN. Also present were members of a United Methodist Volunteers in Mission team that included persons from Texas and South Carolina, under the leadership of Wanda Holcomb of the Texas Conference.
Date posted: May 01, 2006 |
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