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When the Trinity Grants Program invited bishops with international mission partnerships to a unique five-day consultation, the goal was to create an event that had no official findings, proclamations, or press statements. Participants engaged in Bible study, shared meals together, and talked about mission work. The only outcome was that existing partnerships were deepened, and new ones were formed. Bishop Charles Jenkins , Diocese of Louisiana, tells his story below.
The Emmaus experience continues to grow in my life and ministry. The gathering did not end when I got on the plane to come back to the United States. Here am I, an American bishop, and now the Church in Africa is ministering to me and to the people of my diocese. That is the wonderful unexpected result of Walking to Emmaus for me.
Bishop Seoka accepted my invitation to visit Louisiana, and he paid his own way to come here. This was not the American Church ministering to the Church in Africa. This was the Church in Africa ministering to the Church in the United States. Bishop Seoka came here, and he and his wife visited pastorally with my wife and me in the aftermath of Katrina. In their everyday lives, the Seokas continue to confront issues of racism and class-ism in Southern Africa. And if I may quote the bishop, he said our situation in south Louisiana is much like apartheid in South Africa. He spoke very bluntly, very plainly, and very bravely to the press and to the people in south Louisiana, saying things that needed to be said.
The Seokas’ presence was a great strengthening for us. We are certainly interested in bringing to Louisiana a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, like that of the Church in the Republic of South Africa, but we are catching a lot of resistance to that. Bishop Seoka was able to help us in that regard.
So many of the issues we face are global. The decision of the Church in South Africa to seek a nonviolent way to resolve the tensions of the new dispensation are the same kind of issues that we face here and that we face all over the world. What I found was that it’s not just a bishop facing, say, issues of racism; it is the entire Church, whether it’s in Pretoria or New Orleans, facing similar issues. We are much stronger together. When you’re focused on mission, many of the other, quote, “hot button,” issues take on their relative importance.
When Bishop Seoka spoke at a news conference here,
what the newspaper picked up was not what the Episcopal
Bishop of New Orleans said, but rather what the Anglican
Bishop of Pretoria said. And it was like the whole church
was standing behind me. That was very helpful.
