The six women who serve as Anglican bishops in Africa met January 8-14 to discuss three threats: gender-based violence, teenage pregnancies, and HIV/AIDS.
At the end of their inaugural “Africa Anglican Sisters Journeying Together” gathering at St. Julian’s Retreat Centre in Limuru, Kenya, they said this triple threat will shape their fivefold agenda for the continent.
“For far too long, the voice of the church has been silent on gender inequalities that have been worsened by endemic cases of gender-based violence (GBV), teenage pregnancies and HIV/AIDS,” the bishops wrote in a communiqué. “We note that the affected are our congregants who could be described as perpetrators and survivors of the … triple threats and demand of us to intervene.”
Their other concerns are redefining the church to promote wholesomeness, embodying moral and ethical leadership, empowering women as leaders, and pursuing climate justice.
The Africa Six (as Esther Mombo of St. Paul’s University called them) includes these bishops:
- The Rt. Rev. Dalcy Badeli Dlamini, Diocese of Swaziland, Southern Africa
- The Rt. Rev. Filomena Tete Estevao, Diocese of Bom Pasteur (the Good Shepherd), Angola
- The Rt. Rev. Dr. Vicentia Kgabe, Diocese of Lesotho, Southern Africa
- The Rt. Rev. Elizabeth Awut Ngor, Diocese of Rumbek, South Sudan
- The Rt. Rev. Rose Okeno, Diocese of Butere, Kenya
- The Rt. Rev. Dr. Emily Onyango, Diocese of Bondo, Kenya
Onyango said they are taking the scriptural guidance of Proverbs 27:17 (“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another”) and adopting the message of Kenya’s primate, Dr. Jackson Ole Sapit, from their opening ceremony:
- Women of faith shall continually be instruments of hope, transforming the world and offering thoughtful and practical leadership in various issues that affect society.
- Women of faith are placed at the core of progressive communities and their voices add valuable contributions to build a stronger Church.
- The church must remain vocal in highlighting the reforming and transforming power women hold as agents of change.
One of the most prevalent vices experienced by women and men across the globe, gender-based violence is defined by the United Nations as “acts that inflict physical, mental, sexual harm or suffering, threats of such acts, coercion, and other deprivation of liberty.”
It has also been defined as “traditional attitudes by which women are regarded as subordinate to men … including stereotyped roles which perpetuate widespread practices involving violence or coercion, such as family violence, abuse, forced marriages, dowry deaths, and female circumcision.” The World Bank estimated in 2019 that one in three women will experience the scourge of this violence in their lifetime. Onyango said gender-based violence in Africa is driven by a predominantly patriarchal system in most communities and cultural gender norms that perpetuate an imbalance of power.
“Coupled with high rates of poverty causes, it aggravates the imbalance of power, where men hold power and control, which they then use to perpetrate [gender-based violence],” she said, and war exposes women and girls to further attacks.
Christianity, Onyango argues, is essentially a “women’s movement” and the Africa Six are responsible for the growth of the church.
“As positive gatekeepers in society, we are key actors to bring about social change and cultural shifting, including promoting policies and legal frameworks that protect individuals from all forms of gender-based violence,” she said.
Their most urgent tasks, the six believe, are transforming beliefs through holistic leadership training; reflecting equality in a concrete way in the daily life of the church; reviewing the presence of gender-related issues in liturgical celebrations; instilling values in youth that contribute to a violence-free world; establishing safe spaces for survivors of gender-based violence; ministry to AIDS patients and teen mothers; establishing referral pathways to inform legal, health, and social support services within communities; and creating links with service providers.
Onyango said they are building a coalition that includes the Episcopal Church, the Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa, the Circle of Concerned Women Theologians, and the Africa Council of Churches.
The Rev. Daniel Karanja, the Episcopal Church’s Africa partnership officer, believes the Africa Six are on course to bring much-needed change.
“They are not letting a good opportunity go to waste,” he said. “The gathering arose out of a casual conversation Dr. Onyango and I had in Tanzania about a year and a half ago. Archbishop Michael Curry and the Episcopal Church are essentially saying that the transforming power of Christ is all we need to experience. I pray that what has been started here will be God’s work. I’m here to cheer along and say God has done it. It’s his doing.”
