{"id":6374,"date":"2014-07-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/congo-mennonites-celebrate-womens-ordinations\/"},"modified":"2024-12-10T18:38:21","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T18:38:21","slug":"congo-mennonites-celebrate-womens-ordinations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/en\/stories\/congo-mennonites-celebrate-womens-ordinations\/","title":{"rendered":"Congo Mennonites celebrate women’s ordinations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kinshasa, DR Congo \u2013 In July 2012, Sidonie Swana Falanga heard news that she thought was too good to be true. The 100-year-old Communaut\u00e9 Mennonite au Congo<\/em> (Mennonite Church of Congo, or CMCo) had approved the ordination of women.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked myself, is it an invention, a lie, a dream, or a wish?\u201d she said in a recent interview.<\/p>\n

As one report after another confirmed that the church\u2019s leaders had indeed decided at their biennial assembly to offer the sacrament of ordination to women, Swana said her doubts shifted into \u201ca small joy and a small sadness because the thing took too long.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the count of one leader, the question had come to a vote before seven assemblies before passing.<\/p>\n

Finally, at the celebration of her own ordination just over a year later, Swana said that her joy became \u201clarge and complete.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sentiment was echoed by many in the crowd of more than 1,000 Congolese Mennonites who gathered in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, on 22 September, 2013, to celebrate as Swana and Fabienne Ngombe Kidinda became the first women to be ordained to ministry in the CMCo.<\/p>\n

Two men were also ordained on that occasion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a very special day for the Mennonite Church,\u201d CMCo President Adolphe Komuesa Kalunga proclaimed in his address.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe door is wide open to you,\u201d he said to the women in the assembly. \u201cThe barrier is broken.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eric Mukambu N’yamwisi, a Kinshasa pastor, said the ordinations were \u201can immense joy. I began advocating for women\u2019s ordination at age 25 and I am now 52. It took time for us to explain that to the church.\u201d<\/p>\n

A third woman of the denomination, Bercy Mundedi, was ordained in Kalonda, Western Kasai Province, on 6 October, along with four men.<\/p>\n

The five-hour services in Kinshasa and Kalonda included multiple choral performances, instructions to the candidates and their congregations and jubilant dancing and gift giving. Sermons and comments from witnesses focused on the biblical and social bases for women’s leadership.<\/p>\n

Responses to women\u2019s ordination<\/strong><\/p>\n

Leaders in the CMCo and beyond have voiced both strong support and concern about the church\u2019s decision to ordain women.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been practicing sexual discrimination. That is not good for the church,\u201d said Paul Kadima, a Kinshasa pastor. \u201cNow we have put in practice Galatians 3:28. In the church we are equal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robert Irundu, CMCo\u2019s national youth president, said he believed it took time for the church to approve women’s ordination \u201cbecause CMCo wanted to study the declaration of Paul requiring women to be silent in the assembly. But the Bible also says there is no distinction between men and women.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others were more blunt. \u201cMany of our pastors had a very conservative spirit,\u201d said Rev. Fran\u00e7ois Shopo at the Kinshasa gathering.<\/p>\n

Anastasie Tshimbila, an instructor at Kalonda Bible Institute, said the 2012 decision had stirred controversy in the Kasai region, where CMCo has its headquarters, because \u201csome tribal traditions are very oppressive toward women.\u201d She added, \u201cSome radio call-in programs aired a lot of opposition. But many supported the decision as well. Women welcomed it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hon. Madeleine Musaga, a Mennonite woman who is a national deputy representing Gungu in Bandundu Province, said, at the Kinshasa ceremony, \u201cThis is a holy day for me, to see women honored. Women should hold their heads high and men should support them. We women are fighting for decision-making posts in politics, and we must also do that in the church.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charlotte Djimbo Ndjoko, a Mennonite Brethren woman who lives in Kinshasa, said that the newly ordained women \u201chave struggled along with men for years and years for this ordination. Men have resented them. Thanks be to God that these men have now recognized that women have a place in the church in pastoral ministry and evangelization. We are very happy. We will support them as Mennonite sisters. And we invite other women and girls to join them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Journey toward women\u2019s ordination<\/strong><\/p>\n

CMCo is the last of the three Mennonite communities in Congo to ordain women. Communaut\u00e9 des \u00c9glises de Fr\u00e8res Mennonites au Congo<\/em> (Mennonite Brethren Church of Congo) has been ordaining women since 2000. Communaut\u00e9 \u00c9vang\u00e9lique Mennonite<\/em> (Evangelical Mennonite Church of Congo) ordained a woman for the first time in July 2012, during celebrations of the church’s fiftieth anniversary.<\/p>\n

Swana, 59, received a degree in theology in 1995 and has long served in a pastoral role alongside her husband, Rev. L\u00e9onard Falanga. She has been a leader in organizing women who have studied theology, in teaching on the issue and in attempting to persuade church leaders and pastors that women’s ordination is based on biblically sound principles.<\/p>\n

Ngombe, 63, received a degree in theology in 1998 and has served as an assistant pastor in several Kinshasa churches since 2005.<\/p>\n

All three women studied at the Protestant University of Kinshasa, now known as Christian University of Kinshasa. Mundedi, 47, graduated in 1996.<\/p>\n

Mundedi said women in her native Mennonite congregation in Nyanga, Western Kasai, urged her to study theology. \u201cI began preaching in school when I was 14,\u201d she said. After completing theological studies she returned to Nyanga to teach and serve as a school chaplain, \u201cin gratitude to those who first called me.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2005 she began teaching at Kalonda Bible Institute, where she and Anastasie Tshimbila are on the faculty, along with five men. Four women are currently enrolled as students at Kalonda, a three-year post-secondary school that has trained many CMCo pastors.<\/p>\n

Six North American Mennonites, including three ordained women\u2014Sandy Miller and Paula Killough of Mennonite Mission Network in Elkhart, Indiana, USA; and Amanda Rempel of Newton, Kansas, USA\u2014attended the ordinations in Kinshasa and Kalonda at the invitation of Congolese church leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe presence of this delegation is a sign of the love that exists between Mennonites,\u201d Swana said.<\/p>\n

The three American women were invited to join CMCo pastors in laying hands on, and praying for, the women and men who were being ordained.<\/p>\n

While the struggle for women\u2019s ordination was long and exhausting at times, Swana said, \u201cWe recognize that everything has its time, as written in Ecclesiastes 3.\u201d<\/p>\n

In November, two more CMCo women, identified by church leaders as Mubi Mutemba and Mundombila, will be ordained in Kananga, Western Kasai.<\/p>\n

Article by Nancy Myers, a freelance writer on assignment for Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission and Charlie Malembe, a Mennonite journalist in Kinshasa.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Bercy Mundedi pronounces the benediction after her ordination in Kalonda. Photo by Charlie Malembe<\/p>\n

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Fablienne Ngombe Kidinda receives a clerical collar from CMCo president Adolphe Komuesa at her ordination in Kinshasa. Photo by Nancy Myers<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kinshasa, DR Congo \u2013 In July 2012, Sidonie Swana Falanga heard news that she thought was too good to be true. The 100-year-old Communaut\u00e9 Mennonite au Congo (Mennonite Church of Congo, or CMCo) had approved the ordination of women. \u201cI asked myself, is it an invention, a lie, a dream, or a wish?\u201d she said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10692,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"network":[],"eventcategory":[],"class_list":["post-6374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCongo Mennonites celebrate women's ordinations - Mennonite World Conference<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/en\/stories\/congo-mennonites-celebrate-womens-ordinations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Congo Mennonites celebrate women's ordinations - Mennonite World Conference\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kinshasa, DR Congo \u2013 In July 2012, Sidonie Swana Falanga heard news that she thought was too good to be true. 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