08.03.2012

Overwhelming welcome for UEM Council members

The welcoming of the Council by the CBCA Congregation in Goma/DR Congo was overwhelming. Thousands of people welcomed the members of the council, with flags of UEM being moved by the children, youth and women. In her speech Regine Buschmann, moderator of the UEM, expressed that it was the most impressing welcome for the Council she has ever experienced.  The members of the Council and the UEM Management Team were also happy to have visited the Genocide Memorial Center in Kigali/Rwanda on Tuesday morning, before proceeding to Goma. They were moved to have seen not only the mass graveyard there, but also the historical reasons for the genocide, the failure of international communities to prevent it, the difficulty of the survivors to deal with the trauma caused by it, and the efforts of the people to build up the country. The UEM member church had invited the UEM council to hold its meeting from March 6th to 9th in Goma. In its meeting the council will prepare the General Assembly, which will be held in Berastagi/Indoesia in October 2012. Following the meeting, the two new Executive Secretaries for Africa, John Wesley Kabango, and for Germany, Angelika Veddeler, will be officially inducted. The Council members will also visit projects run by the CBCA.