UEM Delegation to the ELCB- Evangelical Lutheran Church in Botswana

With a clear message: “Let us make peace with a person whom we regarded to be our enemy”, the UEM Moderator Deaconess Regine Buschmann preached on Easter Sunday in Gaborone, Botswana. UEM Staff visited the ELCB (Rev Chediel Sendoro and Rev John Wesley Kabango) for five days. They were joined by the UEM Moderator (Deaconess Regine Buschmann) and Vice Moderator (Rev Barbara Rudolph, EKiR Öberkircheratin). The UEM Moderator underlined that congregants worldwide and in a special way from UEM member churches “meet Jesus Christ in the people who accept one another as real sisters and brothers in Christ” through their various encounters, meetings and deliberations on how to conduct church holistic mission.
The UEM delegation had meetings with the ELCB Executive Board, the ELCB Council, participated to a youth camp and church services during the holy week (at the Cathedral and Gabane parish). Kgothatso - Gabane diaconal project and Manyana parish have also been visited.
Various meetings, talks on partnership work and exposure visits helped the UEM delegation to have a conversation with congregants, Pastors, lay leaders at different leadership levels. There has been a fruitful sharing on the new developments within the ELCB whose leadership appreciated the UEM encouragement and solidarity in the difficult times the church lived in the past. For some years there has been tensions and misunderstandings between the ELCB leadership and the Ramotswa congregation which led to a calling off of the synod in November 2015.
The ELCB leadership appreciated the UEM support and especially the visit to encourage their church. They promised that they are on the way working for a reconciliation process. They shared that they are developing a mediation action plan whereby the two parties will come together under the facilitation of the Botswana Council of Churches. UEM and other ELCB partners will be informed about the process once it starts. The UEM delegation continued to Cape Town following an invitation of the Rheinish Church and the United Reformed Church in South Africa. Rev John Wesley Kabango, UEM Africa Executive Secretary