Burned-out Homes
Two burned-out homes in Munga Dosso, Taraba State, are among the many that were damaged in clashes between members of the United Methodist and Global Methodist churches. Two children, ages 4 and 2, were killed in the December attacks on United Methodist homes. (Photo courtesy of Bishop John Schol)
Special to United Methodist Insight | Jan. 9, 2025
Welcome to 2025, Happy New Year! A greeting we share as we express our joys and hopes for the new year and go beyond the challenges of the past year.
United Methodists in Africa ended the year 2024 on a sad and painful note as we continue to mourn the lives lost in Nigeria in attacks on Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. Even as we mourn, we invite our fellow United Methodists to resilience and hope in this year. We move with the spirit of unity, forgiveness, peace and reconciliation as we advance ministries in our regions and continue to share the Good News of Christ to the many yet to be reached.
Events in the past three years would have led to some of us not having to denounce the evil being committed in the name of Christ by groups committed to the demise of the United Methodist Church, especially in Africa. After several attempts and efforts to sow chaos and division, funding protests and creating branches of a new denomination, the Wesleyan Covenant Association and its partners continue to add salt to the injury at a time when we should all be focused on the work of healing and reconciliation. We have not stopped warning people about the terrible agenda of the Wesleyan Covenant Association, its Africa Initiative and the Global Methodist Church. Several of us have written warning articles about how dangerous the tactics used by WCA/GMC/Africa Initiative will become harmful to the African people if there was no repentance. It is the nature of colonialism and neocolonialism to use force and extreme violence to subjugate the targeted populations. Africa has faced these experiences in our political history, and we never thought we would see this coming directly into the church being sponsored by people who claim biblical holiness.
It has been beyond our imagination that Christians, or at least those who claim to have solid foundations in the reading of the Bible would engage in the same heinous acts as colonial and neocolonial efforts to force Africans to follow them. The WCA and its allies voluntarily and willingly left the United Methodist Church to create the Global Methodist Church. We deplored in the past the misinformation and manipulation tactics used by these groups to deceive the church in Africa, but never did we ever fathom that such would escalate to the level of violence and use of guns that we have seen.
The Rev. Dr. Scott Field, WCA president, admitted publicly that the WCA is funding some African United Methodists to cause chaos in Africa in the WCA publication of Dec. 23, 2024, where he was responding to UMAF press release of December 19, 2024. It is unfortunate that the chosen path of the WCA is to stir chaos, death and conflict in a denomination that they wish to not be part of.
It is no secret that the GMC has not been a success in Africa as they predicted, and out of such disappointment the WCA started raising funds through the so-called AfricaNOW Initiative to fund chaotic, violent activities in Africa. In the past the WCA has been claiming that Africa will join the GMC en masse. Their Zimbabwean WCA board member and proponent of the GMC Forbes Matonga wrote three articles published in Firebrand magazine arguing that when the time comes, Africa will go en masse to the GMC. The GMC took these lies as facts. Also, in Liberia another WCA Board member proclaimed a mass movement of African United Methodists joining the GMC. Having been fed these lies by their proxies they increased support to an agenda to destabilize, destroy, and dismember the UMC in Africa hoping to use the rubble to build a new denomination.
Failed to achieve target
We all by now know that WCA failed to achieve their target in the USA where out of over 30,000 UMC congregations they managed to convince 7,600 exit the UMC. However, only about half of them joined the GMC. They also failed to have meaningful following in Europe and Assia. Africa is now the target and the last post to be attacked; hence their fundraiser is called AfricaNOW. What they mean is now is the time to attack Africa. However, we never thought it would also mean kill Africans now if they refuse to join the GMC.
In the past I have personally written articles calling them out to stop the colonial and neocolonial tactics. We told the Renewal and Reform movement that Africa will not join their new colonial, white supremacist denomination.
The AfricaNow initiative was promoted as the UMC went to our General Conference. Again Dr. Field admitted that WCA funded several of their African proxies to be at the United Methodist Church General Conference, so that after their presence at General Conference they would return to Africa to cause chaos. Just after the General Conference a plan was rolled out to directly cause conflict in Africa. We never thought the plan would unfold to the levels of using violence as a means of evangelism.
After General Conference, the AfricaNOW Initiative began to fund stage-managed demonstrations across Africa. These demonstrations were witnessed in Congo, Nigeria, Liberia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is interesting that the affected countries are generally homes to the WCA Board Members and GMC transitional leaders. In some cases, observers reported that placards were shipped from the USA to be used in Africa during these demonstrations. Interestingly all the demonstrations from West Africa to Southern Africa were demanding that UMC bishops call for special sessions of the Annual Conferences. The uniformity of the demands clearly showed these were being stage managed from the WCA offices in the USA. Some of these demonstrations turned violent and some UMC bishops were manhandled.
We give thanks to the bishops in these areas who kept on preaching peace and love to de-escalate the tensions. With the preaching of peace and tolerance the demonstrations failed to yield the expected results.
Upped their game
As the GMC prepared for their General Conference, they wanted some concrete results to show to the donors of how the AfricaNOW Initiative funds were yielding results. They upped their game in Nigeria and wanted to take all UMC properties. We saw chaos but generally the Nigerians kept calm and resolute to remain in the UMC. Despite the bishop's and cabinet’s attempts to try and force the whole episcopal area to join the GMC many refused to be moved and remained.
The sad story is that the AfricaNow Initiative money being sent to Africa has gone one notch up; local adherents are now using WCA funds to purchase guns to kill United Methodists. Dr. Field admitted the WCA is sending money, trying to brush aside the fact that the money is being used to purchase gun. However, he does not tell us what those funds have been used for and what the intended goal is.
Yes, Africa is for Africans, and we have refused to be part of this neocolonial agenda. The WCA is using the same template of colonial and neocolonial pressure that was used by the West on Africa politically. Interesting is the "copy and paste" tactic being used by the WCA of denying its results during the day whilst funding it during the night in the guise of helping the local people. Whilst the local people are being funded to promote a western colonial and neocolonial agenda of destroying their own leaders and countries. As well as killing their own people and children. The similarities are quite disturbing.
The determination of GMC to keep the pressure on Africa is seen in that even though WCA claimed to have closed doors on December 31, 2024, Dr. Field admitted that they have left intact a four-member board led by Elizabeth Chryst as custodial board of WCA in 2025 to ensure that the AfricaNow Initiative is successful and complete. This board, responsible to execute AfricaNOW Initiative, is composed solely of four white Americans. That is the image of colonialism, four white Americans in the USA managing, executing and implementing an AfricaNow Initiative on the African continent, whilst shouting "Africa belongs to Africans." Is this not hypocrisy at its worst?
Stop funding conflicts in Africa
Africa needs peace and we are calling on this board now to STOP funding conflicts on the African continent. Please, we do not need guns in our African churches. Guns were used to colonize Africa in the 1800s. History taught us that even some missionaries came with Bibles and guns and our ancestors lost their land. We can tell colonialism when we see it no matter in what form or shape it presents itself.
What happened in Nigeria is a sad story for any Christian witness in the world. The WCA, after failing to influence the outcome of episcopal elections in West Africa, resorted to funding violence and killings. We know that the reason of the custodial board of AfricaNOW initiative is to fund and influence episcopal elections outcomes in Africa so that they can have bishops who can facilitate joining the GMC or go autonomous. Because all they want is to try decimating the presence of UMC in Africa. We have started to see the use of the money to fund disinformation, misinformation, lies and mischaracterization of all those who stand on staying United Methodist. It is interesting that Dr. Field and all his Africa Initiative proxies always call United Methodist Africa Forum (UMAF) a progressive group. I am the general coordinator of UMAF and there is no relationship between UMAF and any progressive groups. UMAF is an African forum by Africans for Africans.
The plans to fund more chaos and attacks on the UMC should be stopped. This is not Christian. WCA has been preaching to all who care to listen about biblical holiness. Are you really reading the Old Testament literally as to kill in the name of biblical holiness? Is this your so-called traditionalism orthodoxy? There is nothing scriptural when you arm brothers to kill brothers. When you raise funds to burn infants with fire, that is not the kind of evangelical traditionalism Africans would ever follow.
As Africans we are guided by our true faith developed from ubuntu. It is evil to fund the burning of infants. What kind of Christians can be heartless to kill 2- and 4-year-olds by burning them with fire? You can't claim to be Christians when you fund destruction of homes, granaries and shooting people during worship.
I am afraid that the AfricaNOW Initiative will bring out the worst of colonialism and deaths upon our African population. I would like to challenge every black person who has given to the AfricaNow Initiative and say your gifts are a slap on your ancestors’ face and they are turning in their graves.
I would like to call the WCA to repent and stop the AfricaNOW Initiative. We do not need guns in Africa. The AfricaNOW Initiative is exporting the USA gun violence culture in the name of evangelical, traditional, orthodox biblical holiness. Please spare us that. If the WCA is closing shop, why create an exclusive small group of white Americans to lead the so-called AfricaNow Initiative to fund violence, chaos, killing, property destruction in Africa? What happened in Nigeria on Sunday, December 15, 2024, should not happen anywhere again. Please stop! Some of us believe the WCA, the GMC and AfricaNOW have blood on their hands because of the Nigeria attacks.
Praying for enemies
To the United Methodists across Africa, we will remain peaceful, loving, tolerant and demonstrate Christ-like love. Let us remain faithful and obedient to the gospel. For those of our brothers and sister who may have fallen to the false narrative from the GMC, we need to be prepared to reconcile with them. As we demonstrate our humbleness by being peaceful, prayerful, Christ-centered, we will not let our detractors lead us on their path. Instead, we will love our enemies and pray for them as we were taught by our Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 5:44. We pray for the transforming power of God’s grace to reach our beloved who have been misled by our detractors. The days ahead demand that we stand together preach unity, harmony and healing. We will need grace, understanding, and the power of forgiveness to take us on a road towards mending broken relationships. United Methodists in Africa have always been a family bound together by our faith and ubuntu* until WCA planted the Africa Initiative as a vehicle of division, chaos, and misinformation.
We praise the new bishops who have so far been elected; they showcase what our African bishops have always been teaching us to be united. It is through forgiveness that we can grow both as individuals and as a society. We need to be ready to forgive and embrace all the children of God. The greatest of it all is that God is with us. We are looking towards a brighter future for The United Methodist Church in Africa.
May God bless all the people called United Methodists on the African Continent.
We were, We are, and We will always be United Methodists.
*Ubuntu is an African philosophy of community and mutual support.
Nyarota 2
The Rev. Lloyd T. Nyarota
The Rev. Lloyd Nyarota, an elder in the Zimbabwe East Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church, serves as General Coordinator for the United Methodist Africa Forum, an independent, unofficial organization of African United Methodists devoted to church unity.