A pilgrimage of public witness and diakonia.

Njoroge, Nyambura

My email read: "Your wisdom is needed" on a Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace in the programmatic work in the areas of public witness and diakonia, specifically health and healing and the ecumenical response to the HIV pandemic.

I reluctantly accepted, because the email came when I just arrived from the doctor's office with a bad cough and I was not sure I would manage to speak without interruption.

From Personal to Programmatic Service

However, this made me decide to start my reflections on a personal note, and also because I was at the same time providing care for my daughter, who was suffering from depression at home, in order to make sure things did not turn out to be serious--as we all know depression can lead to tragedy (attempted suicide, etc.).

On the other hand, reflecting on personal health and the quest for healing also reminded me that Diefam (based in Tubingen, Germany), one of the longstanding and faithful ecumenical partners in health and healing (but probably the least known by many), will celebrate 50 years of ecumenical conversations in the area of health and healing in June 2014. The other partner in this conversation, but rarely acknowledged, is the Lutheran World Federation (LWF).

I am pleased that Diefam has invited the WCC to be part of this celebration through the general secretary. As a result of these ecumenical conversations, in the 1960s, the WCC created the Christian Medical Commission (CMC): Churches Action for Health; and in the 1970s, the World Health Organization (WHO) signed a memorandum of understanding with CMC. These were the only faith-based organizations to do so for many years--because of the work churches were doing in hospitals, clinics, and public health in local communities.

For almost 30 of these 50 years, the HIV and AIDS pandemic has occupied the WCC and many of its member churches and networks. However, focusing on one pandemic can easily overshadow the many achievements of this pilgrimage of nurturing healthy and healing associations, learning, celebrating, and mourning together in local communities; creating effective facilities; and providing services.

Therefore, it is important that members of the executive committee acknowledge that we must take our past seriously, even as we articulate what a Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace may look like during the next seven to eight years.

For me, I understand a pilgrimage as multiple journeys and walks (Africans walk long distances in many situations.) undertaken by people in particular contexts.

For instance, last week as we started to revive the project of health and healing with my colleague (in WCC/EHAIA) from Harare, Zimbabwe, we were reminded that we need to look into issues of healing, reconciliation, and transformation in the context of public witness when we focus on countries undergoing war and conflicts. This is because violence is a major global health crisis (acknowledged in a 2002 WHO study), as seen in Syria, South Sudan, Nigeria, Central Africa Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, to mention a few.

We know very well that the people of Sudan (a British surveyor is said to have gone for Christmas holiday in 1959 and failed to finish separating the North from the South) have been at war for over 50 years (with just a few years break). As a result, we have a very traumatized people today in South Sudan and many other countries. How do we talk of a Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace in such a context? Certainly, the economy, ecology, water, sanitation, and health are critical in such a pilgrimage. This is not just walking or journeying; we have also to take into account whether people are healthy enough to be part of this pilgrimage. Do they have the needed resources to be part of this ecumenical journey of moving, acting, and being? One thousand Swiss Francs can go a long way for some of our churches, while others may be spending millions!

This brings me to think of the pilgrimage through metaphors from my childhood. Because of my focus on health and healing, and in particular the HIV pandemic and sexual and gender-based-violence, I tap the wisdom of my parents (now in blessed memory). My mother was a missionary-trained (Church of Scotland) midwife who practised at home for almost 40 years. My father was a Presbyterian minister.

So when I think of the work and role of the WCC in the world, I think of it as a "midwife" who facilitates the safe delivery of a baby, always alert to the dangers that mother and child may experience. Many times, children delivered by my mother were told about her by their mothers, and eventually our home was known as the place of Mary! (Despite the patriarchal setting!) Midwives play critical roles in our lives.

On the other hand, I know the WCC through its pastoral accompaniment work, especially in the HIV pandemic context. Children delivered by my mother were most likely baptized by my father in the village congregations. A Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace needs midwives, pastors, etc.--inspired, committed, courageous professionals who provide transitional and transformational leadership.

This again brings me to remark that we must have children as part of a Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace.

Accompaniment from Womb to Tomb

In health and healing, and particularly in the HIV pandemic, where mothers living with HIV have the possibility of transmitting the virus to their baby upon birth (and through breastfeeding), I think of a pilgrimage as a journey from the "womb to the tomb."

As Isabel Phiri was recently preparing to attend a meeting in the UK of the UN AIDS Lancet Commission on Defeating AIDS (the only member from a faith-based organization), she asked me how we present what we do as churches and the WCC among many stakeholders. My simple answer was: Tell them we are ever present from the "womb to the tomb"!

Churches and pastors journey with young couples (families) through premarital counseling and marriage, rejoice when pregnancy is announced, agonize with the couple if the womb cannot carry a baby, rejoice at rituals of blessing and/or baptism, are called when there is a health (or other kinds of) crisis, and will be there at the tomb when the sun sets!

In the contexts of HIV and violence, a pilgrimage is marked with unbearable suffering and unthinkable and immeasurable death and loss, which includes social death, where people live in fear, shame, denial, invisibility, loss of dignity, exclusion, and rejection. For instance, how do we journey with pregnant mothers (teenagers, children having children), with refugees, with the internally displaced--millions of whom are Christians?

In such contexts, we must think and act out of the box--for instance, the WCC needs to reclaim "Prevention Is Better than Cure" and to enhance its midwifery and ecumenical pastoral accompaniment roles in facilitating reconciliation; healing; and transformation of leadership, lives, and communities through theological ethical education in liturgies, safe spaces, theological institutions, etc.

Therefore, preventing and responding to inequalities, violence, mental health issues, sedentary diseases, and lack of knowledge, as well as creating communities of peace and fullness of life, are fundamental for an effective pilgrimage.

Finally, advocacy should not be limited to secular, national, regional, and international government organizations (e.g., WHO, UNAIDS, ILO, UNICEF, UN Women, UNFPA, UN). Advocacy should be happening in the churches and ecumenical partners for the marginalized to listen, learn, discover, identify, and analyze the major social determinants and bottlenecks that stop justice, peace, and fullness of life from flowing like a river.

From womb to the tomb--ecumenical pastoral accompaniment and sound biblical and theological grounding--we pray, repent, mourn, celebrate, dance, and give glory to God.

Rev. Dr Nyambura Njoroge, a Presbyterian theologian, is programme executive for health and healing, and she directs the WCC's Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiative in Africa.

DOI: 10.1111/erev.12092