Gerard van ’t Spijker, Centre IIMO, Utrecht, The Netherlands
E-mail: spijk432@wxs.nl

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Abstract

New Christian Communities in Rwanda after the Genocide

Summary of a paper to be presented at the 11th International Conference of the International Association for Mission Studies (IAMS), Port Dickson , Malaysia 2004.

1. The spontaneous growth of a huge number of new Christian communities is one of the characteristic features in Rwanda after the war that culminated in 1994 in the genocide. The number of such communities were estimated in 1997 at 150 and in 2000 at more than 300. It is noteworthy to mention that African independent churches had never developed in Rwanda, and that neo-pentecostalism was merely absent before 1994. The growth of the numerous new Christian communities must therefore be related to political developments.

2. The majority of these new communities were founded by repatriés, Rwandan refugees who fled the country in the years 1959-1973 and who returned after 1994. The majority of them did not want to join the existing churches because of their assumed implication with the genocide, and of linguistical and cultural differences. Most of the old refugees belonging to the Tutsi ethnic group, the result is that for the first time in history churches in Rwanda seem to be organizes along ethnic lines.

3. As typical examples of these new churches may be mentioned:
• The Association Restoration Church
The church was founded by three pastors who returned from different countries and different denominations. Reluctant to join the existing churches, who reportedly did not friendly receive them, they joined to start a new denomination, some of them inspired by dreams and visions of a divine call to preach the Gospel of reconciliation. Started in October 1994, in a locality made available by the new Rwandese government, the denomination spread quickly over the urban centres of the country and in the newly created region in the northwest of the country where many repatriés have settled. In Butare it attracts mainly university students. Characteristics of the church are a strong organisation in a congregational style, baptism by immersion, acceptance of women dressed in modern western fashion, revival style of preaching. He words gusana imitima, that is ‘to heal the wounded hearts’ are found in its logo.
• The Living Church of Jesus Christ.
The Eglise vivante de Jésus Christ (The Living Church of Jesus Christ) was founded in 1992 in Burundi by some former leaders of the Africa Revival Ministry, and the organisation Life Messengers in Mission, which originated in Kenya under inspiration of American preachers. Since 1994 several branches of the Church have been created in the urban areas of Rwanda, where mainly repatriés are attracted to them. The community experienced in the first years a rapid growth in numbers, but around 2000 fell in decline when the originator in Rwanda, David Ndaruhutse was not longer in the country.

4. A threefold subdivision of these new communities should be made:
a. new communities created after 1994
b. denominations existing elsewhere, brought to Rwanda after 1994
c. communities already existing in Rwanda, but which gained a significant number of adherents after 1994.

5. The new communities are not to be explained exclusively from the political situation. These communities seem to be part of the new wave of religious consciousness in Africa, the neo-pentecostal revival, characterized by baptism y immersion, ecstatic expressions in worship services, the conscience to life in an apocalyptic time and the expectation of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. Often an excited style of preaching is combined with the use of new electronic equipment. They represent the ‘third response’ (O.Kalu) of Africa towards Christianity.

6. This new religious consciousness has some similarities with the East African Revival that found its origin 1937 in Gahini, Rwanda, and continues it in a certain respect in the newly created denominations, but also has its own features. Older revivalists accuse new revivalists of having no reverence before God, before whom one becomes silent rather than making noise through individual prayers cried out in uncoordinated sessions.


Based on research done by students of the Theological Faculty of Butare (FTPB), Rwanda, coordinated by me. Reports of the research have been published by the Ecumenical Centre of Theological Education and Research, CORVT, Butare/Kigali in 1998 and 2002.
The research is carried out by Centre IIMO, Faculté de théologie protestante de Butare, and the Ecumenical Centre for Theological Education and research (CORVT, Butare,now CFDE, Kigali).

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