In the first in a series of three blogs, Rev Fiona McCrea reflects on her recent visit to South Africa as part of Christian Aid’s Church Leaders trip.

Uhambo is the Zulu word for journey, and was the title given to the Christian Aid Church Leaders trip to South Africa in October, which I was privileged to be a part of.

Our week was hosted by our MCI World Development & Relief partner, Church Land Programme, and the aim was to help us to integrate issues of poverty and justice into our ministry. Over the course of the week we were reminded constantly to be present, to listen without judgement, to be here now and to theologically reflect using the ‘see, judge, act’ methodology. We met with various groups and communities over the course of the week, we learnt about issues of climate justice and racial justice, dehumanisation and loss of dignity. We laughed together, we cried together and we questioned - how do we share what we have heard, seen and felt with our churches at home?

The first reflection I want to share today is how well respected the Methodist Church in Ireland’s WDR team are.  I visited two of our partners in South Africa, the Church Land Programme (CLP) and Phakamisa and the leadership in both shared how much they valued their partnership with WDR and how supportive Tim Dunwoody (WDR Team Leader), Laura Kerr (Communications and Fundraising Coordinator), Rev Paul Maxwell (Convener) and the committee are. 

One question we were asked to consider throughout our trip was ‘How do you stand in solidarity with those who are the professors of their own suffering?’ 

CLP and Phakamisa spoke of how WDR provided more than a funding arrangement and how they showed solidarity through shared stories and experiences, shared challenges and a common sense of working together.  WDR have always been advocates of ‘People Not Projects’ and it was wonderful to see and hear how impactive that has been on our partners in South Africa and how much they value their partnership with WDR!  Keep up the good work Tim, Laura, Paul and team and may we, as Irish Methodists, continue to support this work through our giving to the 1% Appeal and our prayers. 

In these blogs, I hope to share more about my South African Uhambo here and my prayer is that by doing so, we will all be challenged to ask the following questions of ourselves as individuals and as churches … how can we do more locally and globally? … how do we as people of faith grapple with these issues in a meaningful way? 

As Act Ubumbano say ‘Our generosity has to go further than money, we need to share stories and we need to love justly each day.’ 

Until next time…