How You Can Connect
Here are a few practical opportunities for you to connect with the people of Rwanda in tangible expressions.
Sister to Sister Partnerships: Two Continents, Two Cultures, One Mission
Archbishop Kolini's vision for intentional partnership began to take life in 2004 with the initiation of the Sister-to-Sister Partnerships. The program fosters cross-cultural relationships and ministry alliances between Anglican Mission churches and Rwandan parishes.
Rapid growth of the mission and 35 successful church partnerships led to the creation of a new Partnership Desk in 2008. Directed by Canon Tim Smith and Coordinator Sandi Harding (photo center), the Partnership Desk provides a central location to assist and grow Sister-to-Sister connections providing oversight, coordination, mentoring, training and resources.
All Sister-to-Sister mission trips Western parishioners take to Rwanda focus on being, not doing - building relationships rather than doing projects. "That is sometimes a feat for task-driven Americans," declares Sandi.
To find out more about getting involved with Sister-to-Sister Partnerships, email Tim Smith.
Rwandan Blessing
As a result of the 1994 genocide, over 15 percent of children in Rwanda remain orphans. Rwandan Blessing builds partnerships with local North American churches designed to establish long-term relationships with Rwanda. Churches assist by donating goods, services and money to benefit the orphaned children as well as participating in mission trips to Rwanda.
For more information, visit the Rwandan Blessing website here.
Homes of Hope
Homes of Hope was established by theAM's Shelly Miller to raise funds to improve the quality of living for children in Christian Hope Village -a unique community of households headed by children orphaned during the Rwandan Genocide. (The village is managed under the oversight of the Anglican Church in Kigali.)
Previous Homes of Hope events raised $20,000 in donations to equip houses with basic furniture so the children no longer have to sit or sleep on dirt floors. A new multipurpose building is now under construction to provide a central gathering place for conferences, church services and fellowship.
Contact Shelly Miller for more information on how to host a Homes of Hope event in your area.
Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee
"Drink Coffee. Do Good." is more than a slogan for entrepreneur and Land of a Thousand Hills (LOTH) founder, Jonathan Golden. Designed to be a "catalyst for change," LOTH pays a fair wage to coffee growers in Rwanda whose industry was devastated by the genocide. The company invests up to $3 per bag sold back into the local economy. Numerous Anglican Mission congregations serve Land of a Thousand Hills coffee at their services and host special events so drinking coffee can "do good" in Rwanda.
Learn more about Land of a Thousand Hills here.
As We Forgive
As We Forgive, an award-winning documentary film by Laura Waters Hinson (Church of the Advent in the Columbia Heights area of Washington, DC), follows the remarkable stories of two Rwandan women struggling to forgive perpetrators who murdered their family members during the genocide that left one million people dead in 100 days.
In August of 2005, Laura, then a post graduate student at American University, visited Rwanda where she met Anglican Bishop John Rucyahana who introduced her to an innovative post-Genocide reconciliation project. While completing her Masters in Documentary Filmmaking, Laura produced her thesis film: As we Forgive.
Since then, her film has since won a number of awards including the Student Academy Award for Best Documentary in 2008, premiered on PBS World stations across the nation in July 2009 and was recently screened on Capitol Hill by the US Senate.
A new film hosting kit is now available so you can become a voice of reconciliation in your community. Learn more at the As we Forgive website here.
Relevant Links
Read stories of Faith in Action in Rwanda
The complete statement from Archbishop Kolini on the creation of the Anglican Mission
Province of the Anglican Church of Rwanda website
Mustard Seed Project website
Province of the Anglican Church of Rwanda
Statement on the Creation of the Anglican Mission
The Most Rev. Emmanuel M. Kolini
The Anglican Mission in the Americas serves as a missionary outreach of the Province of Rwanda, under the authority of the Provincial Synod, The House of Bishops, and the Archbishop of the Province, as stipulated by the Constitution of the Anglican Church of Rwanda.
The Anglican Mission was established in response to what a group of orthodox clergy and leaders from the United States described in 1999 as a severe "crisis of faith and leadership" within the Episcopal Church, USA. Following a series of meetings with concerned Primates in Singapore and Kampala during 1999, and in response to a carefully documented petition for intervention presented by these orthodox leaders from the U.S., the Anglican Mission was created in July of 2000 following passage of a formal resolution in the Rwandan House of Bishops in January of that year calling for the consecration of missionary bishops to be sent to the United States, and to serve in a mission field within that country that presently comprises an estimated 130 million unchurched people.
The Anglican Mission exists to glorify God by sharing and spreading the good news of Jesus Christ in the U.S.A., and by building an alliance of leaders and congregations committed to fulfilling our Lord's Great Commission by gathering, planting, and serving dynamic churches in the Anglican tradition within that country. As endorsed by both the House of Bishops and the Provincial Synod, this missionary outreach presently enjoys an appropriate level of autonomy due to differences in geographical and cultural setting as provided for by the Constitution of the Province of Rwanda.
