Church of the Province of Rwanda
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The Church of the Province of Rwanda is a province of the Anglican Communion, covering 9 sees in East Africa. The current primate of the province is Archbishop Emmanuel Musaba Kolini.
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[edit] Official names
Church of the Province of Rwanda is also known as L'Eglise Episcopal au Rwanda.
[edit] History
The Church of the Province of Rwanda traces its roots to two missionary doctors of the Church Missionary Society. Arthur Stanely Smith and Leonard Sharp began a mission movement in Rwanda during the first two years of World War I. In 1926, Halord Guillebaud baptised the first converts at Gahini.
In 1992, the Province of the Episcopal church of Rwanda (PEER) was formed consisting of four dioceses, Kigali, Butare, Shyira and Byumba with the first Archbishop being Augustin Nshamihigo. In 1998, the current Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini was enthroned.
At start of the Rwandan Genocide in 1994, Archbishop Nshamihigo and Bishop Jonathan Ruhumuliza acted as spokespersons for the government in a news conference, blaming the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front for the genocide. The war left the church and the nation in ruins. Since peace has returned, the Church has embarked on a program of spiritual healing for thousands of traumatised people.
[edit] Membership
Today, there are over one million Anglicans out of an estimated population of 8.7 million.
[edit] Structure
The polity of the Church of the Province of Rwanda is Episcopalian church governance, which is the same as other Anglican churches. The church maintains a system of geographical parishes organized into dioceses. There are 9 of these, each headed by a bishop.
[edit] Worship and liturgy
The Church of the Province of Rwanda embraces three orders of ministry: deacon, priest, and bishop. A local variant of the Book of Common Prayer is used.
[edit] Doctrine and practice
- See also: Anglicanism and Anglican doctrine
The center of the Church of the Province of Rwanda's teaching is the life and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The basic teachings of the church, or catechism, includes:
- Jesus Christ is fully human and fully God. He died and was resurrected from the dead.
- Jesus provides the way of eternal life for those who believe.
- The Old and New Testaments of the Bible were written by people "under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit". The Apocrypha are additional books that are used in Christian worship, but not for the formation of doctrine.
- The two great and necessary sacraments are Holy Baptism and Holy Eucharist
- Other sacramental rites are confirmation, ordination, marriage, reconciliation of a penitent, and unction.
- Belief in heaven, hell, and Jesus's return in glory.
The threefold sources of authority in Anglicanism are scripture, tradition, and reason. These three sources uphold and critique each other in a dynamic way. This balance of scripture, tradition and reason is traced to the work of Richard Hooker, a sixteenth century apologist. In Hooker's model, scripture is the primary means of arriving at doctrine and things stated plainly in scripture are accepted as true. Issues that are ambiguous are determined by tradition, which is checked by reason.[1]
[edit] Ecumenical relations
Unlike many other Anglican churches, the Church of the Province of Rwanda is not a member of the ecumenical World Council of Churches.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ Anglican Listening Detail on how scripture, tradition, and reason work to "uphold and critique each other in a dynamic way".
- ^ http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=3587 World Council of Churches
[edit] Further reading
- Anglicanism, Neill, Stephen. Harmondsworth, 1965.
[edit] External links
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