Presence and Accompaniment – Doug Tilton

We left what purported to be a road and drove for another three-quarters of an hour through scrubland, dodging the larger trees and simply driving over the smaller brush.  Eventually, the trees and shrubs parted and my travelling companions and I found ourselves in the village of Analamitsivalana, on Madagascar’s southwestern coast.  Ahead of us, we could see a growing cluster of people outside a small church, welcoming us in song.  We greeted one another, then filed into the cinder block sanctuary to worship together. As he led the service, the evangelist’s voice cracked with emotion. “We are so happy to meet you. We are so far back in the forest, we didn’t think that anyone would ever visit us,” he said

I have seen similar scenes repeated time and again in the eight years that I have been visiting the Presbyterian Church (USA’s) partner churches in Southern Africa in my capacity as Regional Liaison.  It is humbling to have folks make such a fuss over you, just for showing up.  (The Analamitsivalana congregation also presented us with gifts: a model of their church, a model of a sailing schooner, and a carved crocodile, recently painted a beautiful sky blue!)

These encounters have given me a deeper appreciation of the value of a ministry of presence and accompaniment.  I have been touched by the extent to which our partners understand such visits as signs of affirmation, encouragement and solidarity.  In some cases, a ministry of presence can be as simple as making the time to visit an out-of-the way village, like Analamitsivalana, to share worship and fellowship.  At other times, it can mean systematic and sustained accompaniment, as in Columbia, where the physical presence of PC(USA) visitors has helped to shield our partners in the Presbyterian Church in Colombia from physical harm.

We should not minimize or be surprised by the significance of such accompaniment. When Jesus warns his disciples that he will be leaving them soon, he promises: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.” (John 14:16-17)

John’s gospel uses the Greek word “paraclete” to describe the Spirit that Christ promises to send to accompany his disciples. The term “paraclete” is variously rendered in English as “counsellor,” “helper,” “encourager,” “advocate,” or “comforter”.  Matthew also uses the word in its verb form, “paraclethesontai,” to mean: “to be refreshed, encouraged or comforted.”

Mission and mission partnerships involve accompaniment in all of these different senses of the term. In 2008 and again in 2012, a cross section of Presbyterian Church (USA) congregations, personnel and partner representatives came together in Dallas, TX, to discuss the future of Presbyterian World Mission.  The first meeting identified three critical global issues as the focal points for mission engagement in the foreseeable future: addressing the root causes of poverty, sharing the good news of God’s love in Jesus Christ, and engaging in ministries of reconciliation.  The second consultation in October 2012 teased out strategies for pursuing each of these initiatives.  In each case, the PC(USA) seeks:

• to work with partners around “hands-on” programs that address immediate needs;
• to empower partners by building their capacities to tackle each of these areas of ministry; and
• to engage in advocacy to create conditions conducive to the achievement of the objectives we share with partners.

Increasingly, we are recognising the importance of advocacy as an essential component of transformative mission.  Particularly when we try to address the root causes of poverty or violence, we find that the greatest stumbling block to responding effectively to these challenges is ordinary people’s lack of power to influence the forces and institutions that shape their lives.  While it is important to promote “direct” responses that take into account people’s immediate needs, it is also essential to enhance people’s capacities to take control of their own lives and to foster policies and institutions that respond to their needs. To extend the old adage, it is not only about providing fish and teaching people to fish, but also about making sure that they have access to the lake and that the water is not dangerously polluted.  It is not only about working with partners to secure the release of church leaders unjustly imprisoned, it is also about building democratic institutions and promoting respect for human rights and due process to prevent such incidents from recurring.

So, for example, I took part last week in an Advocacy Day in Washington, DC, organized by the Congo Mission Network of the PC(USA).  We met with staff in several key congressional offices, as well as with State Department officials, to highlight the PC(USA)’s enduring concern for justice, peace, human rights, and education in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and to press for more vigorous implementation of existing legislation, such as the 2006 DRC Relief, Security and Democracy Promotion Act or the extractive industry transparency clauses of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act.  These laws can help to create conditions favourable for the success of our partner’s initiatives to combat poverty and promote reconciliation.

Doing mission in partnership also means recognising our own needs and being alert to ways in which we, too, can be “refreshed” by our relationships with sisters and brothers in other places.  Sometimes, these encounters bless us with the gift of “new eyes”, enabling us to see ourselves and our own situations afresh. The Presbytery of Northern New England’s partnership with Amatola Presbytery in South Africa’s Eastern Cape has produced opportunities for members of each presbytery to learn from the other.  When Northern New England invited colleagues from Amatola to help to facilitate a leadership development workshop a few years ago, the event opened new opportunities for church leaders from recent immigrant communities to share their experiences and challenges.  That, in turn, has given many in the presbytery a heightened appreciation of the value of inclusion and diversity, and encouraged greater intentionality about securing such inclusion.

As we engage in mission in partnership, we are constantly reminded how much we need each other if we are to respond to God’s call to mission in effective and culturally sensitive ways.  But whether it is through a ministry of presence, accompaniment or active advocacy, we rediscover, time after time, that we truly are “better together.”

Doug Tilton began mission service for the PC(USA) in 1992.  With degrees in history, political science, and economics, Doug has served in community development, peacemaking, research, and justice work.  He currently serves as regional liaison for Southern Africa, helping to strengthen the mutual ministries of the PC(USA) and its partner churches and institutions in six countries: Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe.