Meet the Pres

Josephat Shangala and I

On Sunday, 13^th of March I headed into the town of Oniipa, northern Namibia for an unforgettable day. The sunrise was brilliant like any other day and the morning crispness present. I met Will at his host parent’s house and we were soon off in the back of a ute towards the bishops consecration service. A couple of others from the CGE group joined with us. An old friend of my parents, Josephat Shangala was to become one of the two newly elected bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (ELCIN). He had spent some time at my Dad’s seminary, Trinity Lutheran back in the 80’s but is now a pastor with quite a reputation in Namibia.

We were part of the in-group as Claire’s host father was the General Secretary to all the pastors in the ELCIN. You could pretty much call us VIP as we drove through the area and escaped from the long lines of people walking through metal detectors. The place was set up with a small tent right at the front where the formalities of the service were to take place. Behind this was a large tent filled with people in seats. We managed to get a seat just outside of it. While we were in the shade at the start of the service, the sun changed positions during the proceedings to give us a nice burning.

There were more Lutheran pastors than I had ever seen in one place in my life. The pastors lined up in a massive line. The service was meant to start at 8 am, but the Namibian president wasn’t there yet. So we had to wait till 9:30 until he rocked up with all his dignitaries. While we didn’t stand up for the entrance of the bishops, we were meant to for the president. The service was mainly in the Oshivambo language, the dominant method of communication in northern Namibia. English was spoken here and there which provided me with some understanding. The service was composed of various rituals, many songs, but also speeches.

the main tent

The service lasted till 4:30 pm (8 hours of sitting) and was by far the longest church related event that I have ever been to. Church leaders from around the world spoke about the state of the church and the hope for the new bishops. These included at least 4 Finnish, 3 German, 1 Slovakian, 1 South African, 1 Botswanan, 1 Angolan, an ELCA representative, a representative from the Namibian Council of Churches, a LWF representative and a couple representatives from other denominations such as the Roman Catholic Church. It was interesting to see the various transnational church connections. The service ended with an address from the Namibian president in English followed by a short summary of the key points in Oshivambo.

Kristen, Claire, President Pohamba, Will and I

At the end of the service we got a chance to meet the Namibian president, Hifikepunye Pohamba. After talking with other church leaders and eating a wonderful dinner we speculated whether the man sitting down on the far table was indeed the president. After devising a scheme we got a U.S. Peace Core volunteer to take pictures as we would wait for an opportunity to approach. Soon enough we were talking directly to the president. He was happy to engage us and talked highly about U.S. foreign policy, the U.S. program for AIDS/HIV called PEPFAR and the amount of U.S. volunteers being of service in Namibia. We asked for a picture and were soon up and ready. Unfortunately, the presidential guards weren’t happy with the amount of time we were spending and tried to push us away. They continued to push down the camera and our friend, James had to plead to them for one picture. We got our snaps and were away. It’s not every day you get to meet the president, especially for about 5 minutes with a picture! After meeting the newly elect bishop, Shangala and one of the leaders of Namibia’s liberation struggle, Pastor Kameeta, we were soon off. It was quite a day to remember, with memories for a lifetime!