Rwanda
Progress on Rwanda Cathedral
Bishop Emmanuel Ngirumpatse, CEC Bishop of Rwanda, has been building his cathedral in Kigali for many years because construction in this capital city is extremely expensive. (We reported on this last April.) Bishop Emmanuel returned from Convocation last August to a notice from the Government that he could not use the building in it’s unfinished condition and that his only choices were to finish it or move out. Bishop Emmanuel wrote,
“The Government of Rwanda has a Master Plan prepared by an American for the City of Kigali. They want to compare Kigali to Chicago; The project is called ‘Vision 2020’. So people build according to the Master Plan.... That is why we are obliged to build with solid materials - metallics and iron sheets not any sheets but the solid ones - it is forbidden to use trees. This makes [building] very expensive, so to build in Kigali is not a joke, is not easy.”
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Bishop Philip Weeks sent out an appeal to the supporters of his Barnabas Ministries and they raised enough money to make significant progress toward finishing the cathedral. Bishop Weeks wrote,
“Most of this money has come from non-CEC people who are part of the Barnabas Ministries support group. I wish CEC people might catch the vision and need this faithful bishop has for the Kingdom. Rwanda has gone through a great strife with the genocide in 1994 and they are seeking to rebuild. Bishop Emmanuel has been a strong presence of the Lord in bringing together the two former warring tribes into one JESUS tribe. All the clergy who have joined CEC in Rwanda have come from pentecostal or independent backgrounds; none from the Anglican communion. He is really filling a spiritual void in that country. His people molded the blocks by hand that you see in the building. They purchased the cement, sand and gravel and molds and made each individual block that has gone into the construction.”
Let us rejoice in God’s provision for Bishop Emmanuel and the progress that has been made. Please keep Bishop Emmanuel and his ministry in your prayers.
Note: The Patriarch, Archbishop Jones, Bishop Michael Davidson and several clergy plan to visit the Cathedral in Kigali in late April 2009.
