[Originated 10.9.03. Copyright Pulford Media Ltd. This article may not be reprinted or distributed either electronically or on hard copy without permission]

As a traveller in the African bush, Christina Rees found many challenges to her western ways. She tells CEDRIC PULFORD how witchcraft and wife beating exist alongside Christian devotion that most in the West have lost

WHEN the African villager complained to her priest that her husband did not beat her, Christina Rees realised that there were deep cultural differences between traditional Africa and the West.

The priest reassured the woman, explaining that the husband was an educated man and that beating was not needed as a proof of love.

Rees learned about the incident when visiting Kenya and Uganda for the Li Tim-Oi Foundation, which provides grants for women in the “Two Thirds World” so they can train in their own countries for Christian work.

“I have huge admiration for women who carry on Christian ministry while living in two worlds,” Rees, a member of the Church of England’s ruling general synod, said after returning to her UK home. “They are incredible women. I was knocked out by them.”

Florence Li Tim-Oi was the world’s first Anglican woman priest, who was ordained under wartime emergency conditions in China in 1944. To defuse controversy, Li surrendered her priest’s licence after the war. She later resumed the practice of her priesthood in China and in Canada, where she died in 1992.

Rees heard that some women ministers and church workers in Kenya and Uganda encountered ageism in the opposite way from that in the West. “Because of the honouring of age people would ask, how can that young girl lead us?”

At the same time, the younger single women were “snookered” [thwarted] in finding a husband because men were put off by their
educated status.

The worst sexism that Rees encountered was among male clergy, which she described as “tragic”.

According to the women Rees met, witchdoctors remain a force in many Christian households with the two faith systems running in parallel. “Monday to Friday is the witchdoctors’ time,” she said.

However, she was moved by the depth of religious belief among many Christians. She was in Uganda on martyrs’ day, the annual commemoration of the great persecution of 1886 when about 200 Christians - Catholics and Protestants - died for the faith.

The British colonialist, Frederick Lugard, who was in Uganda soon afterwards, wrote of the impact on the outside world. “Men ... ceased to scoff at the reality of conversions which could stand so terrible a test,” he said.

Canon Christopher Hall, secretary of the Li Tim-Oi Foundation, said: “Christina’s visit had a great impact and helped women in cultures where they are often grossly undervalued.”

Hall is the son of Bishop R.O. Hall, who ordained Li Tim-Oi, and a decade ago was one of the creators of the foundation in her honour.

Since 1994, the foundation has spent around pounds 300,000 ($478,000) in grants for 126 women training for Anglican ministry. Further work now depends on finding further funds.

Grants have been made in Africa, Brazil, Fiji and Pakistan. Almost half the women have been or will be ordained. The others will fill lay roles including church army sister, social worker, trainer of midwives and diocesan secretary.

www.litim-oi.org

Click here for the CONTENTS page