Burundi Archbishop is Archbishop of Canterbury's new man in Rome

From Christian Today-

An African Archbishop is to be the Church of England's new 'ambassador' to Rome.

Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi, former head of the Anglican Church in Burundi, has been appointed as the representative of the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Vatican and director of the Anglican Centre in Rome.

The move comes at a time of warm relations between the two churches with Pope Francis becoming the first pontiff to visit the Anglican church in Rome, praying side-by-side with an Anglican bishop.

Archbishop Ntahoturi succeeds David Moxon who retires in June.

A former presidential chief of staff to Jean-Baptiste Bagaza, Ntahoturi was imprisoned for three years after President Bagaza was overthrown in a military coup in 1987.

More here-

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/burundi.archbishop.is.archbishop.of.canterburys.new.man.in.rome/105917.htm?internal_source=ct_related_news

Bishop Martin Nyaboho elected as next Archbishop of Burundi

From ACNS-

The Bishop of Makamba, the Rt Revd Martin Blaise Nyaboho, has been elected as the fourth Archbishop and Primate of the Anglican Church of Burundi. Bishop Martin will succeed Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi, who has led the church since 2005, when he is installed on 21 August.

The 61-year-old bishop, a former member of the Anglican Consultative Council (2005 to 2009) was baptized in 1965 and confirmed in July 1969. He was ordained a deacon in 1985 and a priest four years later. He was consecrated in 1997, becoming the first Bishop of Makamba.

His theological education began at the Mweya Bible Institute and Matana Theological School in Burundi and continued at the Kenya Highlands Bible College (now known as the Kenya Highlands Evangelical University) and the Asbury University College in Wilmore, Kentucky, in the US. He has also studied at the Haggai Institute Leadership Training in Singapore and the Panzi Development Training Centre in what was Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo).

More here-

http://www.anglicannews.org/news/2016/06/bishop-martin-nyaboho-elected-as-next-archbishop-of-burundi.aspx

Church sources fear Burundi genocide

From Church Times-

THE discovery of the corpses of young people on the streets and in rivers is fuelling terror and fear in the capital of Burundi, church sources in the country reported this week.

The sources, who asked to remain anonymous out of concern for their safety, fear a possible genocide. One source believes that the UN must send peacekeeping forces to the country "without delay".

Almost 90 people were killed in Bujumbura last Friday, after gunmen attacked three military sites in Bujumbura. The government said on Tuesday that security forces had "intervened with the greatest possible professionalism".

Residents reported finding dead bodies dumped in the streets on Saturday morning, with bound wrists and bullet wounds to the head. One source said on Tuesday that more than 100 people had been killed and buried on Sunday in common graves.

More here-

https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2015/18-december/news/world/church-sources-fear-burundi-genocide

One killed, two injured in gun attack on Burundi church

From ENS (ACNS)-

A young boy has been killed and two people injured after an armed gang attacked a church in the Burundian capital Bujumbura. No motive for the attack on St. Mark’s Church, Ngagara, is known; but it is believed to be part of ongoing violence that has left more than 240 people dead since President Pierre Nkurunziza announced in April that he would seek re-election for an unprecedented third term. Nkurunziza won July’s election and survived an attempted coup.

“This kind of attack is common in the capital here,” a spokesman for the Anglican Church of Burundi told ACNS, “but it is the first time that a church has been attacked. Ngagara is one of the places that is often attacked. Often there is gunfire and shootings in the place.

“It was an attack by a group of people. One person has been killed and two other persons have been injured. One is the wife of the assistance pastor of St Marks and [the other] his child.”

More here-

http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2015/12/09/one-killed-two-injured-in-gun-attack-on-burundi-hurch/

Canadian Anglican Development Agency Begins Ambitious Maternal and Child Health Program

From All Africa-

The Primate's World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF) is pleased to announce a new joint program with the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (DFATD). PWRDF will contribute $2,654,612 over five years towards the $17,697,412 project that will focus on maternal and child health in 350 villages in Burundi, Mozambique, Rwanda and Tanzania.

"PWRDF is deeply satisfied that DFATD has approved an ambitious proposal to scale up the work we are presently doing with them in three countries--Burundi, Mozambique and Tanzania--and adding Rwanda. At the three-year mark in our current DFATD programs, we are seeing many of the five-year results we were aiming at, due to our partnership with strong local partner organizations who know their countries, their cultures and their people," said Adele Finney, Executive Director of PWRDF. "As we accompany partners, and they accompany vulnerable people making lasting changes in their communities, we see more mothers and babies living and thriving through pregnancy, childbirth and the first years of life. We see siblings, fathers and families growing their own food with confidence."
More here-

http://allafrica.com/stories/201507101474.html

Rwanda: Christians Pray for Peace, Genocide Commemoration

From All Africa-

Clerics in various parts of the City of Kigali extended sympathy to the people of Kenya in their Easter Sunday messages yesterday.

At St Etienne Cathedral Kigali, the Anglican Bishop of Kigali Diocese, Louis Muvunyi, prayed for peace in Kenya and Burundi and encouraged Christians to keep praying for the two countries.

In Kenya, some 147 people, mainly students, were killed when Islamic extremist group al-Shabaab terrorists attacked Garissa University last Thursday.

Kenya is holding three days of national mourning for the victims of the attack, with Easter masses dedicated to the memory of the victims.

Tensions are rising in Burundi ahead of the upcoming general elections, due May, with some civilians fleeing into Rwanda last week.

More here-

http://allafrica.com/stories/201504061281.html

African Anglicans fall out over support for the Episcopal Church of the USA

From Anglican Ink-

The Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa [CAPA] is on the verge of disintegration after leaders of the Gafcon coalition called upon its chairman, the Archbishop of Burundi, to repent or resign in the wake of an October communiqué he endorsed that backed the Episcopal Church of the USA.

The collapse of CAPA, sources within the Gafcon movement tell Anglican Ink, is merely a sign of the wider collapse of the Anglican Communion. On 22 Jan 2015, Archbishop Eliud Wabukala, the Primate of Kenya released a copy of a letter prepared at the December Gafcon primates meeting in Nairobi for Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi (pictured)

The public rebuke of Archbishop Ntahoturi by the Gafcon primates is unprecedented in African church history, but was not unexpected. In his Advent letter to Gafcon, Archbishop Wabukala called Africa’s bishops to order.  Archbisho Ntahoturi’s failure to heed the warnings coming out of Nairobi prompted the public release of his rebuke.
. He stated that as “no reply has been received, the letter is now being made public in order to avoid misunderstanding.”

More here-

http://anglicanink.com/article/african-anglicans-fall-out-over-support-episcopal-church-usa

Murdered nuns laid to rest in the Congo as crime investigation continues

From Religon News Service-

Three elderly Italian nuns murdered in Burundi were laid to rest Thursday (Sept. 11) in a Xaverian cemetery in the Democratic Republic of Congo amid heightened calls for action about their death.

Sister Lucia Pulici, 75, Sister Olga Raschietti, 82, and Sister Bernadetta Boggian, 79, of the Xaverian Missionary Sisters of Mary were gruesomely murdered Sunday in their convent in the Kamenge area of Burundi’s capital, Bujumbura.
More here-

http://www.religionnews.com/2014/09/12/brutally-murdered-nuns-laid-rest-congo-crime-investigation-continues/

Anglican head to visit violence-hit African region

From Uganda-

The archbishop of Canterbury, head of the worldwide Anglican church, says he will visit Africa's violence-prone Great Lakes region later this week.

A statement from his official residence said Monday that Archbishop Justin Welby will on Thursday start a five-day visit to South Sudan, Congo, Burundi and Rwanda. He will meet primates of the Anglican church.

The statement said the trip will satisfy his "desire is to express solidarity, build personal and professional bonds, understand the primates' work in their local contexts, and lay foundations for good collaboration over the coming years."

South Sudan is the scene of violence sparked by a power struggle between the country's president and his former deputy, while eastern Congo remains prey to attacks by Congolese, Rwandan, Ugandan and Burundian rebels.

http://www.wncn.com/story/24568429/anglican-head-to-visit-violence-hit-african-region

Four dead as lightning strikes Burundi mass

From The "No Comment" Department-

Lightning struck a church during Sunday mass in southern Burundi, killing the preacher and three of his flock, local officials told AFP.

"Yesterday morning, heavy rains and thunder came down on the Buruhukiro area," the mayor of the local town of Rumonge, Gerard Ndikumana, said Monday.

"Lightning struck the Anglican church and killed four members of the congregation on the spot, including the preacher," he said.

Six other people were wounded and several other buildings damaged in the same incident, which came as heavy downpours wreaked chaos across the small central African nation.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ifrrNy_wFEj-uAsWDxeWHNEiEjvA?docId=CNG.772c043fd8f0c880af1577d5741ee7d0.4d1

Trinity Wall Street awards $500,000 in grants

From Episcopal Life Online-

The Trinity Grants Program awarded more than $500,000 in funding for the first quarter of 2010, focusing on peace programs in Burundi and Sudan, and workforce development in New York City.

"For more than 300 years, Trinity Wall Street has been blessed to be able to provide funding for essential programs throughout the Anglican Communion and we are grateful to have been able to continue our giving in 2010," said the Rev. James H. Cooper, rector of Trinity Wall Street. "Through our grants program we are committed to nurturing social transformation and reconciliation around the globe through job creation and training, community development, and more."

Trinity awarded the Province of Burundi $175,000 to be distributed over two years to train women in micro-enterprise development. The grant will allow for the development of 10 women's loan groups that will include training in business planning, financial management and group management. Trinity has previously provided funding in Burundi to train peace officers and purchase heifers for needy families, according to a news release from the parish.

The Province of Sudan will receive a total award of $146,000 for continued support of the Kampala office of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan, and to fund a peace conference between Greater Bahr El-Ghazel and Western Equatoria community leaders. The Kampala office is located at the gateway to Southern Sudan and provides church leaders a central communications base. The peace-building and reconciliation conference will prepare church and community leaders to become community-based trainers in conflict analysis using indigenous conflict management practices adapted to contemporary local circumstances, according to the release.

"Through funding in these areas, the Trinity Grants Program seeks to support the Anglican Communion in Africa to be self-sustaining, engaged in deeply mutual partnerships and acting for and with the next generation as agents of change in local communities," said the Rev. Canon James G. Callaway, deputy for Anglican partnership and faith formation at Trinity Wall Street.


More here-

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81799_120901_ENG_HTM.htm

Anglican presence in Burundi makes a difference

From Canada-

“I WANT TO tell you how I lost my arms.”

That is the opening line of a feature article on page 1, and the words are spoken by Francine Nijimbere, a 26-year-old mother living in Burundi. Her story is both alarming and tragic, almost incomprehensible to our Western sensibilities.

Anglican Journal staff writer Marites Sison spent time visiting Burundi, accompanying a delegation from the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF). Her stories and photographs appeared in the April Journal, on the Journal Web site, and will conclude with this edition.

This isn’t, however, an editorial about the 13 years of civil war in Burundi nor of the brutality that has claimed thousands of lives. This editorial is about the Anglican church’s response to Burundi and the other “Burundis” in the world.

Amazingly, most of the pictures of the women, men and children who welcomed Archbishop Fred Hiltz, PWRDF director Cheryl Curtis and others consist of joy-filled, life-loving, God-glorifying faces. One would expect faces that reflect despair amid a life of poverty; hopelessness in a world filled with HIV-AIDS; anger in the daily reality of violence against women.

The rest-

http://www.anglicanjournal.com/issues/2009/135/may/05/article/anglican-presence-in-burundi-makes-a-difference/?cHash=5d9da52e21

Burundi archbishop supports Canadian church in opposing cross-border interventions

Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, has thanked his Burundian counterpart, Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi, for the Anglican Church of Burundi’s stance against cross-border interventions, notwithstanding its opposition to more liberal views on homosexuality in some churches in Canada.

“I am very grateful for the position that the Anglican Church of Burundi has taken,” said Archbishop Hiltz, who met with Archbishop Ntahoturi during the course of his solidarity visit hosted by the diocese of Bujumbura Feb. 12 to 15. “We value our relationship with Burundi and it’s part of the reason why there are young people in our delegation; we would like a building and renewal of relationship.”

Archbishop Hiltz was responding to opening remarks made by Archbishop Ntahoturi, who underscored that his province “doesn’t want the crossing of borders.” (Some primates in Africa and South America have exercised episcopal oversight over conservative parishes in North America that are opposed to the blessing of same-sex unions and the election of a gay bishop.)

“We walk in different contexts but we value our communion as human beings,” said Archbishop Ntahoturi, who added that he would like to “open more doors” of partnership between the Burundian and Canadian churches.

http://www.anglicanjournal.com/world/africa/022/article/burundi-archbishop-supports-canadian-church-in-opposing-cross-border-interventions-1/?cHash=fa21c60a58

Burundi archbishop supports Canadian church in opposing cross-border interventions

Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, has thanked his Burundian counterpart, Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi, for the Anglican Church of Burundi’s stance against cross-border interventions, notwithstanding its opposition to more liberal views on homosexuality in some churches in Canada.

“I am very grateful for the position that the Anglican Church of Burundi has taken,” said Archbishop Hiltz who met with Archbishop Ntahoturi during the course of his solidarity visit hosted by the diocese of Bujumbura Feb. 12 to 15. “We value our relationship with Burundi and it’s part of the reason why there are young people in our delegation; we would like a building and renewal of relationship.”

Archbishop Hiltz was responding to opening remarks made by Archbishop Ntahoturi, who underscored that his province “doesn’t want the crossing of borders.” (Some primates in Africa and South America have exercised episcopal oversight over conservative parishes in North America that are opposed to the blessing of same-sex unions and the election of a gay bishop.)

“We walk in different contexts but we value our communion as human beings,” said Archbishop Ntahoturi, who added that he would like to “open more doors” of partnership between the Burundian and Canadian churches.

http://www.anglicanjournal.com/100/article/burundi-archbishop-supports-canadian-church-in-opposing-cross-border-interventions/?cHash=633424ffd8