A signal for the mission

Dr Emmanuel Kileo is the first pastor from an African country to head the ELM. A revolution for the organisation, writes Karen Miether from the Evangelical Press Service in the following report.

The walls in his office in Hermannsburg are still bare. His predecessor left behind a wooden cross and a shelf with books. Emmanuel Kileo has been the new director of the traditional Evangelical Lutheran mission organisation in Lower Saxony for just over a week. But the 48-year-old is already considering adding his own touches, also with regard to the office décor: "Maybe I'll hang up a picture of Kilimanjaro."

In the almost 200-year history of the organisation, Kileo's choice is both a revolution and a logical consequence of a changed understanding of mission. The doctor of theology grew up at the foot of the mountain in Tanzania. Most recently, he taught there at the university in the city of Moshi. He is the first pastor from the Global South to head the missionary organisation. "A bridge builder" - that's how he sees himself.

Nationwide, he is the second African in such a leadership position after the former General Secretary of the United Evangelical Mission Fidon Mwombeki. Kileo is familiar with prejudices in both directions and with finding ways to overcome them. For eight years, from 2007 to 2014, he worked as a pastor in Kaufbeuren in Bavaria. He had already learnd German language in Bochum, he explains: "But my two sons not only speak High German, they also speak Allgäu."

Kileo wrote his doctoral thesis on hidden racism, including in church partnership work, at the Augustana University of the Bavarian regional church. It is still expressed in language, he says: "In partnership circles, for example, people still ask for a penny for the mission when collecting donations." In some reports by German pastors or doctors who have worked in Africa, the town is described as a village and the clinic as a health centre, he says. "Things are made small."

Today, mission organisations in Germany claim to work on an equal footing with their partners around the world. But from Kileo's point of view, the history of missionary work associated with the colonial era still has an impact in some southern countries. "Colonialism stands for inequality."

The Hermannsburg organisation, which was founded in 1849 by the Protestant pastor Ludwig Harms (1808-1865) in the Lüneburg Heath, currently maintains contacts with 22 churches in 17 countries. In a period of church revival, Harms once trained missionaries, the first of whom worked in South Africa. "Sitting in his chair now is exciting," says the successor from Tanzania generations later.

Today, the Lower Saxony mission organisation no longer sends employees abroad, but instead finances positions in the independent partner churches. In the long term, this could be reconsidered, says the new director. "I think it's important to exchange employees, not just to send money, but to create encounters," emphasises Kileo. "Building bridges is only possible if you know the other side."

The Tanzanian theologian, drawing from his own experiences, acknowledges that the connections cultivated from the heath village to partner churches around the world highlights issues like climate change. "We can be advocates here for people like the Maasai in the grassland near my home. It hasn't rained there for two years and the animals are dying because they have no more food." The changes can also be seen on Kilimanjaro. "The snow on the mountain is decreasing, we can see that," says Kileo. "The beauty of the land is in danger."

The mission organisation is a window into the world for its three supporting churches in Lower Saxony, he says. With exchange programmes, advocacy for the countries of the South and the projects in the partner churches, it does far more than he initially thought. "I'm currently dealing with the feeling of being foreign and at home. That sometimes goes round in circles in my head," he comments on his initial impressions. It is important that Christians in the world move closer together - in prayer and in working for justice.

epd/Karen Miether