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Local Churches Partner With S.African Churches

by Marlene Gasdia-Cochrane, Editor

February/March 2006

Table Mountain Circuit, a church on the east Indian Ocean coast of the Republic of South Africa, was recently matched with the Evangelical Congregational Church UCC of Westborough through a program of church-to-church linkage of congregations of the Massachusetts Conference UCC and of the KwaZulu-Natal Region UCCSA.

More than 15 Massachusetts Conference churches have taken to heart the phrase: “Ibandla lami linge lakho,” or “My church is your church.” 

Ruthann and Jan Hall, members of Trinitarian Congregational Church in Concord, have linked many local congregations with congregations thousands of miles away through the ‘I3L’ program of church-to-church connections.  The Halls are the volunteer facilitators of this program that enriches the lives of members in the Massachusetts Conference and in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa.  Through contacts between the people of local congregations, members in both parts of the world can rediscover and build upon historical and theological links.

 “The idea is to ‘match’ a single church here with a single church there, with the aim to reclaim a sense of close family between us,” said Jan Hall.

According to the Halls – who spend half their time in the United States and the other half in South Africa – the program’s purpose is “to grow to be truly brothers and sisters in the church of our Lord who can give and receive each to and from the other of the true wealth of our churches – our faith and our works from that faith.”

“This is a relational mission opportunity,” Jan explains.  “There should be no reach for the checkbook or for a grant.  The idea is not for the American church to provide things to the KZN church, or for us just to hold forums to learn about the people there.  It is, rather, to have a true and ongoing relationship with them, centered on our, and their, lives as churches.”

The Rev. Harold ‘Skip’ Lloyd, Jr., pastor of the Athol Congregational Church, UCC, says that the I3L program helps expand and round out their mission work.  “We do local, regional, and national mission work, and now we have added international outreach. It’s in keeping with our mission statement to witness to the gospel of Jesus  Christ in all the world.”

The churches exchange photo albums and scrap books, identify personal prayer concerns, swap church school lessons and songs, share Bible lessons, discuss similar youth issues, and become pen pals. Matched churches are encouraged to discover activities and connections that are meaningful to them – and to share them with other participating churches. Travel is not necessary, but phone calls are encouraged.

The Halls will be making their next trip to South Africa in March and anticipate more requests to find Massachusetts church matches.  “Although we are in the process of signing up a few more MACUCC churches, every time we go back to South Africa we get requests from churches who want to participate. There will always be churches there that are interested in linking up, so we welcome more churches of the Massachusetts Conference to contact us about getting involved in the program,” says Jan.  “They will find this relational mission work extremely rewarding.”

For more information on the I3L program, visit http://www.i3l.org/ or email the Halls at info@i3L.org.