Missionary couple Johann and Louise Vanderbijl helped to establish St Frumentius two years ago, with Johann serving as Dean. The vacancy for a new Dean has arisen because they are starting new roles in the Anglican province of Southern Africa.

"The story of the college starts a number of years ago when the war broke out in Sudan," Johann Vanderbijl said in a video interview recorded in April last year (see below). "Historically, the Anglican Church has only had one church in Ethiopia, and that has been in Addis Ababa -- St Matthews -- but when the war broke out many of the Sudanese, who were Anglican, fled across the border to Ethiopia as refugees and they started churches in their refugee camps.

"There were about five churches to begin with and they contacted the Archbishop in Egypt . . . and they said: 'see here -- we're here, you're the bishop. You need to come and see us.' So he came down and the rest is history.

"This Church has grown. It is now numbering just under 100 churches in a few years. The problem with that is we only have 15 pastors, none of whom has been trained theologically. So the problem that the Bishop of the Horn of Africa . . . was facing was that none of his clergy was trained. He had all these churches without clergy, so he realised that he needed to start a college here in the Gambella region of Ethiopia."

That bishop was Grant LeMarquand, who served the new Anglican community in Ethiopia with his wife Wendy, a medical doctor. In August, Bishop Grant announced that he and Wendy have been forced to relinquish their post from the end of this month because of health problems. In a recent blog post, he commented that life was "never dull" in Ethiopia.

"Every morning we have worship on the Gambella Anglican Centre compound," he wrote. "On Friday mornings, at least when St Frumentius' Anglican Theological College is in session, we have a service of Holy Communion. Our small teaching staff, our 23 students, and our staff of about 15 all attend.

"It is usually a fairly quiet dignified affair (depending on who is leading the singing it may be less quiet and less dignified). But this is Africa; anything can happen. I have been in many Eucharistic celebrations in Africa in which a dog or a goat would take up residence beneath the holy table. Less often but equally interesting have been eucharists with live chickens in the offering, once a small snake quietly killed, once a bat clinging to the "fine linen", and the usual contingents of hyperactive flies and marching ants. Africa is alive -- sometimes frighteningly so."

He went on to describe how a swarm of bees began to emerge from one of the loudspeakers of the church. During the offertory hymn, bug spray was applied and the communion table moved to the middle of the congregation. "No one panicked. No one screamed. And, of course, the singing kept going until we were set up," he wrote. "And so we proceeded with the prayer of consecration, the sanctuary area behind me literally carpeted with dead and dying bugs.

"I opened the announcement time after the service by saying 'this is Africa'. Everyone laughed. Staff went to work. Students went to class. I just shook my head and wondered if Jesus (or Francis of Assisi) would have handled this situation differently."

The recruitment of a new Dean is being handled by the Anglican mission agency CMS. "The candidate is required to be qualified, highly motivated and competent with relevant experience," they say on their website. "The dean would supervise instructors to ensure the classroom, chapel and field education assignments are carried out in a way that will help student to become strong ordained and lay leaders of the church in the church region. The dean would also teach classes and help to raise funds for the College.

"St Frumentius' College has approximately 20 full time and 15 part time students. The college anticipates an incoming class in August 2017 of about 10 new students. They have three full time instructors and one part time. There is a growing library with approximately 4,000 books, three classrooms and a chapel. . . The believers in the region lack basic biblical teaching and the clergy are few. The college is crucial to the future health of the church in this region."

Details about the vacancy are available on the CMS-UK website. Interested candidates, who must possess a Master's degree in theology to comply with Ethiopian government regulations, are invited to email CMS for further information.

*****

ETHIOPIA: The Harvest of the Last 10 Years

By The Rt. Rev. Dr. Mouneer Hanna Anis
October 24, 2017

In 2006, Reverend Andrew Proud, the vicar of St. Matthew's in Addis Ababa, presented me with a proposal for enhancing the mission in the Horn of Africa. I was impressed by this proposal, and decided to create a new episcopal area in the Horn of Africa. I was convinced that this area had the potential to become a diocese in the future. At that time, there were only nine churches in the Horn of Africa: seven in Ethiopia, one in Eritrea, and one in Somalia. We used the catholic church's building for our meetings in Djibouti. In Ethiopia, there was one church in Addis Ababa, one church in Gambella, three churches in Pinyidu refugee camp, one in Dima Refugee Camp, and one in Sherkole refugee camp. In 2007, we consecrated Reverend Andrew Proud as the first area bishop of the Horn of Africa. Some of my brother bishops were astonished that I was willing to share my episcopal ministry with others, however, I was very confident that this decision was what was best for the church in the area.

Last week, I spent a few days in Ethiopia and I saw the harvest of the last ten years. In Gambella and the eastern part of Ethiopia, the number of churches has increased from seven to one hundred and twenty-five. Both Bishop Andrew Proud and Bishop Grant LeMarquand have worked very hard to organize and expand the ministry in this area. During my time in Gambella, I attended the general assembly and I was impressed by the obvious maturity of the churches. Bishop Grant has helped them to become more self-reliant than they were before. They still receive a lot of support from the episcopal area, but they no longer request help for minor issues like they used to in the past.

The Mother's Union is now very active in educating other women on how to combat the major killers of children in their area: diarrhea and malaria. Credit for this goes to Dr. Wendy LeMarquand, who dedicated her time to teaching the women in the Mother's Union.

During my visit, a representative from the Mother's Union stood in the middle of the assembly and shared her experience. "We are now able to save our children from the major killers in the community, diarrhea and malaria," she said. "Dr. Wendy taught us how to treat diarrhea in a very simple way. We are now able to prepare oral rehydration fluid in our homes. We were able to save our children, and the news of our success spread throughout the area. Now many women don't go to the witch doctor, and instead they seek our help and advice."

"The second major killer of our children in Gambella is malaria. We didn't know that malaria is caused by mosquitos. We also learned how to protect our children from mosquito bites by using nets, and how to keep the mosquitos away by using the leaves of the neem tree. We gather the leaves and burn them, and the smoke drives the mosquitos away. We are so grateful for Dr. Wendy, who taught us many useful things. We now travel to other villages in order to teach other women how to stop the deaths of their children."

The youth representatives in the general assembly also shared their stories. "Youth are causing problems in our community. They rape girls. They fight among themselves and get drunk. HIV/AIDS is spreading because of all this. They also don't come to church. We discovered that work is the best treatment for all of these problems. Poverty and lack of work also lead many girls to prostitution. We encouraged the youth to do simple jobs so that they can earn a living and stay busy. We also preached the gospel to them. This helped many of them to turn to Jesus. Many of them stopped practicing immoral acts. They also stopped consuming alcohol, and started coming to church. This is transforming our community. As youth leaders, we meet twice a month to share these stories and to pray." The youth have a goal to transform the area of Gambella by preaching the gospel.

Not only was I very encouraged by these stories, but I was also very happy to see that the new St. Barnabas Church building is finished, and used often. There is also a new church, St. Luke's, in the Neur area. The amount of tribal conflicts has decreased in the Anglican area. This is something we praise the Lord for. I was also encouraged to see expatriate and local staff working together in the Anglican Center in Gambella. History was made there last week when Bishop Grant ordained five new priests and three new deacons. One of the deacons was the first ever Ethiopian Amharic-speaking Anglican deacon. Now we are very close to seeing our dream of the area of Gambella becoming an independent diocese under local leadership come true.

Once again, I would like to thank all of those who have worked hard to develop this area. Please pray for us during the process of appointing the new area bishop in the Horn of Africa.

The Rt. Rev. Dr. Mouneer Hanna Anis is Bishop of the Episcopal / Anglican Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa