Contact with global church organization will impact local congregations

Veronica Muchiri of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) knows that when she worships with members of local congregations in Dodowa, Ghana this week, it will have an impact.

Muchiri, who heads PCEA’s women’s department in Nairobi, Kenya, will be in Dodowa (7-15 May) for meetings of the executive committee of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC). The agenda includes several opportunities for visits to local parishes. WCRC connects member churches (or synods) in 108 countries representing 80 million Christians.

“Right now, local church members think of WCRC as some organization ‘off in Geneva’ that makes rules about what they are to do,” Muchiri acknowledges. “But when local church people meet with committee members in their congregations, they meet real people that make up WCRC: that includes Africans – even African women like me. They will realize we are ordinary people from the grassroots. We have common concerns like justice for women and protection of the earth’s natural resources.”

Muchiri, who is a member of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA), looks forward to learning more herself from interaction with local church people, especially about the context of WCRC’s two member churches in Ghana – the Evangelical Presbyterian Church Ghana and the Presbyterian Church of Ghana.

“In particular, I want to hear about women’s challenges in Ghana and compare it with what women face in Kenya,” Muchiri says.

The visit of the executive committee to Elmina Castle – the infamous site of trade in African slaves to North America and the Caribbean – has been a highlight for Muchiri who attended a recent WCRC conference in Cuba on ‘human trafficking’, commonly referred to as modern slave trade.

“I wanted to see how the African slave trade was carried on and connect that to human trafficking,” says Muchiri. “I want to see how WCRC can make an impact by highlighting this issue for churches and giving them information so that we can work towards bringing justice in our countries.”

The Elder of her congregation, PCEA St. Andrew’s in the country’s capital, Nairobi, has been involved in the work of the global Reformed church movement since 2006 when she was asked to join a peace-building visit to a region of Kenya where there were tribal clashes. Later, she participated in WCRC-sponsored workshops in Kenya on women’s rights and environmental protection.

In 2010 Muchiri was elected to WCRC’s executive committee. She is one of three African women on the 30-member committee. The others are Salome Twum Ofori Danquah and Lydia Aku Adajawah, both from Ghana.

As she deliberates with other members of WCRC’s leadership group in setting programme priorities for the year ahead, Muchiri draws on her training in psychology and community development at Daystar University in Nairobi and her current studies for a Masters degree in organizational leadership at the African International University in Kenya.