The ordination of Mimi Kanku

The July 26 ordination ceremony was the highlight of the festivities in Mbuji Mayi, marking the 50^th anniversary of the Evangelical Mennonite Church of Congo (CEM). Sixteen people were ordained, fifteen men and one woman.

Mimi Kanku was the first woman to be ordained in the CEM, a church established in 1962 by Mennonites who had fled to this region in East Kasai during the post-independence violence. Mimi lives in Kinshasa and in the last four months she has become my friend. Some of you contributed money tohelp her get to her ordination. She was moved by this, and she thanks you warmly.

I don’t remember how long the ceremony was—maybe five hours if you counted all the choirs and ethnic dancing at the outset, some of which I missed because I was on a jaunt to the countryside to visit a youth animal breeding/fundraising project. We were late getting back but Pastor Mubenga, who would officiate at the ordination, was with us, and things start when the necessary people are there. We, the missionaries, as people called us white folks (over my futile objections), were also in that category.

There was plenty of entertainment during those five hours. Music, dance, processions, pomp, ceremony, and sermons, complete with ecclesiastical costume. The proceedings had a dramatic arc that culminated in charismatic prayer for each candidate and then the final presentations of the new reverends. The Congolese know how to do special occasions.

In the middle of all the whoop-de-do, it was clear that something sacred was happening. I saw it in the faces of the ordination candidates who sat next to us in two rows, each backed by his wife. That’s Mimi’s husband Belarmain at the end of the row of wives. It was evident that Belarmain was behind her all the way.

Mimi had been the featured speaker the night before. She issued a dynamic call for Congolese Mennonite women to wake up and take their places as church leaders. Mimi herself is a wide-awake woman with a sweet, gap-toothed smile.  But on this day she was sober, drawn way within herself, even during the part where relatives were allowed to come up and express their exuberance by throwing flour and confetti on the candidates, blowing whistles, dancing, and waving chickens.

 

I didn’t see the heart of the ceremony, the charismatic prayer for each candidate, up close. Mimi told me later that she was overcome with emotion and couldn’t contain herself, weeping and praying. She supposed it was the Holy Spirit, she didn’t know. She’d never experienced anything like it.

photo by Trisha Handrich

 Much was made of the fact that Mimi is CEM’s first ordained woman. She stood a little apart. Her ordination has political as well as personal significance, a strategic move for a divided church and its current leader. Decisions must be made. If her husband, who is a government employee now working in Bandundu, can get transferred to Kinshasa, Mimi will continue co-pastoring her current congregation. If not, she may move to Bandundu and start a new CEM congregation there, another first.

Rev. Mimi Kanku is prepared for the challenges but she could use a lot of prayer and support. Being a star is never easy.

with Mimi and Belarmain the day after