Bishop Jeremiah Paul, Bishop of Gambella, has signalled a vigorous start to the Church’s mission in 2026.
One of the priotities is peace building and already this year the Church has hosted important community meetings to help mutual understanding.
The other is clergy development. Through the St Frumentius branch of the Alexandria School of Theology, the Bishop, who is himself currently taking part in a Doctor of Ministry programme, has taken a hands-on approach to teaching. He has a passionate regard for education which he says, “is not simply a key to self-sustaining life, but rather a tool for making our world a better place for human co-existence through development and peace building.” And again, “Peace is not the absence of conflict but the ability to prevent violence through law enforcement, fact findings, fruitful dialogue, honesty, truthfulness, forgiveness, and reconciliation.”
These two foci are part of the greater mission for the Church in Gambella. The church in Ethiopia has been growing rapidly in the past few years mainly due to the Sudanese refugees who fled Sudan and South Sudan and brought their faith into the refugee camps in Gambella, which borders South Sudan.
Archbishop Emeritus Mouneer, who was Bishop before the Diocese of Gambella was formed from the Diocese of Egypt said: “when the war erupted between the north and the south, many women and children walked to Gambella to find shelter. They were kept in refugee camps. They built Anglican churches in these camps and we provided pastoral care and support for these churches.”
New generations became Ethiopian citizens and settled outside the refugee camps. In 2000, there were just seven churches. By 2011 the number of churches became 100.Now it is excess of 150. The St Frumentius Bible School in Gambella has also been established to train local church leaders.
Bishop Jeremiah sees peace building, community development and education as intimately connected and has ambition for what can be achieved in the real world. He says: “This is just the beginning. We are going to grow into a well organised movement of agents for change.”
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