Emsworth minister returns from Africa an "optimistic realist"

Her travel to South Sudan represented a “ministry of presence,” the Rev. Susan Rothenberg said.

She, four other local pastors and an agricultural missionary recently returned from a 13-day journey to the war-torn African country organized by the Pittsburgh Presbytery. Members of the International Partnership South Sudan Travel Team met, studied scripture and prayed with South Sudanese pastors, elders and lay people. They left Washington, D.C., on Jan. 14 and returned Jan. 27.

The pastors also had opportunities to preach, with the help of translators, to African congregations. South Sudan’s Presbyterian Evangelical Church does not ordain woman as pastors or elders. Rev. Rothenberg said hearing sermons from her or from the Rev. Sharon Stewart, another member of the travel team, was an unusual experience for many of the listeners.

Rev. Rothenberg, the pastor of Emsworth Presbyterian, talked about her first trip to Africa on a cold morning at her office at the church. The contrast was significant between the single-digit temperatures outside and the 90 degree to 100 degree January temperatures in South Sudan’s dry season.

What she and other ministers said during their sermons in tin-roofed churches was not likely to remain in the memories of the worshipers, she was told. “They will not remember what you said, but they will remember that you showed up,” Rev. Rothenberg said. “We were there to listen to their stories, learn the names of their kids and eat meals together — a ministry of presence.”

In addition to Rev. Rothenberg and Rev. Stewart, an at-large minister, the members of the team were the Rev. Dave Carver, First United Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh’s Crafton Heights; the Rev. Ken White, Southminster Presbyterian Church, Mt. Lebanon; the Rev. Gary Willingham-McLain, Friendship Community Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh’s West Oakland neighborhood; and Ruth Portnoff, a member of Friendship Community who has worked on sustainable agriculture projects in Uganda and Haiti.

They were the first group to travel to central Africa under a three-party partnership agreement involving the Pittsburgh Presbytery, Malawi’s Blantyre Presbytery and the South Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church. The addition of South Sudan was an expansion of a long-standing relationship between the Pittsburgh Presbytery and churches in Malawi.

South Sudan is a new nation that broke away from the larger, majority Muslim country of Sudan in 2011. The landlocked state is slightly smaller than Texas and has a population of about 11.6 million, according to a CIA estimate. Oil is the country’s most valuable natural resource.

Since independence, the nation has faced multiple internal conflicts, including one that has divided the two largest ethnic groups, the Dinka and Nuer.

Fighting in the northern part of the country has resulted in the destruction of many schools, hospitals and clinics supported by the Presbyterian Church USA, Rev. Rothenberg said. Many missionaries and non-governmental organization, or NGO, workers have been evacuated to the capital of Juba. Despite setbacks caused by war, they have not given up on their humanitarian efforts. “I have incredible admiration for our missionaries,” Rev. Rothenberg said. “They are incredibly brave people, and they want to go back.”

Juba also is home to many Christians and their pastors, who were forced to leave Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, after the south voted for independence. Thousands are living in sprawling United Nations refugee camps.

During their visit to Africa, the Pittsburgh team joined local pastors and elders in meetings with South Sudanese government officials.

The message from the central government was that it would seek to provide security, but it fell to the churches to meet most of the population’s education, medical and physical needs, Rev. Rothenberg said.

The presence of groups like the Pittsburgh travel team was important for the local Presbyterian churches. Their visits with government officials “gave our partners a chance to show ‘we have friends in the West, watching, hearing and listening,’ ” she said.

Despite the real problems she observed in South Sudan, Rev. Rothenberg said she returned home an optimistic realist. Multiple times in the New Testament, Jesus urges his listeners not to be afraid, she said. “The opposite of faith is fear,” she said. “I hope to install a sense of fearlessness in my congregation and a willingness to step out in faith.”

Len Barcousky: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 724-772-0184.