The streets are noisy, loud and smelly as we pull up to the Central Methodist Church in downtown Johannesburg. We don’t spend much time in the “city center” (what we call “downtown”) and now I remember why. Perhaps it was once a nice area during the apartheid era but it is now a spot of urban blight. I try to rush my twenty students across the street without getting hit by oncoming traffic. Horns beep. Cars wiz by. I feel a rush of hot stale air.
The building we approach is a large run down concrete structure that in no way lines up with the image I have in my mind of a “church.” People are lined up against the wall waiting to get into the small clinic run by Doctors without Borders on the ground floor of the church. Staffed by one Cuban doctor it tries to deal with the variety of health issues faced by these desperately poor migrants.
Not sure where to go, we start asking of Bishop Verryn. People are friendly and helpful pointing to the dark hall that leads to an even darker stairwell. “Third floor” they say. When we hesitate, they wave us on.
We wind our way up the stairwell. It is hot and dark and smells of urine. We pass a few school kids on the way down the stairs still in uniforms. They look at us curiously. While Verryn is white, it is unlikely that a group this size of white people visits often. At one point we reach a landing on which sits a porcelain toilet up against the wall not attached to any plumbing and two large plastic buckets. The buckets will have to do for now and the stench suggests they have. Tucked in a corner of the stairwell is laid out blankets that must serve as a bed for someone.
On our journey up we pass an open door and catch glimpses of what must be the sanctuary for worship. Large, open, wooden benches arranged in stadium style seating. The Zimbabwean refugees that Verryn has welcomed in must live on the rest of the floors, but we don’t visit these. The Bishop is in a phone conversation so we wait, crammed in the skinny hallway until we are finally ushered to a small sanctuary where he talks to us about his work.
Over 2500 refugees call this church home since the Bishop opened the door to them over 5 years ago. His work started with a small group of 50 Zimbabwean refugees fleeing the desperate conditions of their home country. He discussed the xenophobic violence of May 2008 where migrants were attacked and brutalized on the streets of Johannesburg in which 61 people were killed and countless others wounded. There are over 4 million refugees from Zimbabwe alone in South Africa.
In an effort to help the refugees get their feet on the ground, in addition to temporary shelter and a soup kitchen he has started a day care center, school and adult education center. The Bishop is quite blunt and outspoken and has faced a bit of controversy surrounding his ways (he was recently suspended by the Methodist Church for making media statements without permission from the church).
At the end of our session one of the students asks what we could do to help. One of his pieces of advice was to tell people what you thought/heard about this church. This was the inspiration for this entry.
We’ve done a lot in the two weeks I’ve been traveling with the Furman study away group but this encounter really stuck with me so I thought I’d share it with you. In the end Bishop Verryn called for a “revolution without blood, a revolution for justice.” I think he’s started it. I hope he wins!
For those of you on Facebook there is a page about the Church and the Bishop’s work:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Central-Methodist-Church-and-Bishop-Paul-Verryn/16161293029
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