{"id":6574,"date":"2014-08-11T12:01:15","date_gmt":"2014-08-11T16:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/?p=6574"},"modified":"2014-08-11T12:01:15","modified_gmt":"2014-08-11T16:01:15","slug":"doing-interfaith-work-in-nigeria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/2014\/08\/doing-interfaith-work-in-nigeria\/","title":{"rendered":"Doing Interfaith Work in Nigeria"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"JayWittmeyer\"<\/a>
Jay Wittmeyer, MA \u201904, liaisons with Church of the Brethren workers in Nigeria, Haiti, India, Vietnam, North Korea, South Sudan, Brazil, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Within North American<\/b><\/span> educational institutions affiliated with one of the three \u201chistoric peace churches\u201d \u2013 Mennonite, Brethren and Quaker \u2013 only Eastern Mennonite University offers a graduate program pertaining to peace.<\/p>\n

Which is why aspiring peacebuilders from other Christian denominations often make their way to EMU.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s why Jay Wittmeyer<\/b>, now executive director of global mission and service for the Church of the Brethren, completed an MA at EMU\u2019s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding in 2004.<\/p>\n

At that time Wittmeyer was fresh from running a hospital in Nepal during its civil war, when that country\u2019s version of revolutionary Maoists said they were struggling for justice and equity for those living impoverished in the countryside.<\/p>\n

Interviewed at a gathering of STAR practitioners, Wittmeyer said the current situation in Nigeria reminds him of the dynamics of Nepal when he was there, off and on, from 2000 to 2004. Wittmeyer had recently returned to the United States after paying a supportive visit in April to Nigerian Brethren church leaders.<\/p>\n

He said Boko Haram, a self-described Islamic group that is using violence and fear to try to turn Nigeria into its version of an Islamic state, is tapping the same grievances as the Maoists did in Nepal \u2013 meaning that Boko Haram feels that the oil money from Nigeria\u2019s South is mainly going into the pockets of the Christian-dominated governing group.<\/p>\n

The school in the far northeast of Nigeria from which Boko Haram kidnapped hundreds of girls on April\u00a015 was founded by Brethren missionaries decades ago, but is now run by the government for girls of any faith, said Wittmeyer. Residents of the area in which the school is located, however, have been largely affiliated with the Church of the Brethren. He elaborated:<\/p>\n

[Brethren] communities have been attacked and burned out. A lot of church members are staying with family members, cousins . . . we\u2019re not seeing tent cities yet. Families are hosting others \u2013 they\u2019ve built extensions on houses so they can house more. Some need to drill for more water, there\u2019s so many more people.<\/i><\/p>\n

But people can\u2019t farm their lands \u2013 this is the time to plant. Hunger builds up through the months as you go. People get attacked at night and they just run. They literally have nothing. Do you migrate south? Do you try to stay? We are in conversation with Church World Service about help for refugees. A lot of Brethren families that have moved into Cameroon.<\/i><\/p>\n

The recurring question is, \u2018How can we help keep the Brethren Church to maintain its peace position in situations where members feel as though they are being led like sheep to the slaughter?<\/i><\/p>\n

Wittmeyer feels the Nigerian Brethren are \u201cteaching us about discipleship and taking seriously the words of Jesus. They are living them out in ways that we don\u2019t typically have to do.\u201d Notably, the theme of last year\u2019s annual Brethren conference in Nigeria was, \u201cThey can kill the body but not the soul.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Wittmeyer necessarily stretches his attention to other responsibilities in Asia, Africa and all of the Americas, within Nigeria full-time is another 2004 master\u2019s graduate from CJP, Toma Ragnjiya<\/b>. He is the \u201cpeace officer\u201d at the headquarters of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria (known as EYN).<\/p>\n

Ragnjiya has spearheaded the Christian and Muslim Peace Initiative and runs the peace-training part of the pastor training program. He is featured in an inspiring 18-minute documentary posed on YouTube with the title \u201cChurch of the Brethren in Nigeria Sowing Seeds of Peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of Ragnjiya\u2019s efforts go into building mutual support between Muslims and Christians, so together they can douse any sparks of violence between the groups and make space for moderates. In 2010-11 when a Muslim school was burned by Christian youths (who said they were retaliating for Muslim violence), Brethren leaders stepped forward, saying, \u201cWe recognize that Christians burning your school is wrong, and we want to make amends for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

They ended up providing a well to supply water to the rebuilt Islamic school. \u201cThat opened up doors for dialogue,\u201d said Wittmeyer. \u201cOut of that developed an interfaith peace program that is looking at micro-finance, with no interest owed. We\u2019ve also been funding individuals to get trained across religious lines \u2013 we probably have 20 now, male and female. Maybe a Muslim does an internship or apprenticeship with a Christian welder, who could help them get started in their own business. We could do this with tailor shops.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wittmeyer sits on the board of Heifer International, which he would like to see add STAR-type trauma sensitivity training to its development work. \u00a0<\/span>\u2014 Bonnie Price Lofton<\/i><\/p>\n

Another alumnus, Nigerian <\/b>Gopar Tapkida, MA \u201901, worked with support from Mennonite Central Committee for a dozen years in Nigeria, building bridges between Muslim and Christian communities and reducing the terrain for violence, before moving onto a new MCC assignment in Zimbabwe. Go to <\/b>emu.edu\/news<\/b><\/span> and search for
\n“Nigerian grad has had huge impact.”<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Within North American educational institutions affiliated with one of the three \u201chistoric peace churches\u201d \u2013 Mennonite, Brethren and Quaker \u2013 only Eastern Mennonite University offers… Read more about Doing Interfaith Work in Nigeria<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":6575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1073],"tags":[1201,808,821,1203,1200,1198,1204,1199,622,1202],"issues":[1172],"class_list":["post-6574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","tag-boko-haram","tag-church-of-the-brethren","tag-gopar-tapkida","tag-heifer-international","tag-jay-wittmeyer","tag-mennonite","tag-micro-finance","tag-quaker","tag-star","tag-toma-ragnjiya","issues-spring-summer-2014"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6574"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6576,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6574\/revisions\/6576"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6574"},{"taxonomy":"issues","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issues?post=6574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}