Ecumenism in Question: Rwanda’s Contentious Post-Genocide Religious Landscape

Abstract

This article illuminates the precarious uncertainty in grassroots ecumenism where highly politicised, fractious Christian churches, and a strong state regime, struggle to own, interpret and re-align the public legacies of genocide. The relationship between the new Pentecostal churches, which arrived in Rwanda after the 1994 genocide, and the historically dominant Catholic Church is shifting and complex. Although the new Pentecostal churches criticise the Catholic Church for its complicity in the genocide, they require it as a foil against which they can make certain kinds of claims about spiritual authenticity and authority. By examining the controversies that erupted during a supposedly unifying Christian crusade, Rwanda Thanksgiving Day or Rwanda Shima Imana, I explore the extent to which ecumenism is possible in the post-genocide period. Far from being a trivial misunderstanding between a Catholic singer and a Pentecostal pastor, at stake during the crusade were dramatically different understandings of God’s presence in the world, calling into question the very possibility of ecumenical co-operation. These competing understandings are examined in the wider context of Rwandan politics and transnational evangelical Christian networks in order to show that ecumenism is highly dependent on the relationship between various religious denominations and the state.