Amahoro Gathering

Last week I went to the Amahoro Gathering at Hekpoort, about 40 miles west of Pretoria. About 250 people gathered from various countries in Africa and there were a few from other countries as well.

"Amahoro" is a word in Rwandan languages meaning "peace", and I think it was chosen to represent the rebuilding needed in that country following the horrific genocidal strife that took place there 15 years ago. The gathering was billed as "empowering emerging leaders", so perhaps I shouldn't have been there at all, not really being a leader, and at my age I'm submerging rather than emerging.

Much of it was about what it means to be Christian in a postmodern and postcolonial world. I won't say much about it here -- I've blogged about that in my other blog, with pictures. But it was useful, because words like "postcolonial" have often been bandied about and I wasn't too sure what they meant, and I think I now have a better idea.

For some of the younger people there it was a lifechanging experience, and if you're interested in reading about it, here are links to some of the blog posts on it, including mine.

• Andries Louw (Christian) of nextchurch on Amahoro Africa Family reunion of change agents
• Andries Louw (Christian) of nextchurch on Amahoro Africa conference The African Reformation
• Arnau van Wyngaard (Christian (Reformed)) of Missionissues on Remembering the past to change the future
• Cobus van Wyngaard (Christian) of my contemplations on cant speak about Amahoro
• Cobus van Wyngaard (Christian) of my contemplations on I am an Afrikaner, I owe my being to this continent
• Cobus van Wyngaard (Christian) of my contemplations on Adriaan Vlok got his feet washed @ Amahoro
• Cobus van Wyngaard (Christian) of Anderkant on ons Afrikaner private godsdiens (aka oom Adriaan part 2)
• Cori (Undefined) of Cori’s Blog on A diverse God
• Joe Reed (Jesus Follower) of Reeds in SA on Amahoro
• Joe Reed (Jesus Follower) of Reeds in SA on New Words for a New South Africa
• nic paton (TBD) of soundandsilence on The European Post Colonial
• Roger Saner (Grew up Baptist, went Anglican, now post-church.) of FutureChurch on The drive home from Amahoro
• Stephen Hayes (Orthodox Christian) of Khanya on Amahoro Gathering 8 June 2009
• Stephen Hayes (Orthodox Christian) of Khanya on Truth, reconciliation and smelly feet
• Stephen Hayes (Orthodox Christian) of Khanya on More on Amahoro
• Stephen Hayes (Orthodox Christian) of Khanya on Amahoro: modernity fights back
• Tom Smith (Recovering church idolater) of soulgardeners.com on Amahoro … further thoughts

If you have posted a blog post about the Amahoro Gathering and would like to add it to this list, please click here to see how to do it. You are welcome to copy this list to the end of your post.

Also, Technorati seems to be working again, so you can find more blog posts on the topic here.