Spiritual Round-Abouts in Nairobi.
The ecumenical journey in the heart of the City.

Jan Lenssen from Nairobi

When it happens that you are on a busy evening rush hour trapped in the traffic jam, coming down from Nyerere Road joining the University round-about, you have plenty of time to discover how several Christian Churches are gathered there around this round-about, (God's corner) pointing their cross-topped towers into the evening sky of the City: St Andrews' Presbyterian Church a bit elevated, overlooking the City square; St Paul's University Chapel extending his welcome to the community for the evening Eucharist; the Evangelical Lutheran Church as a faithful watchman facing the heavy evening traffic in the round-about passing by.
A first impression , driving along, is that each of those Churches firmly "occupy" part of the circle created for the moving people in that part of the city. Facing each other , they affirm their identity and difference in architecture and outlook.
Looking up to their imposing presence in that area I am dreaming that all three of them join one day in a brotherly and sisterly "handshake" around the University round-about …, the nearby Synagogue witnessing benevolently that communion, and the call of the muezzin, the Muslim call for prayer clearly audible in the background underlining Gods' blessing. A dream…. ?

The mortuary round-about on Ngong Road leads you into another experience and reflection. The new building of the Nairobi Baptist Church (NBC), growing proudly into the sky opposite the city mortuary joins death and life in human existence. Beside the Baptist Church, as good neighbours, is the youthful community of the Daystar University. On Monday and Tuesday evening there will be a hectic search to find a parking place on the corner of those places. On Monday evening the Bible Study Group brings together many believers. The women gathering for the Bible study is taking place at the same moment in St Andrew's Presbyterian Church. On Tuesday evening a similar gathering is foreseen in the Nazarene Church, on Ngong Road. The cars are stationed up to the nearby Coptic Orthodox Church. The visitors of the Coptic Hospital have to find their way among the people going to the Bible meeting.
Around the mortuary round-about the movement seems not yet a circle of Churches joining hands .. but rather a friendly neighbourhood. On Sunday morning people are finding their "home-community" passing in front of the different communities in prayer.

The Holy Family Basilica offers an other scheme of spiritual relationship and presence in the City. The Basilica seems to gather and embrace in a motherly gesture the nearby City Hall, the Kenyatta Mausoleum and the Parliament buildings. At some important moments of the social life of the City nearby Uhuru Park becomes the garden of the citizens sharing their joys and their cries expressed in solidarity and voiced together. The round-about near Kenyatta Mausoleum gathers, with the Basilica the heart of the City. Passing there I hear and I see in a concrete way the promise of the Second Vatican Council: "The joys and the hopes, the grief and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes , the grief and the anxieties of the followers of Christ" ( The beginning of the Document "The Church in the Modern World"). Was I dreaming? It would be dangerous in the city traffic!
I recognise in the slender tower of the Basilica a pointer to heaven in the heart of the city, a pointer to heaven … or is it a symbol of Gods' finger inviting us to look down into the life of people in the heart of the City ?

The Nairobi Ecumenical Group (N.E.G.) is located on Uhuru Highway, in St Paul's Chapel and St Andrews Church. It is the heartbeat of the City where Christian Churches are coming together witnessing the Gospel in the City. The Group transforms the round-about of our City into an ecumenical journey. Their initiatives such as the round-table in October: "My neighbour in the city. Building Christian solidarity in Nairobi" and the Ecumenical Prayer Service during the Prayer Week in January: "Churches together: celebrating and making visible the compassion of Christ", express in a concrete way how Christian Churches come together and grow together from their "round-about" into a meeting place where they share and witness, as followers of Jesus, to the hopes, grief and anxieties of the people living in the City of Nairobi. They are guided bythe experience of Jesus: "The sight of the people moved Jesus to pity. They were like sheep without a shepherd, harassed and helpless" (Mt 9,36)

An invitation! Dear reader, join the Nairobi Ecumenical Group and let us pray and celebrate together, share and search together, with the diverse Christian Churches to make visible the compassion of Christ Jesus.

You can reach us on the following address: N.E.G. P.O.Box 32440, 00600 Ngara, Nairobi.
(by e-mail: wakuraya@alphanet.co.ke or solgacece@aea.co.ke)
Welcome !

Jan Lenssen, M. Afr.
P.O.Box 60310
Nairobi 00200
janlenssen@wananchi.com

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