GLOBAL LUTHERANISM

MISSIONS, REVIVALS, AND DIAKONIA INTHE MALAGASY LUTHERAN CHURCH

James B. Vigen

M adagascar doesn't seem to get the same "press" asother African nations, especially in relation to its east

African neighbors such as Tanzania and Kenya. WhenMadagascar does get some attention, it is usually for itsunique flora and fauna: the traveler's palm (ravenala, in Mal-agasy), for instance, and the lemurs, which are the earliestform of primate. Not as much is known about Madagas-car's people or the country in general. This lack of generalknowledge is true also in the ecclesiastical realm. Yet thethree-million member (and growing) Malagasy LutheranChurch is a communion with a very significant and inter-esting history.

Madagascar is the fourth-largest island in the world, overa thousand miles long, which makes it roughly the same sizeas California. The Malagasy people are of both Melanesianand African origins. The Melanesian portion originated inBorneo, traveling to Madagascar by long boats, perhapsstopping for a time along the coast of India before finallyarriving and settling on what has been called "The GreatRed Island." The Melanesian people group (known as theMerina; there are some other related groups, including theVakinakaritra and the Betsileo) quickly moved inland tocreate a terraced rice culture in the highlands. At about thesame time, around the year 1000 AD, Africans migrated toMadagascar, using the Comoros and other Indian Oceanislands as stepping stones since they were not the same kindof long-distance seafaring peoples as the Melanesians. TheAfrican people groups mostly settled on the coasts. Thesetwo main groups have been in constant conflict throughoutMalagasy history.

The Merina kingdom in the central highlands, centeredaround what is still the nation's capital of Antananarivo,developed a highly sophisticated government. During theperiod of European expansion, they took advantage ofBritish presence in the area through the conquest of theislands of Mauritius and Reunion during the Napole-onic wars. Banking on British anti-slavery sentiment, theyconcluded a state treaty with Great Britain whereby theMerina kingdom promised to abolish the slave trade inits land in exchange for British arms. With these modernweapons the Merina were able to subjugate most if not

all of the other people groups on the island. The Merinakingdom even exchanged official diplomatic missions withEngland, the United States, and the Prussian Union inthe 1880s. Despite this, during the "land grab" for colo-nies in the nineteenth century, Madagascar fell victim tothe French, who used the very thin argument of "ancientrights"—based on a single failed little colony in the southof the island at Fort Dauphin—to justify their conquest in1895-96.

The church history of Madagascar began in earnest in1818 when two couples from the London Missionary Soci-ety landed on the east coast of Madagascar at Toamasina(Tamatave in French). Within months, Rev. and Mrs. Bev-ans were dead from malaria along with Mrs. Jones. DavidJones, the remaining missionary, departed for Mauritius,where he recovered while spending his time learning theMalagasy language. In 1820 he returned and then begana most amazing and successful ministry. By 1835 the mis-sionaries and their Malagasy assistants had translated andpublished the entire Bible into the Malagasy language, thefirst such complete translation of any country in Africasouth of the Sahara. This proved providential, as not longafterward a new monarch, Queen Ranavalona, came tothe throne and, acting on the advice of her counselors,expelled all the missionaries and outlawed the Christianfaith on penalty of death. During the remainder of herthirty-year reign, thousands of Malagasy Christians weremartyred for their faith.

The situation during that time was analogous to whathappened in the twentieth century in China. According tothe Western press, the church was "dead" in China dueto harsh Communist oppression and the closing of thechurches. This sentiment is also to be observed in the mis-sionary literature of the time concerning Madagascar. Inboth cases, faith in the work of the Holy Spirit and thepower of God's word were completely discounted. WhenChina finally opened to the West again, however, it wasfound that the church had, in fact, become truly indigenousand multiplied in unbelievable numbers. The same thinghappened in Madagascar when the missionaries returnedupon the death of Queen Ravalona in 1865. The English

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Shepherds prepare for a service of exorcismPhoto credit: Jack Hernstrom

missionaries found the church vibrant and strong. Whenthe story of "the Malagasy martyrs" was told in the mis-sionary press, monies were collected from all over the worldand seven "martyr churches" built of stone in the Gothicstyle were constructed throughout the capital. They stillstand today.

It was at this point that Lutheran history began in Mad-agascar. In Norway a great revival had spread throughoutthe country, first led by a layman, Hans Nielsen Hauge,later by a theologian and pastor, Gisle Johnson, who man-aged to keep the Pietists within the Norwegian state churchrather than separating and forming new communions, ashappened in many other countries. The revival created apassion for mission work, and the Norwegian MissionarySociety (NMS) was formed in 1842, not as an agency of thestate church but as an independent, nondenominationalbody. While the society sent out its first missionary, HansPaludan Smith Schreuder, to South Africa in 1843, theyspent most of their early efforts in raising money for a mis-sionary training college founded in Stavanger, on the westcoast of Norway, where they trained a cadre of missionaryrecruits to be sent out into the fields "ripe for harvest," touse the language of the day.

By 1866 they had a crew of three pastors and their wivesready to be sent out. Their original intention was to joinSchreuder in South Africa. When they communicated thisplan to him, though, he strongly advised against it becauseat that moment the British were fighting a "pacification"battle against those they termed Kaffirs (a derogatory termsimilar to "nigger" in English). Missionaries were no longerwelcomed there by the white population, said Schreduer,because they took the indigenous people's side in the war!

So much for the popular notion that missionaries werealways the witting agents of some great colonial "plan ofconquest." Having learned of the new openness in Mada-gascar after the violent queen's death, Schreuder advisedthe mission board to send the missionaries there instead.That is exactly what happened, and thus Madagascarbecame the largest mission field of the NMS throughout itshistory.

But of course not only Lutherans were there. The mod-ern ecumenical movement did not grow out of deep theo-logical reflection and praxis on the part of the churches"at home" in the U.S. or Europe, but rather from the closecooperation of missionaries and their boards who soughtto create what were then called "comity agreements." Inthese agreements, the various mission sending agenciesagreed not to dispute territory as if in imitation of secu-lar states competing for land and empires. In this spirit,the NMS board formally contacted the London MissionarySociety (IMS), asking for its blessing upon their efforts andinquiring as to which portion of the island they might takeup without interfering with the LMS or the shared goal ofbringing the whole Malagasy people to Christ. The LMSaccepted their intention and suggested that the NMS beginwork south of the central highlands of Imerina and thecapital. Accordingly, the NMS established headquarters inAntsirabe, a three-hour drive (today!) south of the capital.They later also negotiated permission for a single Lutheranchurch to be built in the capital for the sake of the NMSpersonnel stationed there to work with the government—still an indigenous kingdom at that time, not a colonialregime—and to orient their missionaries to the field by firstproviding language training.

It was also through the Norwegian connection thatAmerican Lutherans began work in Madagascar. This wasthe era of extensive emigration from Norway to the U.S. Asa way of keeping in touch with their homeland, and alsooften their own relatives serving as missionaries in Mada-gascar, many Norwegian immigrants in America kept uptheir subscriptions to the Norske Misjons Tidene ("NorwegianMissionary Times"), which they received for a few penniesa month at their farms and homesteads in the midwesternUnited States. So it was that when American Lutherans ofNorwegian descent began to think of foreign mission work,they thought first of all of Madagascar.

For many years all the immigrants could do was sendtheir mission collection money off to Stavanger, stipulatingthat the funds go toward work in Madagascar. In 1887,however, a young graduate of Augsburg College and Semi-nary, Johan Peder Hogstad, offered himself for missionaryservice. Since the Americans still had no infrastructure inplace to assist a new mission start, an agreement was madewith the NMS to accept Hogstad and his new bride, Oline,as one of their own, albeit supported financially entirelyby money from America. The Hogstads traveled first toStavanger to be trained in its missiology and evangelism

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strategy, then sailed for Madagascar aboard the NMS'S ownship, the Paulus. Hogstad was more fully oriented to thework in the capital and also received his language trainingthere. The NMS then decided to send him to its farthest-offoutpost in the extreme southeast of the island, at a placecalled Tolagnaro (the former Fort Dauphin,), where hearrived in September 1888.

The Hogstads were followed over the years by manymore American Lutheran missionaries, as only a few yearslater the NMS agreed to a completely independent Ameri-can Lutheran field of labor. Unfortunately, due to inter-nal theological squabbling and personal power plays in theStates, the one field later became two following the splitamong Norwegian Americans into the United NorwegianLutheran Church (UNLC) and the Lutheran Free Church in1897. The UNLC was centered in the southeast coast andinland as far as Bekily in the northwest and Antanimorato the west, while the Free Church was centered aroundManasoa in the southwest. Again, though, to highlight themissionary contribution to ecumenism, the two missionfields organically merged in Madagascar a full three yearsahead of the formal healing of the split that brought theformer Free Church into what had by then become theAmerican Lutheran Church (ALC). The two mission fieldswere merged in 1960, whereas that didn't happen in theU.S. until 1963. Throughout its whole existence, the workin Madagascar was the largest of the ALC'S former fields.This situation changed, however, with the creation of theELCA. Today there is only one long-term missionary serv-ing in Madagascar in semi-retirement, Pat Bentsen. She isa registered nurse and trainer in the Malagasy LutheranChurch's amazing healthcare system, which counts ninehospitals, thirteen dispensaries, and countless small clinicsin the spiritual health centers called toby. These are cen-tral to the indigenous revival movement called Fifohazana,"Awakening."

This background of close cooperation between the mis-sionary sending agencies and the churches they createdin the island meant a great advantage when Madagascarbecame one of the first formerly missionary-led churches tobecome fully independent and nationwide. That took placein 1950, a full ten years ahead of national independence.There are still many countries throughout the world wherethis artificial division between former mission churches andone unified national church (even within a single commu-nion) has not yet been healed and overcome. As a result,the Malagasy Lutheran Church (Fiangonana Loterana Mala-gasy, FLM) was the very first formerly missionary-led churchadmitted to the Lutheran World Federation; it remainsthe ninth-largest member. The FLM also joined the WorldCouncil of Churches in 1966 and is a member of the AllAfrica Conference of Churches and the Act Alliance fordevelopment work. Internally it belongs to two ecumenicalfellowships within Madagascar, the FFPM, an all-Protestantalliance of churches that has published a joint hymnal and

The Lutheran church in TulearPhoto credit: Jack Hernstrom

cooperates in chaplaincy work, and the FFKM, a broadergroup including Roman Catholics as full members. Thislatter group was formed in the 1980s mostly to counter theMarxist government for fear that it might follow the anti-clerical interference in Ethiopia at that time.

The Malagasy Lutheran Church today is vibrant,strong, and growing. It boasts six theological seminaries.The flagship institution is the historically oldest one, Ivory,in Fianarantsoa in the central highlands, some eight hours'drive south of the capital. This was, until 1983, the onlyLutheran seminary on the whole thousand-mile long island.As a result of this, as well as of the explosive growth of thechurch, the school could not possibly house or educate allthe students who wished to study for the ministry of wordand sacrament. So in the 1980s five regional seminarieswere founded all around the island. I founded the largestof these in the south of the island in the former Americanarea of work, where it serves four regional synods, the mostof any of the regional seminaries. A second regional semi-nary in Mahajanga, in the northwestern part of the island,has also been the recipient of American Lutheran support.Its founder was Arlen Stensland, a now-retired pastor, andits second director is now bishop of the Rocky MountainSynod of the ELCA, Jim Gonia. The five regional seminar-ies serve as feeder institutions to Ivory, which is the onlyone that offers a Master of Theology degree. Only the topstudents at the regional seminaries are granted the rightto study at Ivory. The rest remain behind at their regionalseminary and follow the same coursework as at Ivory but atnot quite the same rigorous level. Due to flatlined support

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from abroad for more than twentyyears now, all of these seminaries arestruggling financially but somehowcontinue to press on with their impor-tant work.

There are twenty-three regionalsynods and many congregations inEurope that relate to the FLM, mostlyin France, but also one in Belgium.The H.M also runs seven hospitals,twenty-five dispensaries, a nurse'straining school, two leprosy hospitals,and a school for the deaf. The FLMhas also been the largest contributorof what the ELCA has termed "South-South" missionaries, sending highlytrained and charismatic personnel toCameroon and Papua New Guinea.One of these, a doctor named MamyRanaivoson, served both in PapuaNew Guinea and as the head of theanti-AiDS campaign in Africa, whichwas active in twenty-three nations.He later graduated from WartburgSeminary in Dubuque, Iowa, and wasrecently ordained and called to serveTrinity Lutheran Church in Topeka,Kansas. For many years a Malagasypastor and theologian, Peri Rasolon-draibe, served as the Director for Mis-sion and Development at the LutheranWorld Federation.

Perhaps the most interesting partof the story of the Malagasy LutheranChurch is that of the Fifohazana move-ment mentioned above. This move-ment, together with the experienceof martyrdom for the faith in its earlyhistory, has led to the explosive growthof the Christian faith in Madagascar,especially among Lutherans, who arethe most sympathetic to the aims of therevival. Madagascar has had a seriesof revivals throughout its history. Ear-lier examples grew up in communitiesnot traditionally served by Lutherans,though they still had an impact uponmany within the Lutheran commu-nion. The current revival, however,grew out of indigenous Lutheran

roots and has expanded to includepeople from almost all Christian com-munities.

At first many of the missionariessought to discourage or even to hin-der the revival, thinking it was too ani-mistic or too loosely organized. Thiswas also the case on the continent ofAfrica and resulted in the huge growthof African Independent Churches,many of which are quite syncretis-tic. Fortunately, though, the move-ment originated in the area wherethe NMS had long worked. A number

To support Lutheran missionsin Madagascar, visit <www.madagascarmission.org>, thewebsite of the Friends of Mad-agascar Mission. To supporthealth work in Madagascar,visit <www.ghm.org>, the web-site of Global Health Ministries,an NGO set up by former medi-cal personnel to assist the needsof companion communionsaround the world. The ELCAglobal mission website will notallow contributors to give spe-cifically to one country, thoughit is possible to designate gifts toa missionary serving there.

of the NMS missionaries pointed outthat the missionaries were treatingthe revivalist Malagasy the same waytheir own ancestors had been treatedby the state church of Norway! Whynot work with them rather than againstthem? And that is exacdy what hap-pened. There is now even a Depart-ment of Revival in the FLM, whichsounds rather like an oxymoron! Themovement operates under a constitu-tion and strict guidelines that requirenew converts to the revival movementto study under the direction of theirlocal Lutheran pastor in a three-yearprogram, amounting almost to atheological education-by-extension

program. Only after passing throughexaminations by a national board arethey set apart as "shepherds," mpiandryin Malagasy.

This ministry is probably best com-pared to that of the diaconate. Thempiandry remain in their jobs but workin the parish under the guidance ofthe local pastor. Some who are eitherretired or unemployed also live in andwork at toby, or camps, where the poorare taken in and the sick are tendedto, including those with mental ill-nesses or what the Malagasy identifyas demon possession. Their serviceand their success is analogous to thatof the early church. They witness toGod's saving action in word and deedin the here and now. Their work isanother major factor in the growthof the church. For many many yearsnow, practically all those coming toseminary do so after first studying andserving as mpiandry. All the people inthe top leadership of the FLM are alsompiandry. The FLM'S current president,Modeste Rakoto Endor, a graduate ofthe Lutheran School of Theology atChicago with a doctorate in New Test-ament, is also a leader in the revivalmovement.

Christians throughout Madagascarcontinue to be faithful despite condi-tions of great volatility in nationalpolitics and abject poverty: Mada-gascar is, economically, among thepoorest countries in the world andhad a major revolution in 2009. Rec-ognizing that we are both part of theglobal Lutheran communion, Ameri-can Lutherans need to find more waysto support our brothers and sisters inChrist in Madagascar. ^F

JAMES B. VIGEN served as a missionaryto Madagascar from 1978 to 1996.He currently resides in Garner, NorthCarolina, and is writing a comprehen-sive history of American Lutheranwork in Madagascar.

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