Ibandla lami linge lakho

My church is your church

A program of church-to-church linkage of congregations

of the Massachusetts Conference UCC

and of the KwaZulu-Natal Region UCCSA.

KwaZulu-Natal province is on the east, Indian Ocean coast of South Africa, 8000 miles from Massachusetts. The province is about the size of New England south of Bangor.
The United Congregational Church of Southern Africa was formed in 1967, at the height of Apartheid, as a multi-racial, multi-lingual, and multi-cultural church uniting churches of the Congregational tradition in five countries of southern Africa.
In KZN, the UCCSA unites historically ‘coloured’ churches growing from efforts of the London Missionary Society; with historically ‘white’ churches established in the British settler community; with historically ‘black’ churches originating with the Zulu Mission of the American Board from the 1840’s on.
The UCCSA churches in KZN are spread across the province. They are urban, suburban and rural; they are large and small. There are 65 congregations, but with the multiple ‘outstations’ there are many more churches.
This initiative, inspired by recent experience of the spirit and energy of the church life of the churches in KZN, seeks to link the lives of the churches of the UCC in the Mass Conference with these our brothers and sisters of the Reformed tradition, including our ‘cousins’ whose churches stem from our churches’ former missionary efforts. We want to recapture a sense of this family.
The program is intended as an opportunity to redefine ‘mission’ as a mutual and reciprocal enterprise, making the mission relationship part of the fabric of the daily and weekly lives of our churches.
The participating churches’ relationship with each other will focus on communication and exchange – such as youth to youth, Sunday School to Sunday School, women’s group to women’s group, member to member – and on joint and parallel services, activities and prayer in order to relate and link the normal lives of the churches to and with one another. We can all be enriched by this experience.
Fourteen churches of the Massachusetts conference are now participating in this program to develop close relationships with 14 ‘matched’ churches of the KZN region. Other churches of the conference and region will be welcomed into the program over the coming months and years, as God prospers these efforts.

More about I3L here.

A general description of "I3L" for KZN Region churches:

(from March 2006)

Ibandla lami linge lakho

My church is your church

• The individual local churches of the UCCSA in KZN are being asked to participate in a programme of church-to-church relationships with local congregations of the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ, in the USA.

• The programme is facilitated by Ruthann and Jan Hall, of Trinitarian Congregational Church in Concord, Massachusetts, USA. The Halls served through Global Ministries as missionary volunteers in KZN during 2000-2002, coming to know the people of the UCCSA while working with the Mission Council.

• The UCC churches in Massachusetts are spread across that state, which is quite a bit smaller in area than KZN. The state of Massachusetts is in the area called “New England” in the extreme northeast of the US, on the Atlantic Ocean coast. This is 8000 miles, nearly 13000 km (a third of the way around the world), from Durban. The UCC churches are urban, suburban and rural; they are large and small. Many of them are among the American Congregational churches whose mission efforts from 150 years ago reached to KZN through the American Board.

• The Halls were deeply moved and energized by the church life of the people of our KZN churches. Through this programme, they hope to share this experience with the people in the Massachusetts churches, and to open to us the experience of the nature of church life there. The idea of the programme is to do this through linking the lives of the local UCC churches in the Massachusetts Conference with the lives of our own local UCCSA churches in KZN, as brothers and sisters of the Reformed tradition – as ‘cousins’ in the broader church.

• The programme is conceived as an opportunity to redefine ‘mission’ as a mutual and reciprocal enterprise. It seeks to recapture and build on a sense of family. The participating churches’ relationship with each other will focus on communication and exchange – such as youth to youth, Sunday School to Sunday School, women’s group to women’s group, prayer group to prayer group, member to member – and on joint and parallel services, activities and prayer in order to relate and link the normal lives of the churches to and with one another. We can all be enriched by this experience.

• Fifteen churches of the KZN Region are now participating in this program to develop close one-to-one relationships with 15 ‘matched’ churches in Massachusetts. Other churches of the conference and region will be welcomed into the programme over the coming months and years, as God prospers these efforts.

• If your church is interested or wishes more information, contact the Halls.

A general description of "I3L" for Mass Conference churches:

A general description of "I3L" for KZN Region churches: