Years after the events of 2011, Bishop John Rodgers summarized how the AMiA viewed the change in their oversight from Rwanda when Archbishop Kolini was replaced by Archbishop Rwaje: “They wanted literally to manage us, whereas we thought of them as giving us cover.”1 The June 2011 meeting of Rwanda’s House of Bishops is where this push for oversight came to a head.
Chuck Murphy, Kevin Donlon and H. Miller arrived in Rwanda in late June and the House of Bishops convened on the 27th and 28th. Miller was the Rector General of the AMiA, an executive role of implementing strategies that came from the leadership. Donlon was a canon lawyer and confidant of Murphy.
According to accounts from AMiA clergy in Washington D.C.2 and a source close to Bishop Alexis, Bishop Murphy hoped to receive permission to consecrate more AMiA bishops at this meeting, but his desire was “not included in the meeting agenda.”3 Bishop Thad Barnum describes a summary of the meeting that he received after it was over: “…in our July conference call, I’d learned that the June House of Bishops (HOB) meeting in Rwanda was difficult and chaotic.”4
However, months after the meeting, Chuck Murphy’s camp provided a different account of the meeting’s mood to George Conger, and it sounds like a calm and minor disagreement:
Unfortunately, the House of Bishops meeting in June was shortened from two days to one day due to the funeral of a prominent leader in Rwanda. Archdeacon H Miller had come to Rwanda prepared to outline specifics of the Mission’s disbursements, including a list of all bank accounts to which the money had been wired over all these years. Bishop Murphy considered this conversation to be a normal part of the transition process being experienced by the new House of Bishops in Rwanda.
Archdeacon Miller was not included on the one-day agenda because of the modified schedule, and no questions were brought up for discussion during the meeting, nor was Bishop Murphy asked to address the issue. He left the meeting at noon, and his description of the visit as “painful” had to do with having brought two staff members the long distance to Rwanda to make a presentation on issues that were important, but never addressed at this meeting.
This calm account of events is contradicted by the source close to Bishop Alexis, who recalled the meeting as follows:
+Murphy came into the HOB meeting without any kind of report and resisted questions on the subject. When it became clear that tempers were rising the Rwandan Bishops more or less agreed to overlook the past lack of transparency in exchange for an agreement that there would be a meeting of the Rwandan HOB and the American Council of Bishops to work out procedures to ensure transparency, accountability, and smooth co-operation in the future. A motion to that effect was put forward and the Rwandan HOB voted unanimously to approve it. At that point +Murphy stormed out of the meeting and went first to his hotel, and then to the airport. Later he took another step of ‘insubordination’ and disrespect for the Archbishop and the HOB accusing them of wasting his time and telling them that it was inconvenient for the American bishops to come to Rwanda. It was, I believe, at that point that +Murphy realized he had not ‘bought’ a Province and would have to take Kolini away from Rwanda to keep whatever legitimacy he could provide.
The Rwandan bishops resolved that they would not ask about the finances anymore but that going forward they would have to set up mechanisms for transparency in accounting for funds sent to Rwanda. The House unanimously passed a motion asking that the AMiA Council of Bishops travel to Rwanda in September for a meeting to discuss how they could all work together as opposed to the cozy relationship between Kolini and Murphy that had apparently lacked all collegiality. When the vote was taken and the motion passed, Bishop Murphy refused claiming that it would be cost-prohibitive and impractical for AMiA bishops to come to Rwanda when they were scheduled to meet in Texas in January following the AMiA’s annual Winter Conference. The Rwandan bishops agreed to delay the proposed joint meeting until January. As Bishop Thad Barnum put it, the plan was for Murphy to return to the next House of Bishops meeting “in Rwanda in September and…for the Rwandan bishops and the AMIA bishops to meet together for a time of fellowship and prayer after the Winter Conference, January 2012.”
According to some reports, Murphy chose not to eat lunch with the bishops. The D.C. clergy stated, “In the interest of time, however, the House of Bishops asked Murphy in their meeting to give a summary and provide them with a written report. At this, Murphy announced that he had a plane to catch and left the meeting. From there, he returned to the hotel and met with former Archbishop Kolini for several hours before departing Kigali that evening.”5 This meeting with Kolini was probably when the decision to leave Rwanda occurred. Bishop Thad Barnum said, “at some point during or after the turbulent House of Bishops meeting in Rwanda, retired Archbishop Kolini said to our Chairman that he believed it was time for AMIA to leave Rwanda.”6
Putting together these various accounts, the sequence of events seems to be:
- The AMiA delegation wanted to discuss creating new bishops, the Rwandan bishops refused to consider this request.
- Bishop Murphy brought no financial reports to the meeting but said that a report was back at the hotel with H. Miller.
- The Rwandan bishops resolved to not ask about the finances anymore but that going forward they would have to set up mechanisms for transparency in accounting for funds sent to Rwanda.
- The House unanimously passed a motion asking that the AMiA Council of Bishops travel to Rwanda in September for a meeting to discuss how they could all work together.
- When the vote was taken and the motion passed, Bishop Murphy refused, claiming that it would be cost-prohibitive and impractical for AMiA bishops to come to Rwanda when they were scheduled to meet in Texas in January following the AMiA’s annual Winter Conference.
- The Rwandan bishops agreed to delay the proposed joint meeting until January, 2012.
- Murphy did not eat lunch with the Rwandan bishops.
- After lunch, Murphy announced that he had a plane to catch and left the meeting.
- Murphy then met for several hours with Kolini before flying home that evening.
- Bishop Thad Barnum said, “at some point during or after the turbulent House of Bishops meeting in Rwanda, retired Archbishop Kolini said to our Chairman that he believed it was time for AMIA to leave Rwanda.”
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