As a child, my family and I lived for nearly four years with and among Kimbanguists in Kinshasa-Lutendele, where our father taught theology. We took part in the spiritual and everyday life of the village community. These were the formative years of my childhood, which were decisive for the rest of my life and all its intercultural and ecumenical focal points. I therefore dedicate this work to my parents Dorothée and the Reverend Karl-Ludwig Simon (†), to whom I owe these crucial experiences and decisive influences on my life. Numerous acquaintances and friendships resulted from this time, which brought with them a close connection to Kimbanguism. As a theologian and social scientist who was able to establish these relationships through biographical encounters and who spent many decades engaging with this (initially) Christian church, as well as holding a teaching assignment in Kinshasa-Lutendele for several weeks on behalf of mission21, this theological development from an African Instituted Church to the genesis of a new religion has always been a challenge with numerous questions.
I would like to express my gratitude to my colleagues at the World Council of Churches in Geneva, who have always been helpful dialogue partners and have given me access to the materials and shared their experiences. I would particularly like to mention the former general secretary Dr Olav Fykse Tveit and his predecessor Professor Dr Konrad Raiser. I was able to have intensive discussions with my former colleague Professor Dr Daniel Buda and his predecessor Dr Huibert van Beek. They organised and conducted the difficult and intensive discussions with the Kimbanguists with great patience and professionalism over many years. Special thanks to the two archivists of the WCC, Anne-Emmanuelle Tankam-Tene and Hans von Rütte, as well as the librarian Pedro Nari. They have always been helpful to me and have patiently and constructively accompanied my research. I would also like to thank my colleagues at mission21, Basel, who made their archive material available to me and who sent me to the Kimbanguist in Kinshasa-Lutendele in 2007 for several weeks as a guest lecturer – the former director Claudia Bandixen and her deputy Magdalena Zimmermann as well as the archivist Andrea Rhyn should be mentioned here pars pro toto. The Kimbanguist students and some professors at the Faculty of Theology in Lutendele, especially Professors Motere and Alipanazanga, were always important dialogue partners for me.
My sincere gratitude to my former students at Bossey Ecumenical Institute stud. theol. Luisa Kappes and the Rev. Miles Baker Hunt who helped me in
The French and German quotations are all translated into English by myself, if not indicated differently, knowing that any translation is interpretation.
Benjamin Simon
Château de Bossey, Reformation Day 2024