December 2015R web

The Unitarian Church of Burundi has been targeted by violent forces and its minister has been arrested and detained by the police. We believe he is being persecuted because of his Unitarian faith and the good work he and his congregation have done for their surrounding community. Please join this petition to demand Rev. Fulgence’s immediate release.

Rev. Fulgence Ndagijimana is a member-at-large of the Executive Committee of the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists. Here’s a link to the petition.

Update on Nov. 27, 2015, from the ICUU: Rev. Fulgence Ndagijimana has been released from custody and is currently in another country. The charges against him are still under investigation.

Update on May 21, 2015, from the CUC AGM in Vancouver. Rev. Fulgence Ndagijimana has just become a landed immigrant in Canada. He managed to get out of Burundi with his passport, even though the government there had tried to seize his passport. He is at the conference here and is in the process of getting his ministerial status recognized. He plans to join the congregation in Saskatoon. In his talk about the UU-UNO (Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office) and  the ICUU (International Council of Unitarians and Universalists), he described the Hutu government’s violence against many in the Tutsi minority including some members of the Unitarian church there. Here is a photo of Rev. Fulgence, as he is called here, with Bobbye and Bill Baylis, taken this evening.

We were delighted to have two new members join our church family on November 1, 2015. The image shows the ceremony in which Reverend Linda Thomson of the CUC and Bill Baylis welcome Ray and Laurie Stone (standing on either side of Bill) into membership. Carabel Ringrose is seated at the piano. (Photo by Gord Taylor.)