Sacred Medicine
April 16, 2025
How Garrett Seminary and Africa University can expand access to care
Health is a communal endeavor. From the moment you set foot on Africa University’s 1,500-acre campus in Mutare, Zimbabwe, you receive a comprehensive vision for how to nurture people’s body, mind, and spirit and the relationships that influence every aspect of that wellbeing. I was blessed to join a delegation of Garrett faculty and staff that visited AU this January as we explored collaboration between our institutions. Over and over, I heard the same question in different formulations, one central to Garrett’s own identity: What do we need for the Church to thrive and world to heal? AU’s campus does not resemble Garrett’s—the university houses, among other initiatives, a large working farm, a mock court, and a malaria research center—but beneath those surface differences lay a shared value: We are strongest when tethered closer together.
The university’s founding was foretold in the 1890s, as the story goes, when a Methodist bishop and a tribal elder gazed from nearby Mount Chiremba toward the valley below. The two leaders dreamed that one day children from across Africa would travel to Zimbabwe’s lush, rolling hills to study and strengthen the continent’s future. That vision is core to Garrett and AU’s current collaboration. Every year, the Mageto Fellows Program—named in honor of AU Vice Chancellor and Garrett alum, the Rev. Dr. Peter Mageto (G-ETS 2001 & 2004)—offers full scholarships for African students to study in Evanston. They also receive contextual education in Mutare, with the intention that they will return and serve the continent upon graduation. But dreams are expansive things: Throughout our stay and subsequent conversations, it is clear there’s much more Garrett and AU can learn from one another, ways we can partner on ministries that alleviate suffering.
One might expect the U.S.A. and Zimbabwe to have divergent needs, but the more time we spent at AU, the more we heard how our crises powerfully rhyme. Both countries grapple with a widening gap that separates urban and rural communities. In both, social media and disinformation have contributed to rising political corruption and eroding public trust. Climate change causes cascading harm on both sides of the Atlantic. And, in both African and American contexts, churches struggle to maintain relevance in swiftly secularizing cultures. The question of how we foster wise and compassionate pastoral leadership amid rapid change consumes each institution’s faculty, but all who gathered agreed that these problems create a striking opportunity to reinvigorate churches’ mission and connection with the communities they serve.
Public health has long been a focus for philanthropic work across Africa; interventions against malaria are a paradigmatic example. We, in fact, had opportunity to tour AU’s malaria research laboratory, speaking with scientists who breed mosquitos to study infected insects’ behavior patterns, and lab technicians who examine their DNA markers. However, as Vice Chancellor Mageto pointed out in a meeting, cancer is swiftly becoming the leading cause of death across Africa, but there are few oncology centers or treatment programs. “We have an opportunity to convene an international conference about cancer and theology,” Dr. Mageto said animatedly. “We can think about topics like indigenous therapies, and how to make treatment more accessible. This excites me, because God desires us to have abundant life.”
Two Garrett professors on the delegation—Rev. Dr. Esther Acolatse, Professor of Pastoral Theology and World Christianity, and Rev. Dr. Kenneth Ngwa, Donald J. Casper Professor of Hebrew Bible and African Biblical Hermeneutics and the Director of Garrett’s Religion and Global Health Forum—quickly seized on opportunities such a partnership could present. “If theological education is forming people who would create a healthy world, part of what we need to do is talk with scientists, medical professionals, and the environmentalists who are saying that we must care for ecosystems because communal health is so interconnected,” Dr. Ngwa explained. “The measuring standard for our success is how well take care of people’s bodies—how did you care for the body that was broken, hungry, or sick.” Pastoral care becomes a crucial part of helping connect people with necessary healthcare, particularly in underresourced areas. And that work is crucial for helping churches likewise grow vitality. “Leadership is a core part of discipleship,” Dr. Acolatse added. “Jesus called disciples, trained them, and formed them to go and do, not only to go and be. We have a chance to be intentional about that in a continent that needs it so much.”
In one meeting, Dr. Mageto named that millions of people across the African lived hours away from the nearest hospital, presenting a significant challenge to healthcare access. In addition, he explained, many people are suspicious of Western medicine and resist seeking treatment for cancer and other illnesses. However, while these communities may lack a medical complex, almost all have a church. He’s currently envisioning a program that would train pastors in how to provide pastoral guidance and factual information that help people discern the best choices for their bodies, and also connect them to lifesaving care that’s far from where they live. When he described these circumstances, Drs. Ngwa and Acolatse were quick to note that these are also common problems in the United States, particularly in rural areas. The closure of small community hospitals and widespread misinformation on social media has created health crises, with significant concentrations in the South and Midwest—coincidentally also the regions where people are most likely to have strong ties to local parishes.
We left Zimbabwe not just with deeper connections to staff and faculty at Africa University, but with great enthusiasm about how we can learn from African colleagues and collectively train pastors to serve as communal health ambassadors. As churches search for ways to knit deeper relationships, partnering to expand healthcare access sparks new connections by fulfilling the gospel’s call. Caring for the sick isn’t just a moral imperative, it can mend our fraying social fabric. “I must congratulate Garrett Seminary,” Dr. Mageto concluded at the end of our stay. “This institution is embracing a call to heal the world by partnering with a pan-African institution, grounded through our relationship in the United Methodist Church. Together, we dream for transformation.”
Nestled in the Valley of Hope, Africa University is a living testament to how dreams bear fruit. As the sun sets behind the mountain, gleaming rays illuminate a cross perched atop a nearby hill—holy witness to what seeds new life.