The Rev. Emily Weswa was one of the first five priests in the Diocese of Butere in the Anglican Church of Kenya to receive a Ayrshire heifer through the dairy cow partnership between the Diocese of Butere and the Boise-based Episcopal Diocese of Idaho. Weswa earns an income selling the cow’s milk. Photo: Diocese of Butere
[Episcopal News Service] Clergy in the rural Diocese of Butere in the Anglican Church of Kenya struggle with poverty while carrying out their pastoral duties. The small town in the western part of the East African country, where most people are small-scale farmers and traders, has neither a bank nor a supermarket.
The Diocese of Butere and the Boise-based Episcopal Diocese of Idaho have teamed up to establish a dairy cow program, where fresh milk is sold, and the cow manure is used to fertilize vegetable gardens. In July, five Ayrshire dairy cows were purchased from the Bukura Agricultural College with a $5,000 grant from the Diocese of Idaho and donated to priests in Butere. The cows provide income for the priests and an additional nutrition source to local communities.
“When I became bishop in 2021, one of the things that I was praying for is to build relationships and partnerships … ,” Butere Bishop Rose Okeno, one of six Anglican women bishops in Africa, told Episcopal News Service. “I prayed the same thing at the Lambeth Conference in 2022, for God to lead me with the right people … and that’s how it all started.”
Okeno briefly met then-newly installed Idaho Bishop Joseph “Jos” Tharakan at the conference in Canterbury, and they later reconnected through the Rev. Daniel Karanja, The Episcopal Church’s Africa partnership officer. The idea to establish the dairy cow program, officially called the Dairy Farming Commercialization Project for Household Economic Strengthening of Clergy in the Anglican Church of Kenya – Butere Diocese, stemmed from subsequent discussions and discernment.
“Idaho and Butere have really redefined what mission is all about,” Karanja told ENS. “It’s not giving and receiving. It’s not the U.S. giving to Africa, as the narrative always goes. It’s really about walking together.”
Sixty priests interested in receiving a cow were screened and selected in advance to complete three training sessions to learn all aspects of dairy farming, including how to build a cattle pen and how to properly feed and care for cows. Five of those priests were ultimately chosen to receive a cow to live on their property – one handler per cow.
Okeno blessed the cows – all pregnant heifers – before they were given to the five priests. A veterinarian visits the cows weekly to ensure they remain in good health.
“I want to believe it’s going to make a whole difference in our ministry,” the Rev. Emily Mettah, one of the priests who received a cow, said in an interview with GGTV – Kenya, the Diocese of Butere’s YouTube channel. “We pray for God to strengthen us so that we may be able to take good care of these animals to benefit us together with the entire community.”
The Diocese of Butere’s initial dairy farming report projects that the cows will improve living standards by creating jobs and providing an extra source of protein in communities. After the cows give birth, their calves, if they’re in good health, will be distributed to five additional priests to raise, expanding the program over time.
Tharakan told ENS that the Diocese of Idaho is also planning to purchase five more cows soon.
Monetarily, “the five cows are worth $5,000, but from a spiritual value, it’s worth more for the growth and understanding, learning and excitement among the dioceses,” he said.
Okeno and Tharakan both stressed that the dioceses’ dairy cow partnership isn’t another example of American Christians attempting to be “white saviors” in Africa. The partnership is intended to go beyond financial support and to build a long-lasting friendship between members of the dioceses.
“We are a shared ministry of love, kindness, appreciation and the love of Christ. …There is physical nourishment, and there is spiritual nourishment,” Okeno said. “We continue to trust God to continue to strengthen this relationship and partnership to the glory of his name.”
Tharakan, who is South Asian, said the key difference between “white saviorism” and genuine support is intent. He shared his experience with both when he was in Catholic seminary in southern India. Through a seminary sponsorship program, a wealthy man in England sent him £2,500 a year with no message or follow up; a woman in the United States who wasn’t wealthy sent him $5 a year but wrote a personal letter to him every other month offering her prayers and written support. Tharakan has kept every letter she sent him.
“I’m grateful for the money donated to help fund my seminary education, but from a human relationship perspective, the woman who gave what little she could changed my life spiritually,” Tharakan said. “And like my relationship with that woman, the partnership between the Dioceses of Idaho and Butere has created an opportunity to make connections, open our hearts and learn from one another. It’s about much more than money alone.”
The two dioceses’ dairy cow partnership has also led to a “parish-to-parish” program, which will eventually include regularly connecting via video chat for Bible study, prayer, storytelling or just engaging in fun conversations. Tharakan said several Idaho Episcopalians have also expressed interest in visiting their new friends in Butere.
“Everybody is deserving of love, kindness, compassion and relationship, and that’s what this program is to me,” Tharakan told ENS. “Theologically, it’s deeper than just sharing our resources, but it’s much more a genuine relationship that is founded in the Scripture as our call to ministry.”
-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.