Algeria: Dissecting a Microscopic Church

When the ailing former president of Algeria, Houari Boumédienne, quietly left for Moscow last September to receive medical treatment, his personally run regime quickly ground to a halt. The taciturn, iron-willed Boumédienne had acted as his own party chief, premier, and defense minister while systematically weeding out potential rivals.

When Boumédienne lapsed into a six-week coma in November and died at year’s end, the remnants of the Council of the Revolution, formed during Algeria’s 1954–1962 war for independence, gingerly began to put together a new collective leadership. The eight men shelved their differences, postponed basic changes, and closed ranks behind army colonel Benjedid Chadli of Oran as a new compromise president.

They were not the only ones to put off change during a traumatic national transition. An embryonic Christian church, on the verge of steps toward visible, organized status, put its plans on ice.

Christian influence is almost nil among Algeria’s 18 million citizens, of whom about 99 percent are Muslim (and 60 percent under 18 years of age). There are no self-sustaining churches. Observers estimate there are about 200 open believers and perhaps the same number of secret, isolated believers. There are at least three worshiping groups.

These believers are largely the fruit of the efforts of the North Africa Mission (NAM), which opened its work in Algeria in 1881. The United Methodist Church entered a couple of decades later, but concentrated on the French colonials. In subsequent years missionaries traveled and evangelized widely but gave little attention to church development. The success of NAM-sponsored Bible correspondence courses, begun in 1961, and radio broadcasts aroused resistance. The ministries were ousted in 1964, and transferred to southern France.

Under general director Abe Wiebe, NAM has recently set its sights on establishing twenty-five national churches during the next ten years in the North African countries of Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Libya. And the Christian fellowship in Algeria’s capital city, Algiers, was all primed to be the first.

Among its individual believers (single young adults or lone Christian members of Muslim households), the Algiers fellowship contained two engaged couples—a promising breakthrough in a land of arranged marriages. Algerians had assumed Sunday school leadership, and three Algerian men were being considered as elders in the group. But in the uncertainty after Boumédienne’s death, the fellowship concluded that elders should not yet be named.

Their hesitation was in part based on reports from their sister fellowship in Oran of increased government restriction.

The Oran group—mostly young people—had met in a wooded area some eight miles from the city on Friday mornings throughout the summer and fall without being disturbed. With the onset of colder weather, worship was held in a home in Oran. Recently two Algerian secret police agents visited the home and told its residents that house meetings attended by more than nine persons required official authorization. When the believers asked if they could apply for the authorization, the agents said they would return later and tell them.

At about the same time, the secret police individually called in six believers and their employers for questions. Some sample questions: Have you sung together after Boumédienne’s death (thus violating the period of mourning)? Is your group a church or a gathering (churches are forbidden)? What are the names of other Christian believers? Are married couples present when mixed groups (young men and women) meet? Why do you not return to Islam? Those interrogated were treated courteously.

Since the government scrutiny began, Christians have taken added precautions to satisfy government requirements. Mixed groups have always been chaperoned by married couples (this is demanded by Islamic culture). The Oran group has read, not sung, hymns after the president’s death. The fellowship was split among three homes, with unmarried males and females segregated. Two services in each home were contemplated to keep attendance under the limit at any one time. It was decided to temporarily discontinue inviting non-Christians to the services. Memorization of Scripture passages and hymns was encouraged in case Bibles and hymn books should be confiscated or believers confined.

Missionaries as such are not permitted in Algeria, but several members of NAM work there in a variety of jobs. Government authorities showed special interest in foreigners meeting with the Oran fellowship. Their continued presence, always insecure, appeared more precarious than ever.

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