Ralph Edward Dodge (1933, 1934)

By Per Hassing, Professor of Missions

ON DECEMBER 1, 1936, the 29-year-old Ralph Edward Dodge arrived in the old city of Luanda, capital of the Portuguese West African colony of Angola. With him was his wife Eunice, three years his junior, whom he had married three years earlier. This was the beginning of a long, strenuous, dramatic, and distinguished missionary career in Africa. When he landed in that picturesque old city he had, of course, no idea where his missionary commitment might lead him, but his eventful career is a vivid testimony of his loyalty to his Lord Jesus Christ and to the missionary enterprise of the church. His was, as he later expressed it, an apostolic compulsion “Woe unto me if I preach not the Gospel of Jesus Christ”, believing that “the Gospel not only relates man to God but also sets norms of social conduct between man and man.”

Born in Terril, Iowa, he had been prepared for his task through his participation in The Methodist Church which among other things sent him to the Kentucky mountains as a preacher. His academic career earned him a Bachelor of Arts degree from Taylor University in 1931, a Master of Arts degree from Boston University in 1933, a Bachelor of Sacred Theology degree from Boston University School of Theology in 1934, and a Master of Sacred Theology degree from Hartford Seminary Foundation in 1942. On his way to Angola he studied Portuguese in Lisbon. During his first furlough his return to Angola was delayed by World War II, but while serving a church in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, he completed the work on his Doctor of Philosophy degree at Hartford Seminary Foundation in 1944. The title of his dissertation was: “Missions and Anthropology: A Program of Anthropological Research for Missionaries Working Among the Bantu Speaking People of Central and Southern Africa”.

Like so many missionaries he served the church in various capacities. He had been ordained an Elder in 1933 and in Angola he served as District Superintendent, Dean of the William Taylor Bible School, and Acting Executive Secretary of the Angola Protestant Alliance. After his second furlough he opened up a new mission station in the Dembos, a remote mountain area in Angola’s northeast.

In 1950 he moved from the Dembos to New York City where he was to serve the Division of World Missions of The Methodist Church as administrative secretary for Africa and Europe for nearly seven years. His new position involved him in extensive travels in the “old” Europe and the “new” Africa, as well as in the U.S.A. He learned to know three continents by personal observation and by extensive contacts with numerous churches, churchmen and missionary leaders. As never before in his life he learned to see the church in its world-wide and ecumenical perspectives.

In 1956 The Methodist Church in Africa requested the General Conference for permission to divide the Elisabethville Area and to elect a second bishop. Both requests were granted. At the African Central Conference in Elisabethville, Congo, Dr. Dodge was elected bishop on the first ballot. He thus became the first Methodist bishop elected in Africa and was consecrated there with clerical and lay African churchmen participating in the ceremony. His term was set for eight years and his area was Angola, Rhodesia, and Southeast Africa Annual Conferences.

My first meeting with Dr. Dodge was in 1948 at the Central Conference at Old Umtali, Rhodesia. He had taken his whole family—there were now two sons and two daughters—by car from Luanda. This was a great adventure considering the state of African roads. After the conference he went on to Beira, Mozambique. This veteran traveler can truthfully say that he has driven across the African continent from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic, and across the North American Continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This venturesome spirit, unafraid of hardship and obstacles, is typical of the man.

The second time I can recall having met him was on his first secretarial visit to Rhodesia. He had played an important part in the opening and dedication of the Ehnes Memorial Church at Old Umtali. When it was all over he let us understand that we had not adequately publicized such an important event in the life of the church and the colony. So when he became bishop this was one of the things that he set out to do, to bring the church and what it was doing before the public. This has been a consistent effort of his administration. To him it was wrong to let the church do its noble work unnoticed.

As a Board secretary he revealed another side of his personality; his ability to change his mind. To some this signifies a lack of determination and endurance, or a lack of principle, traits that can hardly be ascribed to Bishop Dodge. To others this ability to change one’s mind is a sign of growth and of courage. As a Board secretary he urged greater local support for hospitals and literature work, but when he moved his office from New York to Rhodesia things looked very different and he helped to bring an increasing amount of American money for the development of church institutions in Africa. He learned that what you see depends on where you stand. Coupled with this trait in him is the utter and disarming frankness with which he admits mistakes and shortcomings. This trait is greatly appreciated, especially in a man who is so frank.

When Ralph Dodge was elected Bishop in 1956 he surprised many by the speed with which he wound up his affairs in New York and came flying to Elisabethville for his consecration. His wife stayed behind to sell the home and wind up family affairs. He also surprised some by the main thrust of his acceptance speech, which was that he wanted his service as a Bishop to be known for his identification with the African people and their aspirations and for a consistent effort to make The Methodist Church in Africa truly African. This was a memorable speech and a laudable program which he has consistently and vigorously pursued.

His intentions have been carried out in various ways. He has steadily increased the number of Africans appointed to leadership positions within the church and the educational and social institutions of the church. One of his steps in the Africanization of the leadership in church and school was his massive effort in providing scholarships for African students studying in America and Europe. The wisdom and foresight of this program are now being felt in various parts of his area, but mainly in Rhodesia.

From the vantage point of his earlier appointments Bishop Dodge saw that the end of European colonialism in Africa was only a matter of time. Events proved him right, except for the countries that happened to constitute his episcopal area. He openly declared that he fully supported the African social and political aspirations. He was set on a collision course with the ruling white minority. His home in Salisburg was under police surveillance and his sermons and speeches were doubtless faithfully reported to the Criminal Investigation Department. The first result of this open support of African political aims was that he was prevented from entering Angola after 1961 and Mozambique after 1962, and then in 1964 he was declared an “undesirable immigrant” by the Rhodesian government and given two weeks to leave the country.

Prior to his deportation he had published a book, The Unpopular Missionary, containing some strong criticism of the missionaries. This alienated many of them from the Bishop because the criticism was undoubtedly too severe and he seemed to exclude himself from the circle of missionaries. But when the deportation order came Africans and missionaries rallied together around their bishop and were supported by both African and European clergy of the other churches.

Bishop Dodge had succeeded in dramatizing in an effective way his own and his church’s identification with the African people, and his deportation had brought the Africans and the missionaries closer together. This was further demonstrated when he came up for reelection shortly after his deportation from Rhodesia. The Africans in Rhodesia made it quite clear that they would accept no other bishop, so Dodge was re-elected for four more years on the first ballot. This was a very reassuring and gratifying vote of confidence in him as a person and leader.

Bishop Dodge received a further vote of confidence when he was given the Boston University Distinguished Alumni Award in 1965 (see Nexus, May 1965, p. 2).

At the time of writing he is temporarily filling in as Bishop of the Zürich Area. He has made it clear that he will not accept a Rhodesian re-election in 1968. His future is uncertain. What he has said about the church is an apt description of himself. “This is not the time for the church to be concerned about its own future but the future of men. Its role is not to be served but to serve, not to be saved but to save! The church may live by being ready to die in loving service.”

This biography was originally published in Nexus: The Alumni Magazine Boston University School of Theology, Vol. 10, No. 1, November 1966), pp. 25-28.

Additional biographical information is available in Samuel Dzobo’s dissertation, “Toward a New Church in a New Africa: A Biographical Study of Bishop Ralph Earl Dodge, 1907-2008.”