The Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church are seeking the return of three missionaries who have been detained in the Philippines, including a 29-year-old man from Brunswick.
Adam Shaw is a missionary assigned to a project based in Davao City, Mindanao, Philippines. He and two others, Tawanda Chandiwana and Miracle Osman, have been prevented from leaving the Republic of the Philippines by the country’s government.
The three missionaries were taking part in an international fact-finding investigation of human rights concerns and apparently came under government surveillance.
Each missionary is facing a differing situation with the Philippines’ Bureau of Immigration:
- Shaw has been informed that an order to leave is imminent but it has not been served.
- Chandiwana, a citizen of Zimbabwe, was arrested and detained on May 9 after initially being charged with overstaying his missionary visa, although he was attempting to change his status to a tourist visa since he was nearing the end of his mission service in the Philippines; the charge was expanded when his name was found on a “watchlist” of alleged subversives. The UMC says he denies any wrongdoing and faults a delay in filing visa paperwork.
- Osman, a citizen of Malawi, was in the process of renewing her missionary visa when her passport was confiscated by government officials. The lack of a passport makes it impossible for her to voluntarily leave the country. She has requested a return of her passport, which is the property of the Republic of Malawi.
"We are convinced that our missionaries pose no threat to the peace and tranquility of the Philippines," The United Methodist Church writes in a statement. "Our request is that Chandiwana be released from detention, granted an exit visa, and be allowed to leave the country as expeditiously as possible. We ask that Osman’s passport be returned and she be granted an exit visa, and that Shaw be allowed to depart safely."
Shaw is the son of the Rev. Thomas and Susan Shaw, who were missionaries in Tunisia and Germany from 1994 through 2003. He has been a Global Ministries’ missionary in Mindanao since 2016 with Save Our Schools, an education network for indigenous children, and previously served in the region as a mission intern.
The United Methodist Church's Global Ministries created an online petition for the release of the three missionaries.