Click this link to watch video at Azalea Trace: http://www.pnj.com/article/20111005/NEWS01/110050329/Bishop-s-heart-reaches-Malawi
Written by Troy Moon
Bishop Jackson Biggers, 74, has spent more than half his life working as a missionary in Malawi, Africa. In 1995, the Anglican Diocese of Northern Malawi was established and named Biggers as its first bishop. He now serves as assistant bishop of the Diocese of Upper Shire and plans to return to Africa on Tuesday. / Katie King/kking@pnj.comBishop Jackson Biggers
»Age: 74.
»Occupation: Bishop emeritus of the Anglican Diocese of Northern Malawi; assistant bishop of the Diocese of Upper Shire.
»Education: University of Mississippi, bachelor's degree in history. Master's degree in divinity from Sewanee: The University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn.
»Family: Brother, Neal Biggers, is a federal judge in Biloxi, Miss. Jackson Biggers never married. "I enjoy being alone too much," he said.
He has a sweet Magnolia drawl and a charming Southern twinkle.
But when Bishop Jackson Biggers talks of the people of Africa — and most specifically the citizens of Malawi — he constantly uses the pronoun "we." When he refers to Americans, he uses the same pronoun.
Biggers, 74, is as much African as he is American.
"You don't have to chose," he said from the lobby of Azalea Trace, a retirement home near the University of West Florida where he lives.
"You don't have to divide your heart and break it. You stretch your heart so it's big enough to include both without any problem."
And Bigger's heart and his life's work stretch to both continents.
The semiretired Anglican bishop returns to the southeast African country of Malawi on Tuesday to continue a spiritual journey that began when he first went to the country in 1965, a year after the former British colony gained independence.
He was kicked out of the country in 1974 when he spoke out against human rights abuses. But he returned two decades later when a new government was installed in the poverty-stricken country — one of the eight poorest in the world.
Biggers is now bishop emeritus of the Diocese of Northern Malawi — a diocese that was established in 1995 with Biggers as its first leader as well assistant bishop of a neighboring diocese.
Biggers has no idea how long he'll be gone this trip, during which he'll stay in the mountain home he maintains in Malawi. It could be weeks, months, even years.
"It's debatable which is my primary home," he said. "I'm called a permanent resident in Malawi. I vote in elections there. I have a special classification called 'Deemed to Belong.' Some of us joke that it's 'Doomed to Belong.' "
A spiritual calling
Biggers seemed destined early on for the priesthood and for Africa.
Raised a Presbyterian in a devout Christian home near Corinth, Miss., he always felt a spiritual calling. He can't remember not wanting to be a priest. Any pocket change he had as a child went to buying pictures of saints and religious figures or religious texts.
(Page 2 of 3)
"I have one brother, and growing up, the nurse who raised us called me 'Little Priest' and my brother 'Little Judge,' " Biggers said with a chuckle. "And lo and behold, I became a priest and my brother is a federal judge in Mississippi. I said to myself, 'Della was a prophet.' My brother said, 'No, she just brainwashed us.' "
He joined the Episcopal Church when he was about 17.
"I thought it was the best show in town for just a dime in the collection plate," he said. "All the eccentrics belonged to it."
The pageantry of the Episcopal Mass had an effect as well.
"I had a friend who carried a cross down the aisle," Biggers said. "He looked so smug. I thought 'I'll get that out of his smug hands someday.' "
After graduating from the University of Mississippi in 1960 with a degree in history, Biggers went to Sewanee: The University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., to earn his master's degree in divinity.
It was there in the early 1960s that Biggers heeded church leaders' call for young Anglicans to go across the globe for the sake of the church as part of a program aptly called Ready for Anything.
"I was looking for adventure. And Africa — it just seemed so natural to me."
Growing painsAfter a year at a Biloxi, Miss., church, Biggers went to Malawi — which a year earlier under British rule was known as Nyasaland.
Though there were some similarities — grits, okra and turnip greens are common foods in Malawi — the country mostly offered a new world to Biggers, one of the few Americans in the region.
"We have hyenas and leopards and so many baboons," he said. "I would get up at 4 a.m. and make coffee, then read Scripture. Afterward, I would take a three- to four-mile walk, and you could hear the baboons coming out of the trees. Then, you could walk some more and meet the woodcutters on the mountainside."
Malawi's independence from Britain posed many growing pains for the developing nation.
President Hastings Kamuzu Banda ruled with fierce power, suppressing all political opposition, and in 1970, he declared himself "president for life."
(Page 3 of 3)
People were afraid to voice their opinions about politics or their leaders for fear of reprisal.
"People disappeared or were killed. They were imprisoned without trials," Biggers said. "There were government informants everywhere."
He remembers Jehovah's Witnesses being persecuted because of their religious beliefs. He remembers women with children on their backs "being pushed and beaten."
Biggers and other priests began speaking out more and more against the government, and on July 18, 1974, he received a letter from the government giving him two weeks to leave the country. No reason was given.
"I never thought I would go back," he said.
Unexpected returnFor years, he didn't.
He spent a short period in New York, then led a parish in the Bahamas for about a year.
In 1978, he returned to Biloxi to lead the Church of the Redeemer, where he stayed until 1994, when a new government was formed after Banda, under pressure, agreed to a referendum allowing multiparty democracy.
Church leaders called Biggers back to Malawi, and he became the first bishop of the new Northern Malawi diocese, leading 26,000 worshippers spread out over 16 parishes.
"There was still so much to do," said Biggers, who speaks fluent Chichewa, the language of Malawi.
As bishop, he also worked to improve hospitals and schools. But the country he loved had changed in his 20 years away, and modernization transformed the landscape.
"When I first came to Malawi, it was much more rural," he said. "I would go on walking safaris for two or three weeks to get somewhere. You didn't have cellphones. You had porters with you to carry things — folding chairs, a camp bed, books, kerosene lanterns. You'd see so much wild game back then. There were buffaloes, elephants. It was just wonderful.
"But when I went back, it was much more modern. Now we have paved roads and lots of cars."
More aheadStill, there are adventures.
"There's nothing nicer than to have car trouble," he said. "If your car breaks down, even now, people will come down from their homes to see it like they were crawling into a warm bathtub. They'll come and look at you and literally pick your car up and move it out of the way for you."
His friends at Azalea Trace surely will miss his presence, and his stories. Friends in Biloxi introduced Biggers to Pensacola, which led him to Azalea Trace.
Friend Charley Pritchett, 85, talked of the breadth of knowledge Biggers has brought to the community.
"He's such an intelligent guy and has so much knowledge about the world," Pritchett said. "I had never heard of Malawi until I met Jack."
Soon, he'll be gone. And there's no telling when he'll come back.
"When I get fed up here, I go back to Africa," he said. "When I get fed up with Africa, I come back here."