Thursday 31 October 2013

Blogging from Busan - Of Anglicans, Aids, Pamphlets and Pickets at the WCC

At the World Council of Churches assembly in Korea today, we spent more time in a “business plenary”, “ecumenical conversations” and then a “theme plenary” as well as in regional groups. (See an explanation of the programme here>>)

Prior to these, I had the opportunity to meet privately with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi of Burundi with the head of UNAIDS, Mr Michel Sidibé.

We spoke of the need to address as an Anglican Communion some of the systemic issues that still cause new HIV infections when in general the rate is dropping. Inequality has robbed many of a voice in calling for access to treatment and the church is urged to speak up urgently on this. The concern is that epicentre of this crisis has shifted into stable heterosexual relationships and this is of great concern, says Mr Sidibé. We three archbishops agreed to collaborate with UNAIDS, particularly around the forthcoming 16 days of activism to end gender-based violence and on AIDS Day. We noted the growing marginalization of some groups, especially in homophobic countries, and how this may indirectly spread infection as people hide both their sexuality and their HIV status.

In the theme plenary, we listened to the church address its impact or lack thereof in the mission field. We heard of the isolation and pain of the Coptic Christians in Alexandria and of the need to come alongside them in this difficult time.


In our ecumenical plenary, I chose the the justice and peace session and was again struck by the notion of “just peace” and the reminder that "the strength of the powerful depends on the obedience and compliance of its citizens..." Citizens do have the capacity to use non-violent means to change a violent order, to give voice to the voiceless and accomplish reconciliation. The session enabled us to explore this notion of just peace in a little more depth.

Jape Heath, a priest from our province now working in Sweden, who is both HIV positive and in a same-sex relationship, is open these issues and shared with the Archbishop of Canterbury and me the work of INERELA+ – an organisation now comprising thousands of immuno-compromised religious leaders who are ready to share their redemptive stories on living with the HI Virus.

We ended with an Africa group regional meeting, sharing issues as they affected the continent and recommending candidates for election to the Central Committee of the WCC. I was so proud of how our continent, without compromising the process, performed in reflecting a gender balance in nominations. Pray for the candidates as nominations close.

Let me end with what we started with after morning prayer. We had Chung Hongwon, prime minister of South Korea address us and bring greetings. He spoke passionately and demonstrated the importance of church-state relations. Please pray for the ecumenical witness in our country. Today at the regional meeting, I was able to see colleagues from our country's ecumenical bodies and could at least "praat”, “khuluma” and “buwa” our country's languages. There are of course some who, as is customary at these gatherings, are picketing us, putting pamphlets in our faces because they like neither the conference theme nor the WCC. Pray for us all.

God bless
+ Thabo

PHOTO: Dr Wedad Abbas Tawfik from Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria speaking at the WCC assembly in Busan.

Wednesday 30 October 2013

Blogging from Busan - Day One of the WCC Assembly in Korea

DAY ONE: After a long journey, we arrived at BUSAN in South Korea for the opening of the 10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) on Wednesday.

Other South Africans from ACSA include Bishop Jo Seoka of Pretoria, Canon Nangula Kathindi of Namibia, Mrs Lungi Makgoba and Professor Bev Haddad of the University of KwaZulu/Natal, all attending in various capacities.

We had a good "reunion" with other bishops and Primates from the Anglican Communion, as well as some clergy and laity, but the auditorium was too full to accommodate everyone for the opening plenary so we had to sit in the worship space and follow proceedings on a screen.

Jet-lagged and finding screens too impersonal, we decided to go to the conference's market place, where we were struck by many of the exhibitions - but chiefly by the ecumenical work which is being done for the disabled. I don't think that is an aspect of ministry which we as a province have spent much thought on, or are doing much about.

Then to the first business of the assembly, when we listened to the general secretary, the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, the moderator of the Central Committee, the Rev. Dr Walter Altmann, and other programme directors present their reports or move for their reception.

What stuck out for me was the call by most for "Just Peace". The reports gave a synopsis of the work of the past seven years and the vision for the next under the assembly theme of “God of life, lead us to justice and peace.”

Parishioners at home should know of the longing by South Korea in particular for reunification with North Korea so that lasting peace is attained.

One objective of choosing Korea for the venue of the assembly was to support this longing, and to amplify the voices of the Christian minority to the majority, hopefully contributing to the achievement one day of lasting peace with justice.

God bless you,

+Thabo

THE PHOTO ABOVE shows a dramatic performance which narrated a history of the national and Christian mission in Korea.

Sunday 27 October 2013

Mayoral Inter-faith service at the Cathedral of St. George the Martyr, Cape Town

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, friends from the Western Cape inter religious group, dear people of this beautiful city, dear friends.

It is a great joy to be with you as we celebrate what we have termed the Mayoral Service.

Thank you, Mr. Dean and your staff for hosting this service and for the Western Cape Religious Leaders' Forum for coordinating this together with the city and the Cathedral: to everyone else who is here, who loves this city or who lives in the city or offers services to the city, feel welcomed.

The ancient Greek notion of the city implied that the polis is about citizenship and the body of citizens. In short, how space and resources are organized in service to the people of the city and how the people in turn engage to shape their destiny collaboratively.

So you, we all matter, for without you, we would not have the mayor to organize the affairs of this city, nor the mayor without the citizens.

May I also, on behalf of the Dean and his staff welcome all the other visitors here today.

Madame Mayor, Patricia De Lille: thank you, also for your leadership and presence with us and for your encouraging and challenging words; thank you for your welcome – we feel honored and humbled that you agreed to be here and to grace us with your presence, for without it we could not have a "Mayoral Service" as an inter-faith congregation.

In the Christian sacred text that was read this afternoon, John 10:10, the Johannine Jesus says, "I came so that you may have life and have it in abundance."

What is life in abundance? What is eternal life? It is about the flourishing of all human beings and not only some who are powerful and connected. It is the flourishing of us all or, put differently, it is about the common good or the public good.

The common good, simply put, is ensuring that what is good and beneficial for me, is also good and beneficial for the other who is my neighbour.

Put in a language understood by most religions, this is about doing what I would like done to me (love, respect, care, compassion) done to the other too. Yes, it is about respecting the dignity of each individual as reflecting the humanity of God and the divine in God.

The famous words are from the Christian sacred text, love you neighbor, with all your mind, soul and body, and love the Lord your God with the same mind as you love yourself and neighbor.

Life in abundance is life lived with a mentality of abundance and not a mentality of poverty; life lived mindful that it is not useful to amass riches, thinking that when your end comes, you will take these with you; it is life lived with contentment and generosity, wanting to make profit but not ignoring people or the planet that generates your wealth.

How might this life pan out in our beloved city? Our city is doing relatively well. You only need to look at the Currie Cup final, even though we are sorry the Sharks won. Visitors and tourists to this city bring a lot of revenue.

Or you can look at our status as world design capital or at the film industry, conferences, tertiary education, media, the financial sector, small grassroots enterprises such as B&B’s, NGOs, industry, including thriving and not so thriving small industries, and the large number of companies with head offices in this city. The economy is indeed thriving here in spite of challenges elsewhere, heralded by Minister Pravin Gordhan and his belt-tightening for ministers.

Economically, we are doing relatively well compared to the majority of the other provinces of our country and countries in our continent. For this, we are grateful to our city and mothers for the flourishing of the local economy.

However, as religious leaders, as we give thanks for this flourishing, we need to also ask deeper questions:

-- Who is benefiting from this economic flourishing?

-- Is it serving the common good or benefitting only some who are powerful, politically and economically well connected?

-- Is this result of this flourishing what Jesus envisaged in the passage from John: I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance?

-- Are the people without a voice in the city benefitting as well?

-- Are we reaching out?

-- Does the economic benefit bring joy and benefits to those on the margins, not just trickle to them?

-- Are the dividends of our democracy and freedom benefitting all, and are those who benefit helping others to have access to this boom?

In this past week, I did "huisbesoek" to Auntie Pat Gorvalla* in Durbanville, then licensed a new priest in Christ Church Claremont and visited Mfuleni. I could not help but feel torn by the feeling that this abundant life in our beloved city is still skewed in favour of those of us from a particular race and class and not for all as Jesus wished for, suffered for and died for.

The work is thus enormous. I must confess that we in the religious vocation often overlook these challenges. We are often tempted by the trappings of power, money and proximity to politicians and the potential for personal or denominational gain from such proximity.

Whilst we need to affirm the good that the city does, we equally need to raise critical questions about who benefits from the city’s flourishing, and why spatial apartheid for instance is so stubborn 20 years into our democracy. We need to raise these questions without fear, for ours is not a political mandate but a vocation to serve all in spite of power, status and political affiliation.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, friends from the Western Cape inter religious group, dear people of this beautiful city, dear friends.
Often, we are too aligned, or our mouths are too full of resources, personal or for our churches, that we are afraid to speak out clearly and prophetically for the cause of those marginalized and excluded, and plead their cause in attaining this abundant life in the here and now, and not only in heaven.

We confess our failures today and ask for pardon from God, from the poorest of the poor and all who are marginalized, be it materially, due to their sexual orientation, class or race. We say Lord have mercy on us and pardon us, our sins.

Two weeks ago at the National Church Leaders' Consultation, we confessed this sin of omission, the lack of coherence in our prophetic audibility and our courage to speak. We committed to being part of the solution, especially in education, and resolved to seek an audience urgently with SADTU and other teachers' unions as we look together at ways we can make education the tool of liberation it is supposed to be.

As we confess and acknowledge our own shortcomings in our city too, we should not be navel-gazing and becoming trapped by this sin of omission or our helplessness for not doing and speaking for the cause of the poorest of the poor.

We should equally engage with all for their sake as we plead for respect for their human dignity and for their true freedom. Let us re-commit to taking seriously our God-given mandate to serve others.

We commit to working as a collective with the city , the polis, in serving God's people and in bringing hope; hope that nothing will separate God's people from the love and care of God even in the midst of pain, suffering and squalor.

We commit to the ministry of reconciliation, reconciling communities and different faiths, rich and poor, and we encourage the spirit of generosity and cohesion amongst all people of this city and province.

We commit to walks of witness alongside the people of God to highlight: janitorial services gone wrong; poor school infrastructure; poor conditions of service and remuneration for farm and domestic workers; the need to investigate the effectiveness of policing in our townships; the impact which endemic corruption has on service delivery and social cohesion; as well as the many glaring economic disparities in our city.

We will continue to care for the xenophobically displaced, those trapped by drugs and the impact of gangsterism. We will continue through the Electoral Code of Conduct Observer Commission (ECCOC) to demand that our political leaders behave aptly as we all pray for, and ensure, a free, robust and fair context for electioneering and elections next year and beyond, as well as open the question of who funds political parties and demand transparency in this area.

Returning to the Christian sacred text as I conclude, the Lucan God, in Luke 4, reminds us as people of faith and in this city , that the spirit of the Lord God is upon me, he has anointed me and all of us to proclaim boldly without fear or favour good news to the poor....

Let us dare to do so.

May this mayoral service bring hope and courage to all in the city and a recommitment by us all to bring life in abundance for all especially those in the margins of the city?

Amen

Archbishop Thabo Makgoba
27 October 2013

* A leading citizen of Cape Town and former president of the Anglican Women's Federation.

Monday 14 October 2013

National Church Leaders' Consultation - Media Advisory

Media Advisory: 14 October 2013

National Church Leaders’ Consultation – Invitation to Media

A meeting of the twice-annual National Church Leaders’ Consultation will take place on 15 and 16 October 2013 at the Southern Sun Hotel, O R Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg.

The meeting will consider a report from the National Religious Association for Social Development (NRASD), which will address public health; education; economic and welfare policy, and the National Development Plan; and gender violence and human rights. Bishop Ziphozihle Siwa will lead further discussions on questions of education; and Bishop Malusi Mpulwana will head a session Towards a Rolling Church Action Plan for Social Change. The consultation will also hear presentations from Mr Pascal Paul Moloi, NDP Commissioner, and Mr Leo Makgamathe of BrandSA.

On Tuesday evening, His Excellency, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, Minister of Health, will be in conversation with Dr Catherine Sozi, Country Director, UNAIDS. The Media are invited to attend this event, which begins at 18.45hrs.

A media statement will also be issued at the close of the Consultation, around 1300 on 16 October.

The National Church Leaders’ Consultation is currently chaired by the Most Revd Dr Thabo Makgoba, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town.

Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Inquiries: Ms Wendy Kelderman, 021 763 1320 (office hours)
Mr Sipho Mahokoto, Senior Program Coordinator, NRASD, 083 745 3405, sipho@cddc.co.za (during the Consultation)

Canon Law Council Established

A final report from Provincial Synod

Act to Establish a Canon Law Council

Questions of Canon Law were a major theme at Provincial Synod. A decision was taken to relaunch the Canon Law Society, and work was also done in revising the disciplinary canons.

Archbishop Thabo underlined the importance of having good canons and using them well in his Charge. He said

That we live by grace and covenant, and not by law, is at the heart of the rejuvenation of the Canon Law Society. This … is not about placing legalistic and legislative burdens upon us. Rather, it is for helping us to use Canon Law better: as our good servant, not bad master.
… In today’s world far too often the immediate response to disagreement is to rush to litigation as the first, not last, resort: whether in politics, business, or even running football clubs! Alas, Christians often follow the same path. The amount of time and money our church has spent in the last five years in secular legal processes is shocking. It pains me deeply that legal cases have consumed significant resources that should be devoted to mission and ministry. It also distresses me to see the church falling into ungodly practices of lobbying and putting on pressure, to get our own way, or to get our own back when we can’t get what we want through proper processes.
God calls us instead to wrestle with one another within the body of Christ, and together to wrestle with him, so we may discern his will in the complexities of our relationships in this complex world. Better understandings of Canon Law should help resource us to deal with difficult issues in more holy ways.
This is also the aim of revising disciplinary Canons: that these should bring us greater confidence and freedom in following our calling, just as the introduction of Pastoral Standards has done. God calls us to offer models of good and holy practice to the world – for those who long to find the Lord’s favour, as in our first reading; and even to those who think they know better, as in our second. We must follow good governance and best practice in all that we do, where necessary revising both structures and practices. We must be good stewards of our resources, for example asking whether the expense of meetings could be better handled through having our own Anglican conference centre.
As we live before the watching world, we should not fear difference, or even disagreement, because it is through wrestling together – as brothers and sisters who know our unity in Christ is greater than anything that can divide us – that we can be like rough stones polishing each other to become beautiful smooth gems. It is a demanding calling, but I am sure it is one to which God especially calls Anglicans, in Southern Africa and around the world.


The Provincial Registrar, Mr Henry Bennet, with input from a number of other members of Synod, led a session that explained about the background, development and use of canon law. This was extended into a second session, in place of group work, to allow fuller discussion and questions and answers. Various Measures were passed to amend the Disciplinary Canons to make them more workable, and better reflect best practice and good governance.

Later in Synod, a resolution was passed to establish a Canon Law Council as an Act of Synod. Elections were held for its membership.

The following people were elected to the Canon Law Council

Mr Henry Bennett - Provincial Registrar
Adv Ronnie Bracks - Deputy Provincial Registrar
The Revd Matt Esau - Cape Town
Justice Ian Farlam - Provincial Chancellor
Mr Lloyd Fortuin - Saldanha Bay
The Very Revd Andrew Hunter - Grahamstown
The Ven M Mariri - Pretoria
Adv Daryl Newton - Port Elizabeth
Adv Jill Oliphant - Johannesburg
Mr Roger Schärges - Port Elizabeth
Justice Leona Theron - Johannesburg
The Revd Charles Williams - Saldanha Bay

The text of the Resolution follows below

This Church accepts the thesis that while theology provides it with a vision and definition of its purposes and Christian values, these are implemented in the form of canon law, which provides the norms of action for their implementation. Thus, canon law has a theological basis, and theology works through canon law. In so doing it also accepts the need for the Church to exercise its leadership to ensure that its legal apparatus and procedures match its vision and purposes, and at the same time meet current needs and aspirations in relation to its members’ rights, responsibilities and freedoms.

To this end the Church establishes, as an Act, a faculty to be known as the Anglican Canon Law Council (the “Council”), the constitution of which will be as follows:

1. The Council will be an integral part of the Church, functioning under and reporting to the Provincial Trusts Board (the “Board”), but reporting also to Provincial Synod and Provincial Standing Committee, with a liaison bishop to be appointed to the governing body by Episcopal Synod.

2. The members of the Council will be:

2.1 All Provincial and Diocesan Chancellors and Registrars, ex officio;
2.2 Any Bishop currently in office or retired, on application;
2.3 Any Cleric, currently licensed or retired, on application; and
2.4 Any Confirmed Communicant, on application.

3. The purpose and objectives of the Council will be:

3.1 Collegial, namely, the sharing of information, creating the facility for those interested in canon law to meet (personally or by other means of communication) to discuss canon law issues and matters and to seek interactively answers where these are needed.
3.2 Opinions, namely, where possible assisting bishops and others in authority in the Church on issues and matters referred to it by them.
3.3 Publications, namely, to record and make available canon law studies and discussions relevant to the Church, its governance, rights and responsibilities.
3.4 Mentoring, namely, guiding Bishops, members of Chapters, Provincial and Diocesan Trusts Boards and newly appointed Chancellors and Registrars in their work.
3.5 Archiving, namely, as facilities become available retaining and storing in retrievable form, as may be submitted, judgments of Church tribunals, relevant judgments of Courts of Law of interest, and opinions of the Council, Chancellors, Registrars and diocesan attorneys and counsel.
3.6 Conferences, namely, creating opportunities for legal officers and others across the Province interested in canon law to establish or renew contact, to deliver papers and to discuss issues and matters of the day.

4. The Council’s governing body will be a Committee, comprising:

4.1 The Liaison Bishop.
4.2 The Provincial Chancellor and Registrar.
4.3 Three persons, clerical or lay, learned in the law elected by Provincial Synod.
4.4 Three persons, being Provincial or Diocesan Chancellors or Registrars, elected at the Annual Conference of the Council.

5. The periods of office of Committee Members will be for as long as their appointments a Liaison Bishops, Provincial Chancellor or Registrar last, in the case of those referred to in 4.1 and 4.2, and for three years in the case of those referred to in 4.3 and 4.4. Episcopal Synod or the Metropolitan shall appoint successors to fill vacancies that occur under 4.1 or 4.2, as the need arises; Provincial Standing Committee shall fill any vacancies that may occur between sessions of Provincial Synod under 4.3; and the Committee shall itself nominate persons to fill any vacancies between Annual Conferences that occur under 4.4. Committee Members under 4.3 and 4.4 may be re-elected after their periods of appointment have expired.

6. The Committee shall elect its own Chair, Deputy Chair and Secretary at its first meeting each year, at or after the Annual Conference. The quorum for Committee meetings shall be the majority in number of Committee Members in office at the time.

7. The Council shall have no financial powers independently of the Church. All income and expenditure shall be duly authorised, held and paid by the Church through the office of the Provincial Treasurer. It is not intended that the Council shall become a cost centre to the Church: members of Council are volunteers and as far as possible they or their Dioceses shall bear their costs (such as travel and accommodation, by way of example and without limitation), while the Church will bear such costs as are appropriately attributable to it (such as the costs of publications and archiving, and those of the Liaison Bishop and any other office bearer serving a Provincial function in relation to Council work).

8. The Committee shall make such arrangements for the Annual Conferences and the work of Council as it shall deem appropriate. It may also pass such rules of procedure or bye laws as it sees fit, and appoint such sub-committees as it deems necessary, Moreover, it may put forward to Provincial Synod such amendments to this Act as it wishes to recommend, after it has obtained the support for them from the Board on each occasion.

9. As an ordinary resolution of Synod, not an Act, this Synod resolves that all Resolutions of this Synod referring matters to the steering Committee of the Canon Law conference shall be deemed to be referred to the Board of the Canon Law Council.

Revision of the Prayer Book

A further report from Provincial Synod

THE PRAYER BOOK FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA TODAY

Provincial Synod endorsed plans for the comprehensive revision of An Anglican Prayer Book 1989.

In September 2012, the Synod of Bishops decided that revision of the prayer book was a necessary part of taking forward the commitment in the ACSA Vision to ‘Liturgical Renewal for Transformative Worship’ as one of the Provincial Priorities. This was affirmed by Provincial Standing Committee, meeting later the same month.

This work is now being taken forward under the auspices of the Liturgical Committee, and steered by Revd Canon Bruce Jenneker. He gave a detailed presentation on the programme of work that will now be taken to develop ‘An Anglican Prayer Book for Southern Africa Today’.

The details of this are set out in the Resolution which Synod subsequently passed (text below).

Archbishop Thabo, in his Charge at the opening of Synod also underlined the vital nature of this undertaking, saying, ‘I’d also like to highlight the work underway to revise our Prayer Book. I cannot overestimate the importance of the centrality of worship that draws us ever closer to our Lord and Saviour.’


The text of the Resolution follows below

This Synod,
1. Noting the decisions taken by Synod of Bishops in September 2012 and endorsed by the Provincial Standing Committee in September 2012, and

2. Encouraged by the response of the Synod of Bishops in March 2013 to the Workshop setting out a programme for the revision of APB ’89;

3. Affirms the decision to ask the Provincial Liturgical Committee to develop ‘A Prayer Book for Southern Africa Today’ as a vital element within the overall vision of Liturgical Renewal for Transformative Worship as set out in the Provincial Vision for the Anglican Church of Southern Africa;

4. Notes that to carry out this work effectively, the Provincial Liturgical Committee will require:
4.1 additional members to be appointed to the Provincial Liturgical Committee;

4.2 a second meeting of the Committee each year during the development of the Prayer Book;

4.3 a series of Liturgical Consultations to be arranged approximately every three years starting with the first Consultations in July 2014;

4.4 a re-launching of Translation Committees to work with the Provincial Liturgical Committee throughout the process to ensure that material is available in the languages used in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa;

5. Respectfully requests that Provincial Synod receives the attached budget that will be required to support the work of this project, and recommend it to the Provincial Finance Committee for possible inclusion in the budget of the provincial liturgical committee.

6. Affirms that this process of development provides an excellent opportunity to identify and train a new generation of liturgists who will ensure the ongoing development of suitable liturgies for the “unfolding tradition ... of our liturgical heritage.” (APB ’89, General Preface);

7. Thanks the Provincial Liturgical Committee for accepting this responsibility and for undertaking to make regular reports to the Synod of Bishops, Provincial Synod and Provincial Standing Committee throughout the period of development of the new Prayer Book.

Friday 4 October 2013

Drought and Threat of Famine in Angola and Namibia

This media release from Provincial Synod was issued on 4 October 2013

Drought and Threat of Famine in Angola and Namibia

The Anglican Church of Southern Africa voiced its concern at the current drought in Angola and Namibia, and the threat of famine that it brings.

Its Provincial Synod, meeting this week in Benoni, South Africa, heard about the severe conditions in northern Namibia and southern Angola, and the prospects of terrible hardship that may lie ahead.

The Synod passed a motion sending greetings to the people of those regions, which lie within the Anglican Church of Southern Africa.

It gave thanks for the swift response of the Namibian Government, UN agencies, European Commission and Lutheran World Federation, and committed the Anglican Church to contribute assistance coordinated through its social development body, HOPE Africa.

Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Inquiries: Ms Wendy Kelderman, 021 763 1320 (office hours)
The Revd Canon Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, 082 856 2082 (during Synod)

The Text of the motion follows below:

Drought and threat of famine in Namibia and Angola

This Synod sends pastoral greetings to the people of Namibia and Angola especially the people who live in severely drought stricken Northern Namibia and Southern Angola.

We give thanks to God for the response of the Namibian government, United Nations agencies, European Commission and Lutheran World Federation.

And requests that HOPE Africa co-ordinate any assistance as a positive response from our Province.

Anglican Church Prioritises Education

This Media release from Provincial Synod was issued on 4 October 2013

Anglican Church Prioritises Education

Anglican congregations are taking imaginative initiatives to support education, the Provincial Synod of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa heard this week.

Mr Vernon Hammond of Pietermaritzburg told how his church had decided to run a homework club every afternoon from 2 to 6pm, after it found local children studying in a bus shelter, under a streetlight.

Almost two years on, their church is open daily for what it calls its ‘B-sharp’ club, providing a safe space for homework and music studies.

Noting that the children’s marks had improved radically, and that they and their families had become church members, Mr Hammond challenged other congregations to open their doors to children who have nowhere else to go between schools closing and parents returning from work.

Education – in schools and tertiary institutions, and theological learning – was at the heart of the four-day meeting of the Synod held in Benoni, South Africa, and of its commitment for future work.

The Rt Revd Peter Lee, Bishop of the Diocese of Christ the King, who heads ACSA’s education work, reported on other current initiatives.

These range from parishes funding shoes or uniforms for learners, equipping playgrounds and setting up bursary funds, through to Anglican schools providing training days, internships, and other partnerships for educators in their local areas.

Dioceses and parishes are also setting up schools, often on church-owned land. In Gauteng, the Archbishop Thabo Makgoba Boys’ School will be built in partnership with Vuleka Schools.

Bishop Lee reported the registration of the Anglican Board of Education in Southern Africa, ABESA, which he chairs, as an NPO (Non-Profit Organisation). This responds to the Archbishop’s 2012 initiative challenging the church to renew its historic commitment to education.

Under the Archbishop’s initiative, the church has committed itself:
• to strengthen what our Province is already doing in education;
• to encouraging parishes in the ongoing upliftment of communities through partnership with local public schools; and
• to create more excellent church schools for all.

The Synod was helped in its reflections by Professor Mary Metcalfe of the Development Bank of Southern Africa, whose presentation highlighted some of the complexities of, and huge disparities across education in Southern Africa.

She challenged ACSA to dig more deeply into questions of why, where, and how the church should be involved in education – calling for specific and practical responses to local situations. Homework clubs were just one example of what could and should be done.

Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Inquiries: Ms Wendy Kelderman, 021 763 1320 (office hours)
The Revd Canon Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, 082 856 2082 (during Synod)

The Text of the motion follows below:

This Synod

1. Welcomes the report of the Archbishop’s Initiative in Education as set out in the 1st Agenda Book, page 33.

2. Supports the incoming Board of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa Schools Trust in pursuing the objectives set out by PSC 2012, and in communicating the vision, nurturing relationships, accessing resources and progressing the activities set out in the draft plan for 2014 (see item 9A following this Resolution).

3. Authorises the Board to appoint necessary staff on the proviso that no cost shall accrue to the Common Provincial Fund, and in light of the minimal use of the grant of R120,000 from the Pan Anglican Fund for education made by PSC 2012, renews that grant for the 12 months to PSC 2014 to a total of R120,000 after payment of the expenses to date, for use on interim expenses.

9A Action plan to 2014
Description:
• Develop action plan to 2014 September (To be finalised by board and director)
• Support the development of the Archbishop Thabo Boys’ School
• Continue conversation around initiative with the Communion and wider face to face interactions
• Investigate starting a new school
• Interact with government and other independent bodies around public policy and curriculum
• Research and develop appropriate Christian curriculum for independent schools
• Promote education initiative activities around Gauteng
• Identify schools where partnerships can be cultivated
• Support government schools on church property
• Monitor activity by the Anglican church in schools across the province
• Institutional development
o Build a team
o Build networks (eg. universities)
• Dependencies
o The constitution of a board
Deadlines: To be confirmed as each action is initiated

Welcoming Our Women Bishops and Wrestling with Gender Justice

This media release from Provincial Synod was issued on 4 October 2013

Anglicans Welcome Women Bishops and Wrestle with Gender Justice within the Church



While the Anglican Church of Southern Africa had two women Bishops at its Provincial Synod for the first time, it also passed a motion pressing for better gender balance in its meetings and structures.

The Rt Revd Ellinah Wamukoya was consecrated Bishop of Swaziland in November 2012 and the Rt Revd Margaret Vertue in January 2013, and were among eight new bishops at the Synod, which has been meeting this week in Benoni, South Africa.

In his address to the opening session of the Synod, Archbishop Makgoba recalled his words at the previous meeting of Synod, ‘Those of you who were here three years ago will remember me admitting I dreamed of consecrating a woman bishop for our Province – by the grace of God, we now have two!’ The two were welcomed with warm applause.

Nonetheless, participants in the meeting noted that among Synod members, men outnumbered women by more than three to one, and so a motion was passed calling on steps to be taken to work towards a more equal balance particularly in key bodies of the Church.

Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Inquiries: Ms Wendy Kelderman, 021 763 1320 (office hours)
The Revd Canon Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, 082 856 2082 (during Synod)

Historic Greetings from the Council of African Instituted Churches

This media release from Provincial Synod was issued on 4 October 2013

Historic Greetings to Anglicans from the Council of African Instituted Churches



In a historic first, the Council of African Instituted Churches of South Africa sent greetings to the Provincial Synod of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, as it met in Benoni, South Africa, this week.

The Council of African Instituted Churches of South Africa was among the ecumenical guests invited to the Provincial Synod.

Revd Senamo Molisiwa of the African Independent Churches’ Development Programme addressed the Anglican meeting, expressing the Council’s appreciation for the deepening partnership shared between the two Christian bodies.

His greeting was met with warm applause.

Both share in membership of the South African Council of Churches.

Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Inquiries: Ms Wendy Kelderman, 021 763 1320 (office hours)
The Revd Canon Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, 082 856 2082 (during Synod)

Partnership with Anglicans in Sudan and South Sudan

This media release from Provincial Synod was issued on 4 October 2013

Southern Africa’s Anglicans Pledge Partnership with Anglicans in Sudan and South Sudan




The Anglican Church in Southern Africa has committed itself to form a partnership with the Episcopal Church in Sudan, with which it shares membership of the Anglican Communion.

The commitment to pursue a ‘partners in mission’ relationship was made by the church’s Provincial Synod, meeting this week in Benoni, South Africa.

It came in response to the address given by the Archbishop of Sudan, the Most Revd Dr Daniel Deng Bul, who has been a guest of the Provincial Synod, and of the Synod of Bishops which preceded it.

The Synod responded warmly to Archbishop Deng’s hope of building a closer relationship of mutual support, in particular around issues of post-conflict reconciliation and nation-building.

After the motion was passed, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba informed Synod that a placewas being offered at its residential training college in Grahamstown, the College of the Transfiguration, for a student from the Episcopal Church of Sudan. He further announced that money had already been raised to cover two years’ costs.

Archbishop Deng has invited Archbishop Makgoba to make a return visit to the Episcopal Church in Sudan.

Note for Editors: an earlier press release on the visit of the Archbishop of Sudan, and his address to the Anglican Church of Southern Africa’s Provincial Synod, is available at http://archbishop.anglicanchurchsa.org/2013/10/welcome-to-archbishop-of-sudan.html

Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Inquiries: Ms Wendy Kelderman, 021 763 1320 (office hours)
The Revd Canon Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, 082 856 2082 (during Synod)

The text of the motion follows below


This Synod,
1. Gives thanks for the presence of the Archbishop of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan as guest of honour at this Synod, and for his address and fraternal greetings from the church in The Sudan;
2. Commends the Archbishop for the important role he is playing in the healing of the Sudanese people, and assures him of our prayers.
3. Recognises the pain of the church in the Sudan after many years of conflict and war, and that the church continues to be confronted by the challenges of nation-building, peace, poverty and social and economic development;
4. Therefore, proposes that the ACSA pledges our commitment to a partnership in mission between our two Provinces to learn and grow from our shared history;
5. Now therefore respectfully urges the Metropolitan to engage with the Episcopal Church of the Sudan prayerfully to bring our two Provinces into a common bond of affection and mutual commitment for the sake of the gospel.

The Place of Religion in Public Life

This media release from the Provincial Synod was issued on 4 October 2013

Anglicans Affirm the Place of Religion in Public Life


A leading educationist now serving the Anglican Church has criticised the South African government for neglecting religion in public life.

The Revd Prof Barney Pityana told the Provincial Synod of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa that the latest South African census statistics failed for the first time to give data on religious affiliation and activity in the country.

“It is evidence if any was needed of how much officialdom desires to neglect religion and religious practices in national life,” he said. “It cannot be true that there is so much indifference about statistics on religion that an inquiry on religion should be left out altogether from the statistics design.”

Dr Pityana, formerly Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of South Africa, is now the Rector of the College of the Transfiguration, the Anglican Church's principal residential training seminary for clergy.

Criticising the promotion of secularism in South African public life, he said the words “secular” and “secular state” did not appear anywhere in the Constitution or legislation.

“On the contrary, religious and cultural and linguistic practices are protected in the Bill of Rights, and so are freedom of expression, belief and opinion.”

He said secularism “has a tendency of confining religious discourse and practice to the private sphere.” As a result, “the secular world view... is one that is unable to be addressed or corrected or challenged. It forecloses any argument or engagement.

“For that reason secularism is unable to engage with the spiritual and intangible and as such will always have an inadequate grasp of the human condition. Secularism is about the material, hence it givers rise to the cultures of acquisitiveness, greed, an insatiable desire for things or for those things that derive personal benefit or prestige.

“Over and above secularism results in corruption and criminality because it covets that which does not belong to one. It is about power and control of others.”

Dr Pityana remarks, made during an address on theological education, were warmly received by the Synod.

Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Inquiries: Ms Wendy Kelderman, 021 763 1320 (office hours)
The Revd Canon Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, 082 856 2082 (during Synod)

Pastoral Response to Civil Unions

This media release from Provincial Synod was issued on 4 October 2013

Anglican Church considers Pastoral Response to Civil Unions

The Anglican Church of Southern Africa has urged its bishops to provide guidelines for giving pastoral care to same-sex couples who have entered civil unions under South African law.

The Church's ruling Provincial Synod, currently meeting in Benoni, South Africa, on Friday adopted a resolution urging its Synod of Bishops to finalise guidelines “as soon as possible”.

The Church neither marries same-sex couples, nor ordains or licenses priests or deacons who live in same-sex unions. This is in line with the practice of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

However, in the words of the Right Revd Martin Breytenbach, Bishop of St Mark the Evangelist, during a debate at the Synod, “civil unions are a reality, whether we like it or not.”

Proposing the resolution, Bishop Breytenbach acknowledged he was on the “conservative” side of the debate. But, he continued, all God's people needed pastoral care and “we have people in our church who are same-gender couples who regard themselves as married, even though I find it difficult to accept.”

The Right Revd Garth Counsell of Table Bay – from the diocese of Cape Town, which is seen as more open to recognising same-sex marriage – said the resolution was “not talking about same sex- marriage or whether we will do that or not.” It was rather about “confronting legal reality”.

“Within our membership we do have people who have exercised their right to be in committed civil unions, and the reality is that they are fully committed members of our church. We have a responsibility to be pastorally caring to people in our pews irrespective of who they are.”

Bishop Breytenbach said the guidelines being worked upon involved “living with tension”.

He referred to the church’s breadth of approaches to the issues it faces: on some, rulings might bind the whole church across Southern Africa. On others, individual dioceses could have discretion to adopt their own guidelines.

There might also be situations in which priests could exercise their own discretion, sometimes in consultation with their bishops, and some matters might be left to the individual consciences of church members.

He also highlighted the need to look at the guidelines within the wider context of the church’s approaches to marriage, divorce, polygamy and other related perspectives.

The Right Revd Jo Seoka, Bishop of Pretoria pointed to the human realities at stake. He referred to the pain expressed to him by a young man who wanted to marry his partner. The man accepted that a priest could not marry him, but he was hurt by the fact that his father, an Anglican parishioner, could not escort him down the aisle without breaching church norms.

Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Inquiries: Ms Wendy Kelderman, 021 763 1320 (office hours)
The Revd Canon Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, 082 856 2082 (during Synod)

The full text of the resolution adopted by the Synod reads:

This Synod

1. Noting

1.1 The progress that has been made by the Synod of Bishops and various Dioceses in developing guidelines for pastoral ministry in response to Civil Unions, and to those who experience themselves as homosexual;
1.2 That we have accepted Resolution 1.10 of the Lambeth Conference 1998 as the basis for our engagement with the issues of human sexuality
1.3 That we are still not of one mind on these matters.

2. Affirms:

2.1 That God calls us to love and minister to all people, regardless of their sexual orientation, while at the same time upholding God’s standards of holiness;
2.2 That this is a highly complex and emotive area which affects many people deeply and has a far reaching impact on the mission of the Church.

3. Commits the Anglican Church of Southern Africa:

3.1 To journey together in humility and mutual respect as we seek God’s mind on the difficult issues of human sexuality;
3.2 To continue to engage in a process of listening to the whole variety of experiences and viewpoints so as to increase our understanding of these issues;

4. Resolves to

4.1 Respectfully request the Synod of Bishops to work towards finalising the Guidelines for pastoral ministry in response to Civil Unions as soon as possible.

Adoption of Anglican Covenant

This media release from Provincial Synod was issued on 4 October 2013

Anglican Church of Southern Africa completes Adoption of Anglican Covenant

The Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA) has adopted the Anglican Communion Covenant.

Its Provincial Synod today unanimously voted to ratify the decision taken at its previous meeting in 2010 to adopt the Covenant. This completes the legal process.

The Archbishop of Cape Town, Dr Thabo Makgoba, proposed the motion. Addressing the Synod, meeting this week in Benoni, Johannesburg, he emphasised ACSA’s commitment to being at the heart of Anglican life, often acting as a bridge-builder, and drawing on its own experiences of living with considerable diversity and wrestling with difference.

Seconding the motion, the Dean of the Province, Bishop Rubin Philip of Natal, quoted from the Introduction to the Covenant:
6. To covenant together is not intended to change the character of this Anglican expression of Christian faith. Rather, we recognise the importance of renewing in a solemn way our commitment to one another, and to the common understanding of faith and order we have received, so that the bonds of affection which hold us together may be re-affirmed and intensified. We do this in order to reflect, in our relations with one another, God’s own faithfulness and promises towards us in Christ (2 Cor 1.20-22).

With debate only addressing a minor wording amendment, the motion was passed without dissent.

The text of the motion is given below.

Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Inquiries: Ms Wendy Kelderman, 021 763 1320 (office hours)
The Revd Canon Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, 082 856 2082 (during Synod)

This Synod

1. Notes the adoption of the Anglican Covenant at the Provincial Synod of 2010;

2. Recommits the Anglican Church of Southern Africa to playing the fullest possible role at the heart of the Anglican Communion, working to promote its unity in diversity and strengthening of bonds of affection, in a life of mutuality and interdependence, shared between autonomous churches, acting each as we are called in our own particular contexts and according to our own ordering, in response to this common gift and calling we have received in our Lord Jesus Christ;

3. Reaffirms its belief that this ordering of shared Communion life may be furthered as set out in the Preamble to the Covenant:

We, as Churches of the Anglican Communion, under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, solemnly covenant together in these following affirmations and commitments. As people of God, drawn from “every nation, tribe, people and language” (Rev 7.9), we do this in order to proclaim more effectively in our different contexts the grace of God revealed in the gospel, to offer God’s love in responding to the needs of the world, to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, and together with all God’s people to attain the full stature of Christ (Eph 4.3,13).

4. Resolves to confirm its adoption of the Anglican Covenant.

Challenging SADTU and Affiming Good Teaching

This media release from the meeting of Provincial Synod was issued on 4 October 2013

Anglican Church Challenges SADTU and Affirms Good Teaching

The Anglican Church of Southern Africa has called on church members who also belong to the South African Democratic Teachers' Union either to “transform the trade union into a body that truly serves the cause of education, or resign from SADTU.”

The Church's Provincial Synod, its highest legislative and deliberative body, adopted a resolution on Friday which also:
• Condemned “corruption and laziness which deprives our children of the education they deserve”;
• Called on SADTU “to refrain from destructive stay-aways”;
• asked Parliament to declare the teaching profession to be an essential service.

However the Synod said it also recognised “the care, dedication and commitment of many teachers all over southern Africa” and thanked “the dedicated officials in our various departments of education, at provincial and national level.”

The resolution was proposed by the Very Revd Andrew Hunter, Dean of Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape, and seconded by the Revd Matt Esau of the Diocese of Cape Town. It was adopted with only a few dissenting voices.

The full text of the resolution proposed by Dean Hunter follows below.

Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Inquiries: Ms Wendy Kelderman, 021 763 1320 (office hours)
The Revd Canon Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, 082 856 2082 (during Synod)

Full Text of Resolution

This Synod:

Noting the theme of the Archbishop’s Charge, “A Vision for Education – Education for a Vision”
1. Affirms the work done by our Anglican independent schools all over southern Africa;
2. Thanks our school chaplains for their ministry and encourages them in their work for the Lord
3. Welcomes the initiatives in a number of our dioceses, to partner with local public schools, and the efforts made to meet basic needs, particularly in our poorer communities;
4. Recognises the care, dedication and commitment of many teachers all over southern Africa;
5. Thanks the dedicated officials in our various departments of education, at provincial and national level;
Noting, at the same time, the appalling conditions in which too many of our children are expected to learn and thrive: absentee teachers, badly maintained school buildings, little or no sanitation, school books not being delivered,
This Synod:
6. Condemns corruption and laziness which deprives our children of the education they deserve;
7. Calls on Anglican teachers who are members of SADTU to either transform the trade union into a body that truly serves the cause of education, or resign from SADTU;
8. Calls on SADTU to refrain from destructive stay-aways
9. Calls on parliament to implement legislation that declares teaching profession to be an essential service;
10. Makes it clear to all education department officials that inefficiency and corruption is unacceptable – either do their job or resign
11. Supports firm action being taken against recalcitrant teaching or administrative officials
12. Calls on all School Governing Bodies to take ownership of our schools and hold staff and pupils to account
13. Urges Anglicans to do all in their power to ensure that our schools are places of learning, life, safety and discovery

'Give Education Privacy it Needs'

Education has been a key theme of our Provincial Synod. Bishop Peter Lee of the Diocese of Christ the King heads ABESA, the Anglican Board of Education for Southern Africa. Today he has the following letter printed in the Mail and Guardian:

Mail and Guardian, Letters to the Editor, October 4 to 10 2013

Give education privacy it needs

In their article “Privatisation vs the public good” (September 27)Salim Vally and Enver Motala rightly cite section 29 (1) of the Bill of Rights – “Everyone has the right to a basic education” – but appear to overlook 29 (3), which says “Everyone has the right to establish and maintain, at their own expense, independent educational institutions” (subject to certain conditions).

Anyone who studied for an HDipEd or equivalent in the 1970s would hear, in Vally and Motale’s article, an echo of the old case for comprehensive schools in the UK – plausible in theory but long ago abandoned, for entirely educational reasons, in favour of a more diversified and workable system.

Of course they are right to challenge the commodification and commercialisation of education; that understanding of ‘privatisation’ is hardly what the drafters of the Bill of Rights had in mind.

The education department is right to chase the sleazy pavement academies out of business. But it is a cheap shot to lump together “high-cost or low-cost private schooling” and state that these are all punted as “the solution to the problems of education systems”. There is a huge difference.

Most low-cost operations are costly non-profit experiments run by NGOs, churches or civil society groupings. They are not run as “the solution” but as one part of a mix which may be of help, both in adding to the stock of functional school places, and as possible upliftment models. These operations can demonstrate “another way” both academically and in other dimensions, of what schools might be in our struggling society.

The problem is that sometimes, and in some settings, independent models – and not just the elite ones – become educational lighthouses which show up the inadequacy of local public schools, and are then resented; hence the current efforts to “dumb down” independent education to the level of the lowest.

This is not about tooling up artisans to provide fodder for capitalist employers; it is about the right of our child citizens to an education adequate for survival in the global village.

And it is about having some respect for those child citizens in their own right – the very thing Bantu Education set out to destroy and which we have yet to set in place in our democracy.

Of course it would be ideal if the public schools were good enough to render independent education superfluous; that is why there are no independent schools in Canada.

But until the public system can fulfil its constitutional obligations to the great majority of our child citizens, we should all be bending our efforts to achieve that, rather than chipping at those entities that are already delivering this basic right to the children and their families – not for profit but for the common good.

We need a collaborative approach, not a hard-edged one.

Peter Lee, Anglican Board of Education for Southern Africa

Thursday 3 October 2013

New Provincial Executive Officer

During Provincial Synod's opening service on Tuesday, the Dean of the Highveld, William Mostert, was installed as our new Provincial Executive Officer. (Thanks, once more, to Bellah Zulu, ACNS, for the photo.)


Synod of Bishops' Statement - With Angels and Saints

Here is a media release following the meeting of the Synod of Bishops - the full Statement from the Synod of Bishops follows below.

Media Release: 1 October 2013

Statement from the Synod of Bishops of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa

The Bishops of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA) this week committed themselves to support reconciliation and nation-building in Southern Sudan, approved an agreement with the South African National Defence Force, and expressed delight at the forthcoming visit of the new Archbishop of Canterbury.

Meeting on 30 September and 1 October at the Kopanong Conference centre in Benoni, Johannesburg, the 31 Bishops reflected on a wide range of subjects from the revision of the church’s prayer book through to next year’s South African elections, on which they called for tolerance and a rejection of political violence and inflammatory language.

The twice-yearly meeting welcomed as guest the Archbishop of Sudan, Dr Daniel Deng Bul Yak, who briefed them on the situation in Sudan and South Sudan, and the South Sudan Committee for National Reconciliation which he chairs. He invited reflections on reconciliation processes within Southern Africa, and, accompanied by the Bishops of Natal and Johannesburg, held a fruitful meeting with former President Thabo Mbeki, the African Union Mediator between Sudan and South Sudan.

The Bishops discussed conflict in other parts of the world, including the recent terrorist attack in Nairobi in which James Thomas, a Cape Town church warden, was killed, and what seems to be a growing trend of violence against Christians around the world.

Closer to home, they affirmed an agreement with the SANDF on the appointment and deployment of military chaplains, after several years of negotiation.

On church affairs, the Bishops agreed to an assistant bishop in the Diocese of Niassa in northern Mozambique in response to strong church growth, and took decisions on problematic issues within the Dioceses of Pretoria and Umzimvubu. Provisional accreditation of courses at the church’s seminary, the College of the Transfiguration in Grahamstown was welcomed.

They also warmly welcomed the announcement that the new Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd Justin Welby, with his wife, will attend their second ‘Anglicans Ablaze’ conference in July 2014.

Speaking after the meeting, the Archbishop of Cape Town, Dr Thabo Makgoba, said ‘this was a very encouraging time. Within a deeply prayerful context, we tackled a very broad agenda, from church governance through to global faith and political issues. In a short time we made significant progress on a number of matters. God is God of the whole world – and he will guide us in our calling to lead his people in every walk of life, and follow the example of all the saints who have gone before us.’

Note for editors: The Anglican Church of Southern Africa comprises Angola, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and the island of St Helena.

Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Inquiries: Ms Wendy Kelderman, 021 763 1320 (office hours)
The Revd Canon Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, 082 856 2082 (during ACSA’s Provincial Synod – to 4 October)


The full text of the Synod of Bishops’ Statement follows below:

"With Angels and Saints…"

The Bishops of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA) met in Synod at the Kopanong Hotel and Conference Centre in Benoni from 30 September to 1 October 2013. We enjoyed strong fellowship and also wrestled with some deep and challenging issues.

As always our time was spent in an alternating rhythm of worship (both the Eucharist and Daily Offices) and work, with each informing and being informed by the other. In his sermon during the opening Eucharist, the Bishop of the Highveld reminded us of the broader context, the spiritual dimension of our life, mission and ministry. We join the angels and saints in proclaiming God’s praises – we are aware of their support and the power of the Holy Spirit in everything we do. The angels announced the birth of Jesus our Lord and Saviour when he came to us in weakness and vulnerability. Jesus also calls us to stand with those who are considered weak or unimportant.

In his address to us on our second morning, the Bishop of Matlosane reminded us that God is the ultimate judge, although he does not always act when or how we want him to! God calls us to be ministers of forgiveness and reconciliation instead of judgement and revenge. We must work for justice and peace and be magnanimous in our treatment of others at all times.

In this light we addressed a wide range of subjects. With joy in our hearts we considered areas of growth and fresh life among God’s people in our own church, with our ecumenical partners and in the global church. And we also reflected in sorrow on areas of conflict and violence at home and around the world. We were enriched by the presence of the Archbishop of Sudan, and above all we gave thanks for the God who is faithful, and who guides and leads us in the ways of justice and truth.

The Life of our Church

We welcomed three Bishops who were attending their first Synod of Bishops since their consecrations: Bishops Richard Fenwick (St Helena), Dintoe Letloelyane (Free State) and Stephen Moreo (Johannesburg).

The Synod of Bishops affirmed and endorsed plans to hold a second ‘Anglicans Ablaze’ Conference in Johannesburg from 2 to 5 July 2014. The first conference in 2012, the largest of its kind, attracted about 1400 Anglicans of all races, ages, theological persuasions and preferences. We expect more than 3000 people in 2014, and were delighted to hear that Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has accepted our invitation to visit Southern Africa and address the conference. During this time he and his wife Caroline will also meet with ACSA Bishops and their spouses.

Another encouraging development was that the Diocese of Niassa in Northern Mozambique was given the go-ahead to elect a Suffragan Bishop for the Area of Lúrio and Zambézia. This is necessary because of the rapid growth of the church in that area and the vast distances involved.

We addressed with rigour and love the situations of conflict in the Dioceses of Umzimvubu and Pretoria and took firm decisions about the way forward in each case.

We received with joy the report of the Liturgical Committee that the process of Revising the Anglican Prayer Book, to which we agreed in February this year, has begun. This is a mammoth undertaking and the first phase is expected to take about three years.

Theological Education

We were encouraged by the report from the College of the Transfiguration (COTT) in Grahamstown, which has received Provisional Accreditation at Diploma and BTh level from the Higher Education Quality Committee. The process of registration with the Department of Higher Education and Training as a site of higher education is underway. We also approved the proposal to develop a School of Ministry for distance Theological Education. Noting the number of students who will be graduating from COTT at the end of 2013, Bishops were encouraged to send new students at the beginning of 2014. We also gave thanks for the excellent Colloquium in Theological Education held at COTT in August.

We also noted positive developments in the Theological Education by Extension College (TEEC) where over 600 Anglicans are registered at present. Although the College has a new structure as a Non Profit Company, it continues to exist to serve its Supporting Churches. With this in mind a new Memorandum of Understanding between ACSA and TEEC was accepted and signed.

Our World-wide Anglican Family

The Synod of Bishops took note of plans to hold a second Global Anglican Futures Conference (GAFCON) in Nairobi later this month. We agreed that Bishops are free to attend if they feel so called.

We also noted with joy that Archbishop Thabo Makgoba has been elected an alternate member of the Crown Nominations Commission (CNC) – the body that leads the process of selecting the Archbishop of Canterbury when that position becomes vacant.

Our Brothers and Sisters in Christ – our Ecumenical Partnerships


The Synod of Bishops received a full report on recent progress in the Church Unity Commission (CUC). Although the emphases have changed since the establishment of the CUC over 40 years ago, our commitment to finding unity in our diversity remains strong.

We were delighted to learn that Archbishop Thabo will be moderating the Plenary Group on Global Peace at the World Council of Churches gathering in Korea between 29 October and 7 November 2013. Other Southern African participants will be Bishop Johannes Seoka (Diocese of Pretoria and President of the South African Council of Churches) and Fr Michael Lapsley, as well as Ms Louisa Mojela, our Anglican Consultative Council lay representative.

Southern Africa and the World

We welcomed among us Archbishop Dr Daniel Deng Bul Yak of the Province of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan. He shared the challenges facing the two countries of Sudan and Southern Sudan, which are recovering after war. Many tensions still exist, for example between cultures and religions. Archbishop Daniel was concerned about the on-going danger of war breaking out, especially where there are border disputes and clashes in oil-rich areas. He spoke of the need to rebuild the economy and infrastructure, particularly in the South – with special reference to health, education and agriculture.

During his time in South Africa, Archbishop Daniel and his delegation explored ways of dealing with their issues of healing, peace and reconciliation. They made contact with the Institute of Peace and Justice, and with Fr Michael Lapsley and the Institute for the Healing of Memories. Together with the Dean of the Province Bishop Rubin Phillip, the Bishop of Johannesburg and the Provincial Executive Officer, Archbishop Daniel also had a fruitful meeting with former President Thabo Mbeki, who is the African Union Mediator between Sudan and South Sudan.

More broadly, the Synod of Bishops reflected on many parts of the world which are suffering from violence and conflict. We grieved the death of James Thomas in the Nairobi Mall attack of 21 September and prayed especially for his wife Colleen and their family. James was Churchwarden of St Peter’s Church in Mowbray, and was due to represent the Diocese of Cape Town at our Provincial Synod this week. We reflected on the conflicts in Syria and Egypt among others; and noted what seems to be a trend of increasing violence directed against Christians, for example, in Nigeria and Peshawar in Pakistan.

In the Southern African context we call upon our leaders and people to act responsibly and with magnanimity as South Africa approaches national elections next year. We call on all our people to reject all forms of political violence and to avoid making reckless or inflammatory statements.

After several years of negotiation, the Synod of Bishops approved an agreement between ACSA and the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) which governs the appointment and deployment of Anglican Chaplains in the SANDF.

Conclusion

Giving thanks for all that God has done, is doing and will continue to do, we join the angels and saints in singing:
“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and praise!” Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honour and glory and power, for ever and ever!” (Revelation 5:12-13)

Thabo Mbeki at Provincial Synod

Here is our Synod visitor, in full flow! Thanks again to Bellah Zulu (Anglican Communion News Service) for the picture.

Mbeki Calls on Churches to Raise Voices and Act

This media release was issued on 3 October 2013

Thabo Mbeki Calls on Churches to Raise their Voices and Act

Former South African president Thabo Mbeki today criticised the country's churches for ‘demobilising’ after the end of apartheid and called on them to become more active in responding to the challenges faced by society.

He was addressing the three-yearly Provincial Synod of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, which is being held in Benoni, South Africa.

Before his address, he lit a candle in memory of a lay representative to the Synod, James Thomas, who was killed in the al-Shabaab attack on Westgate Mall in Nairobi on September 21.

He also joined in lighting two further candles with the Archbishop of Cape Town, Dr Thabo Makgoba, who also offered prayers, for Nelson Mandela’s continuing well-being, and for the continent of Africa in which Mr Mbeki has been involved in various mediation and diplomatic initiatives.

Mr Mbeki said that during apartheid, ‘one of our principal fighters for liberation here was the church.’ But since liberation, ‘one of the things that has happened here is that the church has become demobilised ... It has distanced itself in a way from responding as it used to respond to national challenges and has disappeared somewhere over the horizon.

‘My sense is that the voice of the church is not as strong now as it used to be at a time when we need that strong voice.’

He said that not only churches but civil society had tended to say in effect: ‘We have now elected our government... and the government must deliver.’ But, he added, ‘The idea that the government will deliver and we do nothing is wrong.’

Asked for an example of how the churches should act, Mr Mbeki said many crimes of violence against persons in South Africa were committed between Friday and Sunday evenings, were clearly linked with alcohol, and the ‘overwhelming majority’ of victims were people who lived in black townships.

There were churches in all these communities: ‘What intervention does it (the church as a whole) make?’

Saying that ‘The leadership of the church is sorely missed’ he expressed gladness that the Synod had been reflecting on this, and on how to contribute to tackling the particular challenges of the education sector.

Extending his criticism to churches on the rest of the continent, he asked what the continent's principal ecumenical body, the All Africa Conference of Churches, was doing.

‘I don't know where it is. It was one of your major African voices which is no longer heard... in a situation in which in reality Africa needs to speak louder about itself and its concerns than ever before.

‘It is clear that because of the reduction of that voice, that African voice on African issues, there are others in the world who have designs on our continent and who will no doubt carry out their programs whatever we think.’

Criticising ‘weak leadership’ in Africa, he added that ‘there used to be a time when the rest of the world had an African agenda, at least they said they tried to address an African agenda, which agenda had been verified by Africans.’

Now, however, forces outside Africa ‘no longer have an African agenda’ but one ‘they have set themselves.’ He cited the United Nations Security Council's authorisation of the use of force in Libya as an example.

In response to a question, Mr Mbeki confirmed that he was engaged with Swaziland, though doing so ‘without calling press conferences’.

Agreeing with a comment that South Africans, through the media and through other channels, were not well informed about the rest of the continent, he spoke about his own role in Sudan and South Sudan.

He and his fellow panel-members were optimistic that both countries were moving further away from the possibility of renewed conflict, even if there were complex outstanding issues to resolve.

He warned that South Africans must ‘learn the lesson of South Sudan’, and not ‘retreat to tribalism … We should look at South Sudan and see that we must not sacrifice the national cohesion we have built over a long time, just because it might bring something to my pocket.’

He commended the initiative for reconciliation and nation building among South Sudan’s many strong tribal identities that is being spearheaded by the Archbishop of Sudan, a guest at Provincial Synod.

Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Inquiries: Ms Wendy Kelderman, 021 763 1320 (office hours)
The Revd Canon Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, 082 856 2082 (during Synod)


Wednesday 2 October 2013

Welcome to Archbishop of Sudan

This media release from the meeting of Provincial Synod was issued on 2 October, 2013.

Anglican Church Welcomes Archbishop of Sudan

The Most Revd Daniel Deng Bul, Archbishop of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan (ECS), has appealed to Anglicans in southern Africa to help his "traumatised" people to overcome the effects of decades of war.

Addressing the Provincial Synod of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA) on Wednesday, Archbishop Deng also appealed to ACSA to lobby the South African government to help resolve outstanding conflicts between Sudan and the new state of South Sudan.

The Archbishop, who is also Bishop of Juba, is a guest of the Synod, which is meeting this week in Benoni, near Johannesburg.

Sharing the mission challenges of his church, Archbishop Deng told of how South Sudan had been founded as a new, separate nation two years ago in the wake of a “bitter war” which had been waged between the north and the south for the best part of 45 years.

“Because Jesus is with us, the church has become stronger and stronger,” he said. About four million of the 12 million people of South Sudan were Anglicans. But because of the war, the ECS was still “an infant church” and its people were traumatised.

“They are wounded spiritually. They need care. They need help,” Archbishop Deng said.

He told the Synod that he had been appointed by President Salva Kiir of South Sudan to chair a committee to promote healing and reconciliation in the country, which was still beset by ethnic tensions and the difficulty of reintegrating people returning home after long periods living abroad.

Southern Africa could bring to South Sudan its experience with education and reconciliation: “We have no tools. We have no capacity. We look to... Southern Africa for help.”

The Archbishop also told the Synod of the continuing tensions between South Sudan and the government of Sudan, based in Khartoum in the north, over the delineation of the border between the two states and over the control of oil fields and exports.

He pointed out that the issue of whether the Abyei region, which lies on the border, should be part of South Sudan or Sudan had still to be decided in a plebiscite.

He noted that former South African president Thabo Mbeki was helping to lead an African Union panel which was mediating between Khartoum and Juba. He appealed to ACSA to support the mediation, and also invited the Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Revd Thabo Makgoba, to visit South Sudan.

New Members of the Order of Simon of Cyrene

Here are our newest members of the Order of Simon of Cyrene, as Synod prays for them (with thanks again to Bellah Zulu, ACNS, for the picture). See yesterday's post, http://archbishop.anglicanchurchsa.org/2013/10/anglican-church-gives-award-to-saki.html.

Remembering Archbishop Emeritus Philip Russell

Yesterday at Provincial Synod we remembered Archbishop Emeritus Philip Russell. Here is the Eulogy delivered at his Memorial Service at St George’s Cathedral, Cape Town, on 28 September 2013, by the Ven Richard Girdwood.

Philip Welsford Richmond Russell was born on the 21st October 1919 in Cowies Hill, in what was then Natal, of an Australian mother and an English father. He died on St James’ day, the 25th July 2013 in Adelaide Australia.

Originally Philip trained as a quantity surveyor. When World War II came along he decided that he could not bear arms and so it was decided that he would do war service as part of a bomb disposal unit in the South African Engineering Corps. For his deeds of heroism in disabling bombs, at huge personal risk, King George VI decorated him with an MBE. It was during this time Philip felt the call to priesthood and after the war went to St Paul’s in Grahamstown to prepare for ordination. He was made a deacon and then ordained priest in the Diocese of Natal. As he developed in ministry he became interested in the Institute of Race Relations. As a parish priest in country towns, he started expressing his doubts about apartheid in sermons. He remembered very clearly that it was at a church council in 1962 where, for the first time he saw black people and white people sitting together and talking.

It was while he was Vicar of St Agnes Kloof, in 1966, that Philip was chosen as the Suffragan Bishop of Cape Town. (In those days Natal called the priest in charge of a parish a Vicar, only changing to Rector in 1970)

In 1970 Philip was elected as the first Bishop of the newly erected Diocese of Port Elizabeth. He showed himself capable of innovation in the setting up of this new diocese by deciding that while there would be parishes, they would not have any parish boundaries. Part of the reasoning behind this decision was that people were able to move around and choose a church in which they would grow and be spiritually fed, and parish boundaries were a hindrance to effective pastoral care.

In 1974 Philip was translated to be Bishop of Natal. It was during this time that I, as an ordinand of the diocese, got to know him. It was Philip who gave me my first license in the church – as a lay minister in my home parish.

In 1980 he was named Archbishop of Cape Town by what was then called the Episcopal Synod of the Church of the Province after the Elective Assembly of the Diocese of Cape Town was unable to decide between Desmond Tutu and Michael Nuttall as the next Archbishop. It was as what has been termed an Interim Archbishop that Philip excelled. As the successor of Archbishop Bill he had the daunting task of trying to draw the Diocese of Cape Town together again. As the clergy here will know, the diocese had been divided in a most destructive way by the Charismatic movement.

Philip has been described by Archbishop Thabo as “one of the unsung heroes of our Church”. He filled the ministry of Archbishop, again in the words of Archbishop Thabo, “... with great graciousness, and was clearly God’s man for those difficult times between 1980 and 1986.”

Philip retired to Natal in 1986 and was succeeded by Desmond Tutu. Interviewed in Australia before his death, Philip had joked that he was known by friends at the frail care where he lived as “Bishop one-one” — unlike his friend, the more famous Tutu.

Philip had a quiet sense of humour and he could make fun of himself. There was a time when what were called ‘gaitered clergy’ – namely Archdeacons, Deans and Bishops – would wear gaiters, frock coats and top hats as their ordinary daily clothing. There was a special little black rosette which was worn on the hat band of the top hat. When a friend of Philip’s gave him just such a rosette, he had it sewn on the floppy hat he used everyday when he went walking.

Philip was an ardent supporter of human rights through the S.A. Institute of Race Relations and the Civic Rights League. His had a strong sense of the importance of matters ecumenical which led him to be an enthusiastic and active member with Archbishop Denis Hurley of Diakonia in Durban, as well as the Vuleka Trust, the South African Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches.

After the death of his wife Eirene, Philip moved to Adelaide, Australia, where three of his four children had settled. In 2006 he suffered a stroke which necessitated his being moved to a frail care facility. He was a popular member of the community there, as he moved around on his walking frame.

Philip had a strong theology of the ministry of a bishop. This was given expression in the seal he had designed upon his election to Port Elizabeth. The symbols on the seal were a bishop’s throne, a crosier, a ring and a mitre. He used this seal, suitably amended, for each of the dioceses of which he was bishop. His ministry to clergy was always caring and wise. One of his pieces of wisdom for clergy who were trying to discern where God wanted them to serve next was “Allow the church to discern where you should be ministering.”

While he was bishop of Natal Philip was approached by a young rector. He was experiencing quite some hostility from members of his parish. Most of the clergy will have experienced a time when new in a parish when the sheep, for a variety of reasons, attack. Philip said that this young priest should remember that it was their church. He had newly arrived and there would be a time when he would go, but they would still be there. He should listen to, and ask about, the expectations of the people of God in that parish. Wise words for any of us involved in parish ministry!

Each of us in the cathedral today has our own memories of Philip. Today we not only remember him and his ministry, but also give thanks to the Lord of the Church for sending us such a man. We pray for his children as they mourn his death and we pray for ourselves that we might follow in the path of faithful service to the church and the world shown us by Philip Welsford Richmond Russell.

Provincial Synod Remembers James Thomas

At Provincial Synod, we remember James Thomas whose funeral is today. (See yesterday's post, http://archbishop.anglicanchurchsa.org/2013/10/anglican-church-honours-its-dead.html.)



(Thanks to Bellah Zulu, of the Anglican Communion News Service, for the picture.)

Anglican Church Affirms Support for Farlam Commission

This media release from the meeting of Provincial Synod was issued on 2 October 2013

Anglian Church Affirms Support for Farlam Commission of Inquiry into the Marikana Massacre

At this morning’s meeting of its Provincial Synod, the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA) passed a motion of support for the work of the Marikana Commission of Inquiry.

The Church sent its particular greetings to the Chair of the Commission, Judge Ian Farlam, who also serves as the ACSA Chancellor. It described his work as both ‘responsible’ and ‘challenging’, as he steers the inquiry into the massacre of August 2012.

The text of the Motion is given below.

Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Inquiries: Ms Wendy Kelderman, 021 763 1320 (office hours)
The Revd Canon Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, 082 856 2082 (during Synod)


MOTION:

This Synod extends warms greetings and the assurance of our on-going prayers and support to our Provincial Chancellor, Judge Ian Farlam, as he continues the responsible and challenging task of chairing the Commission of Inquiry into the Marikana massacre.

Tuesday 1 October 2013

Anglican Church Gives Award to Saki Macozoma

This media release from the meeting of Provincial Synod was issued on 1 October 2013

Anglican Church Gives Award to Saki Macozoma

The Anglican Church of Southern Africa has given its highest award for lay members of the church to business leader and philanthropist, Saki Macozoma. It hailed the Chairman of Liberty Holdings, Deputy Chairman of Standard Bank and former President of Business Leadership South Africa, as ‘truly umntu wabantu’.

Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Cape Town admitted Mr Macozoma to the Order of Simon Cyrene at a meeting of the church’s Provincial Synod in Benoni today.

In its citation for the award, the church recorded his lifelong membership of the Anglican Church, his time on Robben Island, and his service to the South African Council of Churches, as well as his more recent career, both in the ANC and Parliament, and subsequently in the private sector. It also highlighted his support for a breadth of social causes, as well as chairing the Council of Higher Education, and the Councils of Wits University and Kwazulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Also admitted to the Order of Simon of Cyrene was Mrs Gail Allen, in recognition of more than a quarter of a century working for the Church’s central structure, including, said Archbishop Makgoba, ‘ensuring the smooth running of more Synods than we can count’.

In his Address to Provincial Synod, the Archbishop, in referring to these awards, noted that people may be called to serve God in many ways, from ‘faithful service in the structures of the church’ through to being ‘salt and light in the highest echelons of our country’s movers and shakers’.

Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Inquiries: Ms Wendy Kelderman, 021 763 1320 (office hours)
The Revd Canon Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, 082 856 2082 (during Synod)


Anglican Church Honours its Dead

This media release from the meeting of Provincial Synod was issued on 1 October 2013

Anglican Church Honours its Dead

Silence was observed at the opening service of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA) Provincial Synod this afternoon, for the Cape Town businessman killed in last month’s terrorist attacks at Nairobi’s Westgate Mall.

The Most Revd Dr Thabo Makgoba, Archbishop of Cape Town, invited the 300 Synod members and guests to observe a time of silence in remembrance of Mr James Thomas, who was due to have attended the Synod meeting as a delegate of the Diocese of Cape Town. He asked for prayers for Mr Thomas’ widow Colleen and family, as the funeral is held on 2 October.

Throughout the meeting of Synod, Mr Thomas’ empty place will be marked by his name plate, flowers and a candle.

The Synod also observed silence in memory of former Archbishop Philip Russell who died in July. Archbishop Emeritus Russell headed the Anglican Church of Southern Africa from 1980 to 1986. Archbishop Makgoba described him as a ‘passionate, compassionate, unsung hero’ of his Church.

Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Inquiries: Ms Wendy Kelderman, 021 763 1320 (office hours)
The Revd Canon Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, 082 856 2082 (during Synod)


Charge to Provincial Synod - "A Vision for Education – Education for a Vision"

Here is the full text of the Charge delivered to Provincial Synod this afternoon, 1 October 2013

"A Vision for Education – Education for a Vision"

Zechariah 8:20-23, Luke 9:51-56

May I speak in the name of God – Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, members of Synod, distinguished guests, I greet you in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and welcome you to the thirty-third session of the Provincial Synod of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa.

I extend a particular welcome to our guests – especially my dear brother from the Episcopal Church of Sudan, Archbishop Daniel Deng Bull. May your time with us be one of growing and deepening communion within the Anglican / Episcopal family. A warm welcome also to Revd Dr James Cooper and Revd Canon Benjamin Museka Lubega, of Trinity Wall Street, a longstanding partner in the gospel to our Province. I also greet our ecumenical guests, our brothers and sisters within the Body of Christ.

A special welcome to Synod first-timers. I hope you will quickly feel at home among our processes and procedures, and make a full contribution.

Let me thank everyone who has helped prepare this Synod and this Charge, and who supports my ministry as Archbishop more generally. First, as always, my thanks go to Lungi (who is currently representing our Province at a USPG consultation in India) and my children, who have come to expect that in the run-up to Synods, while I am present in body, there is no guarantee that I am present in mind or spirit!

Thank you also to the staff at Bishopscourt and in the Provincial Treasurer’s office; to the Synod Advisory Committee, particularly Mr Henry Bennett; to the Dean of the Province; to the Bishop of Table Bay and the Cape Town Diocesan staff; and to everyone else who has contributed to this Synod.

We record particular thanks to Gail Allen, who has ensured the smooth running of more Synods than we can count, and who rightly is awarded the Order of Simon of Cyrene. This year has brought a particularly weighty responsibility, after Revd Canon Allan Kannemeyer stepped down as PEO to return to the Diocese of Pretoria where he is now Dean. We therefore thank Revd Keith Griffiths for returning from retirement to act as Synod Manager.

I give thanks to God for the support of the Dean of the Province and the Synod of Bishops, for the collegiality we share, and for the responsibilities each bishop shoulders through the year as they lead various portfolios.

Collegiality is also shared with Bishops and Archbishops of the past, and in thanking God for them, I particularly want to pay tribute to Archbishop Philip Russell, who died in July. Last month we interred his ashes in Greytown, in a quiet but moving service, at which Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu preached, with Natal bishops, current and retired, present. Let us observe a moment’s silence as we thank God for all this passionate, compassionate, unsung hero meant to, and did for, our Province.

I also need to add that, since we went to print, a member of our Synod who should have been with us today, Mr James Thomas, a church-warden in the Diocese of Cape Town, was murdered in the terrorist attacks in Nairobi. We pray for his wife Colleen and family, as they hold his funeral tomorrow.

It is always a delight to welcome new bishops to Synod – eight in all! Those of you who were here three years ago will remember me admitting I dreamed of consecrating a woman bishop for our Province – by the grace of God, we now have two! This is also the last Synod for several bishops, and we thank God for them and their ministry.

I’d also like to express gratitude to the Revd Canon Dr Sarah Rowland Jones. She came to South Africa 11 years ago to marry Bishop Justus Marcus, and, since his death the following year, has spent a decade as Researcher to two Archbishops. Later this month she returns to Wales to take over Cardiff’s city centre parish. We give thanks for her unstinting enthusiasm and hard work in serving our Province, as well as for all she continues to do for the worldwide Anglican Communion and global ecumenism. We pray God’s blessing on her and her husband in their new life.

It is the hard work of these, and many others, which allows us to say, in the words of Zechariah, ‘Come, let us go to entreat the favour of the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts.’

So let me turn now to the substance of my Charge, for which we are blessed with two pertinent lectionary readings. Our primary purpose is indeed to meet the Lord: to seek his face, and seek his guidance. We come because the Lord calls us to be his people, whom he loves, and whom he calls to return his love, and to share his love.

Zechariah writes that when our lives clearly demonstrate that we are God’s people – that God is with us, and guides us – then others will be drawn to us, so they may also find God, and God’s ways, and God’s blessing.

Zechariah was writing at the time of the Babylonian Empire, which spanned many peoples, languages, cultures, and faiths. The Jewish people had returned to Jerusalem from exile, some 18 or 19 years earlier. 19 years ago, Southern Africa returned from the exile of apartheid’s hold on South Africa and dire impact on its neighbours. In our region of many peoples, languages, cultures, and faiths, there is – as there was in Zechariah’s time – a yearning for a deeper sense of identity, purpose and blessing in their lives.

We are to reflect the hope they seek – being those in whom others can recognise God’s presence, and therefore say, ‘let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’ We too seek God’s clarity for our identity and purpose, so we may be a channel of blessing, through our Vision: ‘Anglicans ACT – Anchored in the love of Christ, Committed to God’s Mission, and Transformed by the Holy Spirit.’

Our gospel reading, in contrast, points out that not everyone will respond in this way. Some will reject Jesus Christ’s messengers, and the good news of his gospel. Today too, some of Christ’s messengers also respond inappropriately, wanting to ‘command fire to come down and consume’ those who reject him and us. Yet we are not to reject them in turn, says Jesus – for the love of God rejects no-one. And even if we are rejected or rebuked, we are to continue walking with Jesus, who ‘set his face to go to Jerusalem.’

This is not his journey to his crucifixion, but an earlier visit to the place where the Jewish people celebrated their calling from God, and found nourishment for their faith journeys. We too must be focussed on what nurtures and sustains our pilgrimage of faith. Our capacity to be God’s people, for the sake of God’s world – rooted in our baptism, and affirmed at confirmation – must be diligently fed throughout our lives. Regular, deepening, prayer, Bible-study, worship, and receiving the sacraments – none are optional if we are serious about witness and service; if we are serious about the re-evangelisation of the Anglican communities of Southern Africa; and if we are serious about truly being salt and light in God’s world.

This is why, for me, education in all its forms is so central. This is why I have chosen as Synod’s theme ‘A Vision for Education – Education for a Vision’, and invited three distinguished speakers to address us. We also have a special session led by Mr Henry Bennett, Provincial Registrar, to educate us in better understanding and use of our Canons, to help us live out the identity and purpose to which God calls us. Godly education can help form, inform and transform us and our church, so we – like those whom Zechariah addressed – can walking together confidently, knowing that God is with us, promising his good favour, and that therefore we need not fear whatever obstacles come our way.

Last year Provincial Standing Committee decided that 2013 should be our ‘Year of Theological Education’. Well-trained leaders, clergy and laity, will help us grapple more deeply with our faith – and not merely with our heads, but inwardly digesting, so we are better able to hear and respond to God’s call to us in our own contexts, within and beyond the walls of the church.

I am grateful to Revd Canon Professor Barney Pityana, Rector of the College of the Transfiguration, and to his staff, for spearheading this work. I commend to you all their ‘From Root to Branch’ study series. Thank you also to Bishop Raphael Hess, HOPE Africa, and all who worked on our special Theological Education Sunday in August; and thank you to everyone who gave generously.

Prof Pityana will be our keynote speaker on how investing in theological education is a vital step towards ensuring our Church’s future. We congratulate him on moving COTT towards registration of courses with the South African Qualifications Authority. My dream is to go further, and to have an Anglican owned and run university campus, focussed on theology and the liberal arts, launched from the COTT campus. Please join me in exploring how this vision might find concrete expression.

Good education – theological and otherwise – is at the heart of our capacity to grow into our Provincial Vision, ‘Anglicans Act’. This is why I am asking Synod to look particularly not only at what we hope to achieve in each priority area, but how we aim to educate our Province to what we are doing. For work at Synod is just the beginning: our responsibility is to ensure that what we do here makes a difference when we go home. As you debate and decide, keep asking yourself ‘What do I want to happen, as a result of seeking God at Synod?’

From liturgy and worship to the environment, from health to young people, from leadership development to public advocacy, from finance to gender issues – in all these areas, we want to see our Lord more clearly, love him more dearly, and follow his lead more nearly – and help the rest of our Province to do the same. We thank all who are involved in media and communications, for the contribution they make to this task.

I’d also like to highlight the work underway to revise our Prayer Book. I cannot overestimate the importance of the centrality of worship that draws us ever closer to our Lord and Saviour. To this end, I want to thank Revd Bruce Jenneker and the Liturgical Committee as they lead this task. May God guide and strengthen you in your work.

Earlier this year, I followed a 30-day retreat, which brought me profound new insights into how to listen to God speaking through Scripture directly into today’s challenges of mission and ministry. Five years into my Archiepiscopate, it was a tremendous privilege to step back, and take stock with the Lord, and find fresh perspectives, and deeper insights. There was a new level of encounter with God, beyond what I had expected. My hope is that through theological education, we will encourage all our people to take risks in faith. We need to let ourselves be led beyond our comfort zones into places of unexpected grace and rich encounter.

Last year’s Anglicans Ablaze conference was such a place, for me and many others. It was the largest gathering from across our whole Province anyone could remember. Everyone was there – all races; all languages; all ages; all sexes and sexualities; high church and low church; Anglo-Catholics (or Afro-Catholics!), Evangelicals and Charismatics. We all felt God’s presence among us; and recognised how, in Christ, we all belonged to one another. We learnt that our common life was not threatened, but enriched, by our diversity. It was the most amazing celebration of God’s life pouring through us all! It was a time of renewal, and let me stress I mean renewal in its broadest sense: we felt God breathing freshness into a holistic life of evangelism and discipleship and integral mission and social justice. I found myself confronted by a vision of the breath-taking beauty of Anglicanism, when we allow God’s inspiring love to weave a gloriously colourful cloth from our different threads! This has stayed with me: finding new vibrancy in reading my prayer book, new freedom in celebrating the sacraments, and a new liberty in speaking with honest confidence about the realities of our diversity – and the riches, as well as the challenges, this brings.

It delights me to announce there will be a second Anglicans Ablaze Conference from 2 to 5 July, next year. Furthermore, Archbishop Justin Welby, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, will be one of our speakers!

Both at Anglicans Ablaze, and in international meetings, I am increasingly appreciating that Anglicanism is a precious gift, as well as a challenge. At our best we can show the world what it means to live in creative, enriching, harmony, across diversity and difference – daring to make ourselves accountable to one another, committed to pursuing a common life that is not an ‘obligation’ but a ‘choice’ that sets us free to deepen the charism of being members together of the body of Christ. This is why I am promoting the ratification of the Anglican Covenant, which we provisionally adopted three years ago. ACSA belongs at the very heart of Anglicanism, offering our own experience of deepen bonds of affection across difference, to those who share this commitment.

That we live by grace and covenant, and not by law, is at the heart of the rejuvenation of the Canon Law Society. This, like the Anglican Covenant, is not about placing legalistic and legislative burdens upon us. Rather, it is for helping us to use Canon Law better: as our good servant, not bad master. This is also an educative task.

Both our readings spoke of God’s people within wider contexts. In today’s world far too often the immediate response to disagreement is to rush to litigation as the first, not last, resort: whether in politics, business, or even running football clubs! Alas, Christians often follow the same path. The amount of time and money our church has spent in the last five years in secular legal processes is shocking. It pains me deeply that legal cases have consumed significant resources that should be devoted to mission and ministry. It also distresses me to see the church falling into ungodly practices of lobbying and putting on pressure, to get our own way, or to get our own back when we can’t get what we want through proper processes.

God calls us instead to wrestle with one another within the body of Christ, and together to wrestle with him, so we may discern his will in the complexities of our relationships in this complex world. Better understandings of Canon Law should help resource us to deal with difficult issues in more holy ways.

This is also the aim of revising disciplinary Canons: that these should bring us greater confidence and freedom in following our calling, just as the introduction of Pastoral Standards has done. God calls us to offer models of good and holy practice to the world – for those who long to find the Lord’s favour, as in our first reading; and even to those who think they know better, as in our second. We must follow good governance and best practice in all that we do, where necessary revising both structures and practices. We must be good stewards of our resources, for example asking whether the expense of meetings could be better handled through having our own Anglican conference centre.

As we live before the watching world, we should not fear difference, or even disagreement, because it is through wrestling together – as brothers and sisters who know our unity in Christ is greater than anything that can divide us – that we can be like rough stones polishing each other to become beautiful smooth gems. It is a demanding calling, but I am sure it is one to which God especially calls Anglicans, in Southern Africa and around the world.

Turning now to a subject very near to my heart, the education of our young people, I want to pay a particular tribute to Bishop Peter Lee and his team; and to STEP Consulting, a Christian-based company who have deployed some bright young Anglicans to help us develop our strategy for education. Bishop Lee has taken PSC’s resolution on the Archbishop’s Initiative in Education, and breathed vibrant life into it.

We made three commitments then:
• to strengthen what our Province is already doing in education;
• to encouraging parishes in the on-going upliftment of communities through partnership with local public schools; and
• to create more excellent church schools for all.
We shall hear how all three have seen wonderful growth and development. Let me just mention that our Province now has a fully registered NPO, ‘ABESA’, the Anglican Board for Education in Southern Africa, working across ACSA’s countries. Great educationalists on the board are bringing synergy between private and public schools. Through this initiative, and in partnership with Vuleka schools, the Archbishop Thabo Makgoba Boys’ School will soon be built in Gauteng.

I am delighted to welcome Professor Mary Metcalfe as our keynote speaker on the theme of education. Ours is a continent of young people. We thank God for the work of AYSA and ASF, and all our programmes with children and youth. Within our schools, colleges and universities we aim to form fully rounded individuals, capable of analysing critically the world around us, and acting compassionately.

Indeed, our Vision priority of leadership development is designed to promote this among all our people. As Zechariah said, God’s people should be those who lead communities to walk in the ways that lead to blessing. Revd Professor Bev Haddad will give our keynote address on ‘Transformational leadership: building redemptive communities’.

Our world needs the combination of critical analysis and compassionate hearts. We need it in Syria, Egypt, Israel and Palestine, Kenya and Pakistan. There are rarely easy answers to finding lasting peace with justice. Any attempts to find solutions through simplistic military engagement are almost certain to lead to greater violence. Prayer is the best route to wise action. Sudan and South Sudan also need this. We look forward to hearing more from you, Archbishop Daniel, about how we can best support you and your Province.

We all need to know how God’s timeless principles apply in our own context – in each of our own countries, as we pray for our political leaders. This is especially true where, as in South Africa, we are headed towards elections next year. We must also, as individuals and local congregations, learn what it means to live out the gospel within our own communities, in our work, in family life, wherever we find ourselves.

We continue to give thanks for the life of Nelson Mandela, Madiba, who helped us find a way forward based on gospel values. His example has been a pillar of strength to me, and to so many of us in church leadership, and to all who continue to strive for social justice. Gospel values, wisdom and compassion, living within us by the power of God’s Holy Spirit, will guide our lives and direct our energies. His Spirit will help us, whether in pursuing the deepening of democracy, or countering corruption in all its forms, or opposing such brute force as we saw at Marikana, or working for peace and reconciliation, or tackling gender-violence.

There is so much that we can do – and I commend the work done by the Anglican AIDS and Healthcare Trust, and by HOPE Africa, working with various partners, including Tearfund and USAID on the 16 days of Global Activism, and others.

There are a great range of topics addressed in our draft motions, and I invite you to wrestle with them as fully as you can, asking God to give you holy wisdom and insight.

Let me just mention that we continue to work towards finalising guidelines for pastoral ministry in response to Civil Unions. We all know that the matter of same gender loving has created great anguish both for those who feel called by God to this state, and those who oppose this. I long for the day when faith leaders can apologise authentically for the pain we have caused through our inept handling of pastoral realities, and our theological reflection on them. I want to add my own small voice of apology that, in our sensitivities and fears of upsetting one another, we are still at such an undeveloped state; and I pray that we may dare to engage together more deeply in critical theological praxis and move forward together as a Church.

Yet as we look at the breadth of issues before us, it is important to remember that none of us are called to do everything. Each of us must attend to our own particular calling – as I find myself putting the spotlight on education, on water and sanitation, and on the environment. I am honoured to chair the Anglican Communion Environmental Network, and proud when Anglicans lead the world, as the Diocese of Auckland did last month, becoming the first New Zealand institution to divest from fossil fuels.

Whether in specific public walks of witness, or by the witness of our daily lives, we are to be living testaments to the Good News of Jesus Christ – and it is the Church’s task to equip our people to be such leaders in the world. Education can, and should, be an evangelistic tool. We cannot nurture our children, our people, in mind, and heart, and body, without also nurturing their souls.

As I travel around our Province, I find my soul lifted by meeting Anglicans in every imaginable walk of life. It can be a tremendous joy to leave behind Synods and meetings, and the complexities of institutional life; and to spend time with people who have such pride in being Anglicans, and such joy in the Lord, in their own contexts. It teaches me that ‘revelation is on-going’. God’s eternal unchanging truths find fresh expression in every new circumstance. And here let me commend to you the on-going work of Growing the Church, in developing authentically Southern African ‘Fresh Expressions’. These draw on our sacramental and theological traditions and our concern for social justice in finding ways to promote new congregations. Christ is indeed born anew in us, day by day by day – the living Word of God, active among us, challenging our staleness, and surprising us by springing up where we had not expected it.

Jesus himself, the greatest teacher of all, calls each of us to follow him, wherever we find ourselves. Our two new members of the Order of Simon of Cyrene illustrate how broadly Christ’s call can come – whether to faithful years of service in the structures of the church; or, equally, to be salt and light in a life that has gone from Robben Island to the South African Council of Churches and then to the highest echelons of our country’s movers and shakers.

I come to Synod conscious of a spirit of deep thankfulness within me, for all God is and for all God does for us. For I know that, whatever our weaknesses, the fragrant aroma of God’s Spirit among us continues to attract people to himself, and to his mission and ministry. We know, in our heads, our hearts, our deepest selves, that God is faithful and he will do this. Day by day he sends forth faithful people, men and women, young and old, who give their time, their money, their gifts and their resources, to take forward the work to which God calls the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, and to enable my own ministry, and the ministry of so many others within it.

For all our benefactors, for our ordained and lay leaders and their families, for our fellow pilgrims on the road, for all our brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the ages, we give thanks to God.

Like the people of Zechariah’s time, our journeying to Jerusalem to seek the Lord and entreat his favour may be difficult and daunting, with complex challenges. But let us go forward in faithfulness and confidence, sure of our identity in the one who gives us life, so we may share this life with the peoples of all the races and nations among which we find ourselves.

And to God, the source of all blessing, be the glory, now and in all eternity. Amen.