This is the sermon from the Easter Vigil on 30/31 March 2013, at the Cathedral of St George the Martyr, Cape Town.
Rom 6:3-11; Luke 24:1-12
“Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ”
Alleluia, Christ is risen! – He is risen indeed, Alleluia!
Dear sisters and brothers in Christ – it is a great joy to be sharing this Easter celebration with you, in the mother church of the Diocese. It is particularly special to be sharing with ou Archbishop Emeritus, Desmond Tutu, safely back from his ‘Semester at Sea’, and looking so young and relaxed. Father, I am jealous of the life you are enjoying in retirement, you look so well on it!
Mr Dean, clergy, wardens, lay-leaders of the Cathedral (both licenced, and those who conduct the music, and all the other ministries that are run from here) – thank you, for all you are, and all you do. And thank you, everyone, for being partners together in the good news that, as St Paul reminds us, Jesus Christ has died and been raised from the dead, so that we too may share in his resurrection to newness of life.
As you probably know, I have had a unique start to this year. Normally, there is barely enough time after Christmas to recover from the exhaustion of the old year, before being thrown into another year of busy activity. This year I took a very different route. Just after mid-January, I went away ‘to the desert’. In fact it was frozen rural North Wales! Including travelling, it was pretty much 40 days in this ‘secluded place’ – 38 of them in a tiny attic room of the retreat centre (with wonderful views over the mountains of Snowdonia, the Irish Sea, and, if I leaned out into the cold and snowy air, even to Liverpool).
I was there to follow the ’30-days Full Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola’. St Ignatius was the founder of the Jesuits, and it is his spirituality that guides the new Pope – with his firm commitment to a deep prayer life that finds expression in a humble ministry of service, especially to the poor.
I travelled to this secluded place in order to make an inward journey – to explore what God was wanting to do in my life. Through the 30-day retreat, we followed various themes, and were guided in our reflections by the Bible.
The journey, the retreat, began with an invitation to recognise the enormity of God’s love – and to accept more fully, how much we need God and God’s love. I found this, in itself, a profound challenge. We then spent more than week ‘walking with Jesus’, in Spirit-led prayerful imagination, with passages from the Annunciation through his life and ministry – praying to be caught up into sharing in Christ’s ministry. And then we spent another week-plus contemplating Holy Week and the Passion: praying to see, feel, touch, smell – and so understand – more clearly all that Jesus bore for us; all that Jesus won for us. Finally we came to the Resurrection – and to the time to return, in the midst of this exploration of the Resurrection, to our normal lives.
The way God met me, challenged me, and changed me, in that time away was strange, even weird, but amazingly powerful. Often it was very uncomfortable, because I know that I like to be cerebral, and to think about these passages and what they convey. But it was as if God kept saying ‘Thabo, I want you to feel what is happening!’ Letting myself connect with the feelings that these passages stirred up in prayer, touched my innermost being, in healing and liberating ways. Some of what I encountered shook me to the core of my being, as passages I thought I knew well, and had preached and taught, impacted upon me in new ways, with new meaning. I am still trying to make sense of these encounters with, and lessons from, God – and expect I will go on absorbing them, drawing on these deep wells, for the rest of my life.
And so now, I am back in Cape Town feeling a little wobbly at times – and wondering how God will lead me to integrate all I’ve experienced and learnt into my ministry and life. I have to admit that though life is very plain and simple on retreat, there is an element of luxury in being at a distance from all the pressures of daily life! And I certainly came back to find an awful lot had been going on. There were so many terrible deaths. Anene Booysen, the Mozambican Taxi driver, and Reeva Steenkamp, so tragically killed by our sporting star, were just the tip of the iceberg. I came back to find the Farlam Commission still unfolding, with heart-breaking agony, the events at Marikana. Around the world chaos and conflict continue – in Syria, and on our continent: with only last weekend the deaths of South Africa’s soldiers in the Central African Republic (there for reasons that are certainly not clear to us all). I found I had missed Jacob Zuma’s state of nation address, and I even missed one of our own parishioner’s [Mamphela Ramphele’s] launching of a new political platform. More than that, I had also missed the test series v Pakistan, and the scandal of kangaroo-meat-in-boerewors!
But the over-riding lesson of my retreat is that God, in his redeeming love, is everywhere. Nothing is beyond his care, or his desire to bring healing and new life to you, to me, to everyone. Furthermore, coming home almost in the middle of our reflections on the resurrection drove home this point: wherever there is greatest need for resurrection, that is where we are most likely to discover Jesus at work, and find our own invitation to join him. If you truly want to know what Easter is all about, look at the places where there are tough challenges, difficult issues, hard wrestling, painful contexts – and where God’s people nonetheless dare to go, and to stay for as long as it takes, witnessing to light and hope and life.
I know that in the Cathedral – especially for the Clergy, Wardens and Council – you must often wish you could just focus on beautiful music, beautiful liturgy, beautiful sermons – and forget the strains of money and building and personnel and so forth. But for us to bear witness to Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord means to be ministers of his resurrection in wherever there is sin and death, negativity, difficulties, hardship and pain, in our own lives – as individuals, within our families, in our congregations. If we are ready to go – even in fear and trembling – into those painful places, bearing the light of Christ, we will find his resurrection power at work. We cannot preach this to the world around us, if we are not prepared to live it for ourselves. And when we live it for ourselves, we will find that it is not something we merely claim to know in our heads. We will also feel in our hearts – and so be able to proclaim with the directness and conviction that come from personal, powerful, experience.
Pope Francis washed the feet of young people in a correctional facility – young people who probably felt they were headed on a downward spiral, with society giving up on them. His message was that the church is in the service, especially, of those who think that hope has run out – because Jesus offers hope to the hopeless, faith to the despairing, light in the darkness, love to the unlovely.
This is resurrection at work among us. This is the resurrection work to which we are called, for, as St Paul wrote, we have been buried with Christ in Baptism, and so will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. Therefore, let us be bearers of hope, beacons of light, spreading the Easter message far and wide.
Tonight, especially, join with me in declaring this Easter message of hope and light in a special way to those who are about to be baptised.
And let us also declare this Easter hope and light – with much love and many prayers – to Madiba, and his family, asking for God’s tender, healing touch, on him.
“Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ.” Amen. Alleluia.
Sunday, 31 March 2013
Chrism Eucharist
These are the notes from the sermon at the Chrism Eucharist for the Diocese of Cape Town, held on Maundy Thursday, 28 March 2013, at St Aidan's, Lansdowne.
Introduction
‘The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring good news…’ (Lk 4:16)
This morning I want to share with you something of my personal spiritual journey so far this year.
But let me first say ‘Thank you’: to all of you in this Diocese, for the part you play – often in the little things you do – so that God may be revealed in, through, and among, you. Especial thanks to Bishop Garth, who, I like to say, does all the practical work so I can spend more time in prayer! A deep thank you to him, and to Chapter, for taking on the every-day business of the Diocese.
Normally, after the busyness of Christmas, I’ve hardly recovered of the past year when New Year holidays are over, and it is back to work again. This year was wholly different. I went ‘into the desert’, travelling to a secluded place in rural Wales. For 38 days I stayed in a tiny room, with the most beautiful views over the mountains of Snowdonia, the Irish Sea, and, if I dared put my head out into the snowy cold, Liverpool.
A Journey
I travelled to this secluded place in order to make an inward journey – in order to explore what God was wanting to do in my life.
The journey, the retreat, began with an invitation to recognise, and accept more fully, the enormity of God’s love – and to recognise and accept more fully, the enormity of our need of God and God’s love. I found this, in itself, a profound challenge. I realised that, as Archbishop, it is far too easy to fall into seeing myself as ‘playing God’, for in so many ways I find myself as a ‘last court of appeal’ with people asking ‘Archbishop, please decide for us.’
Through the 30-day retreat, we followed various themes, and were guided in our reflections by the Bible, with texts from Genesis and creation, onwards. We spent more than week ‘walking with Jesus’, in Spirit-led prayerful imagination, with passages from the Annunciation through his life and ministry.
The way God met me, challenged me, and changed me, was strange, even weird, but amazingly powerful. Often it was very uncomfortable, because I know that I like to be cerebral, and to think about these passages and what they convey. But it was as if God kept saying ‘Thabo, I want you to feel what is happening!’
Letting myself connect with the feelings that these passages stirred up in prayer, touched my innermost being, in healing and liberating ways. I am still trying to make sense of these encounters with, and lessons from, God – and expect I will go on absorbing them, drawing on these deep wells, for the rest of my life. Some of what I encountered shook me to the core of my being, as passages I thought I knew well, and had preached and taught, impacted upon me in new ways, with new meaning.
Palm Sunday, Holy Week, the Passion
As we reflected on Jesus’ ministry, we had prayed to be called to love and serve others as he does. Then we came to pray through the Passion. At this point, the way we approached our prayers changed. We were ‘to watch and observe’. For someone like me, who I often think has undiagnosed Adult Attention Deficit Disorder, because I am always looking for action, this was very hard.
We asked God for the grace to help us, in our prayer times, to see Jesus more clearly– so that we might grasp more fully all he has done, and at what cost. We asked to be ‘taken captive’ by the readings and live inside them.
For, when we have a greater understanding of what it means for Jesus to be incarnate, take on mortality, and embrace sin, suffering and death, then we have a greater capacity to grasp the promise of resurrection and redemption: newness of life in our humanity, in the face of our sin, suffering, mortality.
If you had asked me to talk about the incarnation, I would readily have done so, with help from google, and drawing on various papers where I’ve written and spoken about it in the past. But now we were invited to walk alongside the incarnate Son of God, to smell, touch, taste, feel, the challenges that he faced, as he embraced sin, suffering and death – including our own sin, and the sin of the world of which we are a part.
My spiritual director invited me to mourn and weep for my own sin, and the corporate sin around. I said to him that he should have asked the opposite, because often when I should weep, I dry up, and when I should dry up, I weep. But I found myself walking around the hills of North Wales, crying and crying, often for things I’d thought were dealt with in my life. I even cried for things that happened before I was born, such as the beheading of King Makgoba in 1895, and the fact that his head has still not been found.
I felt touched by sins of the past, and old hurts, that I thought I’d put behind me. Perhaps I had, in my head. But many pains were still buried deep. And in our week of praying through the Passion, God brought them to the surface, to my conscious awareness.
And he challenged me to bring each one to the cross – to the illuminating light of Christ, which liberates us from sin and death into newness of life. I have now come back feeling I have found a true freedom, able to walk as my true self with Jesus.
The Call to Serve Jesus – 1 – Renewed Vocation
It may sound odd for an Archbishop to say this – but I feel fresh, I feel renewed, in my vocation.
When I look back, I can see that I had often been trapped in understanding ordination too much as being about ‘doing’, about being a ‘professional’. And so I worked hard at the best presiding at the Eucharist with every detail correct, making the best pastoral visits, conducting the best funerals… At times, it was as if I saw myself as a sort of NGO in the religious sector.
It felt as if I’d got my mandate from God, and now he could step back while I got on with it myself. But this retreat helped me see what I had been doing, and has changed that perspective, I hope, for ever.
God touched my heart with an amazing sense of the privilege of ordained ministry. This is something of course I’d known in my head – but I’d never integrated my head with my heart in this way before.
God calls us in a remarkable way. He invites us to allow ourselves to be set apart, for a particular life of faithfulness. It is above all, fidelity to God, the Holy Trinity – and to abide in God’s love, as those days in St Beuno’s enabled me to do in a new way. Through abiding in their love, we come to see and hear and feel, more clearly, more dearly, the God who is Trinity
We also come see and hear the Trinity in ourselves, and in other people who are also made in God’s image. When we truly see the beauty of God in others, and in nature, we can serve God in them in new ways. Indeed, it is as if I and the other are together caught up into the love of the Trinity, as the ‘God in me’; and ‘God in the other’ resonate together in holy love. This is a very precious mystery.
My spiritual director, Stan, who was in a wheelchair, insisted that I spend time drawing what I was feeling through my praying. I objected! How can one draw what is abstract? But he was adamant that I should draw them, or take clay and mould them. Well, I worked at it, and though I cannot say that I came back having discovered a hidden artistic talent, I did discover what it means for creativity – and also walking – to be part of my praying life.
When I came home, my daughter, who knows that I am prone to talking at length in abstract ways, asked me ‘Dad, in summary, what did you do while you were away all that time?’ I said ‘I was caught up in a precious mystery.’ ‘Yes, Dad, but what did you DO?’ Ignatian spirituality is sometimes described as ‘A mysticism of love and service’. It encourages us to express the love of God in deeds, more than in words; and prayer is fundamental in our ability to do this. But unless we pray with resolve to work for justice and peace in society, we will find our praying and our whole prayer life lacks a vital element.
Throughout our retreat we were encouraged to pray for the graces of openness, humility and freedom – especially freedom to step back from being driven by status, power and wealth. So I have returned to Cape Town feeling a little bit wobbly – wanting to be faithful to what I have learnt in the context of the Diocese, the Province, and Southern Africa. I am praying that I can still strive and pray to know that openness, humility and freedom in my life and ministry here.
It was a particular privilege to be in England last week, and participate in the enthronement of the new Archbishop of Canterbury. It was a chance to weave in all that comes from my Anglican roots and identity with what I have been learning on my St Beuno’s journey.
The Call to Serve Jesus – 2 – The Life of Ministry
You may have been reading about Pope Francis and his Jesuit spirituality, with its focus on deep prayer and discernment that is then lived out in serving others, especially the poor. It is rooted in precisely these ‘Spiritual Exercises’ I have undertaken.
I know we all have different spiritualities, but if you can, I do urge you to find time to ‘go into the desert’ for such an encounter with God in some way. For when we experience his love this deeply, and feel ourselves carried by his love, then we will be enabled to share his love in the life of ministry.
This is an important balance to remember – because, on retreat, there is a particular joy of being ‘in the desert’, away from all the hassles of everyday life, family, parish, church, etc! And I certainly came back to find an awful lot going on, and a lot of catching up to do. There was the heartbreak of so many deaths. Anene Booysen, the Mozambican Taxi driver, and Reeva Steenkamp, so tragically killed by our sporting star. were just the tip of the iceberg.
I came back to find the Farlam Commission still unfolding, with heart-breaking agony, the events at Marikana. Around the world, Syria remains in desperate chaos, with millions, half of them children, suffering – and we hope the BRICS summit this week will make a difference so aid can get to them.
I found I had missed Jacob Zuma’s state of nation address, and I even missed one of our own parishioner’s [Mamphela Ramphele’s] launch of a new political platform. More than that, I had also missed the test series v Pakistan, and the kangaroo-meat-in-boerewors scandal!
But the over-riding lesson of my retreat is that God, in his redeeming love, is everywhere. Nothing is beyond his care, or his desire to bring healing and new life to you, to me, to everyone. Indeed, one of the overriding lessons I learnt on retreat is that wherever we most find a need for resurrection, that is where we are most likely to find Jesus at work, and our own invitation to join him.
The Call to Serve Jesus – 3 – Equipping for Ministry
This was a huge undertaking – once in a lifetime. It is definitely not to be attempted more than once a decade! Earlier this week, I was speaking with someone who followed this 30-day retreat 15 years ago, and says that she is still drawing on that time. Not all of us can do it, but all of us can keep walking the journey of deeper inner exploration, led by God.
Within ACSA we have designated 2013 as ‘The Year of Theological Education’. This is not only for our educating heads, but for our whole formation. We need to spend time with God, to let ourselves be challenged, let God take us outside our comfort zones.
Perhaps you can read a book that stirs us up. Perhaps, instead of going to Wales, you can make a pilgrimage, even to Zonnebloem where Bernard Mizeki was baptised. Perhaps you should go to where you were born, or the place from which you were forcibly removed, and claim it in prayer: feel and claim and own the pains that you still carry, and then bring them to the cross so you can find healing for the hurt, and be set free to move on. Perhaps you can go to the Holy Land – though, I emphasise, not as a tourist! We need to travel ‘naked before God’, with a Bible in one hand, and newspaper in other
May today – at Maundy Thursday services this evening, Good Friday, Easter – be the first steps of this journey for you.
Conclusion
As I conclude, I am thankful that I have been able to hold in check the welter of emotions around this journey that I have made, while still being able to share with you something of the depths of what I have felt and experienced on this journey.
Today we are here to renew our ordination vows: to hear afresh his call of love to us
• We say Yes: to this privilege of profound mystery, lives set apart for fidelity and grace.
• We say Yes: to let God love us more, and catch us up into the life of the Trinity
• We say Yes: to let God heal us more, to bring us greater liberty, freedom
• We say Yes: to let God reveal himself to us more deeply, in ourselves, in others
• We say Yes: to letting ourselves be called to join in Christ’s redeeming work
‘The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring good news...’
Introduction
‘The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring good news…’ (Lk 4:16)
This morning I want to share with you something of my personal spiritual journey so far this year.
But let me first say ‘Thank you’: to all of you in this Diocese, for the part you play – often in the little things you do – so that God may be revealed in, through, and among, you. Especial thanks to Bishop Garth, who, I like to say, does all the practical work so I can spend more time in prayer! A deep thank you to him, and to Chapter, for taking on the every-day business of the Diocese.
Normally, after the busyness of Christmas, I’ve hardly recovered of the past year when New Year holidays are over, and it is back to work again. This year was wholly different. I went ‘into the desert’, travelling to a secluded place in rural Wales. For 38 days I stayed in a tiny room, with the most beautiful views over the mountains of Snowdonia, the Irish Sea, and, if I dared put my head out into the snowy cold, Liverpool.
A Journey
I travelled to this secluded place in order to make an inward journey – in order to explore what God was wanting to do in my life.
The journey, the retreat, began with an invitation to recognise, and accept more fully, the enormity of God’s love – and to recognise and accept more fully, the enormity of our need of God and God’s love. I found this, in itself, a profound challenge. I realised that, as Archbishop, it is far too easy to fall into seeing myself as ‘playing God’, for in so many ways I find myself as a ‘last court of appeal’ with people asking ‘Archbishop, please decide for us.’
Through the 30-day retreat, we followed various themes, and were guided in our reflections by the Bible, with texts from Genesis and creation, onwards. We spent more than week ‘walking with Jesus’, in Spirit-led prayerful imagination, with passages from the Annunciation through his life and ministry.
The way God met me, challenged me, and changed me, was strange, even weird, but amazingly powerful. Often it was very uncomfortable, because I know that I like to be cerebral, and to think about these passages and what they convey. But it was as if God kept saying ‘Thabo, I want you to feel what is happening!’
Letting myself connect with the feelings that these passages stirred up in prayer, touched my innermost being, in healing and liberating ways. I am still trying to make sense of these encounters with, and lessons from, God – and expect I will go on absorbing them, drawing on these deep wells, for the rest of my life. Some of what I encountered shook me to the core of my being, as passages I thought I knew well, and had preached and taught, impacted upon me in new ways, with new meaning.
Palm Sunday, Holy Week, the Passion
As we reflected on Jesus’ ministry, we had prayed to be called to love and serve others as he does. Then we came to pray through the Passion. At this point, the way we approached our prayers changed. We were ‘to watch and observe’. For someone like me, who I often think has undiagnosed Adult Attention Deficit Disorder, because I am always looking for action, this was very hard.
We asked God for the grace to help us, in our prayer times, to see Jesus more clearly– so that we might grasp more fully all he has done, and at what cost. We asked to be ‘taken captive’ by the readings and live inside them.
For, when we have a greater understanding of what it means for Jesus to be incarnate, take on mortality, and embrace sin, suffering and death, then we have a greater capacity to grasp the promise of resurrection and redemption: newness of life in our humanity, in the face of our sin, suffering, mortality.
If you had asked me to talk about the incarnation, I would readily have done so, with help from google, and drawing on various papers where I’ve written and spoken about it in the past. But now we were invited to walk alongside the incarnate Son of God, to smell, touch, taste, feel, the challenges that he faced, as he embraced sin, suffering and death – including our own sin, and the sin of the world of which we are a part.
My spiritual director invited me to mourn and weep for my own sin, and the corporate sin around. I said to him that he should have asked the opposite, because often when I should weep, I dry up, and when I should dry up, I weep. But I found myself walking around the hills of North Wales, crying and crying, often for things I’d thought were dealt with in my life. I even cried for things that happened before I was born, such as the beheading of King Makgoba in 1895, and the fact that his head has still not been found.
I felt touched by sins of the past, and old hurts, that I thought I’d put behind me. Perhaps I had, in my head. But many pains were still buried deep. And in our week of praying through the Passion, God brought them to the surface, to my conscious awareness.
And he challenged me to bring each one to the cross – to the illuminating light of Christ, which liberates us from sin and death into newness of life. I have now come back feeling I have found a true freedom, able to walk as my true self with Jesus.
The Call to Serve Jesus – 1 – Renewed Vocation
It may sound odd for an Archbishop to say this – but I feel fresh, I feel renewed, in my vocation.
When I look back, I can see that I had often been trapped in understanding ordination too much as being about ‘doing’, about being a ‘professional’. And so I worked hard at the best presiding at the Eucharist with every detail correct, making the best pastoral visits, conducting the best funerals… At times, it was as if I saw myself as a sort of NGO in the religious sector.
It felt as if I’d got my mandate from God, and now he could step back while I got on with it myself. But this retreat helped me see what I had been doing, and has changed that perspective, I hope, for ever.
God touched my heart with an amazing sense of the privilege of ordained ministry. This is something of course I’d known in my head – but I’d never integrated my head with my heart in this way before.
God calls us in a remarkable way. He invites us to allow ourselves to be set apart, for a particular life of faithfulness. It is above all, fidelity to God, the Holy Trinity – and to abide in God’s love, as those days in St Beuno’s enabled me to do in a new way. Through abiding in their love, we come to see and hear and feel, more clearly, more dearly, the God who is Trinity
We also come see and hear the Trinity in ourselves, and in other people who are also made in God’s image. When we truly see the beauty of God in others, and in nature, we can serve God in them in new ways. Indeed, it is as if I and the other are together caught up into the love of the Trinity, as the ‘God in me’; and ‘God in the other’ resonate together in holy love. This is a very precious mystery.
My spiritual director, Stan, who was in a wheelchair, insisted that I spend time drawing what I was feeling through my praying. I objected! How can one draw what is abstract? But he was adamant that I should draw them, or take clay and mould them. Well, I worked at it, and though I cannot say that I came back having discovered a hidden artistic talent, I did discover what it means for creativity – and also walking – to be part of my praying life.
When I came home, my daughter, who knows that I am prone to talking at length in abstract ways, asked me ‘Dad, in summary, what did you do while you were away all that time?’ I said ‘I was caught up in a precious mystery.’ ‘Yes, Dad, but what did you DO?’ Ignatian spirituality is sometimes described as ‘A mysticism of love and service’. It encourages us to express the love of God in deeds, more than in words; and prayer is fundamental in our ability to do this. But unless we pray with resolve to work for justice and peace in society, we will find our praying and our whole prayer life lacks a vital element.
Throughout our retreat we were encouraged to pray for the graces of openness, humility and freedom – especially freedom to step back from being driven by status, power and wealth. So I have returned to Cape Town feeling a little bit wobbly – wanting to be faithful to what I have learnt in the context of the Diocese, the Province, and Southern Africa. I am praying that I can still strive and pray to know that openness, humility and freedom in my life and ministry here.
It was a particular privilege to be in England last week, and participate in the enthronement of the new Archbishop of Canterbury. It was a chance to weave in all that comes from my Anglican roots and identity with what I have been learning on my St Beuno’s journey.
The Call to Serve Jesus – 2 – The Life of Ministry
You may have been reading about Pope Francis and his Jesuit spirituality, with its focus on deep prayer and discernment that is then lived out in serving others, especially the poor. It is rooted in precisely these ‘Spiritual Exercises’ I have undertaken.
I know we all have different spiritualities, but if you can, I do urge you to find time to ‘go into the desert’ for such an encounter with God in some way. For when we experience his love this deeply, and feel ourselves carried by his love, then we will be enabled to share his love in the life of ministry.
This is an important balance to remember – because, on retreat, there is a particular joy of being ‘in the desert’, away from all the hassles of everyday life, family, parish, church, etc! And I certainly came back to find an awful lot going on, and a lot of catching up to do. There was the heartbreak of so many deaths. Anene Booysen, the Mozambican Taxi driver, and Reeva Steenkamp, so tragically killed by our sporting star. were just the tip of the iceberg.
I came back to find the Farlam Commission still unfolding, with heart-breaking agony, the events at Marikana. Around the world, Syria remains in desperate chaos, with millions, half of them children, suffering – and we hope the BRICS summit this week will make a difference so aid can get to them.
I found I had missed Jacob Zuma’s state of nation address, and I even missed one of our own parishioner’s [Mamphela Ramphele’s] launch of a new political platform. More than that, I had also missed the test series v Pakistan, and the kangaroo-meat-in-boerewors scandal!
But the over-riding lesson of my retreat is that God, in his redeeming love, is everywhere. Nothing is beyond his care, or his desire to bring healing and new life to you, to me, to everyone. Indeed, one of the overriding lessons I learnt on retreat is that wherever we most find a need for resurrection, that is where we are most likely to find Jesus at work, and our own invitation to join him.
The Call to Serve Jesus – 3 – Equipping for Ministry
This was a huge undertaking – once in a lifetime. It is definitely not to be attempted more than once a decade! Earlier this week, I was speaking with someone who followed this 30-day retreat 15 years ago, and says that she is still drawing on that time. Not all of us can do it, but all of us can keep walking the journey of deeper inner exploration, led by God.
Within ACSA we have designated 2013 as ‘The Year of Theological Education’. This is not only for our educating heads, but for our whole formation. We need to spend time with God, to let ourselves be challenged, let God take us outside our comfort zones.
Perhaps you can read a book that stirs us up. Perhaps, instead of going to Wales, you can make a pilgrimage, even to Zonnebloem where Bernard Mizeki was baptised. Perhaps you should go to where you were born, or the place from which you were forcibly removed, and claim it in prayer: feel and claim and own the pains that you still carry, and then bring them to the cross so you can find healing for the hurt, and be set free to move on. Perhaps you can go to the Holy Land – though, I emphasise, not as a tourist! We need to travel ‘naked before God’, with a Bible in one hand, and newspaper in other
May today – at Maundy Thursday services this evening, Good Friday, Easter – be the first steps of this journey for you.
Conclusion
As I conclude, I am thankful that I have been able to hold in check the welter of emotions around this journey that I have made, while still being able to share with you something of the depths of what I have felt and experienced on this journey.
Today we are here to renew our ordination vows: to hear afresh his call of love to us
• We say Yes: to this privilege of profound mystery, lives set apart for fidelity and grace.
• We say Yes: to let God love us more, and catch us up into the life of the Trinity
• We say Yes: to let God heal us more, to bring us greater liberty, freedom
• We say Yes: to let God reveal himself to us more deeply, in ourselves, in others
• We say Yes: to letting ourselves be called to join in Christ’s redeeming work
‘The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring good news...’
Thursday, 28 March 2013
Prayers for Soldiers in Central African Republic
This statement was issued on 28 March 2013.
Anglican Archbishop Prays for soldiers in Central African Republic
“As we observe Good Friday and Easter Sunday, and again reflect on the holy mysteries of death and life, our thoughts and prayers are with South Africa’s soldiers in the Central African Republic” said the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, The Most Revd Dr Thabo Makgoba, on Thursday. “We remember especially those who have been killed and wounded, and their families and friends, awaiting news of their loved ones. We pray for their swift and safe return.”
Dr Makgoba added: “We hold before God all our armed forces, who willingly serve wherever they are told, even when we may question where they are been sent and why. We especially pray for those who risk their lives in our troubled world of conflict, in peace keeping. May they know the blessing of Jesus, who said: “Blessed are the peacemakers!”
Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Inquiries: Ms Wendy Kelderman 021 763 1320 (office hours)
Anglican Archbishop Prays for soldiers in Central African Republic
“As we observe Good Friday and Easter Sunday, and again reflect on the holy mysteries of death and life, our thoughts and prayers are with South Africa’s soldiers in the Central African Republic” said the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, The Most Revd Dr Thabo Makgoba, on Thursday. “We remember especially those who have been killed and wounded, and their families and friends, awaiting news of their loved ones. We pray for their swift and safe return.”
Dr Makgoba added: “We hold before God all our armed forces, who willingly serve wherever they are told, even when we may question where they are been sent and why. We especially pray for those who risk their lives in our troubled world of conflict, in peace keeping. May they know the blessing of Jesus, who said: “Blessed are the peacemakers!”
Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Inquiries: Ms Wendy Kelderman 021 763 1320 (office hours)
Tuesday, 26 March 2013
Joint Letter of Appeal to BRICS Leaders on Syria
This statement was issued on 26 March 2013.
The Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Revd Dr Thabo Makgoba, has added his name to a letter urging the BRICS leaders to show solidarity with the people of Syria. The letter calls on the Heads of State and Government to appeal to President Assad to grant the UN unimpeded humanitarian access so that it can reach civilians from across all Syria’s borders with urgent humanitarian aid.
The full text of the letter follows below.
See also the Archbishop’s statement of 25 March 2013, available on line at http://archbishop.anglicanchurchsa.org/2013/03/brics-summit-must-press-assad-to-allow.html.
Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Inquiries: Ms Wendy Kelderman 021 763 1320 (office hours)
APPEAL TO THE LEADERS OF BRAZIL, RUSSIA, INDIA, CHINA, SOUTH AFRICA (BRICS):
SHOW YOUR SOLIDARITY WITH THE PEOPLE OF SYRIA
To:
H.E. Ms. Dilma Roussef, President of the Federative Republic of Brazil
H.E. Mr. Vladimir V. Putin, President of the Russian Federation
H.E. Mr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of the Republic of India
H.E .Mr. Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China
H.E. Mr. Jacob Zuma, President of the Republic of South Africa
One year ago at your summit in Delhi, the BRICS - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - joined together to express “deep concern at the current situation in Syria” and called for “an immediate end to all violence and violations of human rights in that country.”
Tragically, that call was not heeded.
Since March 29, 2012 when the BRICS Delhi Declaration was adopted, the death toll in Syria has risen from 9,000 to more than 70,000.(1) The UN estimates that 4 million people are in need of humanitarian aid and nearly 3 million people are internally displaced or are refugees, two-thirds of these are women and children.(2) With 8,000 Syrians now fleeing every day, the total number of refugees could triple to 3 million by the end of the year at current rates.(3)
The people of Syria are living a nightmare of death, injury, illegal detention, rape, torture and displacement. Schools and hospitals have been targeted, children as young as eight have been used as human shields, and one in every three Syrian children has been injured or shot at.(4) The conflict has already spilled over into neighboring states, and poses a substantial threat to regional stability with ramifications that could last for decades. Yet while efforts to bring a halt to the conflict appear stalled, the humanitarian response to mitigate this crisis remains dramatically insufficient and under resourced.
Extensive food aid distribution and shelter are urgently needed, as well as essential medical care, and education. Yet the UN, uniquely mandated to coordinate international humanitarian assistance, is fundamentally limited in its ability to respond, hampered by both internal and external movement restrictions. Combined with a lack of full funding for record breaking appeals, this means that the basic humanitarian needs of millions of Syrians are not being met.
As you meet in Durban, the BRICS countries should demonstrate their solidarity with the people of Syria and take meaningful steps to address the plight of Syria’s people. We urge you to make a public appeal to President Assad to grant the UN unimpeded humanitarian access so that it can reach civilians from across all Syria’s borders; anytime and anywhere. The appeal to the Syrian government could be joined by a call on armed opposition groups to grant safe passage to relief convoys and personnel into the territories within their control.
While the Syrian government has granted the UN permission to undertake limited aid deliveries across conflict lines, it has not yet responded to frequent UN calls for full humanitarian access to the country from across all of its borders. Enabling the UN full access is the only way to ensure a coordinated, impartial response that can effectively address the escalating humanitarian crisis throughout Syria. It is also an appeal that accords with international humanitarian law, under which the parties to a conflict must allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for civilians in need.
Urgent action must be taken now to ease the suffering of millions of Syrians.
We strongly believe this appeal to grant the UN unfettered humanitarian access is one on which BRICS countries can come together to encourage the Syrian government to ensure that the UN is able to fulfill its essential humanitarian role.
Yours sincerely,
Zackie Achmat, Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Human Rights Activist, Director of Ndifuna Ukwazi, South Africa
Lyudmila Alexeyeva, Head and Founder of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Russia
Anuradha M. Chenoy, Professor at the School of International Studies, Jawahalrlal Nehru University, India
Kamal Mitra Chenoy, Professor at the School of International Studies, Jawahalrlal Nehru University, India
Valdir Cimino, President of the Association Viva e Deixe Viver, Brazil
Patrick Craven, National Spokesperson, Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), South Africa
Maja Daruwala, Director, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, India
Anton Du Plessis, Executive Director (acting) of the Institute for Security Studies
Nicole Fritz, Executive Director of the Southern Africa Litigation Centre, South Africa
Svetlana Gannushkina, Chair of the Civic Assistance Committee, Russia
Arjun Katoch, Former Senior Officer of the UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, India
The Most Revd Dr Thabo Makgoba, Archbishop of Cape Town, Anglican Church of Southern Africa. Bonita Meyersfeld, Director, Centre for Applied Legal Studies, South Africa.
Sipho Mthathi, Coordinator of the South Africa Forum for International Solidarity (SAFIS), South Africa
Lucia Nader, Executive Director of Conectas Direitos Humanos, Brazil
Jay Naidoo, Chairperson of the Global Alliance for Improve Nutrition, former Minister in the Cabinet of President Nelson Mandela, South Africa
Pritish Nandy, Author and Journalist, former Member of the Indian Parliament, India
Andrei Nekrasov, Film Maker, Russia
Dumisa Buhle Ntsebeza, Advocate of the High Court of South Africa, former Commissioner and Head of the Investigative Unit and Witness Protection Programme of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, South Africa
Lev Ponomarev, Executive Director of the All-Russia Public Movement “For Human Rights”, Member of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Member of the Human Rights Council of Russia, Russia
Rubens Ricupero, Former Secretary General of UNCTAD (1995-2004), former Brazilian Minister of Finance (1994), Brazil
K.C. Singh, Former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, India
Yasmin Sooka, Former Commissioner on the South African Truth Commission, former Member of the Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka, current Executive Director of the Foundation for Human Rights, South Africa
Dr. Yolanda Spies, Director of the Master of Diplomatic Studies Programme, Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Mandeep Tiwana, Policy and Advocacy Manager of CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, South Africa
Notes:
(1) http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/12/us-syria-crisis-un-idUSBRE91B19C20130212
(2) http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/03/06/syria-refugees-women-and-children-forgotten-_n_2817654.html?utm_hp_ref=uk
(3) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-21733331
(4) http://www.unicef.org.uk/Documents/Emergencies/Syria%202013/UNICEF%20Syria%20Two%20Year%20Report%20March%202013.pdf
The Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Revd Dr Thabo Makgoba, has added his name to a letter urging the BRICS leaders to show solidarity with the people of Syria. The letter calls on the Heads of State and Government to appeal to President Assad to grant the UN unimpeded humanitarian access so that it can reach civilians from across all Syria’s borders with urgent humanitarian aid.
The full text of the letter follows below.
See also the Archbishop’s statement of 25 March 2013, available on line at http://archbishop.anglicanchurchsa.org/2013/03/brics-summit-must-press-assad-to-allow.html.
Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Inquiries: Ms Wendy Kelderman 021 763 1320 (office hours)
APPEAL TO THE LEADERS OF BRAZIL, RUSSIA, INDIA, CHINA, SOUTH AFRICA (BRICS):
SHOW YOUR SOLIDARITY WITH THE PEOPLE OF SYRIA
To:
H.E. Ms. Dilma Roussef, President of the Federative Republic of Brazil
H.E. Mr. Vladimir V. Putin, President of the Russian Federation
H.E. Mr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of the Republic of India
H.E .Mr. Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China
H.E. Mr. Jacob Zuma, President of the Republic of South Africa
One year ago at your summit in Delhi, the BRICS - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - joined together to express “deep concern at the current situation in Syria” and called for “an immediate end to all violence and violations of human rights in that country.”
Tragically, that call was not heeded.
Since March 29, 2012 when the BRICS Delhi Declaration was adopted, the death toll in Syria has risen from 9,000 to more than 70,000.(1) The UN estimates that 4 million people are in need of humanitarian aid and nearly 3 million people are internally displaced or are refugees, two-thirds of these are women and children.(2) With 8,000 Syrians now fleeing every day, the total number of refugees could triple to 3 million by the end of the year at current rates.(3)
The people of Syria are living a nightmare of death, injury, illegal detention, rape, torture and displacement. Schools and hospitals have been targeted, children as young as eight have been used as human shields, and one in every three Syrian children has been injured or shot at.(4) The conflict has already spilled over into neighboring states, and poses a substantial threat to regional stability with ramifications that could last for decades. Yet while efforts to bring a halt to the conflict appear stalled, the humanitarian response to mitigate this crisis remains dramatically insufficient and under resourced.
Extensive food aid distribution and shelter are urgently needed, as well as essential medical care, and education. Yet the UN, uniquely mandated to coordinate international humanitarian assistance, is fundamentally limited in its ability to respond, hampered by both internal and external movement restrictions. Combined with a lack of full funding for record breaking appeals, this means that the basic humanitarian needs of millions of Syrians are not being met.
As you meet in Durban, the BRICS countries should demonstrate their solidarity with the people of Syria and take meaningful steps to address the plight of Syria’s people. We urge you to make a public appeal to President Assad to grant the UN unimpeded humanitarian access so that it can reach civilians from across all Syria’s borders; anytime and anywhere. The appeal to the Syrian government could be joined by a call on armed opposition groups to grant safe passage to relief convoys and personnel into the territories within their control.
While the Syrian government has granted the UN permission to undertake limited aid deliveries across conflict lines, it has not yet responded to frequent UN calls for full humanitarian access to the country from across all of its borders. Enabling the UN full access is the only way to ensure a coordinated, impartial response that can effectively address the escalating humanitarian crisis throughout Syria. It is also an appeal that accords with international humanitarian law, under which the parties to a conflict must allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for civilians in need.
Urgent action must be taken now to ease the suffering of millions of Syrians.
We strongly believe this appeal to grant the UN unfettered humanitarian access is one on which BRICS countries can come together to encourage the Syrian government to ensure that the UN is able to fulfill its essential humanitarian role.
Yours sincerely,
Zackie Achmat, Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Human Rights Activist, Director of Ndifuna Ukwazi, South Africa
Lyudmila Alexeyeva, Head and Founder of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Russia
Anuradha M. Chenoy, Professor at the School of International Studies, Jawahalrlal Nehru University, India
Kamal Mitra Chenoy, Professor at the School of International Studies, Jawahalrlal Nehru University, India
Valdir Cimino, President of the Association Viva e Deixe Viver, Brazil
Patrick Craven, National Spokesperson, Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), South Africa
Maja Daruwala, Director, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, India
Anton Du Plessis, Executive Director (acting) of the Institute for Security Studies
Nicole Fritz, Executive Director of the Southern Africa Litigation Centre, South Africa
Svetlana Gannushkina, Chair of the Civic Assistance Committee, Russia
Arjun Katoch, Former Senior Officer of the UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, India
The Most Revd Dr Thabo Makgoba, Archbishop of Cape Town, Anglican Church of Southern Africa. Bonita Meyersfeld, Director, Centre for Applied Legal Studies, South Africa.
Sipho Mthathi, Coordinator of the South Africa Forum for International Solidarity (SAFIS), South Africa
Lucia Nader, Executive Director of Conectas Direitos Humanos, Brazil
Jay Naidoo, Chairperson of the Global Alliance for Improve Nutrition, former Minister in the Cabinet of President Nelson Mandela, South Africa
Pritish Nandy, Author and Journalist, former Member of the Indian Parliament, India
Andrei Nekrasov, Film Maker, Russia
Dumisa Buhle Ntsebeza, Advocate of the High Court of South Africa, former Commissioner and Head of the Investigative Unit and Witness Protection Programme of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, South Africa
Lev Ponomarev, Executive Director of the All-Russia Public Movement “For Human Rights”, Member of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Member of the Human Rights Council of Russia, Russia
Rubens Ricupero, Former Secretary General of UNCTAD (1995-2004), former Brazilian Minister of Finance (1994), Brazil
K.C. Singh, Former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, India
Yasmin Sooka, Former Commissioner on the South African Truth Commission, former Member of the Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka, current Executive Director of the Foundation for Human Rights, South Africa
Dr. Yolanda Spies, Director of the Master of Diplomatic Studies Programme, Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Mandeep Tiwana, Policy and Advocacy Manager of CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, South Africa
Notes:
(1) http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/12/us-syria-crisis-un-idUSBRE91B19C20130212
(2) http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/03/06/syria-refugees-women-and-children-forgotten-_n_2817654.html?utm_hp_ref=uk
(3) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-21733331
(4) http://www.unicef.org.uk/Documents/Emergencies/Syria%202013/UNICEF%20Syria%20Two%20Year%20Report%20March%202013.pdf
Monday, 25 March 2013
BRICS Summit must press Assad to allow UN Aid Access
This statement was issued on 25 March 2013
BRICS Summit must press Assad to allow UN Aid Access says Anglican Archbishop
‘BRICS leaders at this week’s Durban summit must act urgently for the sake of Syria’s suffering children’ says the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Dr Thabo Makgoba. ‘They have a unique opportunity – and unique moral obligation – to urge President Assad to allow the UN to fulfil its humanitarian aid role in the country. So far he has refused, and the human cost is almost unimaginable. 4 million civilians need aid, 2 million of them children. Reports indicate that one in three Syrian children has been injured since the conflict began.’ Dr Makgoba stressed that ‘The leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa together have great influence in Damascus, which they can, and must, use to press the President to end this suffering, by giving the necessary permissions for the UN to do its vital work.’
The Archbishop was speaking as he returned from England, where, with Christian and other religious leaders, from the Anglican Communion and around the world, he participated in the enthronement of the new Archbishop of Canterbury. ‘The sense of us being one global human family was very strong. As people of faith, we know we share a common commitment for the well-being of all God’s children. Politicians, especially heads of state and of government, must similarly strive together for the good of every person, and of the planet we inhabit’ he said, ‘and this is why all citizens must press their leaders to live up to their responsibilities.’
Therefore, said the Archbishop, he was also urging Anglicans, and all people of good will, to support the global call on BRICS leaders to act. ‘Anglicans around the world are being asked to sign the on-line petition “Stop the Suffering in Syria”. We cannot stand by while the Syrian government prevents food, medicine, and other necessities reaching its own people. I pray that Anglicans here, and everyone who shares our concerns to alleviate this worsening crisis, will add their voice to this call.’
The petition can be signed at http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Stop_the_suffering_in_Syria/
Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Inquiries: Ms Wendy Kelderman 021 763 1320 (office hours)
BRICS Summit must press Assad to allow UN Aid Access says Anglican Archbishop
‘BRICS leaders at this week’s Durban summit must act urgently for the sake of Syria’s suffering children’ says the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Dr Thabo Makgoba. ‘They have a unique opportunity – and unique moral obligation – to urge President Assad to allow the UN to fulfil its humanitarian aid role in the country. So far he has refused, and the human cost is almost unimaginable. 4 million civilians need aid, 2 million of them children. Reports indicate that one in three Syrian children has been injured since the conflict began.’ Dr Makgoba stressed that ‘The leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa together have great influence in Damascus, which they can, and must, use to press the President to end this suffering, by giving the necessary permissions for the UN to do its vital work.’
The Archbishop was speaking as he returned from England, where, with Christian and other religious leaders, from the Anglican Communion and around the world, he participated in the enthronement of the new Archbishop of Canterbury. ‘The sense of us being one global human family was very strong. As people of faith, we know we share a common commitment for the well-being of all God’s children. Politicians, especially heads of state and of government, must similarly strive together for the good of every person, and of the planet we inhabit’ he said, ‘and this is why all citizens must press their leaders to live up to their responsibilities.’
Therefore, said the Archbishop, he was also urging Anglicans, and all people of good will, to support the global call on BRICS leaders to act. ‘Anglicans around the world are being asked to sign the on-line petition “Stop the Suffering in Syria”. We cannot stand by while the Syrian government prevents food, medicine, and other necessities reaching its own people. I pray that Anglicans here, and everyone who shares our concerns to alleviate this worsening crisis, will add their voice to this call.’
The petition can be signed at http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Stop_the_suffering_in_Syria/
Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Inquiries: Ms Wendy Kelderman 021 763 1320 (office hours)
Wednesday, 20 March 2013
Change the world in one hour with Earth Hour!
This statement was issued on 20 March 2013.
‘Change the World in one Hour with Earth Hour’ – Archbishop of Cape Town urges Anglicans in Southern Africa and around the World
As people around the world get ready to celebrate Earth Hour on Saturday, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba has added his encouragement to turn off the lights.
‘In one hour, you can change the world!’ said the Archbishop of Cape Town, who also Chairs the world-wide Anglican Communion’s Environmental Network. ‘Support Earth Hour – switch off your lights, and switch on to saving the world! Let this be the first hour of a new life of energy saving, and living lightly. We have no other option to preserving our world for future generations. “There is no planet-B”, as is often said. We have no alternative.’
Everyone on the planet is urged to switch off their lights on Saturday evening, 23 March from 8.30 to 9.30 to show their commitment to a sustainable future, and then to make that commitment tangible through making long-term choices for more environmentally friendly living.
For more information, see http://earthhour.org/.
Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Inquiries: Ms Wendy Kelderman 021 763 1320 (office hours)
‘Change the World in one Hour with Earth Hour’ – Archbishop of Cape Town urges Anglicans in Southern Africa and around the World
As people around the world get ready to celebrate Earth Hour on Saturday, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba has added his encouragement to turn off the lights.
‘In one hour, you can change the world!’ said the Archbishop of Cape Town, who also Chairs the world-wide Anglican Communion’s Environmental Network. ‘Support Earth Hour – switch off your lights, and switch on to saving the world! Let this be the first hour of a new life of energy saving, and living lightly. We have no other option to preserving our world for future generations. “There is no planet-B”, as is often said. We have no alternative.’
Everyone on the planet is urged to switch off their lights on Saturday evening, 23 March from 8.30 to 9.30 to show their commitment to a sustainable future, and then to make that commitment tangible through making long-term choices for more environmentally friendly living.
For more information, see http://earthhour.org/.
Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Inquiries: Ms Wendy Kelderman 021 763 1320 (office hours)
Tuesday, 12 March 2013
Synod of Bishops' Statement
Synod of Bishops of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, March 2013
Jesus spoke to them saying: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” – John 8:12
We, as the Bishops of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, meeting at St Augustine’s, Modderpoort, in the Diocese of the Free State, from 5 to 8 March 2013, greet God’s beloved throughout the length and breadth of this our beautiful Province in the name of Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord!
As we gathered, our hearts were filled with gratitude for the many blessings that God bestows on us as a church.
We continue to celebrate the gift of two sister Bishops, Ellinah Wamukoya (Diocese of Swaziland) and Margaret Vertue (Diocese of False Bay), to the Church, as we meet at this historic Synod of Bishops, where we can be both sister and brother Bishops together.
We are also grateful to God for the growth that we, as the Church in this Province, are experiencing at present.
The Diocese of Niassa has borne witness to an amazing outpouring of God’s grace resulting in a process of spiritual and numerical growth that is nothing short of miraculous. In response to a proposal to multiply, the Synod of Bishops gave unanimous approval to the establishment of a new episcopal area and election of a Suffragan Bishop. The Archbishop has set the processes in motion for them to realise this dream.
We were pleased to hear from the Rector of the College of the Transfiguration, the Reverend Canon Professor Barney Pityana, of the positive developments at the College. We applaud the Rector, the Staff and the College Council for the progress that has been made with the accreditation of the academic programmes and registration of the College. We also express thanks to all who contributed generously for the refurbishment of the infrastructure.
The Provincial Standing Committee has declared 2013 a year of Theological Education in our Province. We support this initiative and call upon all Anglicans throughout the Province to make special monetary contributions to the College of the Transfiguration on Theological Education Sunday, which will be on 18 August 2013.
We commend and encourage those educators, officials and concerned citizens, at all levels of the educational system and society, who are working exceptionally hard to turn the situation around and who are doing their very best to ensure quality education for all. There is no doubt that education is a key sector for building the future. However, the state of the education system in South Africa continues to cause great concern and pain. We urge those whose task it is to shape, nurture and educate the next generation of leaders to take their task very seriously. We call for stern action to remedy the situation and for bold steps to be taken even if it requires the dismissal of those responsible for the situation and the replacement of incompetent officials.
We further support the Archbishop’s Education Initiative and commend Bishop Peter Lee, from the Diocese of Christ the King, who drives this process.
At the same time, our hearts are deeply troubled as we gather. Through our sharing and praying we have again become deeply aware of the hard realities of our varied contexts and of the cries of God’s people throughout the region.
We have noted with sadness the ever widening gap between the rich and the poor. Many of our people are trapped in the ever deepening spiral of abject poverty. We note the evidence for a close correlation between corruption and poverty. We, as a church, strongly condemn all forms of corruption, whether it is in the church or in civil society or in government or in business.
We call upon all of us to strive for a corruption free society and to challenge the governments and businesses in our region to do the same.
An area of particular concern is the escalating violence in South African society. It was particularly poignant that our discussions fell on International Women’s Day. The shocking fatal attack on the young woman Keamogetswe Sefularo at Mohlakeng which occurred during our meeting, as well as the brutal rape and murder of the young woman Anene Booysen at Bredasdorp, and also the violence displayed by the police towards a Mozambican national, Mido Macia, at Daveyton, who subsequently died, vividly highlights this crisis.
We condemn any form of violence, whether it is civil or state violence, domestic or public violence. We call upon all our people to strive for a violence-free society and, by so doing, to allow the light of Christ to permeate our society. We urge everyone, ‘Raise your voice! Stand up and be counted!’
We were moved by the homily of the Bishop of Khahlamba, at our Thursday Eucharist, on the inseparable link between the reform of liturgy and spiritual renewal. We, as Bishops, re-affirm our unqualified support for the initiative for the renewal of liturgy. There is a great sense of excitement as we embark on this process, as the Province, of revising the Anglican Prayer Book 1989. We realise that this will not be a hasty process, especially since we want to ensure that it will be a dynamic tool for mission and ministry, which will give expression to our distinctive identity and spirituality.
The problems experienced in the Dioceses of Pretoria and Umzimvubu presented us with particular challenges and we wish to assure our people in these Dioceses that we share their pain and have adopted strategies that, we hope, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit will lead to healing and wholeness in the Body of Christ. We implore you to pray for these pastoral interventions so that we may be whole, in answer to the prayer of our Lord Jesus, who prayed that we ‘may be one’ (Jn 17:11,21).
We acknowledge with gratitude the inauguration of the Canon Law Council of our Province, which was launched from 21 to 24 January 2013, in Grahamstown. We affirm the wide need for a better understanding of when and how to resort to canonically based action, while noting that Canon Law should be viewed as a good servant but poor master; for we also recall that Jesus, who came to fulfil the law, was against legalism, and that God’s people live under grace not law.
We give thanks for the fellowship in the gospel we share with our brothers and sisters around the Anglican Communion, particularly praying in joyful expectation for Archbishop Justin Welby and his family, as he prepares for his enthronement as Archbishop of Canterbury. We also gave thanks for the recent meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council, on which the Archbishop reported.
We pray that we as the Church will listen intelligently to what God is saying to us at this time; observe diligently the signs of God’s restorative grace that is breaking through in places where our people are struggling; teach faithfully what God commands us to do; and continue to be God’s Good-news people wherever we live and work.
With these concerns and words of encouragement, and always seeking to follow the light of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, we commend you to the grace of God.
Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Inquiries: Ms Wendy Kelderman 021 763 1320 (office hours)
Jesus spoke to them saying: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” – John 8:12
We, as the Bishops of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, meeting at St Augustine’s, Modderpoort, in the Diocese of the Free State, from 5 to 8 March 2013, greet God’s beloved throughout the length and breadth of this our beautiful Province in the name of Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord!
As we gathered, our hearts were filled with gratitude for the many blessings that God bestows on us as a church.
We continue to celebrate the gift of two sister Bishops, Ellinah Wamukoya (Diocese of Swaziland) and Margaret Vertue (Diocese of False Bay), to the Church, as we meet at this historic Synod of Bishops, where we can be both sister and brother Bishops together.
We are also grateful to God for the growth that we, as the Church in this Province, are experiencing at present.
The Diocese of Niassa has borne witness to an amazing outpouring of God’s grace resulting in a process of spiritual and numerical growth that is nothing short of miraculous. In response to a proposal to multiply, the Synod of Bishops gave unanimous approval to the establishment of a new episcopal area and election of a Suffragan Bishop. The Archbishop has set the processes in motion for them to realise this dream.
We were pleased to hear from the Rector of the College of the Transfiguration, the Reverend Canon Professor Barney Pityana, of the positive developments at the College. We applaud the Rector, the Staff and the College Council for the progress that has been made with the accreditation of the academic programmes and registration of the College. We also express thanks to all who contributed generously for the refurbishment of the infrastructure.
The Provincial Standing Committee has declared 2013 a year of Theological Education in our Province. We support this initiative and call upon all Anglicans throughout the Province to make special monetary contributions to the College of the Transfiguration on Theological Education Sunday, which will be on 18 August 2013.
We commend and encourage those educators, officials and concerned citizens, at all levels of the educational system and society, who are working exceptionally hard to turn the situation around and who are doing their very best to ensure quality education for all. There is no doubt that education is a key sector for building the future. However, the state of the education system in South Africa continues to cause great concern and pain. We urge those whose task it is to shape, nurture and educate the next generation of leaders to take their task very seriously. We call for stern action to remedy the situation and for bold steps to be taken even if it requires the dismissal of those responsible for the situation and the replacement of incompetent officials.
We further support the Archbishop’s Education Initiative and commend Bishop Peter Lee, from the Diocese of Christ the King, who drives this process.
At the same time, our hearts are deeply troubled as we gather. Through our sharing and praying we have again become deeply aware of the hard realities of our varied contexts and of the cries of God’s people throughout the region.
We have noted with sadness the ever widening gap between the rich and the poor. Many of our people are trapped in the ever deepening spiral of abject poverty. We note the evidence for a close correlation between corruption and poverty. We, as a church, strongly condemn all forms of corruption, whether it is in the church or in civil society or in government or in business.
We call upon all of us to strive for a corruption free society and to challenge the governments and businesses in our region to do the same.
An area of particular concern is the escalating violence in South African society. It was particularly poignant that our discussions fell on International Women’s Day. The shocking fatal attack on the young woman Keamogetswe Sefularo at Mohlakeng which occurred during our meeting, as well as the brutal rape and murder of the young woman Anene Booysen at Bredasdorp, and also the violence displayed by the police towards a Mozambican national, Mido Macia, at Daveyton, who subsequently died, vividly highlights this crisis.
We condemn any form of violence, whether it is civil or state violence, domestic or public violence. We call upon all our people to strive for a violence-free society and, by so doing, to allow the light of Christ to permeate our society. We urge everyone, ‘Raise your voice! Stand up and be counted!’
We were moved by the homily of the Bishop of Khahlamba, at our Thursday Eucharist, on the inseparable link between the reform of liturgy and spiritual renewal. We, as Bishops, re-affirm our unqualified support for the initiative for the renewal of liturgy. There is a great sense of excitement as we embark on this process, as the Province, of revising the Anglican Prayer Book 1989. We realise that this will not be a hasty process, especially since we want to ensure that it will be a dynamic tool for mission and ministry, which will give expression to our distinctive identity and spirituality.
The problems experienced in the Dioceses of Pretoria and Umzimvubu presented us with particular challenges and we wish to assure our people in these Dioceses that we share their pain and have adopted strategies that, we hope, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit will lead to healing and wholeness in the Body of Christ. We implore you to pray for these pastoral interventions so that we may be whole, in answer to the prayer of our Lord Jesus, who prayed that we ‘may be one’ (Jn 17:11,21).
We acknowledge with gratitude the inauguration of the Canon Law Council of our Province, which was launched from 21 to 24 January 2013, in Grahamstown. We affirm the wide need for a better understanding of when and how to resort to canonically based action, while noting that Canon Law should be viewed as a good servant but poor master; for we also recall that Jesus, who came to fulfil the law, was against legalism, and that God’s people live under grace not law.
We give thanks for the fellowship in the gospel we share with our brothers and sisters around the Anglican Communion, particularly praying in joyful expectation for Archbishop Justin Welby and his family, as he prepares for his enthronement as Archbishop of Canterbury. We also gave thanks for the recent meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council, on which the Archbishop reported.
We pray that we as the Church will listen intelligently to what God is saying to us at this time; observe diligently the signs of God’s restorative grace that is breaking through in places where our people are struggling; teach faithfully what God commands us to do; and continue to be God’s Good-news people wherever we live and work.
With these concerns and words of encouragement, and always seeking to follow the light of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, we commend you to the grace of God.
Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Inquiries: Ms Wendy Kelderman 021 763 1320 (office hours)
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