Statement from an Extraordinary meeting of the Synod of Bishops

The Synod of Bishops held an extraordinary meeting at the Wits Business School in Johannesburg on Saturday April 25, primarily to elect a new Bishop of the Highveld, but also to discuss other urgent matters.

• The Synod considered six exceptional candidates for the Diocese of the Highveld. It elected the Very Revd Charles May, currently Dean of Johannesburg. Please pray for Charles and his family as they prepare for his consecration and new ministry.

• We discussed the xenophobic attacks in South Africa in recent weeks. Bishops from Mozambique, Swaziland, KwaZulu-Natal and other areas of South Africa reported on the situations in their dicoeses. We resolved to:

• Urge that the crisis brought about by the violence and the search for solutions should be viewed as a regional issue, involving South Africa's neighbours and nations elsewhere in Africa as much as South Africa itself;

• Condemn the violence unequivocally, and to lift up the stories of compassion and hope which have emerged in response to the brutality of some;

• Endorse the Archbishop's interventions in recent weeks and align ourselves with his calls for a “new struggle” in South Africa, directed against inequality, especially inequality of opportunity.

• The Synod noted with sadness and pain the appalling loss of life in Nepal, and assured survivors and those trapped after the earthquake, after-shocks and avalanches of their prayers.