SOUTH AFRICAN COUNCIL OF CHURCHES CALLS FOR END TO UNIVERSITY PROTESTS
Friday October 30, 2015
The South African Council of Churches National Executive Committee at a meeting in Johannesburg last Thursday called on all university students to suspend their protracted protests and focus on crucial end of year examinations.
Friday, 30 October 2015
Archbishop Reports on E-Reader Project
Archbishop Thabo Makgoba reported at a meeting of the Compass Rose Society in London this week on progress with the E-Reader project being run from Bishopscourt.
Sunday, 25 October 2015
Sermon preached in the Diocese of Lesotho
Sermon preached by Archbishop Thabo Makgoba at the consecration of the new Church of St Matthias, Peka, Lesotho:
Your Majesty, King Letsie III,
Your Cabinet ministers present, especially the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister,
Bishops present from our Province and Central Africa, as well as the Bishop of Durham and his colleagues,
Dear people of God of the Diocese of Lesotho,
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
What a delight it is to share with you in consecrating a new church building.
God is good!
All the time!
All the time!
God is good!
Your Majesty, King Letsie III,
Your Cabinet ministers present, especially the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister,
Bishops present from our Province and Central Africa, as well as the Bishop of Durham and his colleagues,
Dear people of God of the Diocese of Lesotho,
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
What a delight it is to share with you in consecrating a new church building.
God is good!
All the time!
All the time!
God is good!
Thursday, 22 October 2015
Faith leaders' statement on student fee crisis
National church leaders and other faith leaders gathering in Johannesburg from 21-22 October 2015 at OR Tambo, for their annual meeting, issued the following statement on the student fee crisis:
Archbishop Thabo joins religious leaders to support protesting students
Archbishop Thabo issued the following statement to the Church
this morning. It was also released to the media:
"I will join about 40 leaders of the National Religious Association for Social Development on a visit to Wits University, my alma mater, this morning. We are interrupting meetings in Gauteng to do so.
"I will join about 40 leaders of the National Religious Association for Social Development on a visit to Wits University, my alma mater, this morning. We are interrupting meetings in Gauteng to do so.
Wednesday, 14 October 2015
To the Laos - To the People of God
Dear
People of God
I
write to you at a challenging time in the life of the leadership of
our Church, in which a succession of some of our most senior bishops
are retiring one after another, and dioceses across the Province have
met and are due to meet to elect their successors. At the last
meeting of our Provincial Standing Committee, on bidding farewell to
bishops Rubin, Jo and Mark, my deep emotions overcame me and I even
shed tears. The coming few months and years will indeed be a time of
new leaders, new contexts, new energy and new hope.
Please
pray for the Elective Assembly of the Diocese of Zululand, which will
meet on December 9 to choose a successor to the Right Revd Dino
Gabriel, recently elected to replace Bishop Rubin Phillip as Bishop
of Natal. Pray for the consecration, God willing, of the new bishop
on April 24 next year, and also for the installation in Natal on
November 21. Your prayers are asked too for Bishop Jo Seoka of
Pretoria, who retires on December 31, for the Elective Assembly
taking place in Pretoria on February 4 and, God willing, for the
consecration on May 15.
As a result of the resignation of the Right Revd Mark van Koevering
as Bishop of Niassa in northern Mozambique, an election there is
scheduled for January 26 and a consecration on May 29. Finally the
Synod of Bishops will elect the new Bishop of Namibia at its February
meeting, after an Elective Assembly referred the decision to the
bishops. Please pray also for those dioceses.
On
the other hand, I am very glad to announce that South Africa's
courageous Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, and our own
distinguished theologian and educator, Professor Barney Pityana, have
been named as the inaugural recipients of the Archbishop's Award
for Peace With Justice. Advocate Madonsela was decorated at
a function at Rhodes University where she spoke
on values-based leadership. Prof Pityana was decorated at a special
farewell service held at the chapel of the College of the
Transfiguration. This is a new award established by our Church which
acknowledges those within the life of the countries of Southern
Africa who make outstanding contributions in their communities which
reflect the values espoused in Micah, whatever faith they espouse or
do not espouse and whether they are lay people or clergy. We are
honoured that Advocate Madonsela and Prof Pityana have accepted the
award, bringing distinction on it by doing so.
I am
pleased also to share with you the decision of the Provincial
Standing Committee at its recent meeting to adopt a new stewardship
handbook developed by dioceses in the Western Cape. We have spoken
for years, in many dioceses, of the need for a special and renewed
focus on stewardship and giving, so the new material which will guide
us theologically and practically is particularly welcome.
Accompanying
this letter is a presentation I made last week at what we called “A
Day of Courageous Conversations” at Bishopscourt, a quite unique
and ground-breaking meeting involving about 60 leaders from the
mining sector, civil society and faith communities. Growing out of an
initiative that began at the Vatican, then continued at Lambeth
Palace, the South African meeting sought to begin a process of
repositioning the sector as one that can be a partner for long-term
sustainable development with host communities and governments. Mining
forms a crucial part of our economy and, as the Marikana crisis and
falling commodity prices demonstrate, it is in many ways under
threat. Please pray for the industry and all within it, as well as
for this initiative.
As I
write this, I am heading off on retreat, then later in the month to a
meeting in London of the Compass Rose Society – an international
group of generous Anglicans who seek to support the ministry of the
Archbishop of Canterbury and the Anglican Communion. Then at the
beginning of November I will attend the installation of Bishop Michael Curry of North Carolina as the new Presiding Bishop of The
Episcopal Church (TEC) in the United States. We celebrate with TEC
and send our greetings as they begin this new era in their life,
ministry and witness. Please pray for him, for our global church and
especially for our stewardship of this special gift that we have been
endowed with, the Anglican Communion. When the Son of Man returns,
may he find faith in it. (Luke 18:8).
God bless you,
†Thabo Cape Town
Monday, 12 October 2015
South African Day of Courageous Conversation: An inter-faith initiative
South African Day of
Courageous Conversation: An inter-faith initiative
The Most Revd Dr Thabo Makgoba,
Anglican Archbishop of Cape
Town
Bishopscourt, 8 October
2015
Representatives
of the faith communities here present,
Leaders
of the mining sector, representing both workers and management,
Representatives
of government, who were invited here,
Members
of civil society,
Members
of the Steering Committee:
Thank
you all for being here today. I want to thank particularly those
involved in the mining sector for coming, and for allowing yourselves
to be vulnerable in taking these conversations forward. Why do I say
that, and why are we calling this a day of courageous conversation?
As many of you know, this is the South African step along a road
which began at the Vatican two years ago, when the Pontifical Council
for Justice and Peace hosted a Day of Reflection in September 2013.
It continued with an Ecumenical Day of Reflection at Lambeth Palace
in London, hosted by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the President
of the British Methodist Conference, and more recently another Day of
Reflection at the Vatican, which I was privileged to join.
Archbishop hosts mining industry discussions
Representatives of the
South African mining sector, civil society and faith communities met at
my invitation at Bishopscourt on October 9 in Cape Town to discuss the future
of the industry in South Africa.
The meeting, which we
called a "Day of Courageous Conversations", was the first step in South
Africa along a journey which began at the Vatican two years ago, when
the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace
hosted a Day of Reflection in September 2013. It continued with an
Ecumenical Day of Reflection at Lambeth Palace in London, hosted by the
Archbishop of Canterbury and the President of the British Methodist
Conference, and more recently another Day of Reflection
at the Vatican.
In this process, mining
industry leaders are seeking to reposition the sector as one that can
be a partner for long-term sustainable development with host communities
and governments. A key outcome of the global-level
discussions held so far has been a recognition that the dialogue needs
to be replicated at a local level in regions and countries where mining
is an integral part of the socio-economic fabric.
To begin the
conversations in South Africa, I agreed to host today's meeting and to
invite leaders from the mining industry – including both management and
labour – to join representatives from the faith communities,
civil society and government for a day of conversations.
About 60 participants
were encouraged to share their perspectives and to hear those of others
about what is needed to chart a different way forward for how the mining
industry contributes to South Africa’s future.
We shared a commitment
to seek collaborative solutions to the problems which threaten the
sustainability of mining and the communities in which mines operate. I
have every hope that the process which today's
discussion initiates will lead to action to develop creative new models
of working constructively together.
Read the Archbishop's opening remarks at the Conversations >>
Read the Archbishop's opening remarks at the Conversations >>