Ad Laos - To the People of God – August 2025

 Dear People of God, 

Phew! What a season! Since last writing to you, I seem to have been travelling constantly, to celebrations and commemorations of Anglicans who have played a significant role in the life of the Church, to intensive discussions of the crisis in the Middle East, and most recently to South Africa’s National Convention, the meeting which kicked off the National Dialogue.

I was privileged to preach at the thanksgiving service at St Alban’s Cathedral in Pretoria celebrating the 80th birthday of Professor Nyameko Barney Pityana, whom I lauded as one of the great clerics, scholars and South Africans of our generation. You can read my sermon here >>

Sadly, we have lost a number of prominent figures this winter: in the Eastern Cape, Professor Peter Tshobisa Mtuze has been accurately described by Rhodes University as “a towering figure” in academia, literature and the church. 

In Cape Town, Geoff Burton, who has served us at Parish, Diocesan and Provincial level in just about every capacity you can imagine, has died. In a message I sent for his memorial service, I highlighted his extraordinary care for the homeless. 

I fortunately managed to get to the funeral in the Eastern Cape of Professor Lulama Ntshingwa, whom I got to know best when I was Bishop of Grahamstown—long after he had become renowned in the region for his commitment to justice. Again, I had the privilege of preaching at the service >>

We are struggling in the church to find the words to express our distress and anger at the continuing crisis in Gaza, and now also the Occupied West Bank. With the civil war in Sudan, I regard it as one of the great moral challenges of our time. Responding to the news that Palestinians desperate for food aid were being killed at the very sites from which it is being distributed, I issued a statement saying that “I weep at the starvation of the people of Gaza. I weep at the killing of civilian men, women and children in revenge for the Hamas killings of October 2023. I weep at the evidence of the ethnic cleansing of Gaza as we watch.” 

Soon afterwards, I accepted an invitation to join a meeting on the crisis held by Churches for Middle East Peace at the centre founded by former President Jimmy Carter in Atlanta in the United States. You can read my personal reflections on the situation, and especially on the lessons of our campaign against apartheid. 

Back in Cape Town, I took the opportunity at a combined Confirmation Service for Anglican schools in Cape Town to urge our people to form prayer cells, and to fast, pray and advocate for an end to the killing and the human rights violations, and for a just peace which guarantees stability and respect for the rights of all.

Lastly I delivered the opening address at a meeting of the G20 Interfaith Forum, whose mission is to help shape a more inclusive and ethical world through dialogue and serving those in need. The forum is informally linked to the meetings of the G20 group of nations, the body which South Africa is hosting this year and which includes the world’s major economies, representing 85 percent of global GDP and two-thirds of the world’s population. 

I will reflect separately on this blog in a day or two on the National Convention on August 15, but went from there to an Investiture Ceremony of the Order of St John, of which I am Prior in South Africa. The investiture was beautiful and full of hope, reminding me of the ideals for which so many fought and died in South Africa—a non-racial, non-sexist democratic South Africa which is, as our Constitution says, united in our diversity. 

Thank you for upholding me in your prayers in all my diverse activities, and please continue to do so. Also please pray for the Diocese of the Highveld, which is undergoing great difficulties, for other Dioceses which are awaiting the election of new bishops—Grahamstown, Port Elizabeth, Pretoria and Johannesburg—and for the meeting of the Synod of Bishops in September.

God bless.

††Thabo Cape Town