Blessing & Dedication of Parish Hall at St Andrew’s Parish, Newlands, Cape Town

 Archbishop Thabo Makgoba

St Andrew’s Parish, Newlands

Service for Blessing & Dedication of Parish Hall

1st February 2026 

Readings: Colossians 3: 12 -17

May I speak in the name of God who calls, informs and transforms us. Amen.  

Sisters and brothers in Christ, the family of St Andrew’s, it’s a real joy to be with you to celebrate this important day. A warm welcome to Bishop Josh, Archdeacon Reeva and to all the clergy present and your spouses, as well as to the guests who are here to grace this occasion. A special welcome to our visitors and the benefactors of this beautiful project.  

Thank you especially to the Rector, Archdeacon Mkhuseli, and to all who worked to prepare this service. Thank you, Church Wardens, for your practical arrangements and your warm welcome on our arrival here this afternoon.  

In the letter to the Colossians, Paul refutes what is called the Colossian heresy, which – we can infer from his letter – included teaching which downplayed the divine nature of Christ. To accomplish his goal, Paul first exalts in Chapter One the supremacy of Christ. In today’s passage, having called his audience to renewal and to a new ordering of their hearts and minds, Paul proceeds to define more precisely what he means. To offset the lists of vices he has named in previous verses – vices which cause harm to others – he gives a list of virtues. In doing so, he focusses attention on the spiritual qualities which God’s chosen ones should display – virtues of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, all of them virtues which require us to care for others and to put them first. Note that three of the qualities Paul lists – namely kindness, meekness and patience – feature in Paul’s list of the fruits of the spirit in the Letter to the Galatians (Gal. 5:22). 

This week we celebrate Candlemas, the presentation of Christ in the Temple, a light to lighten the world and show the glory of God. It is an important festival, a time of encounter, of light replacing darkness, hope replacing despair and the new replacing the old. As we consider the current situation in our community, our city and our country today, what kind of candles or lights should we be holding up today to show to the world the saving, the renewing power of faith in Christ? 

Every day we see around us the consequences of joblessness, of addiction. Across our city everyone suffers from crime fuelled by drug addiction, which might explain the smashing of a stained glass window and the theft from a collection box at St George's Cathedral a few nights ago. In neighbourhoods not too far from us, we hear and see evidence of extortion, gang violence and the tragic deaths of young people in the crossfire. And across the country, we read evidence nearly every day of nepotism and corruption, including within our police service, as those who are well-connected line their pockets. Abroad we read of the suffering of the people, just to take a few examples, of Sudan, of Gaza and the West Bank, of Ukraine and Burma/Myanmar, and in recent days of Minneapolis in the United States. 

One of the greatest temptations we face is to build walls or sanctuaries and withdraw from the world, especially when disillusionment prompts a desire to disengage from public life. I understand this feeling, as the prospect of speaking out can be overwhelming, particularly when we feel unheard or betrayed. However, as moral and spiritual leaders, we are called to resist this temptation and remain engaged in public discourse. If we retreat, the space will be filled by those motivated by self-interest rather than the common good.

About 18 months ago, during an interview with UCT's Graduate School of Business, I was asked how to navigate prophetic leadership in a disillusioned democracy. I responded that silence is not an option when corruption, violence, and inequality become the norm; moral voices must speak. But the leadership we provide as the church requires care. In choosing courage over caution, we need to provide moral clarity, not claim moral superiority.

Prophetic leadership cannot simply echo public anger or adopt an outrage-driven narrative. If we do that, we risk becoming just another voice in an already polarised environment. I have learned in my 18 years in this office that prophecy is not about being the loudest or positioning oneself as morally superior. Instead, prophetic public ministry emphasises both truth-telling and truth-seeking, recognizing my own frailty. We should not foster a theology that solely focuses on individual spirituality but rather one that encourages us to consider how we can interface with others and improve our world. Truth-telling must be rooted in the spiritual qualities of which St Paul speaks, those of love and humility, and of being in relationship with others and holding one another accountable. It requires carefully listening to the pain and frustrations people carry without allowing such pain to devolve into cynicism or despair.

In sum, our responses to the ills we see and experience in society must be rooted in a firm faith in God, in a loving God who cares equally for each one of us, of a God who says in Jesus that each of the hairs of our heads are numbered (Lk 12:7; Mt 10:30). Once we accept that, once we actually feel it and know it deeply in ourselves, it gives us the confidence, the energy and the certainty that in God no problem is insoluble, no challenge is too big for us. It empowers us to deploy the science and the expertise that God has gifted us with to come up with practical programmes to address our challenges.

So as we dedicate this hall, in the sentiments of the Collect we used in the introduction to our service, we thank God for all who worked to have this hall built, and pray that it will become a centre for the nourishment and renewal of parish and community life; a resource which enhances joyful relationships among all who use it; and a place which helps us to nurture moral clarity and courageous leadership as we prayerfully confront our current context.

People of St Andrew’s, as you gather and direct mission and ministry from this historic parish with its beautiful worship space and this new facility, know that Jesus lives, and because he lives, we shall live also. Believe this, and we shall see the glory of the Incarnate Christ. 

Now may the Holy Spirit that God’s people experienced like a rushing mighty wind on the Day of Pentecost, transform our lives to be living stones which provide a firm foundation for God’s church in this place.

May God bless each one of you, your loved ones and this whole community. 

God loves you and so do I. 

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