Archbishop announces ACSA 150th anniversary appeal - Ad Laos - to the People of God

Dear People of God

The top deliberative body of our church in Southern Africa between our three-yearly Provincial Synods is the Provincial Standing Committee (PSC), which meets annually at the end of September. This year’s meeting was unique for two reasons: firstly as a consequence of the coronavirus we had to hold it virtually, with more than 100 people linked up on video screens from diocesan hubs as far away as Angola and northern Mozambique; and secondly in 2020 we are celebrating the inauguration of the Province in 1870.

Our 150^th anniversary is indeed a momentous milestone, and as we look back over the decades we can see that what has been achieved is nothing short of God-inspired. From the five founding dioceses of the Province – those of Cape Town, Grahamstown, Natal, Saint Helena and Bloemfontein (now Free State) – we have grown to 29, covering not only South Africa but Angola, eSwatini (Swaziland) Lesotho, Namibia and Mozambique. We have touched the lives of countless people from all walks of life and played a pivotal role in the shaping of our respective societies through the leadership and sacrifices made by many Anglicans. And in an exciting development which we heard about at PSC, the existing four dioceses in Mozambique and Angola plan to multiply into 12 and, in time, to form their own Province with Portuguese as their lingua franca.

To celebrate both our history and our present reality, I am launching a Sesquicentennial Campaign to raise funds to digitise our church records and archives. Over the past century-and-a-half we have generated immense quantities of written and printed material, from liturgies and records of celebrations to St Helena’s parish baptism registers dating to 1680, to letters from David Livingstone and James Calata, to Charles Johnson’s letterbooks from Zululand, to the angry letters of Desmond Tutu to P W Botha in the 1980s, to documents on the clash that Archbishop Njongo had with Madiba in the late 1990s. Wits University, which has kept our archives for more than 80 years, is running out of space; not only that, but numbers of our parishes and dioceses are now keeping only electronic records, necessitating a complete overhaul of our archival systems.

The aim is that this Campaign will become an ever-evolving record of the life of the Anglican Church in Southern Africa, an easily-accessible resource for researchers and Anglican lay people and one which enhances the theological formation of our clergy. Please support this campaign with your prayers and financial contributions.

Diocesan representatives brought a diverse and encouraging range of issues to PSC: poverty and inequality; “Building Back Better” after COVID-19; gender-based violence and the patriarchy that underlies it; the integrity of the environment; the evil of racism which lives on in some of our schools; and domestic matters such as the need to hold “virtual” elective assemblies online to fill episcopal vacancies in the dioceses of Kimberley & Kuruman, Lesotho, Natal and Zululand.

You can read more detail in the news section of the Provincial website but at the heart of all our efforts is the need to move our church from maintenance to mission, for our ecclesiology is sound and relevant only if it is missiological. Mission is about people and where we live and move and have our being. Hence we must care not only for human life but for the whole of God’s creation, not as an optional extra but as a focus essential to the future of human life on our planet. As we end the Season of Creation, have you used the season to give back to future generations?

One way of contributing to the mission of the Church is to invest in the theological formation of all our people, from infants at baptism to the elderly in their last years. Anglicans Ablaze this year played its missional and teaching role online and the College of the Transfiguration (Cott) does it for ordinands. Please remember to give generously on Theological Sunday to the work and ministry of Cott.

Also commit to your own theological nurture, reading and discussing scripture to understand current concerns about the effects of patriarchy in church and society, and doing your part in naming it and rooting it out. Ask your clergy to help you with resources such as contextual Bible studies.

Let us also pay heed to what Pope Francis says in his new encyclical, in which he warns us that the “magic theories” associated with what he calls the “dogma of neoliberal faith” is not resolving the inequality which is threatening the fabric of societies in many parts of the planet. What steps might you and your parish, as individuals and families, take towards transforming elements of our local economies which annihilate instead of nurturing abundant life?

Finally, a very happy birthday to Archbishop Emeritus Desmond, who as I write turns 89, and to Mama Leah, who also has a birthday in a few days. I pray with him regularly, and I know he also prays for you.

God bless

††Thabo Cape Town

To the Laos - Daily Reflections on Eucharist Readings - COVID-19 - Patriarchy in the Church

Dear People of God

As someone who has benefitted from the reflections of others on the daily Eucharist readings, I plan – beginning this week – to issue a thought for each week day from lockdown in Bishopscourt. You will find the first one here and at the end of this post. I hope you will find them useful.

Five months into the coronavirus pandemic, most parishes and dioceses across the Province are still in preparation mode for the return to worship – only the Diocese of Khahlamba in the northern part of South Africa's Eastern Cape province has indicated that it plans to open churches, which it will do next Sunday, August 7.

The protocols that must be observed before you can return to church are strict. Most countries in the Province do not allow congregations of more than 50, and we advise the elderly not to come back to worship at all at this stage. (As a reminder of the stringent conditions, see pages 3-8 of the South African Council of Churches' guide, to which we contributed.) 

Since I last wrote, some of our clergy, their spouses, and a number of our parishioners have died of complications related to COVID-19. Please pray for their families as they mourn, and that those who have died will rest in peace and rise in glory. 

We are going to have to learn to live with the coronavirus, and possibly with a second wave of infections, at least until a vaccine is available for all in our region. This means we have to change our behaviours, especially those involving physical contact with others, and also to keep hope alive – especially since scientists are reporting good results with vaccine trials so far. The “virtual worship” initiatives which most of you have adopted, offering services via Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp and the like, are admirable, and essential in this time, but they can never replace in-person worship.

At a Communion level, Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury has launched The Together in Unity Appeal to raise funds to address the needs of the most vulnerable in our world-wide church. Speaking during the week in which the Lambeth Conference was due to get under way, he has encouraged dioceses and parishes to support one another during the pandemic. Last week, I appeared on the BBC World Service to support the initiative and to talk about our experience in Southern Africa. (You can view the interview below my reflection at the end of this post.)

At least for the present – and in some areas of our life into the future – the coronavirus is changing how we do church. On September 1, the day on which we commemorate our Church's founder, Bishop Robert Gray, we will consecrate the new Bishop of Table Bay, Joshua Louw, in St George's Cathedral in Cape Town. In line with lockdown regulations, we will limit attendance to 50, which means only Bishop-elect Joshua's family and diocesan office-holders are likely to be present. 

In another step necessitated by the virus, we will consider at Provincial Standing Committee (PSC) a motion dealing with how we can amend our canons to hold elective assemblies for new bishops in the current environment. This is an urgent need, since the pandemic has already forced us to put on hold elections for the dioceses of Kimberley & Kuruman, Lesotho, Natal and Zululand.  Canon 22 stipulates that the Metropolitan is diocesan in such vacant dioceses, although a vicar-general is appointed. You can all imagine my wish and prayers for this particular motion to be passed.

Both the September Synod of Bishops meeting and PSC will be held virtually. Members of PSC will gather at diocesan hubs, with each diocese connected online to Bishopscourt. Other matters on the agenda include plans for establishing a new Southern-Central African Lusapho Province (comprising our dioceses in Angola and Mozambique) and reports from the Archbishop’s Commission on the election of women as leaders in the Church and from the Anglican Safe and Inclusive Church Commission.

Recently I joined an online meeting with a group of eight women to discuss a statement they had drawn up on patriarchy in the Church and the gender-based violence it generates. Although there was some criticism for engaging with a self-selecting group, mostly from Cape Town, I was happy to join the debate on how the Church, in the words of their statement, can “strive for the Kin-dom of God, where justice for women is restored” and for “a new, beloved community where all humans are affirmed as image bearers of the living God.” 

As it turned out, my exhortation that the way to achieve change in the Church is to work through those structures which can adopt and implement change was underlined afterwards by reactions from around the Province calling for a more inclusive, thorough-going approach. I urge all women – including those unhappy about not being included in the dialogue with me – to take up issues in their parish, diocesan and provincial structures. 

For instance, questions of language and liturgy are best worked through with the Liturgical Commission; theological matters with the Southern African Anglican Theological Commission; canon law with the Canon Law Commission; issues relating to women's leadership with the Archbishop's Commission on the election of women; theological education and doctrinal matters with coordinators of theological education and the relevant diocesan and provincial structures; gender-based violence with Safe and Inclusive Church; and wider gender issues with the Provincial Gender Desk. 

Since men do not suffer the lived experience of patriarchy, we need more women as leaders in the Church. As I told Provincial Synod last year, I am very concerned that we have only two woman bishops in the Province. Hence the decision to appoint a commission to make recommendations to address the problem. But we need to go beyond the episcopate – perhaps we need to legislate that there ought to be 50 percent representation of women among lay representatives at all levels of church leadership? 

We also need to make our language more inclusive. The use of the phrase “Father” in English has long been challenged for promoting patriarchy and male headship in the Church (apart from sitting uncomfortably with those in our more evangelical parishes). The problem is not as acute in the languages spoken by most of our members – at Bishopscourt, the rule has long been to address all clergy as “Moruti”, which is not gender-specific. In the Episcopal Church in the USA, numbers of parishes call their priests “Mother” – but what is your experience, and how would you suggest we address woman priests? I am comfortable with Thabo, but “Arch” is beautiful. Some call me variously Moruti, Solufefe, Mobabatsehi, Sua Graca or Aartsbiskop, but Olga Kgoroeadira will never stop calling me Father Thabo!  

In this Month of Compassion – and Women's Month in South Africa – I invite all of us to orient ourselves to the experiences and plight of women, and to shine a spotlight on those behaviours that are life-transforming for us all.

God bless.

†† Thabo Cape Town

Ad Laos - to the People of God - June 2019

The text of Archbishop Thabo's June Ad Laos, also to be published in the Cape Town diocesan newsletter, Good Hope:

This month I have the bittersweet privilege of giving God our profound thanks for the ministry of Bishop Garth Counsell as Bishop of Table Bay, and also of saying farewell to him and Marion on his retirement from that position.

To the Laos - To the People of God – On the Feast of the Epiphany

Dear People of God


The Feast of the Epiphany is so special but here at home in Southern Africa it comes in the middle of our summer holiday and most parishioners are away. We still celebrate it of course, even if we do so on the Sunday following.

This year I send you, our parishioners and others who might read this, a short message wishing you good health and renewal as we celebrate the feast of the manifestation of our Lord to all people. May God manifest himself in our lives and wherever we live and work.

Call to focus on universities on Education Sunday, February 5

To the Laos - To the People of God - January 2017

Dear People of God,

On January 6th, we celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany, reminding us of the manifestation of God to all. For our context today, I want to paraphrase this by expressing it in terms of the liberation, the enlightening, the empowering and the “making able” of all God’s children in order to engage with God in his world and with one another so that none is dominated nor demeaned. Education embodies this vision. Hence, in keeping with our ACSA missional priority of “nurture of the young” this Ad Laos is dedicated to education.

Our Anglican Board of Education (ABESA), the Anglican Students' Federation, the Synod of Bishops and other organisations within our Church have been consulting in recent months on how we can engage with the crisis on our campuses in South Africa and beyond. The South African Council of Churches has also been taking initiatives and a number of our bishops have been responding to developments on campuses in their dioceses, among them the bishops of Pretoria, Johannesburg, Grahamstown, Port Elizabeth and the Free State.

Good education is, as I have said before, at the heart of our capacity to realise our Provincial Vision, “Anglicans Act”. Although the South African matric pass rate has improved, the quality of our school-leavers' education still needs a lot of improvement. And it is critical both for fulfilment in the lives of young people, and for the health of our society, that the burgeoning growth in tertiary education is well managed, sustainably financed, and kept at the highest possible level of educational quality.

As in the 1976 generation, young people today are bypassing their parents and demanding to be treated as adults who can negotiate their own educational destinies. Meanwhile the Government triggered their anger last year by sidelining its own commission on higher education, and announcing a fee increase for 2017 unilaterally. No wonder young people feel abused, marginalised and degraded.

At the same time, many young people speak of their vulnerability when it feels as if their parents’ generation – families, teachers and the churches – seem to have left them exposed to abuse, violence and intimidation, unheard and unaccompanied in deep waters. We need to redress that by standing with our students, listening to them and shielding them from danger.

When church leaders went to pray at Parliament after a student march in Cape Town last year, there was a warm response as if somehow there was a dimension missing in the conflict – something spiritual which many students knew from their upbringing, and which they miss in secular dialogue.

So what can we do?

We already have the first Sunday in February each year designated as Education Sunday across the Province, a time to pray for educators, learners and institutions of learning at the beginning of the school year. We want to urge this year that we observe this day, SUNDAY 5 FEBRUARY 2017 with special events not only at churches but ecumenically at schools and where possible on campuses where we have access through Anglican students, administrators or chaplaincy ministry.

This is a time to listen and to be close to people not only in the tertiary sector but as the crisis extends, as it will, to high schools and across society. Our presence, our prayers and where appropriate, our parenting are needed, alongside our prophecy where the powerful have also been absent and unapproachable, or simply overwhelmed.

We all know how disabled our education systems have been, especially in South Africa but also through the colonial histories of other countries which make up the subcontinent which ACSA seeks to serve. Building healthy education systems in all our nations is a critical priority to which ACSA has long been devoted. As we do so, there are people full of passion and potential for whom we have to care.

Please observe Education Sunday with special intent for universities and colleges in the tertiary education sector this year!

God bless you

†Thabo Cape Town

To the Laos - To the People of God - September 2016

Dear People of God

This month marks the anniversary of significant milestones in the lives of the two living previous archbishops of Cape Town.

Thirty years ago today, September 7, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu was enthroned as Archbishop. As I write, he has been in hospital receiving treatment for a recurring infection, and his office has announced that he will undergo a small surgical procedure today to address the root cause of the infection. I visited him upon my return from overseas at the weekend, and he was in good spirits. Please keep him, Mrs Leah Tutu, and their family in your prayers.

Also this month, Archbishop Emeritus Njongonkulu Ndungane celebrates the 20th anniversary of his becoming Archbishop. It is also 25 years since his consecration as Bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman, and to cap it off he has celebrated his 75th birthday this year. Our warm congratulations to Archbishop Njongo, and our thanks to him for his continued public service in different capacities.

I write this against the background of last month's South African municipal elections. I am grateful that people went to the polls and voted in such numbers and with such enthusiasm, so that our democracy can be said to be both vibrant and legally intact. What is most encouraging is that South Africa has a legislative framework which establishes institutions and mechanisms that enable the electoral process to happen successfully—so much so that although the ruling party lost political control in major cities, the outcomes were accepted by all. So we need to compliment our political role players but especially that framework and those it empowers to keep our democratic processes operating.

Whether we voted or not, what all of us must now do is to act with the urgency that is demanded of us to make South Africa work and to make our nation what God has destined it to be. I say this also against the backdrop of my short stay in Rwanda recently, where I attended a meeting of the Council of the Anglican Provinces of Africa. Leaving the meeting in Kigali, the capital, to visit the city's memorial to the 1994 genocide, I could not help but be struck by how the city really does work. There is effective policing, the place is clean and when you get to a shop, even if stocks are limited there is a commitment to service. But although the city works, I had the impression that it was a result of what one might call an obsession: a desire to run away from the dreadful past, from the messiness of a system that did not work. That makes me all the more grateful for how our electoral system mediates political conflict, and leads me to re-commit myself to making our country work, and to call upon all our parishioners to play their part in helping that happen.

Since returning from Kigali, I have been reading all the motions, measures and reports that will come before Provincial Synod—our Church's top legislative body—when it meets in September. Reading the reports from provincial ministries and organisations reminds me of the humbling privilege I have as Metropolitan to have a “helicopter” view of all that the Province does. If one looks only only at the difficulties being experienced by a problematic diocese or parish, or at the financial challenges we face, one doesn't appreciate the beauty, the energy and the excitement of what is being done in our church right across Southern Africa. The Province is busy, the Province is active and the Province is alive with worship, mission and service. For that I give thanks to God.

We have resolutions before Synod which may be controversial, one of them on human sexuality, and we too have legislative mechanisms which can help us to address such matters successfully. The Canons allow us to go into Conference, which frees us of the sometimes stifling rules of debate when we are considering a motion. The Synod's advisory team has decided that we need to create more time and space than would normally the available to discuss the motion on human sexuality, so we will go into Conference for our initial discussion of that motion. I am hoping that Synod will be a time of robust and open debate as we confront and work through the issues.

God bless you

†Thabo Cape Town

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

To the Laos – To the People of God - Theological Education Sunday

Dear People of God, 

We bring a special focus across Southern Africa this month to the importance of training Anglicans for ministry, leading up to Theological Education Sunday on August 23. But in South Africa, we also mark Women's Day, so a word about that also.

At the Elective Assembly we held in the Diocese of Natal last month - where the diocese elected Bishop Dino Gabriel, currently the Bishop of Zululand, as Natal's new bishop - an articulate young woman challenged us never to forget the needs of women in the elective process. We would do well to heed her words as we select leaders and make other choices as the leadership of the church.

On Theological Education Sunday last year, we raised about a million rand for the College of the Transfiguration (COTT), our full-time training institution for the ordained ministry. This year, we are appealing to all of you again to give generously.

To the Laos – To the People of God, March 2014

Dear People of God

I am writing this letter after a prayer vigil on the steps of St George’s Cathedral, Cape Town, where a number of clergy, laity and bishops, including Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, retired Bishop Geoff Quinlan and Bishop Garth Counsell of Table Bay, joined us for a memorable occasion.

We stood in silence for 30 minutes, the clergy among us wearing our cassocks, holding flowers and posters. This was because the Cathedral had advertised the vigil under the banner, “A Flower for Thuli, A Message for the President”, referring to the South African Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, and her recently-released report on the upgrades to President Jacob Zuma’s private residence at Nkandla.

Our placards called on the President to respond to the Public Protector’s report, and on the public to defend our “Chapter 9” institutions, the independent institutions set up under the South African Constitution to guard democracy.

Following this quiet demonstration, we all went into the cathedral to pray. This is what I shared with those gathered in the Cathedral:

Ladies and gentleman, bishops here present, including Emeritus Arch and clergy from the dioceses of the Western Cape,

We have gathered again on the steps of St George’s Cathedral in the footsteps of our predecessors who stood here in the apartheid era. We gather to say that some things are pulling us apart as a nation and we are pained.

In my letter of invitation to come to this prayer vigil, I said let us gather as Church in its broadest sense for a vigil, to pray that the Public Protector be herself protected by all progressives in the religious and NGO sectors and by all freedom-loving citizens; and also that the President, Parliament and the executive should implement in full all the steps which Adv. Madonsela has recommended in her report.

I requested that we gather in vigil and prayer to ask – in the spirit of Lent, in deep prayer and reflective concern – for the President and Parliament to report in full to the nation on precisely how they will give effect to the Public Protector’s recommendations.

Now as we reflect in vigil and prayer, I want to aid your reflections and actions by posing just a few questions instead of a long speech,especially as it is lunch time and some of you need to go back to work:

1. Acknowledging all the political, social and moral conversations and judgments that have taken place inside and outside the country, what can we as a society in South Africa learn from the Public Protector’s courage?

2. How has the Public Protector’s report helped ring a bell to the importance of our national values?

3. Since our values should guide every decision made by our Government leaders, and our historic Constitution clearly articulates our national values, what can our Government leaders learn from the flawed decisions that apparently didn’t consider our national values?

4. And lastly, when so many in our communities around our country are asking me, “Archbishop, what should the President do?” I tell them that our President must ask himself, “From the perspective of the 50 million South Africans that I lead, what do our national values suggest for me? What have I learned from the Public Protector’s exceptionally thorough and historic work? How can I more effectively model the values-based decisions that our Constitution clearly and unmistakably tells us?”

The President must do what is in our nation’s best interests.

As a spiritual leader, putting my hand on President Zuma’s shoulder, I say, “What do you have to do to bring our country together at this critical point in our democratic history? What do you have to do to create a renaissance in trust?”

So, dear friends, we have seen the swimming pool, the amphitheatre, chicken runs and cattle culvert – now my appeal is that those that surround the President, as a collective, must take responsibility and tell us they will lead us to the truth.

Also my yearning is for a more concerted effort by the entire faith-based and non-governmental organization community not so much to defend the Public Protector as an individual as to defend the rights of the public – which rights are in fact being protected by the Public Protector – and the integrity of the office of the Public Protector.

Furthermore, South Africans cannot be hoaxed into believing that a Government which erred so seriously can investigate itself. Let us then have the moral courage required at this moment to rise up and support the call for the public’s right to know and take responsibility for making our democracy work.

In that spirit and with renewed courage, I now pray:

Lord, God of Hope,
Restore our brokenness and torn fabric
Heal our divisions and our land
But please begin with me.
Amen


Turning to other matters this month, our Province’s Media Committee has reported that the number of subscriptions to our colour magazine, Southern Anglican, is down, raising the gloomy prospect of having to close the publication if we cannot reverse this trend. I encourage all Anglicans to subscribe to the magazine, which – as a place for sharing news and views – is the only general print publication we still have which reflects our identity as a Province.

And now let me end this letter to you by thanking Bishop Dinis Sengulane of Lebombo for his ministry in our Province and Communion, over 38 years as a bishop and 40 as a priest. Bishop Dinis epitomizes the moral courage and great humility that is missing in most of our leaders. May you have a blessed retirement, Bishop Dinis, and be freed to do the things which you would love to do most in service to the world and your country, Mozambique. Thank you for your courage and belief that God in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit is always ahead of us, whatever we face. May this message resonate in all our faithful this Easter and for evermore.

As we continue to be conduits of peace with justice, I pray that the Risen Lord, whose passion, death and resurrection we will celebrate at this time and always, will renew our strength and make us fly on wings like an eagle even as we offer ourselves in service for the common good.

I send you all season’s greetings, proclaiming that we can move from the passion of an Nkandla to the glorious resurrection of Easter by declaring: Christ is Risen!

God bless you,

+Thabo

Church of the Province of Africa - ‘Ad Laos’ – To the People of God – February 2014

As has become my practice over the last six years, this February letter is the first for the year, so let me start by wishing you all a blessed New Year.

Some of you may have read the latest Synod of Bishops' statement in which the Bishops share briefly the salient points of their February meeting. These meetings form the cornerstone of governance in faith and doctrine matters in our Province, over and above meetings of the Provincial Synod, the Provincial Standing Committee, the Provincial Trusts' Board and of course Diocesan structures. Of particular note was that the Synod expressed its joy at the approval by the South African Qualifications Authority of the Diploma of Theology offered by the College of the Transfiguration in Grahamstown, as well as at the provisional accreditation of the College as a private higher education institution.

Following the meeting of the Synod of Bishops, Lungi and I travelled to Lagos, Nigeria for a meeting of Anglican Primates and their spouses organised by the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa (CAPA). This was my first CAPA meeting as Archbishop, as Bishop Jo Seoka of Pretoria is our episcopal representative to CAPA and has previously attended meetings on my behalf.

In our time together in Lagos, we as Archbishops from the different Anglican Provinces around the continent shared both our common and our differing contextual challenges. We shall continue to have different understandings on matters of human sexuality, whether legally, theologically or because of our different experiences, so we cannot paint everyone with the same brush. This applies even within provinces, as we see within our own Province, where only South Africa has legalised same-sex unions. For me, love and respect for all who are created in the image of God remain key. The Synod of Bishops affirmed this, as well as the importance of seeking justice and reconciliation on this issue – the differences over which we do not regard as being so serious as to be church-dividing.

Human sexuality was not, however, the central matter in our deliberations in Lagos. We were deeply concerned at tensions and conflict in places as varied as South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho and Mozambique, as well as the conflict between Muslims and Christians and the terror created by the followers of Boko Haram in Nigeria. Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State and his deputy welcomed us, and stressed the need for a critical solidarity by the Church with those called to serve through a vocation to politics.

Immediately after Lagos, Lungi and I were joined by our daughter, Paballo, to travel to Xai-Xai in Mozambique where I was blessing a new church, Salvador do Mundo (Saviour of the World). This was a wonderful occasion, with the Diocese’s largest parish packed to capacity. The worship was so joyful and moving as Bishop Dinis Sengulane and I moved around the church, sprinkling water amid clouds of incense, accompanied by the choir all singing in unison in Mozambique's unique alto voices. The choirmaster had a small school bell and rang it harder and harder the more we sprinkled holy water around the building! Coming from an urban diocese, dedicating new churches is not what one does frequently, especially in Shangaan and Portuguese and wearing full vestments when the temperature is 30 degrees. We are grateful for Bishop Dinis, who will retire soon after four Lambeth conferences and 38 years as a bishop in the Church of God. We are grateful for his ministry not only in the Church but in highlighting the scourge of malaria and the need for peace in the world, particularly in Mozambique. We can only say, while +Dinis is still alive, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

After Mozambique I chaired an ecumenical meeting at the Wits Business School. Ecumenical witness has seen many challenges and changes in post-apartheid South Africa, where we are experiencing the declining influence and identity of previously-strong ecumenical bodies and the rise of new ones which readily support state theology and loathe prophetic and liberation theology. It is as if we are regressing into what the apartheid government achieved through its grip on the Dutch Reformed Church, only this time it is South Africa’s current ruling party which is coercing interfaith and ecumenical bodies to align with it and thereby benefit materially or from their proximity to power and influence. However, in South Africa today the Church is called upon to support the State in this democratic dispensation when it does what is godly and serves the needs of all God’s people, but to be critical if it does not. And we cannot just sit back and point at what is wrong, we need too to work to bring about justice, equity and a sharing of God’s abundant resources. The meeting in Johannesburg highlighted these issues and reminded me of how easy it is to forget our primary vocation because we want government resources even to the point of compromising the prophetic word.

Finally, I attended a church leaders’ consultation with the South African Christian Leaders’ Initiative (SACLI), where we looked at how to strengthen the unity of the ecumenical voice in being courageous and prophetic. We looked at organisational as well as moral issues in our country, we planned for the forthcoming SACC triennial meeting and we considered how we could encourage SACC member churches to adopt education as a priority missional issue. We also noted that, welcome as the birth of SACLI is, it has created confusion and tensions at a time during which the SACC is ailing. Bishop Zipho Siwa, Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church, has been asked to chair a subcommittee to look at aligning the ecumenical bodies in our country so that we can all act together in tackling the challenges faced by our country, especially in the upcoming elections. As chair of the church leaders’ consultation, I find these meetings edifying – stretching but fulfilling too as we face the challenge: How do we maintain our prophetic voice in a constitutional democracy when legitimate leaders are robbing the land and ignoring the cause of justice?

I have headed this letter the Church of the Province of Africa, to highlight the need for us to strive, whether in our Anglican Communion in Africa or ecumenically, to bring God’s real shalom, peace, justice and equity to the continent. There will be differences in theology, in matters of sexuality and in politics – let us face these and deal with them, and not pretend we don’t encounter them. Let us adopt a Pauline understanding of our vocation and build the body of Christ, recognising that it has different parts and abilities, but that they can all work together towards a common purpose. In this way we will have a deeper appreciation of the presence of the incarnate Christ at work within the body, pointing us to the realised Eschaton which at the same time is yet to be realised. This tension should not divide us, instead it should help us appreciate that we are of the same coin, bringing quality and equality to all.

This year, God willing, we will see the election of two new bishops suffragan, of Niassa and Mthatha. We are thankful to God that in spite of the challenges we have in a few dioceses, our Province is healthy and continues to witness to what God is up to in this part of God's vineyard. As we prepare to observe Lent, let me once again encourage you all to use the Bible study material that Professor Gerald West and his team have prepared for our Province.

I end on a note of thanksgiving – even if it is tinged with sadness. The “Masite Sisters” – the members of the Society of the Precious Blood in Lesotho – who provided a home away from home for South African political refugees as well as spiritual refugees over many years, will close their house in Maseru at the end of this month. The sisters have planted the seeds of faith for many but the remaining sisters are ageing, so although their Chapter says they may resurrect their ministry differently one day, for now we wish them well and give God deep thanks for their ministry in building the body of Christ in our Province.

As we enter this Lent, let us continue to build the body of Christ, in our relationships with one another, in our places of worship and in our different nations in this Province.

God bless you all in your Lenten observances,
+Thabo Cape Town

To the Laos - To the People of God, June 2013

Dear People of God

These ‘weeks after Pentecost’, with its green liturgical colour, we tend to think of as a season for growing in our faith – including growing in knowledge and love of God, in the depth of our prayer life, in Christian maturity, and in numbers. The number one best way to keep growing is to ensure we have well-trained clergy and lay leaders – which is why we are prioritising theological education this year.

To help all of us grapple more deeply with this theme, we shall shortly be issuing the From Root to Branch study guide. Four studies look at what it means to develop a mission-shaped church, and the role of theological training, and especially the College of the Transfiguration, in achieving this. The studies are intended for use in August, when we also mark Theological Education Sunday on 18 August.

I am writing to you on the Feast of St Barnabas, one of the most influential, even if not most well-known, Saints of the New Testament. His name means ‘Son of Encouragement’, and it is the theme of encouragement – especially encouragement of the ministry of people ‘set apart for the work of the Lord’ that I want to address in this letter. For St Barnabas is a wonderful example for us, as we consider how we too can support those ‘set apart for the work of the Lord’ (see Acts 13:2).

St Barnabas is best known for his relationship with St Paul. You will recall that before his conversion, St Paul – known as Saul – was notorious for persecuting the church, both in Jerusalem, and also searching out Christians across the region. He was on his way to Damascus when he experienced a miraculous encounter with Jesus, which not only changed his life, but changed the history of the world.

And yet history might not have been changed without St Barnabas. After his conversion, St Paul had to flee from Damascus. Finally he came to Jerusalem. But, as we read in Acts 9, the disciples were all afraid of him. They feared his conversion was not genuine, no doubt suspecting it was a plot so he could get to know them all, and then have them arrested and worse. But St Barnabas had the courage to find St Paul, and get to know him – and then he brought him to the disciples, into the family of God’s people. When they heard his testimony, the early church could recognise and acknowledge the genuine call of God upon St Paul’s life, and affirm his ministry.

Later, when the Jerusalem church heard of the congregation growing in Antioch, they sent St Barnabas to pastor it, and he brought in St Paul from Tarsus, so he too could share in teaching and leading the increasing number of people there. Later, St Paul and St Barnabas travelled and worked together for some years, before finally going their separate ways. It is interesting to read how their relationship develops, through the book of Acts. At first it is clear that St Barnabas is the ‘senior’ partner, mentioned first – but soon, St Paul, whom he has mentored and encouraged, becomes the one who is mentioned most prominently.

Now, all of this is a very lengthy invitation to you all to follow the example of St Barnabas! We too can encourage the ministry of those whom God is calling to be set apart for his special work within the church, and especially those called to be ordained. Like St Barnabas, all of us can play a role in helping the church to recognise those to whom God gives this special vocation.

And like St Barnabas, we can also help ensure that this ministry is not only recognised, but mentored and supported – until those who are called are sufficiently well trained to be able to lead God’s people without that close oversight, but as part of the broader network of Christians sharing in leadership of the Church.

Unlike St Barnabas, we don’t have to do all this ourselves! We are privileged to have the College of the Transfiguration (COTT) in Grahamstown, as a place to which we can send those the church discerns are called by God, so they can be well trained to serve as our clergy. Lay leaders may also be trained alongside them.

Theological Education is one of the key priorities of the Vision and Mission Statement of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. For without well-trained clergy and lay ministers, the well-being of our congregations, and the ability of all God’s people to live lives of faithful worship, witness and service (as we pledge to do at our confirmation) is seriously undermined. Indeed, our whole future is put at risk.

Provincial Standing Committee therefore decided that we ought to look at how to safeguard theological education for the future. Rather than make continued appeals from time to time, we decided to make One Big Push this year. Therefore, on Theological Education Sunday, 18 August, we will hold a special collection.

Did you know that within ACSA we have about 4 million people. We are asking everyone who is able to give R10, or the equivalent – and of course, some will be able, and may feel called by God, to give rather more. Even if everyone gave R10, that would bring us R40million altogether. This would be enough for an Endowment Fund that will guarantee the continuing development of COTT – its buildings and grounds, its teaching facilities including library and computers, its full staffing, and, most of all, its capacity to provide quality teaching and training.

What matters is that we can ensure that future ordained and lay leaders are well equipped for guiding, directing and encouraging the life of faith among our people, so all of us together can keep on growing in the knowledge and love of God, and in sharing in God’s mission to God’s world.

R40million may seem a lot, but divided among all 4 million of us, it is entirely attainable – and so I am feeling hugely excited and encouraged that we have such a simple plan, to achieve so much! Yet I do realise that for some of you, even R10, for every family member, above your usual giving, is a significant sum. This is why I am writing to you in June, so you have time to start saving, if you need to do this.

We shall also be sending round posters and fliers in the coming months, so you can be reminded to be fully prepared for 18 August. We are hoping that special collection envelopes will be available in as many churches as possible – but if not, a special collection in the plate, or at the end of the service will do just as well.

Finally, let me recall the very first reference to St Barnabas in the New Testament. In Acts 4:37 we read this: ‘Barnabas sold a field that belonged to him, then brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.’ This Son of Encouragement did not only support ministry by his actions, his affirming and teaching and mentoring of St Paul. He also gave money to the church so it could follow God’s call.

So let us also dare to follow the example of St Barnabas, and give generously, so we too can contribute to building a firm foundation that will guarantee well-equipped leaders for our church, well into the future.

May God bless you through your giving – for he ‘loves a cheerful giver’ and promises that when we sow bountifully, we will also reap bountifully (2 Cor 9:6,7).

Yours in the service of Christ

+Thabo Cape Town

To the Laos - To the People of God, May 2013

Dear People of God

Our celebration of Easter is completed, as we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus Christ our Saviour, crucified and raised from death, and now seated at the Father’s right hand, where he never ceases to pray for each one of us. At times when I find life threatens to overwhelm me, I remind myself to put Jesus first. For now within the Godhead there is one who understands what it is to be human and to battle with life. And therefore his prayers for me embrace both perfect empathy with what I am going through, and perfect understanding of what I most need in that situation. There is no safer place to be, than held in the prayers of our risen and ascended Lord!

Yet I am also challenged to realise that in answering the prayers of others, God in Jesus Christ may be calling me to be part of his solution in some way. And of course, at Pentecost we celebrate the gift of God’s Holy Spirit, to enlighten our ability to grasp what he calls us to do, and encourage, equip and empower us to carry it out.

Sometimes within the Church we are better at words than action. We can be so caught up with the things of heaven that we prefer to rest there, finding a security away from life’s pressures. But one of the important emphases of the retreat I followed earlier in the year was that if we genuinely come to know and love Jesus more closely, then inevitably this love will find expression in sharing in his mission to the world, and in working for true peace with justice and for kingdom virtues in every area of life.

Here are two areas where I have been pondering how we translate words into actions. First is in relation to gender violence. Our media have been full of terrible atrocities against women and children. It touches every part of our society, though some are better at hiding it than others. So I was heartened to learn recently of the ‘Ringing the Bell’ campaign. This Indian initiative grew from awareness of intolerable levels of domestic violence within homes. The solution is very simple. When people hear noises that sound like something bad is going on, they just ring the doorbell, or knock at the door, or phone. I especially ask men and boys to take this initiative.

It does two things. First, it immediately interrupts whatever violence is taking place. Second, it lets the perpetrator know that the community – especially other men – are watching. We know men listen to other men. We know men care about their reputation with other men. And ringing the bell clearly gets the message across that men who are violent are not socially acceptable. The experience of India is that this is very effective indeed. You can read more on the website www.bellbajao.org.

Too often men are only portrayed as perpetrators of domestic and gender violence – whereas initiatives like this help enable us to be partners with women, in working for true equality, fairness and justice, in which we can all live in safety.

In the church too we must avoid any implications, in our teachings or behaviour that men and boys are in any way superior to women and girls, or entitled to dominate them. We know that the Bible was written in cultures where women were not equal. But Genesis is clear that in our creation, equally reflect God’s image and so are worthy of equal dignity and respect (Gen 1:27). The same equality is true in salvation, for ‘there is no longer male and female for all of you are one in Christ ‘(Gal 3:28).

The second area where I have been conscious that words must lead to action is education. This is a particular priority that I feel God has laid on my heart, since I have been so much involved in education through my adult life – and am so aware that it was educational opportunities that came my way which enabled me to follow the path that my life has taken.

When we look at this, and many other, situations, at how much needs to be done, and how little has been achieved, it is easy to be downhearted. As you know, one of my challenges is that we should not be so fixated with what is wrong, that we get dragged down. Instead we must keep our vision for what, by God’s grace, we can become, and let this sure hope be the focus and touchstone for guiding our policies.

Yet we cannot turn a blind eye to what is unacceptable. What we need, is to keep it in perspective by abiding in Christ. As we abide in him, we will grow in his love – and grow in seeing the world as he sees it, and so be caught up into his care and purposes. Looking at the bad from Christ’s perspective is the best way to face it.

And so, having been praying seriously for some time about education (perhaps you might find another area speaks to you), I now find myself caught up into all sorts of action that have really encouraged me in understanding that Christians can make a difference at all sorts of levels. I’m now acting individually, through the Church, and in supporting national initiatives.

On an individual level, a group of us who grew up in Alexandra are helping rebuild Pholosho school, and funding bursaries. Perhaps you can do something similar, or support a school indirectly connected perhaps through someone who works with or for you. But dare to put a human face on the problem. This will help open your eyes to the real needs of communities. Then, in Gauteng, Anglicans have the growing Vuleka school initiative. Our next project is building a boys’ boarding school.

And on a wider level, I’m adding my voice to the call for the Minister of Education to issue proper, decent, minimum infrastructure norms and standards for all schools. These must be specific and measureable, not broad and generalised, as in the latest draft which is a step backwards. As part of this campaign, I visited South Africa’s Eastern Cape last month, with a delegation including academics, writers, and human rights activists. Though we encountered heroic efforts by many educators and learners, we were also shocked and appalled by much of what we saw.

So we will not rest, but keep up the dialogue, keep up the pressure, with Provincial and National government. And the really good news is that this works. Within days of our visit, there was an official statement saying the President had directed the relevant department within the Presidency to look into the matter. Now we must ensure this is followed through – and every South African can join in sending letters to the President, Ministers, MPs, MECS, and newspapers; and phone radio stations, and blog, and post on Facebook and tweet. Let’s make a big noise!

Earlier this month I was in Canada, where Huron University College conferred on me an honorary doctorate. I said then, it is by God’s grace that I had the educational opportunities that allowed me to become who I am now – and so I receive this in acknowledgement of the many millions who struggled, and still struggle, with inadequate education. I hope that in saying this, I may contribute to the fight for decent education – as well as housing, sanitation and other basic needs, for all.

In other news, I am delighted that the Very Revd Willie Mostert, Dean of the Highveld, has agreed to be the new Provincial Executive Officer, in succession to Revd Canon Allan Kannemeyer. Willie, who takes up the appointment in October, brings extensive administrative skills, as well as deep pastoral experience. Do pray for him and Ursula as they prepare to relocate to the Cape. Pray also for Allan and Connie as they settle back into the Diocese of Pretoria. In the meantime, the Revd Keith Griffiths has kindly agreed to come out of retirement and help in the PEO’s office from June to September, and will act as Manager for Provincial Synod. Pray for him, and Gail Allen, Provincial Executive Administrator, and everyone else who will help in preparations for this important meeting in the life of ACSA.

Yours in the Service of Christ

+Thabo Cape Town

To the Laos - To the People of God, Easter, and Theological Education

Dear People of God

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! We are Risen! Alleluia! In this glorious Easter Season, may all the fullness of Christ’s gift of abundant life, overflow for you in joy and hope and peace!

As you may recall, in 2011, at the suggestion of Revd Prof Barney Pityana, Rector of the College of the Transfiguration, Provincial Standing Committee declared 2013 the ‘Year of Theological Education’ with the theme From Root to Branch. Our aim is to affirm and consolidate theological education as central to the Province, and particularly promote and develop the role played by COTT. This is at the heart of our fundamental strategy of ensuring that both ordained and lay leaders are well-equipped for guiding, directing, and encouraging the life of ACSA and its members: in our ministry within our parishes and in our mission to the world at every level.

One of the central objectives of this year is to provide a firm financial basis for COTT. We are therefore asking every Anglican who is able to donate R100 (or more, if you feel moved to do so!) towards this, through your parishes, in a special collection that will be made on Theological Education Sunday, 18 August. I am writing about this now, so that you may prepare for this special Sunday – not only by putting a small donation aside each week in readiness, but also through praying regularly for the College, and for all who teach and study there. May they grow in wisdom and knowledge and love of God, and so be prepared to fulfil their God-given vocations. (A note for clergy – we are expecting to produce a range of all-age resources for use on 18 August. Do watch out for these!)

However, it is not necessary to wait until August if you want to support COTT and its work. If you would like to make a donation, this can be done by making a deposit directly to the Provincial Trusts’ Board bank account, details of which are as follows:

Bank: Standard bank of S A Ltd
Branch: Thibault Square
Branch code: 02 09 09
Account number: 07 056 2423
Account name: Provincial Trusts’ Board

Please mark any donations clearly as ‘Theological Education Fund’

We are very blessed to have this resource of a full-time seminary within our Province, and one of the ways we are able to show our gratitude to God is to ‘give back’ through making its facilities available to those in greater need.

You may remember that, following the devastating earthquake in Haiti, one of the ways we committed to supporting that Diocese in its rebuilding was to fund a seminarian through three years of study in Grahamstown. It has been a great joy to have Jean Daniel Fils at COTT, and he will be completing his qualifications later this year – thanks to the considerable generosity of so many of you.

Closer to home, the dioceses in Zimbabwe have, as you all know, have had to struggle against considerable persecution in recent years. Thanks be to God, this seems to be over, and finally, through the courts, their cathedrals, churches, other properties and institutions and organisations have all been returned to their uncontested control. At the beginning of this month, the Diocese of Manicaland is holding special services in their Cathedral and another church, to mark their return and to ask God’s cleansing and healing of all the past traumas that have been perpetrated there. They too need our sustained support as they recover and go forward, and, moved by all that they have faced, I have stuck out my neck and pledged that we in ACSA will sponsor two bursaries for three years’ study at COTT – believing in faith that, once again, we will come together in providing this tangible long-term investment in their future.

The effect of my pledge is that there is a need to raise a bursary of R65 000 per annum for each of these Zimbabwean students. This amount will cover the tuition, boarding, book allowance and a monthly student allowance. I believe that this very tangible support will reap immense long term benefits for the church in Zimbabwe. Therefore I urge generous support for our sister church.

If you would like to support the Anglican Church within Zimbabwe, you can make a donation to the same account as given above, but clearly mark all such donations as ‘Zimbabwe Bursary Fund’.

Investing for the future of our brothers and sisters in Christ in this way can be seen as participating in the essence of Easter – the bringing of new life, new hope, which Jesus does, so fundamentally, through the cross and resurrection. Newness of life within the church is very much in evidence at the moment, with both a new Pope and a new Archbishop of Canterbury.

Let me quote from both of them. First, from the Archbishop of Canterbury’s sermon at his enthronement, comes a message of Christian confidence:

"There is every possible reason for optimism about the future of Christian faith in our world and in this country. Optimism does not come from us, but because to us and to all people Jesus comes and says “Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid”. We are called to step out of the comfort of our own traditions and places, and go into the waves, reaching for the hand of Christ. Let us provoke each other to heed the call of Christ, to be clear in our declaration of Christ, committed in prayer to Christ, and we will see a world transformed."

It was a glorious service, and Lungi and I were so glad to be there. It was good also to have the chance to meet him and his family in person the following day. We promise our new ‘ABC’ our support, and prayers, and we continue to pray for the Anglican Communion, hoping all may share in the new energy and enthusiasm he brings at this time. We hope that soon we will be able to host Archbishop Justin in our Province.

Second, Pope Francis, in his message ‘Orbi et Urbi’, to the city of Rome and to the world, on Easter Sunday, also spoke of the tangible hope that Christ’s death and resurrection offer to us all:

"Dear brothers and sisters, Christ died and rose once for all, and for everyone, but the power of the Resurrection, this passover from slavery to evil to the freedom of goodness, must be accomplished in every age, in our concrete existence, in our everyday lives. How many deserts, even today, do human beings need to cross! Above all, the desert within, when we have no love for God or neighbour, when we fail to realize that we are guardians of all that the Creator has given us and continues to give us. God’s mercy can make even the driest land become a garden, can restore life to dry bones (cf. Ez 37:1-14)."

For us in Southern Africa, the same is true – that we can expect to know the reality of Easter impacting upon us, whoever we are, wherever we find ourselves. All we need to do is to hear Jesus’ call ‘Follow me’ and to have the courage to step out, and put our hand in his.

May you come to know the truth of this in your own life, and in the lives of those around you. A blessed Easter to you all

Yours in the Service of Christ

+Thabo Cape Town

To the Laos - To the People of God, Christmas 2012

Dear People of God

'Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing which has taken place’ say the shepherds to one another – and in doing so, invitation us all to come with them to the manger and kneel before the tiny infant who becomes our Saviour and Servant King. Babies and children move our hearts in special ways, putting us in touch with something within us that we do not want to lose – perhaps that ‘childlikeness’ which Jesus says is necessary for entering the kingdom of heaven.

Once again, I have been touched by the Christmas party which Lungi, Nyaki, Pabi and I hosted, for the third year, at Bishopscourt, for 200 girls and boys from Anglican orphanages and children’s homes. It is always a day full of fun and games, as we join ‘children being children’ in spite of the harsh realities they have faced.

Thanks to generous sponsorship, we have now bought a trampoline for use every year. We also had a clown, volunteers from the City Council's Childline, and St Johns Ambulance on stand-by for bumps, scratches and other first aid. The Anglican Students’ Fellowship lent a hand, as did the stalwarts of the Church Men’s Society, and many of the ‘mothers’ of the diocese were here to give home carers a break. Hope Africa has also become a key supporter and board members enjoyed interacting with the children. We are always grateful to the Science Centre for sending their mobile laboratory, with complex, stimulating, games. I tried a science puzzle on eye-hand coordination: tracing a maze while looking at your hand only through a mirror. I founded I needed more ‘flexibility’ in my thinking, to move my hand as I wanted!

The children love the swimming pool, so girls from Anglican schools, Herschel and St Cyprians, acted as life guards. Others offered face painting. St George’s and Bishops schools’ boys could not attend but sent generous donations of food and Christmas parcels. Nyaki lent a hand, even though he had to leave early for an Art examination that afternoon, and so Pabi joined her mother and her team, doing ‘double duty’ for them both. It is always a delight to see the parking area full of mini-buses from the homes and other cars, and children taking over the whole estate.

The kids are great theologians and philosophers, asking questions with a curiosity and directness that adults never match: ‘Archbishop, why do you wear such a big ring?’ ‘Why did you invite us here – I thought only important people came to Bishopscourt?’ One little child asked, ‘When Father Christmas arrives here to collect the presents, where does he park? Do you keep the addresses of all the Christians in Cape Town for him?’ They certainly made me laugh at their vivid imaginations! Yet the sense of appreciation from the kids is always humbling. God willing, we will meet again next year. Some of the children will have moved on – do pray the older ones can establish a settled life – and others will have joined them. Please keep them all in your intercessions. Perhaps you can make a donation to children in need either through Bishopscourt or Hope Africa, or in your own diocese or parish.

As we ponder on the mystery that the vulnerable Christ-child was also the incarnate Son of God, we can let our hearts be touched by all children in poverty and need. Pray especially for those who suffer systemic oppression, particularly through such abuses as child slavery and militarisation. We thank God for all NGOs and others who work with children, and pray for them to prosper, and bring genuine tangible hope, and new beginnings to the boys and girls they seek to serve.

I also strongly commend to you the ‘Promising Life’ campaign of the Micah Challenge: Christians supporting the Millennium Development Goal of dramatically reducing mother and infant mortality. See http://www.micahchallenge.org.za/.

Ten days later I travelled to Maputo for Bishop Dinis Sengulane’s wedding to Lina Valoi. First, we attended the funeral of Fr Germano, giving thanks to God for this faithful pastor and PSC rep, who had died two days earlier, as custom dictated we deal with death before turning to celebrate life. We then went to bless the new house that +Dinis and Lina are building; and on to Lina’s home to complete the lobola process. It was a fascinating ‘indaba’ process, as representatives of the two families engaged in dialogue. Finally the bride-to-be was called from her bedroom to check the groom was indeed the right chap, and that she was prepared to marry him. There was great rejoicing at her affirmative answer – celebrated with a wonderful lunch!

‘Everyone’ was at the church wedding the next day, from ACSA, ecumenical interfaith partners, state, business, labour, every part of the nation and with many international guests. The church was packed, and the fans struggled to produce a cooling breeze. We rejoiced as the bridal couple chanted psalms and joined the choir in song and dance. +Dinis used the opportunity to launch a new hymn book and a guide to Christian living – ‘excellent resources’ said one guest, a convert from Islam, on scanning the booklet after the service. The vibrant, colourful occasion was even broadcast live on TV! Afterwards, around 700 of us were entertained at the reception, including the president’s wife, prime minister, and current and former cabinet ministers. It was a multilingual party, with representatives from the US, the Church of Norway, partners ALMA and MANNA, and French and Portuguese speakers too.

On Sunday, the bishops who were present (including five of us from ACSA) were sent for ‘mission experience’! I preached, presided at the Eucharist, and baptised a baby, for an English service, attended by +Dinis and Lina, and two other newlywed couples. We also had prayers for a widow, 30 days after her husband’s death, and marked the 30th anniversary of the Portuguese and English congregations joining. The context was truly of life and death, from baptism, birthday and wedding celebrations to grief and mourning. The tiny church was packed: if we had been in Joburg, fire inspectors would have banned us from meeting because of fire hazard!

We then travelled to +Dinis and Lina’s new home, for the traditional welcoming of the new bride. Further family negotiations then took place, to confirm assent to the lobola, while we ate and chatted. Then there were smiles and we knew all was well, the process was complete, and they were legally, theologically and culturally married!

This is my last letter until March, as, from late January I shall be away, to follow the ‘Full Spiritual Exercises’ of St Ignatius of Loyola, which involve a 30-day retreat. I’m looking forward, with anticipation, and some apprehension, to this stretching spiritual journey, and discovering how God wants to meet me and deal with me. I’m praying that in my personal walk with him, and in my ministry, it will be a time of refreshment, fresh focus, and, I’m sure, deep challenge and new calling.

Before I leave, it will be my great joy to preside at the consecration of the Ven Margaret Vertue as Bishop of False Bay on 19 January. In March the consecrations of the Revds Dintoe Stephen Letloenyane and Stephen Moreo, as Bishop of the Free State and of Johannesburg, will be in my calendar, together with a Synod of Bishops meeting. Provincial Synod also meets this year, in October. Please begin praying about this too, and considering motions you wish your diocese to bring before us.

Let me end with the traditional Christmas blessing, which reminds us that God in Christ meets us each of us just as we are, and touches us with love that is tailor-made: May the eagerness of the shepherds, the joy of the angels, the perseverance of the wise men, the obedience of Joseph and Mary, and the peace of the Christ-child be yours, this Christmas, and may the blessing of God almighty, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be with you always. And may you also have a happy and blessed 2013.

Yours in the service of Christ

+Thabo Cape Town

To the Laos - To the People of God - Advent 2012

Dear People of God

‘Come, thou long-expected Jesus’ is a well-known Advent hymn which goes on to describe Jesus as ‘hope of all the earth … desire of every nation … joy of every longing heart.’ Advent has been described as a ‘season of desire’. It is a time for us to listen to the yearnings of our hearts, our souls: our profound longing for Jesus to come with the fullness of his redemption, into our lives and the situations around us. It is a time for giving voice, in prayer, to the ache we feel for every person, every circumstance, which needs the compassionate, loving, healing, touch of our Lord and Saviour. It is also a time for giving thanks for all that we have seen of God at work in our lives, and fervently asking that he may be present in ever greater abundance.

I have been pondering this, particularly as I look back on November, which was a truly remarkable month, diverse and full. When it began, I was in New Zealand, participating in the Anglican Consultative Council, with other Anglicans, nearly bishops, clergy and laity from around the world. We shared deeply together around all aspects of the Anglican Communion’s ministry and mission – often from very different perspectives, but in a way that I felt was healing to relationships. Please pray that it may be a turning point for moving ahead united in Christ, even where we do not wholly agree; and especially that the ‘Continuing Indaba’ and ‘Bible in the life of the Church’ projects will keep on bearing fruit. Please pray too for God to further guide and bless major issues which we tackled: the environment; violence especially against women and children, and churches as places of safety; and Christian witness in a multi-religious world. There is much here that we can pick up on, to enrich our own lives, and equip us in our own calling to be faithful witnesses to the good news of Jesus Christ. You can find out more through the links at www.anglicancommunion.org

It was the last Anglican gathering with our beloved Archbishop Rowan before he steps down and returns to academic life. My heart was full to overflowing – and so were many others – as he gave his final address to us. We give thanks for his remarkable servant ministry over the difficult times of the last decade, and ask God to bless him, his wife Jane and family, in their move, and to continue to make him a blessing to so many others. In the same vein, we thank God for Bishop Justin Welby, who will succeed him in the new year, and pray for him, together with his wife Caroline and their family, as he prepares to take on the great responsibilities that lie ahead. I am reminded of the ‘Charge’ in our service of ordination and consecration of a bishop, which says ‘No one is sufficient for these things’ but then says ‘May the God who makes us able ministers of his new covenant equip you with grace and give you his blessing and joy.’ This is surely what we long for, for the new ‘ABC’.

And I am sure it is our prayer also for our newest Bishop in Southern Africa, Bishop Ellinah Wamukoya, whom we consecrated in Swaziland with such joy on 17 November – the first Anglican woman in Africa to be made a Bishop! We rejoice with her and her diocese, and ask the ‘long-expected Jesus’ truly to be ‘Emmanuel’, God with her, and her clergy and people, as they go forward into this new chapter of life. We pray also for The Ven. Margaret Vertue, who will be consecrated Bishop of False Bay on 19 January; and the Revd Dintoe Stephen Letloenyane and Revd Stephen Moreo, who will be consecrated Bishop of the Free State and Bishop of Johannesburg, respectively, in two services in March.

As we thank God for, and pray for, those he calls forth as leaders, shepherd of his flock, in every generation, let us also pray for the Church of England, so traumatised by their long synodical processes around the consecration of women to the episcopate, and the failure of last month’s vote. May God give them light in their darkness (a powerful Advent theme), to show them his path ahead.

For our part, we are moving forward on the path we believe God has set before us, the path of our Vision, ‘Anglicans ACT’, which we celebrated in a service in St George’s Cathedral, Cape Town at the end of November. You can watch it on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5-9b7tWFFw, and copies are being made available via Dioceses on DVD. The various teams are making progress in their work – watch this space in the new year, as plans unfold for helping equip dioceses and parishes in our priority areas!

So, within the life of our church, at home, and globally, we have much to thank God for, even as we desire to grow more into the newness of life that is his promise. But when we turn our eyes to look at the world around, our yearning for God’s redemptive touch becomes much more urgent. In South Africa, we have had the tragedy of Marikana, now being investigated through the Commission of Inquiry headed by Judge Ian Farlam who is ACSA’s chancellor. All involved need our prayers. There is also the complex situation around farm workers’ salaries in the Western Cape, where we yearn for just living wages. We also anticipate the ANC conference in Mangaung from 16 to 21 December. With a vote on the ANC’s, and hence the country’s, presidency, it is of major importance to our future, and our ability overcome trends of corruption and self-interest among political leaders, and return to putting the needs of all citizens at the top of the agenda. Elsewhere around our Province, countries battle with consolidating democracy, with food shortages, with wise use of mineral resources, with the scourge of HIV and AIDS, and with the ongoing long slow struggle to overcome poverty and all its consequences.

Therefore, especially for those in South Africa for whom 16 December is the Day of Reconciliation, I am calling for a day of prayer and fasting. Let us not be afraid to pour out our hearts to God – bringing before him all our hopes and fears for our countries, all our yearnings and desires for his kingdom to come and his will be done among us. In Advent we look forward to God’s promise to reconcile all things in Christ to himself (Col 1:20); and we also recall how he has entrusted his ministry of reconciliation to us also – so let us make this a day truly of God’s Reconciliation.

Let us plead that we may know the fuller coming of Christ, ‘risen with healing in his wings’ within our nations and our communities, especially where there are divisions – whether of history, politics, economics, language or race, personality, or through some unhappy force of circumstance. Let us pray fervently that God will meet us in all our needs, in Jesus Christ, so that there may be good news for the poor, freedom for the oppressed, liberty for all who are afflicted (Lk 4:18). May those who walk in darkness find a new light dawning (Is 9:2), and may all of us have the wisdom, the courage, the commitment, to walk in the paths God lights before our feet (Ps119:104). May justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream (Amos 5:24), and may God’s kingdom be found among us.

This Advent-tide, let us wholeheartedly pray for Jesus Christ to come to us, ‘Come, O come, Emmanuel!’

Yours in the service of Christ

+Thabo Cape Town

To the Laos - To the People of God, August 2012

Dear People of God

In the Collect of the nineteenth Sunday of the year, which falls in the second week of August, we pray to God ‘teach us to discern your hand in all your works’. These words have been resonating with me since I returned from celebrating the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the Diocese of Angola as a Missionary Diocese. Reflecting on their remarkable journey under the leadership of Bishop André not only challenged me to see God’s hand at work in all they have achieved in the last decade, but also stirred me to realise God has profound spiritual lessons for us all to learn from the newest, and, in some respects, most struggling, ‘territory’ within our Province.

Let me describe our visit first, before saying more about how this Collect has shaped my reflections. Lungi came with me, and so too did the Provincial Executive Officer, Revd Allan Kannemeyer, and the President and Chairman of the St Bernard Mizeki Men’s Guild, Revd Elliot Masoka and Bro Siphiwe Mncube. We travelled to Uige, in the north, and to the capital, Luanda. We saw how Bishop André and his team have steadily worked hard to establish solid foundations for this pastoral area, despite the ravages of war. We found vibrant worship and godly optimism – such as in laying the foundations and starting to build churches that may take years to complete. They need our help. Partners such as UPSG, ERD, ALMA and MANNA, deserve our deep gratitude for their assistance across a wide range of activities and needs. But within this Province we too can assist – for example, in helping raise the R1.5million necessary to complete church building projects. Love gifts can be made via the Provincial Treasurer (mark your donation ‘Angola Mission and Ministry Love Gift’ or contact Rob Rogerson: rogerson@anglicanchurchsa.org.za). Even a small amount will go a very long way.

You may recall that when I went to Namibia last year, I publicly apologised for the atrocities committed by South Africa within Namibia and over the border into Angola. I spoke about how knowing and making known the truth of this terrible past can become, through Christ’s redemptive power, a means for us to find healing, and also to become channels of reconciliation and peace-building (see my Christmas 2011 ‘To the Laos’ letter). Now, in Angola, I had the opportunity to share in prayer at Quibaxe, site of an Umkhonto we Sizwe camp. I asked for pardon for all those who had lost their moral compass there, or otherwise failed and fallen short. I prayed for all who had been killed, bereaved, injured and maimed as a result of the civil war and other violence.

Returning home, I felt a fresh energy to strive for peace and justice. As each of us is made in God’s likeness, not only does every human being deserve respect, but we should see that to harm any person is an act of desecration against a holy image, against God-bearers, even against God himself. This is true both of the violence of war, and in peace-time also. While war, which turns people into objects for domination by those who want power at any price, may be over in our part of the world, we also need a peace that is rooted in justice, fairness, and the refusal to allow the creation of political and economic structures that also reduce people to objects for exploitation.

The ten years the Diocese has existed coincides with the decade of peace Angola has experienced after a quarter of a century of civil war. Much has been done to move forward from that violent and tragic past, yet the country remains one of the most heavily mined in the world. No-one knows how many mines are there, perhaps millions; and they can continue to wreak devastation for up to 50 years. Pondering this, it then struck me forcefully that the task of removing mines is both a literal and a figurative one, if both country and church are to grow. If one merely avoids the mine-fields, the problem remains, and great tracts of lands are unavailable for production. It takes great bravery, even with the necessary training or outside help, to take on the mine-fields. Reflecting on this, it seems to me that God is challenging all of us to take on the mine-fields within our churches, and within our societies. There are unspoken issues among and between us that lie like unexploded mines in our midst, and too often we are afraid to tackle them, in case they ‘go off’. Yet God not only promises to lead us in safe pathways (Ps 23), but has in Christ overcome all that can harm his people and his church (Rev 3:21) and gives us authority to take on all that threaten us (Luke 10:19).

In other words, I have been challenged to see God’s hand at work as the ‘clearer of land-mines’ of any and every sort: challenged to dare to put my hand in his and tackle the ‘unexploded bombs’ that otherwise threaten the ability of Christians and the church to plough and plant and reap a harvest in every area of our lives, in every area of God’s world. I invite you to consider how you too may discern God’s work as ‘clearer of land-mines’ in your own life, in your own congregation and church and diocese!

Please pray for Provincial Standing Committee, as we prepare to meet in September. May we also discern God’s hand at work through the structures of our Province, and to respond to his leading. May we have courage to tackle the difficult issues, and above all, to be faithful and obedient to the calling he has put before us. We have distilled what we believe is this calling into the Vision that ‘Anglicans ACT’ – that we should be a community ‘Anchored in the love of Christ, Committed to God’s Mission, and Transformed by the Holy Spirit.’ The Vision will be at the heart of PSC, a touchstone to help guide and shape our responses to all that we face. May I remind you of the Bible Study and Sermon resources produced to help us engage more deeply with the Vision and Mission Statement, available at www.anglicansablaze.org, and from Revd Canon Cynthia Botha of the publishing committee.

PSC’s agenda includes a special service of celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Ordination of Women. We give thanks to God for how this has enriched our church – and for the growing recognition of women’s ministry in every area of our life. We shall also have a presentation on ‘Fresh Expressions of Mission-shaped Church’ from Bishop Graham Cray of the Church of England; on the Spirituality of the Environment from Bishop Geoff Davies; on South Africa’s National Development Plan, from Minister Trevor Manuel; and a breadth of other topics including education and finance.

Finally, the Diocese of the Free State have elected the Revd Dintoe Stephen Letloenyane, of St Margaret’s parish, Bloemfontein, to be their next Bishop, in succession to Bishop Paddy Glover. Please pray for Revd Stephen, his wife Zanele, and their children Dintle, Dimpho and Amanda at this time as they prepare for this new chapter in their lives.

Yours in the Service of Christ,

+Thabo Cape Town

To the Laos - To the People of God, May 2012

Dear People of God

This year is my fifth as Archbishop of Cape Town, and also sees the tenth anniversary of my consecration. All who are able are invited to share in celebrating this decade at a special service in St George’s Cathedral, Cape Town, at noon on 26 May!

Since becoming Metropolitan, I have continually been struck by the wonderful sense of common life shared across the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, and the great distances between us – not just in geography, but in some of the human realities that we experience. I pray we can sustain this sense of togetherness by sharing news from around our church and praying for one another. St Paul wrote in his first letter to the Thessalonians, ‘We always give thanks to God for all of you, and mention you in our prayers …’ (1 Thess 1:2). Let us bear each other up in the same way!

A particularly urgent and important prayer request come from Bishop Adam Taaso, who asks for our intercessions for Lesotho’s elections on 26 May. In recent weeks, there has been a lot of tension within and between different parties, with outbreaks of violence, even murder. The churches are working with others to promote peaceful, free elections, and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu – himself Bishop of Lesotho from 1976 to 1978 – visited at the end of April. He appealed for an end to violence, and invited all the political parties to sign a pledge to pursue peaceful elections and to respect the results in due course. Please pray that these promises may be kept.

Another topic for prayer is the diocesan synods of Namibia and Port Elizabeth, on 24-26 May. May they be times of fellowship, planning and renewing diocesan vision and mission, and also of commitment to mutual accountability in the things of God.

Our most distant Diocese is the mid-Atlantic Island of St Helena. Last month Bishop Richard Fenwick and his wife Jane spent a morning at Bishopscourt. They were on their way to the UK, for well-earned holiday, as well as a busy programme of visits to congregations and others who support the Diocese. Jane – whose birthday it was – showed us a wonderful slide show of Island life, and Bishop Richard spoke about the church’s priorities. Work is due to begin soon on St Helena’s first airport, and this will mean major changes to nearly every aspect of Island life. Building work will bring a large influx of workers, and further challenges will follow when it opens, making travel and tourism to and from St Helena far easier. Please keep ‘the Saints’ in your prayers.

One of the joys of travelling around the Province and meeting Anglicans is that again and again I feel my heart lifting, as we recognise one another not only as brothers and sisters in Christ, but as sharing something very special within the family of ACSA. It is a precious, holy, gift, to know that we belong together, held in the embrace of God’s steadfast love. It is as if well-springs of joyful encouragement overflow when we meet – an encouragement that strengthens and inspires us, whatever challenges we face.

Yet meeting together over such big distances is difficult and expensive. This is why Provincial Synod is held every three years, with Provincial Standing Committee in intervening years; and though all Dioceses are represented, only relatively few people participate. So we must ensure ACSA ‘meets’ in other, more comprehensive, ways, and nurture our fellowship in Christ, and partnership in the gospel. These letters are one way of contributing to this goal. Social media can also help, like my Facebook page (‘Archbishop Thabo Makgoba’) and blog (http://archbishop.anglicanchurchsa.org) and there are other FB pages for Provincial organisations, as well as Dioceses, Parishes and other groups. Please use what you can, and, whatever else, do pray!

But while all these are great for sharing news, they are not so good for in-depth reflection or debate. So let me first commend Southern Anglican: through its pages ACSA members can offer views on important questions that face the church, or face us as Christians engaging with the world around. Please do take the initiative to contact to the editor, Revd Loraine Tulleken, offering pieces for publication. This is our magazine, open to all, so let’s make it work by addressing what matters to us most, in its pages.

Second, I invite you all to join me at the Anglicans Ablaze Conference, ‘A Generation Rising Up’, from 3 to 6 October, in Johannesburg. With the backing of the Synod of Bishops, and supported by Growing the Church, this conference will help us celebrate together and explore more deeply our Provincial Vision – that we are ‘Anglicans who ACT: Anchored in the love of Christ, Committed to God’s mission, Transformed by the Holy Spirit’. For more information, contact GtC on office@growingthechurch.org.za or 021 712 0408, or see www.anglicansablaze.org. I look forward to meeting many of you there. If you cannot come in person, please ‘be present’ by praying. And whether you can come or not, I encourage your parish to follow the 6-week sermon series, with material for Bible studies, on the Vision and Mission Statement. Download this at www.growingthechurch.org.za/events.aspx.

Last month Lungi and I and our daughter Pabi were in London, where I preached at St Martin in the Fields at a service celebrating the silver wedding of Pabi’s godmother, Tricia Sibbons and her husband Douglas Board. We got to know Tricia when she was a warden at St Martins, which has historic links with St Marys’ in the City Cathedral, Johannesburg, where I was curate. Tricia was the first Director of the Trevor Huddleston Memorial Centre, and now chairs its Board. She and Douglas arranged for me to address a group of London lawyers and business people, challenging them not just to help such initiatives by donations, but to use their influence to change the politico-economic systems that continue to place politics and profits before people and planet.

I was able to pursue the same argument a fortnight later at the World Economic Forum Africa Summit in Addis Ababa, where I was a panel speaker in sessions on ‘Fostering Political Stability’ and ‘The Future Role of Civil Society’. Please keep praying that such opportunities continue to arise for me to make the voice of the church heard, promoting gospel values, moral living, and priorities that reflect God’s justice, among those who shape how our world is run. They need to hear the clear message that the current world order creates poverty, damages the planet, and puts all our futures in jeopardy. I have asked Prof Gerald West to compile Bible studies for 2013 to help us reflect theologically on economics. I am also working to promote initiatives that particularly help tackle youth unemployment – I shall say more about these next month.

Scripture says, ‘Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another … ’ (Heb 10:24-5). Let us work hard at doing this, in person, and in prayer.

Yours in the Service of Christ,

+Thabo Cape Town