Blogging from Busan - On All Saints Day, Meeting Anglicans, Moving Stories from Asia, Discussing Just Peace and Raised Blood Pressure

Today, on All Saints Day, let me start at the end of the day.

The Anglican Church of Korea hosted a dinner for our Anglican confessional group at the Novotel. There were about 160 Anglicans present, plus some of our hosts. I proposed a toast to our beloved Anglican Communion and to Archbishop Justin and Caroline Welby. A delightful evening with good company and delicious food on the occasion of the 123rd year of the founding of this diocese, as Archbishop Paul Kim of Korea pointed out. The dinner reminded us that nothing replaces face-to-face encounters with other Anglicans, for through these we appreciate each other more and consequently grow in love for God and one another, for this is communion.

The dinner was preceded by a service celebrating All Saints Day, and Archbishop Justin preached a sermon reminding us of the gift and responsibility we have as Anglicans to care for one another even as we value our differences. In a plenary session in the auditorium, Archbishop Justin had also addressed the WCC assembly, again drawing on our Anglican heritage and highlighting the enormous privilege and also responsibility of defining our identity within the broader ecumenical framework.

In another WCC plenary dedicated to Asia, drama and speeches drew our attention to the life, witness, worship and near-martyrdom of the church in this continent. This was very moving, drawing us into their story and how they perceived their position as a persecuted minority which faced near-extinction in certain places. There were also redemptive stories, especially one related by a missionary doctor who told of his experience of two parents at first rejecting a pair of Siamese twins, but then – when one died after an operation to separate them – reclaiming the surviving twin. Again, we were challenged by the difficulty most communities have in dealing with difference and disability.

Today, I also had an opportunity to connect with Presiding Bishop Ziphozihle Siwa of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa at the assembly's health machine vendor, where as we measured our blood pressure we chuckled at how ecumenical work raised it. I also had some time with Bishop Jo of Pretoria, just connecting at a personal and informal level. Bishop Jo and I are together in the “Just Peace” conversation group. Today we were running behind schedule at this session, and there was less input by speakers and more rushed conversation. But it was still very useful since although we went off initially at a tangent, we finally got stuck into discussing the real definitional and conceptual issues of what a just peace is all about, as well as strategies for praxis.

The business plenary was tense and rigorous, which reflected our reality and was to be expected, especially after one of the speakers raised issues of marriage and sexuality and posited his theological view as the correct one. There is a growing conservatism – and I say this without advocating moral relativism – which can lead to the trashing of God-given freedom and rational thought, as well as of the celebration of diversity. Of course there should be limits to everything, such as we found in our ecumenical conversation, where we were starting to explore a call to close down a nuclear power plant, mindful of the fact that we are only a few kilometres from one in South Korea.

As most of you know by now, for me communications and accountability are key. Today I spent time with the Episcopal News Service in the person of Matthew Davies, as well as with WCC communications people, exploring further ways in which I and our province can communicate more effectively. We recorded an AIDS day message as well as one about our perception and understanding of ecumenism.

Tomorrow, we have excursions around the area where we are meeting and, God willing, we will go to the port and ecological areas preserved around Busan. It is our daughter's birthday today, so I want to end this on the personal and send her “hugs and kisses,” as she would normally say when she is in a good mood.

May God our parent who looks after us all shower her and all parishes named All Saints with blessings. We are all saints if we do the will of God who sent us.

God bless
+Thabo

PHOTO: A performance at the WCC assembly features Asian concerns, acknowledging struggles of churches seeking justice and peace.

News from New Zealand - 6

Thursday 1 November - Today I presided at the daily Mass at the cathedral for the delegates and others who attend our services. All Saints day is special for many people. We remember Saints as those who have gone before us and are exemplar to our faith journey, the ‘cloud of all witnesses’ before and around us. We also acknowledge (reflecting the language of St Paul’s letters) our potential to be Saints for those who will come after us. It is always a joyous occasion for my family as our daughter was born on this day; and, if we are together with my wife's school (DSG, in Grahamstown), we always get to sing that great hymn ‘For all the saints, who from their labours rest …

The Saints trod this earth before they were recalled by our Maker. Today we had an excursion, and in the bus we were told the long account of the issues of the Maori land, and of the pain of dislocation caused by the wars which were fought in this land. Our destination, for which we set off after the holy mysteries, was Te Kingitanga, the Maori King Movement, and its head, the monarch, His Majesty Tuheitia and his wife. He occupies a modest piece of land and palace. He warmly received us, and fed us well. His staff was happy to know that there was a team from South Africa and requested that we have a picture with the King and his wife under a protea tree which was planted by President Mandela when he visited them. It was an honour to make another connection with this land, seeing a protea tree doing well in this climate. It was even more special because it was planted by Madiba, son of the African soil, who was so commited to global peace with justice. As he said, in the famous words of his defence statement at the Rivonia Trial, repeated on his release, ‘I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for, and to see realised. But my Lord, if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.’ I was also reminded of other wise words of his, ‘Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.’ I felt that Madiba’s values held true, as I heard of the Maori quest for land reparation, and sensed the yearning in the voices of our guide on the bus, and of the King’s staff.

This context, together with our drive along the longest river in New Zealand, which also enabled us to see the mountains in all their spring beauty, set the scene well for our discussions this evening. We ended the day with a public forum on the environment, chaired by our beloved Archbishop of Canterbury. As chair of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network, I served on our panel, alongside Bishop Apimeleki Qiliho of Fiji, and Anglican Alliance director Sally Keeble We looked at the nexus of food, energy, water and environmental crises, and agreed that tackling this complex interplay of factors needs moral courage by all Christians. We heard stories from the Pacific, Africa and other parts of the globe, and affirmed that we have a biblical mandate to ensure justice in any structures and systems that threaten to destroy the planet, our home. Equally we agreed that this is a human matter and needs a human response. There are practical steps that we can take as individual and collectively. These included using our theological tools and biblical knowledge to open discussions on the issues of environmental crisis, informing ourselves, acting in a manner that is aware that our resources are not limitless, and ensuring ethical investment .

In May last year, on attending a World Economic Summit Africa meeting, I wrote an article entitled, ‘Climate change is a moral imperative for all’, which still remains relevant today. You can read at http://archbishop.anglicanchurchsa.org/2011/05/climate-change-is-moral-imperative-for.html. We need both love and courage to advocate for good stewardship of our environment. Difficult question were raised tonight, such as why some are left so debilitatingly without water, food and energy whilst others have more than enough, and remain silent. What of the current world economic order as well as social order around our planet? We need clear, bold, and courageous voices that continue to speak up and speak out for the displaced, the poor and the hungry and also for creation.

Do surf the Anglican Communion Environment Network site for more information (http://acen.anglicancommunion.org/index.cfm). You might like to ask yourself, what are some of the environmental changes that are now evident on your context? What do you think ought to be done about these? May the cloud of witnesses that has gone before us join us as we seek peace with justice and harmony in this planet. May God grant the King justice and righteousness in all he does, and may indeed justice and peace kiss each other (Ps 85:10) as we faithfully restore our world back to God.

Finally, Happy Birthday to my daughter, Pabi who turned 13 today! Wow! May she and her children's children find a place to live and worship God, safely passed on from our generation.

A Sermon for Dedication Sunday and the Celebration of the Feast of All Saints

The following sermon was preached at St George's Cathedral, Cape Town, on 31 October 2010, Dedication Sunday, on which the Feast of All Saints was also celebrated

Lections: Jeremiah: 31: 31-34; Revelation 7: 2-4, 9-12; Matthew 5: 1-12

May I speak in the name of God, who covenants with his people. Brothers and Sisters in Christ, dear people of God of St George’s Cathedral – it is good to be with you once again, this Dedication Sunday. As well as concluding our month of reflections on Stewardship of all the gifts God gives us, we also celebrate the feast of All Saints – rejoicing that God calls each one of us to be his child, to live in covenant love with him.

Covenant is the most wonderful picture of God’s commitment to his creation, and to humanity, made in God’s image. The Bible has a great number of covenants. Some are promises between individuals, like Jacob and his father-in-law Laban (Gen 31:44) or David and Jonathan (1 Sam 23:18). Some covenants are mutually binding treaties between kings and nations, as between Abraham and King Abimelech (Gen 21:27).

Marriage, too, is of course a covenant. You have perhaps heard the joke about the rector who took the vows of marriage so seriously that he had 16 wives – for/four better, for worse, for richer, for poorer … Of course, these promises indicate our commitment that, no matter what happens to us, no matter what life brings our way, we will do our best to stay together and strive to stick it out ‘till death us do part’.

But human covenanting is just a reflection of the promises that God makes to us. God makes an everlasting covenant with individuals, such as Abram – promising that he will have numerous descendants (Gen 17) – and in response, Abram becomes Abraham and is circumcised – the sign that he too is party to God’s covenant. God also makes covenants with peoples, as he does through Moses at Sinai, with the Hebrew nation – a covenant to which he returns, again and again, even though ancient Israel failed to uphold their side of the covenant.

And because of such failings, God promises a New Covenant – the covenant of which we heard in our first lesson, from the prophet Jeremiah; the new covenant that is fulfilled by Jesus, who speaks at the Last Supper of it being made in his own body and blood, as he institutes the Eucharist. I will come onto this New Covenant in a moment.

But first I want to go back to the earliest, and broadest, of God’s covenant – the covenant he makes with Noah, and with all of creation, after the great flood. Most of you know the story of Noah: God regrets he ever created wicked and degenerate humankind – with the exception of faithful Noah. God tells Noah to make an ark, a great boat, in which Noah and his family and two of every kind of animal take refuge. A flood then destroys all other living things. After the flood subsides, God warns Noah and his sons not to shed human life – for humanity bears the image of God – and God adds, ‘I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendents, and with every living creature … never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth … and this is the sign of my covenant: the rainbow.’

This is a covenant for all of humanity, and for all of creation. From this wonderful story, we can learn three foundational, and everlasting, principles. If you read my sermons and speeches, you will find that these three principles keep on recurring.

First, it is a covenant about the sanctity of human life. Second, it is about the integrity of the created world, for God promises he will never again destroy his creation. And third, it is about the dignity of difference, symbolised by the rainbow. These three principles are the bedrock of the life for which God created us – to live in harmony with one another, and with creation.

People sometimes ask why the church so often supports human rights and promotes good environmental policies. Well, the answer lies there – right near the beginning of the Book of Genesis in the story of Noah and the flood – among the very first dealings of God with humanity. So when you see me on the television, or hear me on the radio, calling for proper housing for everyone, or decent toilets and sanitation; or when (as in this month’s Good Hope) you see pictures of me in my Wellington boots, cleaning up polluted vleis, you can know it is because I read my Bible! The church is not just being sucked in by modern liberal political movements – as some people claim. No, we know that God created humanity in his image, so we might ‘bear fruit’ as it says in Genesis 1 – we should all flourish. We should do so treating every life as sacred; honouring every human person no matter how different, and indeed, seeing our diversity as a gift that enriches us; and we should care for our planet, the beautiful home that God has so generously given to us.

This generosity of God, dear friends, this overwhelming generosity, points us to a very important aspect of covenant. For a covenant is not a contract. In contracts, parties give legal undertakings to effect transactions for reciprocal benefit. In covenants, people bind themselves together, in pledges of faithfulness and loyalty, to promote mutual well-being. The Chief Rabbi of Great Britain spoke about Covenants at the Lambeth Conference, two years ago, and his powerful words still remain with me.

He summed up the differences between covenant and contract in four succinct ways: contracts concern our interests, while covenants concern our identities; contracts deal in transactions, while covenants deal in relationships; contracts benefit, while covenants transform; contracts are about competition – if I win, you lose; while covenants are about cooperation – if I win, you also win. In other words, contracts are dead words on pieces of paper – either party can do the minimum necessary, and absolutely nothing more is required, or expected. But when you come to covenants, you find these are living things – designed for relationships that grow and flourish.

And it is a living, growing, flourishing relationship with us, that God wants – a relationship that is fuelled by inexhaustible love, and by limitless generosity. This is what we find fulfilled in God’s New Covenant. As the prophet Jeremiah says, it is a covenant of the heart. Listen to his beautiful words: The Lord says ‘I shall be your God and you shall be my people.’

This is the definition of what it is to be a saint. I know that sometimes we think of the saints as those who are particularly holy, or who have overcome some particular trial in their faith. But if you read St Paul’s letters carefully, you will find, in the original Greek text, that he writes to the saints in Rome, he writes to the saints in Corinth, he writes to the saints in Philippi, and so forth. So, in other words, St Paul says that all you need to be a saint is to belong to God, to belong to his Church!

This is what we celebrate today. He is our God, and we are his people, and therefore we can rightly speak of ‘all the saints of St George’s Cathedral’! We are the ones who have responded to God’s offer of overflowing love – love shown to us in Jesus Christ. The greatest verses at the heart of the gospel remind us of the centrality of love. ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that all who believe in him should not perish, but have eternal life’ (Jn 3:16). Yes, we, the Saints of St George’s Cathedral, dare to believe in his Son – our Lord and Saviour. As Jesus also said ‘No one has greater love than this – to lay down one’s life for one’s friends’ (Jn 15:13). And Jesus indeed laid down his life, saying ‘this is my blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many, for the forgiveness of sins’. We shall hear those words again in a short while – as we celebrate the Eucharist, the foretaste of the heavenly banquet where all the saints, all of us, shall be honoured guests!

So, therefore, my question to you this morning is this: what, then, is our response to the limitless generosity of God’s love for us – love that was greater than life itself? Well, you can guess – this is where our stewardship comes in. Our response comes in the shape of our time, our talents, our money – freely given back to God, just as he has freely given to us. And for us too, the heart of the matter should not be about contract, it should be about covenant. For if we have a mindset of contract, we will find that Church giving is a very deadening thing – following the old law of a tithe, and not a cent more. But if we give from a covenant mindset, we will be set free to give with the same love and generosity that knows no bounds. Yes, of course I encourage you to give 10%! But my prayers is that when you give, you will give sacrificially; and that this will prompt you to give with covenant generosity wherever a particular need arises, to which God’s love propels you to respond.

Only in the freedom of the covenant can we find the way to live a life of blessing – to be blessed, and to be a blessing to others, we heard in our Gospel reading. So let us live in response to God’s love for us – let us be his saints – let us be his covenant people, sharing life with others as freely as he shared his with us. May it be so. Amen