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
