Confirmation Service: Christ Church, Kenilworth
The Most Revd Thabo Makgoba
Archbishop of Cape Town
Sunday, 3rd February 2019
Jeremiah 1:4-10; 1 Corinthians 12:31b -13:13, Luke 4:21-30
May I speak in the name of God, our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer, Amen.
Thank you Rob for the warm welcome we received on our arrival here this morning. Thank you for the refreshing worship and testimonies from the confirmation candidates during this service.
Showing posts with label DR Congo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DR Congo. Show all posts
Tuesday, 5 February 2019
Monday, 24 December 2018
Archbishop Thabo's Christmas sermon, 2018
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| (Photo: St George's Cathedral) |
Isaiah 62:6-12, Psalm 97, Titus 3:4-7, Luke 2:(1-7), 8-20 or John 1:1-14
May I speak in the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Welcome to this beautiful service in this beautiful cathedral among multitudes of God's beautiful children, all of us made in God's image. This is one of my favourite nights of the year, a night on which I feel a certain magic. I'm not sure whether it's the spirit of kindness I feel emanating from all of you, or the joy I see in the eyes of our children, but whatever it is, this time of year always puts a smile on my face, especially when the sun goes down and the night comes alive with the twinkling of the Christmas lights.
And this Christmas, I also feel a renewed energy in our country, a little like the way I felt when our children took us a few weeks ago to the Global Citizens' music festival in Johannesburg. (Although I have to admit that I couldn't stay long enough to watch Beyoncé!!) This Christmas, I believe we’re about to re-enter a new age, an era where we define the new South Africa.
Sunday, 30 September 2018
To the Laos - To the People of God - Appeal for the people of South Sudan
Dear People of God
The
suffering and challenges of the church elsewhere in Africa turned my
schedule upside down for a week last month. Returning from a
meeting of the Standing Committee
of the Anglican Consultative Council in London, I had to urgently fly
to Nairobi at the request of the Council of Anglican Provinces of
Africa (CAPA).
There I joined other
church leaders at the headquarters of the All Africa Conference of
Churches (AACC) for an emergency meeting on the situations in the
Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. Both countries have
been plagued by instability and strife in recent years, and both face
huge challenges in the coming months. In the DR Congo, President
Kabila has at last agreed to step down and hold elections in
December, and now unity
and reconciliation are an important priority of the
church.
When I first became a
bishop, I did my month-long “baby bishop” training course in
Malawi with the person who now leads the church in South Sudan,
Archbishop Justin Badi Arama. Ever since, I have prayed for him, his
church and for the freedom of his country. I rejoiced when they
attained independence in 2011, but the promise soon evaporated. Two
years later, after they had only tasted freedom and independence, two
factions of the ruling alliance fell out, and I
have previously mentioned the civil war which broke
out as a result.
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| Anglicans in South Sudan (Photo: Jesse Zink, Montreal Diocesan Theological College) |
A few days before we
gathered in Nairobi, the national
youth coordinator for the Episcopal Church of South Sudan was shot
and killed when his vehicle was sprayed with bullets.
At the meeting I listened to stories of interventions by local
dioceses to try to end the conflict in this resource-rich country.
The refrain was that all those born after 1955, when the
first of the civil wars started, are children of war,
that they have lived in war but they are determined not to die in
war. As we met, peace
talks had resumed in Addis Ababa and there was great
expectation that a new agreement would be signed. This indeed
happened soon after we wrapped up our meeting but in
the past agreements have come unstuck so there is still great
trepidation – there are international, regional and local actors
who do not want peace, because conflict has better dividends for
them. At our meeting in Nairobi, we looked at ways in which the
region could accompany the church in South Sudan and how the
AACC can help the county understand and live in freedom.
Upon my return to Cape
Town, I asked clergy – and now through this Ad Laos I ask you as
parishioners: please help me put together prayers, Bible verses and
pictures as a resource for daily prayer for peace and freedom in
South Sudan, beginning at Advent and running for a full year through
to Advent 2019. You don’t need to be a professional, or ordained,
or a leader in your parish to contribute: whether it's a line, a
poem, a sentence, a song or a picture, just write it down and help
your archbishop to pray effectively for this country.
The Ven Terry Lester is
ACSA's official representative on South Sudan, so you may want to
arrange a special meeting or day of prayer with him or others. Since
I arrived at Bishopscourt, I have had a group of intercessors who
join us regularly for worship – you may also want to also explore
having a group of intercessors from the Diocese to pray for peace,
justice and progress in South Sudan in their and our lifetimes. Yes,
we have our own unresolved social issues of poverty, land, racism,
unemployment, inequality of opportunity, crime and others, but I am
asking that we also focus on and include these children of God in our
prayers. Prayer enables peace within and then we can share this with
South Sudan.
At a personal level, I
am happy to have Manala, my wife Lungi, back after she did a 30-day
individually guided retreat with the Jesuits at their retreat centre
at St Lucia in KwaZulu-Natal. I have burnt a couple of her pots as I
attempted to cook whilst focused on reading, answering emails etc at
the same time. I now appreciate her ability to multi-task without
burning things!
Please continue to pray
for our church and its response to what God is up to in his world.
Also pray not only for South Sudan and the DR Congo, but for other
conflict areas as well, and especially Syria.
†Thabo Cape Town
[As published in the October issue of Good Hope, newsletter of the Diocese of Cape Town]
Thursday, 23 June 2016
To the Laos - To the People of God - June 2016
To the Laos - To the People of God - June 2016
Dear People of God
We face a busy time in the Province in the coming months. The recent Elective Assembly of the Diocese of Christ the King delegated to the Synod of Bishops the choice of a new bishop to succeed Bishop Peter Lee. So the bishops must now choose new bishops for both Niassa and Christ the King at their next meeting at the end of September. Please pray for us as we consider these choices.
Immediately after the Synod of Bishops meets, we will have our three-yearly Provincial Synod. Please pray for the planning process for Provincial Synod, which brings together the whole body of Christ in our church in Angola, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, the island of St Helena and Swaziland. Looking beyond our Province, the body of Christ as represented by Anglicans across Africa will meet in Kigali, Rwanda in August, when we will have a meeting of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA). Pray for this meeting too, and for the election of a successor to the CAPA chair, Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi of Burundi. Beyond Africa, please pray for the Gafcon grouping of Anglican churches and, indeed, for the whole Communion.
Both the Communion and our own Province continue to face the historic challenge posted by the debate around human sexuality. It is a painful issue both for those who support the traditional position on marriage and for those who wish to introduce changes. In our Province, the bishops are committed to ongoing dialogue and conversations around the issue, and I urge those who have not yet read my pastoral letter after the last Synod of Bishops to read it here.
The Second Agenda Book for Provincial Synod will include a resolution on the matter. Please begin to pray about this issue, reflecting on your own sexuality, on your understanding of the sexual orientations of others and on what might constitute a godly, pastoral, biblical and just way of dealing with this matter, taking us to a place beyond where we are now, in which those on both sides of the debate seem to be locked into our positions. I don't want to pre-empt our discussions at Provincial Synod here, but just be aware that this debate is on the agenda. I encourage you to ask your representatives to consult as widely as possible in your diocesan and parish preparations for Synod.
However, I should say immediately that I don’t want the issue of sexuality to dominate our thinking as we view the Communion, and especially as we consider the welfare of our sisters and brothers in other parts of our continent. I have recently been reading material from the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD), in Durban, and the situation in the Great Lakes Region is very worrying. Pray particularly for the Democratic Republic of Congo—for an end to conflict in the east, for their planned elections and for their rulers as it appears elections might be delayed and the President’s term of office extended. Madiba’s role in brokering a previous settlement there makes the fate of the Congolese people of special concern to us. As you consider the issues to be dealt with by Provincial Synod, please pray for the Synod using the prayer which appears at the end of this letter.
In South Africa, we are scheduled to have heavily-contested municipal elections in August. It is against that backdrop that I joined other religious leaders recently to witness party leaders and the IEC staff signing the Electoral Code of Conduct in Cape Town. At the signing, the IEC pledged to be transparent and accountable as they work to ensure a free and fair environment for elections. Parties also pledged to play their part. Among the commitments which the Code imposes on parties and candidates are that they undertake:
• Not to use language which provokes violence,
• Not to intimidate voters,
• Not to publish false information about other candidates or parties,
• Not to bribe others to vote for a party,
• Not to deface or remove posters, and
• Not to carry weapons.
Preaching at St Luke’s, Salt River, in Cape Town earlier this month, I regretted the fact that in some provinces of the country we have seen an upsurge in what are said to be political killings. I appeal to all Anglicans to take seriously our civic responsibilities: to vote and to take action if you see any signs of the Code being breached.
In Cape Town, news has come in of the passing of Bishop Charles Albertyn, formerly Bishop Suffragan and a Regional Bishop in the Diocese. His funeral will be on Saturday June 25. We remember Bishop Charles for his deep spirituality and centredness on God, and for the deep wisdom and quick wit he brought to the leadership of the Diocese. We convey the Province’s heartfelt condolences to Berenice and the Albertyn family.
Please offer your prayers for all the situations I have mentioned in this letter in the spirit of St Paul, where he says so beautifully in 1 Corinthians 12, that “all the members of the body, though many, are one body...” and “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it.”
God bless you
†Thabo Cape Town
Collect for Provincial Synod
Bounteous God
You provide all that is needed to proclaim your
Kingdom to the nations in our generation:
Grant us
the wisdom to discern the available resources,
the means to develop the people you are calling, and
the humility and strength to commit to the task before us;
through Jesus Christ who has revealed the Kingdom to us
and in the power of the Holy Spirit who drives us into your world.
Amen
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