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

Dear People of God

Many of us have enjoyed time with our children during the school holidays, despite the cold and wintry weather! Talking with my own children, and listening to their hopes and aspirations, has again underlined for me the importance of education – both in schools, colleges and university, and nurturing within the family of the church. We are called to be trained in living the Christian life, in following Jesus’ call and example in faithful obedience, in ‘growing in knowledge and love of God and of his Son’, and in reflecting all that God is in Christ for us by his Spirit, in the totality of our lives. In Jesus, the Teacher, we see how we too should teach and mentor those who are young in years or young in the faith: listening to their concerns, carefully explaining, and also giving them ‘parables’ to prompt them to learn for themselves how to apply the principles of faith to the many and varied circumstances of life that come our way.

One of the NGOs with which I am proud to be associated is ‘Equal Education’, which works for quality education to be made available to every South African child. They are one of many bodies working across our Province in this important area. Earlier in July I was privileged to speak at EE’s first ‘Congress’, which marked a new phase as those who launched the NGO bring those whom it is designed to help into consultations about how to focus its work, and into its leadership structures. A wide range of people, including educators and learners, were at this energy-filled gathering.

We should always go forward with hope, despite the many problems within our education systems. It is tragic that there are still schools without adequate buildings or other facilities, and scandals like the delivery of Limpopo’s textbooks. It is also shocking to hear of teachers who turn up late or drunk, or fail their learners in other ways – and then even boast of being protected by their unions against any form of discipline for their inadequacies. But instead of getting downhearted, we should roll up our sleeves and do what we can to make a change for the better. Most of all, we should not lose the vision of educational excellence for every child of our Province. This must be our goal, and we should encourage our societies to insist that we will not settle for anything less.

In all life, if we keep our vision at the heart of our thinking, talking, planning, it will be the magnet that draws us in the direction in which we want and need to go. Behavioural scientists today tell us that to focus on our goals is far more effective than letting what is holding us back dominate our lives and drag us down. This should come as no surprise: St Paul said much the same, in his letter to the Philippians, writing: ‘Whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things’ (Phil 4:8).

This principle underlies our Provincial vision – our desire that to be a Christian community ‘Anchored in the love of Christ, Committed to God’s Mission, and Transformed by the Holy Spirit.’ Holding the vision before us will help PSC guide our common life, as we meet in September. Do pray for PSC, and consider coming to the Anglicans Ablaze conference in October. For both those who are coming, and those who cannot make it – for ALL of you! – I commend the ACSA Vision and Mission Study Guide produced by Growing the Church, which can be used for a sermon series and in small groups, to help us all explore the rich fruits the Vision promises within our own contexts. The materials can be downloaded at http://www.anglicansablaze.org.

Theological education, for training ordinands, and supporting those already ordained, and lay people too who are the bedrock of so much of the life of the church, is also one of the key priorities in planning for the future. We need to consider our targets, strategies and tactics – learning from the effective approach of Equal Education. I have been heartened by the positive initial response to appeals to support the work of COTT, as well as to local initiatives such as the Archbishop’s Educational Endowment Fund in the Diocese of Cape Town. But strengthening theological education is a long term project, and will need support for many years to come: so, thank you to those who have made donations; and may I encourage many more of you to include this in your giving.

The coming months see 4 elective assemblies: I’ve just returned from Swaziland where Revd Ellinah Wamukoya was elected – the first woman in our Province, indeed in Africa, to be chosen as Bishop! We congratulate her! Please prayer for her as she prepares for this great responsibility. It is particularly apt that Swaziland should take this step, as it was in Swaziland in 1992 that Provincial Synod opened the door to the priesthood and episcopate equally to men and women. There are then elections in the Free State in August, Johannesburg in September, and False Bay in October. These underline the need for ably trained men and women to lead our Province at every level. Please pray for the elective assemblies, and the life of our Dioceses.

As I travel around, I never cease to thank God for the ways in which the priorities we discerned for Provincial action are so often reflected and being implemented in Diocesan life, strengthening the synergies between the various levels of the life of the Province. I’ve just had the delight of sharing with the Diocese of George in their centenary celebrations. Though they have faced serious challenges in recent years, the diocese is alive and building on strong foundations as it moves forward. I congratulate Bishop Brian and his team. I am looking forward to visiting Angola in August.

Please continue to pray for those Dioceses facing difficulties, especially Umzimvubu and Pretoria, as we seek to support them through the careful pastoral frameworks set out in our Canons. I’m happy to say that next year our newly revived Canon Law Society will hold a summit to look at how we can best use the Canons to serve the life of the Church, and consider producing a manual to guide us all. Canons should be our ‘good servants’, supporting prayerful, pastoral discernment, indaba and dialogue, when problems arise. They are not there to promote taking legalistic stances – as St Paul warns the Corinthians (1 Cor 6)! In wider society too, legal battles too often provide answers that divide, rather than building up, communities and nations. I’m therefore glad to be part of the ‘Finding ways to walk together’ initiative that promotes dialogue for handling difficult questions, including race, class, sexuality and so on. We need to maintain the biblical vision of nations united in seeking the good of all, which speak out against corruption and all that demeans us.

Yours in the Service of Christ,

+Thabo Cape Town

Centenary of the Diocese of George

The following sermons was preached at the special service on 15 July 2012, celebrating the Centenary of the founding of the Diocese of George.

2 Sam 7:18-29; Eph 1:1-10; Mk 6:7-13

May I speak in the name of God, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing, choosing us before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.

Dear people of God of the Diocese of George, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let me say again what a delight it is to share with you in celebrating the centenary of this Diocese. Thank you, Bishop Brian and Lynn as well as your family, for your invitation and warm welcome. Thank you, to everyone involved in the celebrations of this weekend, and in today’s service – whether in preparations, taking part, or in those invaluable but often invisible tasks behind the scenes. Thank you too all of you.

Especially in winter, it is, I know, a standing joke amongst Capetonians, that the car number-plates of George, CAW, describe the weather: Cold And Wet. But no matter what the weather, it is always a joy to find oneself here – or anywhere along the Garden Route – and in the astounding beauty of the Southern Cape. God has certainly blessed this part of the world! And we are here today to give thanks for so many blessings from his hand, over the last century, to this diocese.

In our first reading, we heard how King David asked the question ‘Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?’ We in our turn, might ask ourselves a similar question – as a way of recalling the faithfulness of God in bringing us ‘thus far’, over the last one hundred years. God has done so many great things in the time since the establishment of the Diocese on St George’s Day 1911; and since Henry Bindley Sidwell, then Archdeacon of Pretoria, was elected as the first Bishop of George – and so became the first South African-born person to become a Bishop in South Africa.

There are so many blessings, achievements, and highlights, for which to give thanks. While the boundaries have changed from time to time, the Diocese has grown enormously since a mere 21 clergy attended the very first Synod in 1912 – whether counted in terms of clergy, parishes, churches and other buildings, mission schools, Boards or other organisations. Would those few people – few men, indeed – ever have imagined such a vast and diverse gathering as we are today!

Over the years, this has been one of the strongest, most populous Dioceses, in terms of the numbers in our pews. We thank God for the great faithfulness of so many people, over so many years, through so much change and challenge. In the midst of turmoil – turmoil in the nation, and sometimes turmoil also within the Church – God has cherished this Diocese, and blessed it, and made it, and its people, a blessing to the wider church and to the world.

And so today we remember, with thanks, Bishop Derek Damant, who was such a key figure in the Liturgical Commission of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa, as we then called it. We owe a particular debt of gratitude to his contribution in steering the Anglican Prayer Book of 1989 to completion. We also give thanks for Bishop Donald Harker, for his time as principal of St Bede’s, which shaped the formation of so many faithful clergy across our Province. We are grateful indeed to this diocese for its contribution to the Province.

I especially, recall in 1987, addressing about 500 youth members of this diocese as ASF President, in Hartenbos, where I met some of you then when we were all young and courageous. I learnt a lot from that conference and was even asked to share my experiences of here with the provincial team that went to an International youth conference in Belfast. We give thanks too for another son of the Diocese, Justus Marcus, who became the first black dean of Kimberley Cathedral, and then, though briefly before his early death, Bishop of Saldanha Bay. Anyone hearing his interventions in Provincial Synod or Standing Committee would have gone away touched by his ability to combine intellectual insight with spiritual depth.

Of course, the impact of George and its people goes far beyond the Church, and the beauty of the Garden Route – it extends, let me say, even as far as Idols winner Elvis Blue!

And it is not just for the last century that we have much cause to be grateful. We can also look further back. George Town was one of the few villages in which the Government had placed a Colonial Chaplain to serve the English-speaking community, though they held services in the Dutch Church. In 1848 the congregation opened a subscription to collect funds for their own church. That was the year Bishop Gray arrived in the Cape. The next year he and his wife Sophy made their first visitation to George. Not only was the Archdeaconry of George established, but Sophy laid the foundation stone of what is now St Mark’s Cathedral – one of the many churches that Bishop Robert and Sophy Gray encouraged and established across the Southern Cape. Indeed, we can look back even further, and give thanks across two centuries – to the founding of the district of George itself, on 23 April, St George’s Day, 1811.

Thank you Lord, for your journey with us over these 100 yrs. We all know that the last few years have been difficult for this Diocese; and that Bishop Brian was elected and consecrated after a very painful period. And so it is entirely right that these celebrations should have been scheduled only once he – and all of you in the Diocesan family – had time properly to make a good new beginning. It is my fervent prayer that today’s celebrations should be part of that good new beginning. They should be part of acknowledging, not hiding our painful past, but accepting that God can work his purposes even through our difficult past. We can trust in our faithful God who not only is ‘the same: yesterday, today and forever’, but who is also the one who ‘makes all things new’. His redemptive work is endlessly at work among his people, and within his church.

This is the assurance contained within our second reading. God has indeed blessed us – but, more than this, in love he has chosen us, to be his children through adoption. This is ‘the good pleasure of his will’. You, the people of George Diocese, are special in his sight. In love he has chosen you; in love he has redeemed you through the blood of Jesus Christ; in love he forgives all your trespasses. And, having done all this, he does more! He lavishes on you – he gives without measure, without holding back – he lavishes on you the riches of his grace!

This is his promise, as you look ahead. Perhaps you can grasp the concept of a coming century across which he will make manifest that blessing of glorious grace. But perhaps it is the coming year or two which seem to bring the biggest challenges, as all of you together find a new sense of belonging together, and together learning how to live out this calling to be holy and blameless before God in love.

Dear people of God of George Diocese, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, do not be troubled. Remember the promises of God, who will indeed continue to pour out every spiritual blessing; who will reveal to you the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure. Remember that, whatever else, you need only trust in him.

This is the lesson of the gospel reading. Our gospel reading tells how Jesus, after calling his disciples, sent them out, two by two; ordering them to take nothing with them, but to live by faith. Later on, when Jesus sent them to make disciples of all nations, they would go with staff and bread and bag and money and spare clothes. Yet – as we know from the recording of this first sending out in all three of the synoptic gospels – they never forgot their beginning, the foundation of their calling and vocation. They never forgot that, though these other things would help them, they were not what was central; they were not where the disciples found their identity, they were not what they truly relied upon. It was Jesus himself – he called them, he sent them, they went on his terms to share his message of good news for the world.

It is the same for us – it is the same for you in this Diocese. What matters most, for all of you, is God’s call, God’s sending and equipping; and, through it all, God’s love and God’s faithfulness. For you are his chosen ones, according to the good pleasure of his will – so go forth, and live, as he has called you, for his praise and for his glory! Amen

Archbishop Thabo Makgoba's Charge to the Provincial Synod of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa

‘Anchored in the Love of Christ, Committed to God’s Mission, Transformed by the Holy Spirit’

Habakkuk 2:1-4, ^*Gal 6:1-10, Luke 4:1-13

Introduction

May I speak in the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, members of Synod, distinguished guests

– I greet you in the precious name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and welcome you to the thirty-second session of the Provincial Synod of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa.

I extend a particular welcome to our invited guests – and especially to you, my dear brother from Haiti, Bishop Jean-Zaché Duracin. May your time with us be a time of growing and deepening partnership in the gospel.

A special welcome also to you, who are at Synod for the first time. I hope you will quickly feel at home among our processes and procedures, and able to make a full contribution.

We also greet Dr Mamphela Ramphele, thanking God for her years of faithful service, for which it is our privilege to honour her today with the Order of St Simon of Cyrene.

On the Feast of St Michael and All Angels, we ask God to send his holy angels to watch over us, and keep us safe in the centre of his will, throughout our time together.

May he bless and guide us, may he strengthen and inspire us with his vision, so that we may be his faithful instruments in the building up of his Church, and in his mission to his world.

God’s Vision for God’s Church in God’s World

Let me begin by thanking all those who have helped in preparing this Charge – first, as always, Lungi and my children, who have put up with weeks of inattention!

I also thank the Bishopscourt staff, my brother Bishops, and everyone who has contributed reflections, reports and other input.

This Charge is a collegial effort intended to reflect the perspectives, concerns and activities, of our whole Province.

The theme of both Charge and Synod, is the Vision offered by Provincial Standing Committee: that we, as the Anglican community in Southern Africa, seek to be:

• Anchored – in the love of Christ
• Committed – to God’s mission
• Transformed – by the Holy Spirit.

The context for our response to God’s vision, is provided by the prophet Habakkuk:

‘I will stand at my watch-post, and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me’.

Jesus similarly began his ministry with prayer and fasting in the wilderness.

Now we in turn come away together to seek the Lord, following our own forebears’ example.

Exactly 140 years ago, in 1870, our first Provincial Synod met, and laid the foundations of our Constitution and Canons, on which all subsequent generations have built.

Let me pay specific tribute to the legacy of my two immediate predecessors.

We wish ‘Arch Desmond’, and Ma Leah, many peaceful, joyful, restful, years ahead as he retires from public life.

We also thank God for Archbishop Njongo, for it was on his watch that the 2002 and 2005 Provincial Synods affirmed a commitment to developing a Vision Statement: a renewed expression of our identity and calling in the new era before us.

In my Installation Charge, I spoke of our need to

quote ‘seek afresh to discover what it is to be the body of Christ in our time, and who God is in Jesus Christ, for us here and now’ unquote.

Since June 2008 Ms Glenda Wildschut has chaired this process. Thank you, Glenda, and everyone who has worked with you.

Now PSC has challenged us to be:

· Anchored – in the love of Christ,

· Committed – to God’s mission,

· Transformed – by the Holy Spirit.

This call from God echoes throughout Scripture.

First, being anchored in the love of God, made manifest in Jesus Christ:

• Habakkuk tells us to wait on the Lord;
• St Paul speaks of ensuring we fulfil the law of Christ, of loving one another as he has loved us;
• Jesus declares that we live not by bread alone (but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord as in Deuteronomy 8:3).

Second, being committed to God, and to his mission:

• so we persevere, waiting on the Lord for his appointed time [says Habbakuk];
• we do not grow tired of doing good [St Paul];
• [and, as Jesus says,] we worship the Lord and serve only him, who alone has authority over all the kingdoms, all the nations, every part, of the whole world.

Third, being transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit at work within us, so others, too, may be transformed:

• we must not be like the proud, who do not have a right spirit within them, says Habakkuk;
• we must follow St Paul, sowing the Spirit so that we reap eternal life, for ourselves and others;
• like Jesus, we must let the Spirit inspire us, so our words and our actions may have eternal significance – so we bear the fruit that truly lasts (John 15:16).

Upon this basis of being Anchored, Committed, Transformed, we have developed this Mission Statement:

Across the diverse countries and cultures of our region, we seek:

• To honour God in worship that feeds and empowers us for faithful witness and service
• To embody and proclaim the message of God’s redemptive hope and healing for people and creation
• To grow communities of faith that form, inform, and transform those who follow Christ

Believing this is the task to which we are called, we seek God’s guidance on how we put flesh upon these bones and make them live – asking him to breathe into them the life of his Spirit (as we read in Chapter 37 of the book of the prophet Ezekiel).

Like Habakkuk, we await the Lord’s answer – an answer for us to make plain, quote ‘so a runner can read it’ unquote, for sharing clearly across this Province.

So we identified eight priority areas, and asked task teams to look at how the Province can support Diocesan life.

As you discuss their reports, do not lose sight of the overarching context – that it is God’s vision for God’s church that we are trying to implement through them.

This is very different from the way that the world around us does so much of its planning – which reflects Jesus’ temptations remarkably closely.

For we are not seeking the vision of business, investors and economists: trying to maximise material gain – turning stones into bread.

Nor are we seeking the vision of politicians: focussing on power – the status and authority of the kingdoms of this world.

Nor are we seeking the vision of celebrity, of fame and popularity – preaching whatever so-called gospel best pulls in the crowds.

No. We trust ourselves to the God whose strength is made perfect in weakness; and worship him alone, who provides the bread of life with which we feed the hungry.

Being truly Anchored, Committed, Transformed, means holding fast to Christ’s love, the Father’s mission and the Spirit’s powerful directing.

This is the heart of the agenda for this Synod.

But we must also look beyond our own walls.

A self-absorbed, self-sufficient, church is soon a dead church, as the Church in Laodicea is warned in the Revelation to St John.

So, after addressing our common life and priority themes, I will consider our role:

· within broader Christian and faith communities;

· within the Anglican Communion;

· and within the nations of our Province and the wider world.

ACSA Priorities

Our eight priority areas are:

• Liturgical renewal for transformative development
• Theological education
• Leadership formation
• Health, including HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria
• The environment
• Women and gender
• Protection and nurture of children and young people
• Public advocacy

Two further themes – transformation, and holistic mission rooted in a full commitment to evangelism – run through and undergird all these, rather than being matters to address separately.

We must also keep in mind the imperatives of justice and reconciliation, gender equality, poverty, and youth.

Many of these themes relate to the daily bread-and-butter of Christian life and Christian leadership.

These include urgent needs to nurture young Christians and to encourage vocations – especially to the ordained and religious life, and particularly among our young people.

We must also train clergy and lay leaders; and develop a new generation of theological educators for the future.

But:

· unless we faithfully uphold daily Morning and Evening prayer,

· unless we root ourselves in Scripture,

· unless we feed regularly on the body and blood of Christ,

· unless we rely only and always upon God’s leading and God’s strengthening,

we are no better than any secular organisation.

For our calling is to be channels of the transcendent power of God: his healing, his hope, his redemption, to his world.

Only those who are truly Anchored in his love, and Committed to his mission, can be agents of his Transforming promises.

Our Spiritual Calling

Liturgical renewal is therefore vital.

Worship brings us close to God. We grow as Christians, and find our identity as Anglicans, through our relationship with him, more than anything else.

All of us, laity and clergy alike, must grow in discipleship if we are to respond faithfully to God’s call.

The disciplines of spiritual formation are not an option.

Therefore we need residential training alongside diocesan schemes.

I thank Revd Canon Dr Bill Domeris, and Revd Canon Dr Peter Wyngaard, for all they have done, at the College of the Transfiguration, and the Anglican House of Studies.

We also wish Bill and Shona every blessing as he retires at the end of the year.

I am glad to announce that Revd Prof Barney Pityana has been appointed interim Rector of COTT from 1 January 2011; with a specific mandate to oversee COTT’s registration with the Council of Higher Education.

We must also help laity to apply a mature faith in every walk of life – especially those in positions of responsibility, whether

• in government and public service;
• in the judiciary, or the media;
• in the education and health sectors;
• in business and wealth creation;
• or in local community organisations

– so all can truly be salt and light.

Church Leadership

While, within the church, we are not called to operate in the same way as secular leadership, we must certainly draw on the best examples, the highest standards, of the world around.

Everyone to whom responsibility is trusted – clergy, wardens, diocesan staff, members of boards at every level, and especially where financial matters are concerned – must combine the highest ethical codes with the best of professional expertise.

We cannot afford – literally, as well as metaphorically – to be well-intentioned amateurs.

So we must, for example, follow the advice of King-III, in respect of good governance, accountability, transparency and honesty – as well as upholding all canonical obligations.

In this light, the Provincial Treasurer, Mr Rob Rogerson, reports that the Provincial Finance Sub-committee has been looking at the structures of our accounts, at better disclosure, and increasing transparency and understanding.

This is vital for examining whether we have value for money in our spending – and also ensuring our spending patterns reflect our real priorities, and are geared towards our mission and ministry goals, including our Vision.

Travel is one area requiring particular attention.

Budgets are set through juggling Provincial needs against Diocesan abilities to contribute.

In the last five years, meetings and associated travel, especially by air, have cost significantly more than planned, and overruns carry forward with a ripple effect.

In part, this is as a result of our successes – such as the birth of new dioceses, for which we thank God.

But each new Diocese means extra delegates, which is expensive.

We must also be mindful when electing members to various in-house and ecumenical bodies: that we are sensitive to the geographical location of meetings, to minimise costs.

We thank Rob and his staff for their hard work – not least in seeing the Pension Funds safely through the credit crunch.

Upholding God’s Best

Sometimes in church life we fall short of what is expected of us.

When this happens, we must also follow best practice.

Therefore I am particularly grateful to Bishop Peter Lee – with the Provincial Registrar and the Deputy Registrar – for bringing to Synod draft measures to update and improve our canons on the Tenure of Clergy, and Ecclesiastical Tribunals.

The Church has a very special relationship with its clergy, as well as all those entrusted to their care. We therefore need structures and practices that safeguard both, as far as possible.

In my August letter ‘To the Laos – to the People of God’, I set out more fully what this means.

Ours is a God of infinite mercy and infinite justice – but not of ‘cheap grace’. While God’s offer of forgiveness is without limit, we must also take responsibility for our actions where this is appropriate.

So we must always act with honesty and transparency; promoting fairness and restorative justice; not brushing things under the carpet but ensuring proper procedures take their course.

We have a weighty responsibility to be God’s salt, God’s light, in his world.

To this end, we hold the Diocese of George in our particular prayers, as legal and civil procedures are pursued. These are very painful, but we must face them honesty and openly.

Growth and Development

But, thanks be to God, the great majority of our clergy are deeply faithful, doing so very much, for such little reward.

Thanks to your dedication, we enjoy many signs of growth – both in numbers, and in spiritual depth – around our Province.

We thank God for the building of his kingdom in this way. I have already mentioned new Dioceses – False Bay, Saldanha Bay, Ukhahlamba and Mbhashe since our 2005 Synod. I am sure they will not be the last.

Earlier this year, I enjoyed attending the Anglican Students’ Federation’s 50th anniversary celebrations, and earlier this month the Provincial Youth Council Consultation.

No-one meeting our young people could ever believe the accusation that Anglicans are dead, and don’t know the vibrant life of the Holy Spirit!

We must listen to God speaking through them, taking to heart St Paul’s words to Timothy that he should not let those who are older look down on him (1 Timothy 4:12).

Children and Young People

Did you know that about a quarter, 27%, of the world’s population is aged 15 or under?

Within ACSA, though that figure is only 19% in St Helena, elsewhere it ranges from 32%, about a third, in South Africa, rising to 46%, close to a half, in Angola.

Children are not merely the church of tomorrow, they are the church of today. Nurturing our young people, not only spiritually, is therefore a vital priority.

This goal must inform every debate we have. Frankly, Synod is appallingly unrepresentative on this score!

Gender

We are also hugely unrepresentative in relation to gender.

As one motion notes, women constitute the majority in our pews, but the reverse is true at every level of leadership, lay and ordained. And I must admit that one of my dreams is to consecrate a woman bishop for our Province!

We are particularly blessed that so many women make a disproportionate contribution, as individuals, lay and ordained, and through bodies like the Mothers’ Union and Anglican Women’s Fellowship. Thank you, to all of you.

I am very glad that we have now established the Gender Desk, and we welcome Revd Cheryl Bird.

Please note that it is a Gender desk, not a Women’s desk.

The roles of men and women alike, of every culture, were distorted by apartheid.

We need to develop appropriate spiritualities for us all, for contemporary living – that are also channels of healing for the legacies of our brutalising history.

I want to name one unmentionable area that we must dare to tackle: the dehumanising effect of conscription on a generation of young men – barely more than boys.

Many are still wounded from that time, and need to be able to speak and find healing.

Our society makes this almost impossible. But before Jesus there are no taboo subjects.

I also want to challenge the St Bernard Mizeki Guild and the Church Men’s Society to fresh reflection on what it means to be a Christian man in today’s world – especially in being actively part of the solution, to the unacceptably high levels of violence, against women and children.

Let me briefly mention the request to the Synod of Bishops, from three dioceses, to consider our pastoral care of those in same-gender Civil Unions, now legal under South African law, and those in polygamous relationships.

A working group prepared papers for an initial discussion in the Synod of Bishops.

This is a very sensitive matter, with wide-ranging implications (ranging from baptism policies to legal obligations), and we are going to proceed slowly, ‘on our knees’. Please keep us in your prayers.

Health and Social Development

Let me now turn to the remarkable work we are doing as a Province in areas of social development and health, especially HIV and AIDS, malaria and TB.

I must pay considerable tribute to Bishop David Beetge for his dedication here, as in so many other areas. During Synod we shall miss his wisdom, experience, deep spirituality, and his generous humour keenly. We thank God for his life, and send Carol our love and prayers.

We also thank God for Bishop Les Walker, and send Marian our love and prayers.

We send heartfelt condolences to the family of Judge Tholakele Madala, giving thanks for his wise counsel as Deputy Chancellor of the Province, and within the Diocese of Mthatha.

Names of other members of Synod who have died since our last meeting will appear in the record.

Both the Anglican AIDS and Healthcare Trust, and Hope Africa have had to weather the global economic storms and face reductions in funding.

I thank Bishops Jo Seoka and Merwyn Castle, as well as Mr Sabelo Mashwama and Canon Delene Mark, and their teams, for all they continue to achieve, in partnership with our Dioceses.

Hope Africa’s move to the same site as the Trust will, I hope, enable synergies that help maximise the efficient use of resources.

Yet the church’s greatest resource, and its greatest treasure, will always remains its people: so developing capacity, and empowering volunteers, remains central to our strategy.

This will be at the heart of next month’s South African National Conference on Religion and Public Health, of which the Minister of Health and I are joint patrons.

Our focus is ‘Comprehensive Educational Role in Primary Health Care – Strengthening Responses to Preventable Diseases’.

I also encourage our private sectors to fill gaps left by withdrawing international donors.

Companies should look beyond using social responsibility programmes to leverage advertising opportunities, and focus where needs are greatest.

The World Around Us

This brings me to the Church’s role beyond our walls, and our need to speak truth to power, and to pursue social justice and good governance in every form.

Let me mention two particular concerns within our Province, where we cannot remain silent.

The first is democracy within Swaziland, where power and wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few, and political debate is hardly permitted.

Bishop Meshack, our whole Province stands in solidarity with you, as you declare Christ’s gospel of good news to the poor and liberty to the oppressed.

The second is the freedom of the press within South Africa, where the Protection of Information Bill actually threatens to undermine a range of Constitutional rights.

Raising our voices so our message is heard, is often best done in partnership with others, especially Christians, and those of other faiths.

One such body is the South African Council of Churches. We congratulate Bishop Jo on his recent election as President.

This is a big task, as the SACC works on re-finding its focus and voice, which is so vital within South Africa’s public life.

We thank Bishops Jo and Peter, and everyone else who represents our Province, in ecumenical and other bodies – including the Church Unity Commission, with whom we are challenged to consider how we can deepen our common life.

We also look forward to the 3rd Lausanne Congress in Cape Town later this month; and particularly the pre-conference meeting of Anglican participants, which is being jointly run by the Anglican Communion’s Evangelism and Church Growth Initiative, and our own Growing the Church team.

There is time only to speak briefly of other events around our world.

Christ called us to love our neighbours as ourselves, and we must continue to hold Zimbabwe, and the Anglican church there, in our particular prayers.

I remain in close touch with the Bishop of Harare, offering what support we can; and am thankful for Bishop Rubin’s pastoral care and support for Zimbabweans.

The presence of Bishop Duracin reminds us we must not forget the plight of Haiti.

Following the accounts that I and Revd Canon Robert Butterworth wrote of our visit following the devastating earthquake, I am glad to report that we are establishing partnership links between schools; and have agreed to train a Haitian cleric for 3 years at COTT and a further year at the Anglican House of Studies.

We must also ‘think global and act local’ in relation to safeguarding our planet; doing what we can within our homes and churches, our communities, and our work-places.

We must also press for a comprehensive and just outcome at COP17 – the UN’s 17th Conference of the Parties, on Climate Change – being held in South Africa next year.

The Anglican Communion

In his Pentecost letter to the Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, speaks of us as having ‘not fully received the Pentecostal gift of mutual understanding for common mission’.

The differences that focus around questions of human sexuality continue to be very real, very difficult.

ACSA must contribute what we can to the painful debate, not least from our own experiences of dealing with vast diversity.

I am therefore glad that ACSA was effectively represented at the Global South 4th Encounter earlier this year, and that 10 Bishops attended the All African Anglican Bishops Conference in Uganda last month.

For us, what has mattered most is:

· being centred on Christ;

· agreeing on the central matters of who Jesus is and the salvation he brings;

· and therefore recognising one another as being united in him, and, in consequence, with each other.

In consequence, as we have found within the Synod of Bishops, when differences arise, none of us feels called to say to another ‘I no longer consider you a Christian, a brother in Christ, a member of the body of Christ – I am no longer in communion with you.’

It is as if we see the marks of the living Christ, who is also the suffering Christ, in one another and in our common life.

We find ourselves more closely bound together in our soreness, as we await the power of the resurrection within our painful circumstances.

My prayer is that the Covenant can help the whole Communion rediscover one another in Christ, encountering him at the foot of the cross in this way.

We must not expect the Covenant to be perfect, or deliver instant solutions to shattered relationships.

But it certainly offers a way of affirming our desire to live together as Provinces, within our global family: through an autonomy that is neither imposed uniformity, nor unbounded independence.

Rather, we seek appropriate interdependence, lived in ‘bonds of affection’.

It is, you might say, a framework for expressing St Paul’s apparent paradox of both bearing one another’s burdens, and carrying our own loads!

We need to share our unique experiences of letting Christ hold us together in difference, within the life of the Covenant, and help it to work as well as possible.

Meanwhile, we must not divert time and energy from the core mission and ministry of the Anglican Communion, including the functioning of its Instruments of Communion, commissions, networks and other bodies.

This includes, for example, the Mission to Seamen, where we should take greater ownership of the opportunities afforded us.

Here let me thank Bishop Paddy Glover, liaison Bishop for the Mission to Seaman, for all he does as Dean of the Province, especially in supporting me.

We look forward to welcoming to Cape Town the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order in November, and congratulate the Revd Sarah Rowland Jones – our Synod preacher, and my researcher – on her appointment to the Communion’s highest ‘theological think tank’.

[Sarah is also the widow of Justus Marcus, whom old Synod and PSC hands will remember fondly for his years of service, as Dean of Kimberley then Bishop of Saldanha Bay.]

We thank Revd Canon Janet Trisk, Ms Nomfundo Walaza and her successor Mrs Louisa Mojela for representing us in the Anglican Consultative Council, and pray for Janet in her weighty responsibilities on the Communion’s Standing Committee.

Conclusion

Let me sum up this wide-ranging review of the life of our Province with a question:

What is my hope for this Synod, and the outcome of our time together?

Well, I long to see our Vision embraced enthusiastically, and for us to work hard together to breathe life into it – so that in responding to God’s call to mission, we can enhance a comprehensive response, within our Dioceses, to the many serious inter-relating spiritual and socio-economic challenges that we each face, across our vast and varied Province.

Finally, let me end with some personal reflections.

I was recently walking in the garden with my two dogs, pondering the vocation to Christian leadership.

When I sat down near the stream, two Egyptian geese rushed at me, squawking furiously. They would not stop. One even flew at my head.

Then I realised that the younger dog had a baby goose in his mouth.

Fortunately he released it unhurt, and it rejoined its brothers and sisters in the stream. We moved away and the family was reunited.

The two parent geese had fearlessly taken on what must have seemed like three giants who had come between them and their family, but they were determined to care for their children at all costs.

Since moving to Bishopscourt, I have often felt faced by giants – difficult challenges I never expected; heavy expectations laid upon me; travel to everywhere from Haiti’s devastation to the presence of Kings and Presidents.

Yet this is not because I am Thabo, but because I am God’s child, called by him to a particular task for the sake of his church, his world.

He has put around me people – family, colleagues, staff, friends – and structures (of which Morning and Evening Prayer and the daily Eucharist are central) to remind me continually that this is God’s business.

So I rely on him for courage to face the giants, and to guide me in what I say and do.

Indeed, I have become grateful that often, when I feel stretched too far, and inadequate for the task, in this way he forces me to keep depending on him.

I have found that his grace is indeed sufficient in my weakness.

He is my Anchor. To him I am Committed. And in his love, I find the Transformation I need for living out the vision he puts before me.

Let us dare to do the same, as a Province – to be Anchored, Committed and Transformed, so we may be, in Habakkuk’s words, ‘the righteous, who live by their faith.’^*

Amen