Blogging from Busan - Day One of the WCC Assembly in Korea

DAY ONE: After a long journey, we arrived at BUSAN in South Korea for the opening of the 10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) on Wednesday.

Other South Africans from ACSA include Bishop Jo Seoka of Pretoria, Canon Nangula Kathindi of Namibia, Mrs Lungi Makgoba and Professor Bev Haddad of the University of KwaZulu/Natal, all attending in various capacities.

We had a good "reunion" with other bishops and Primates from the Anglican Communion, as well as some clergy and laity, but the auditorium was too full to accommodate everyone for the opening plenary so we had to sit in the worship space and follow proceedings on a screen.

Jet-lagged and finding screens too impersonal, we decided to go to the conference's market place, where we were struck by many of the exhibitions - but chiefly by the ecumenical work which is being done for the disabled. I don't think that is an aspect of ministry which we as a province have spent much thought on, or are doing much about.

Then to the first business of the assembly, when we listened to the general secretary, the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, the moderator of the Central Committee, the Rev. Dr Walter Altmann, and other programme directors present their reports or move for their reception.

What stuck out for me was the call by most for "Just Peace". The reports gave a synopsis of the work of the past seven years and the vision for the next under the assembly theme of “God of life, lead us to justice and peace.”

Parishioners at home should know of the longing by South Korea in particular for reunification with North Korea so that lasting peace is attained.

One objective of choosing Korea for the venue of the assembly was to support this longing, and to amplify the voices of the Christian minority to the majority, hopefully contributing to the achievement one day of lasting peace with justice.

God bless you,

+Thabo

THE PHOTO ABOVE shows a dramatic performance which narrated a history of the national and Christian mission in Korea.

Welcome to Archbishop of Sudan

This media release from the meeting of Provincial Synod was issued on 2 October, 2013.

Anglican Church Welcomes Archbishop of Sudan

The Most Revd Daniel Deng Bul, Archbishop of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan (ECS), has appealed to Anglicans in southern Africa to help his "traumatised" people to overcome the effects of decades of war.

Addressing the Provincial Synod of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA) on Wednesday, Archbishop Deng also appealed to ACSA to lobby the South African government to help resolve outstanding conflicts between Sudan and the new state of South Sudan.

The Archbishop, who is also Bishop of Juba, is a guest of the Synod, which is meeting this week in Benoni, near Johannesburg.

Sharing the mission challenges of his church, Archbishop Deng told of how South Sudan had been founded as a new, separate nation two years ago in the wake of a “bitter war” which had been waged between the north and the south for the best part of 45 years.

“Because Jesus is with us, the church has become stronger and stronger,” he said. About four million of the 12 million people of South Sudan were Anglicans. But because of the war, the ECS was still “an infant church” and its people were traumatised.

“They are wounded spiritually. They need care. They need help,” Archbishop Deng said.

He told the Synod that he had been appointed by President Salva Kiir of South Sudan to chair a committee to promote healing and reconciliation in the country, which was still beset by ethnic tensions and the difficulty of reintegrating people returning home after long periods living abroad.

Southern Africa could bring to South Sudan its experience with education and reconciliation: “We have no tools. We have no capacity. We look to... Southern Africa for help.”

The Archbishop also told the Synod of the continuing tensions between South Sudan and the government of Sudan, based in Khartoum in the north, over the delineation of the border between the two states and over the control of oil fields and exports.

He pointed out that the issue of whether the Abyei region, which lies on the border, should be part of South Sudan or Sudan had still to be decided in a plebiscite.

He noted that former South African president Thabo Mbeki was helping to lead an African Union panel which was mediating between Khartoum and Juba. He appealed to ACSA to support the mediation, and also invited the Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Revd Thabo Makgoba, to visit South Sudan.

Charge to Provincial Synod - "A Vision for Education – Education for a Vision"

Here is the full text of the Charge delivered to Provincial Synod this afternoon, 1 October 2013

"A Vision for Education – Education for a Vision"

Zechariah 8:20-23, Luke 9:51-56

May I speak in the name of God – Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, members of Synod, distinguished guests, I greet you in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and welcome you to the thirty-third session of the Provincial Synod of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa.

I extend a particular welcome to our guests – especially my dear brother from the Episcopal Church of Sudan, Archbishop Daniel Deng Bull. May your time with us be one of growing and deepening communion within the Anglican / Episcopal family. A warm welcome also to Revd Dr James Cooper and Revd Canon Benjamin Museka Lubega, of Trinity Wall Street, a longstanding partner in the gospel to our Province. I also greet our ecumenical guests, our brothers and sisters within the Body of Christ.

A special welcome to Synod first-timers. I hope you will quickly feel at home among our processes and procedures, and make a full contribution.

Let me thank everyone who has helped prepare this Synod and this Charge, and who supports my ministry as Archbishop more generally. First, as always, my thanks go to Lungi (who is currently representing our Province at a USPG consultation in India) and my children, who have come to expect that in the run-up to Synods, while I am present in body, there is no guarantee that I am present in mind or spirit!

Thank you also to the staff at Bishopscourt and in the Provincial Treasurer’s office; to the Synod Advisory Committee, particularly Mr Henry Bennett; to the Dean of the Province; to the Bishop of Table Bay and the Cape Town Diocesan staff; and to everyone else who has contributed to this Synod.

We record particular thanks to Gail Allen, who has ensured the smooth running of more Synods than we can count, and who rightly is awarded the Order of Simon of Cyrene. This year has brought a particularly weighty responsibility, after Revd Canon Allan Kannemeyer stepped down as PEO to return to the Diocese of Pretoria where he is now Dean. We therefore thank Revd Keith Griffiths for returning from retirement to act as Synod Manager.

I give thanks to God for the support of the Dean of the Province and the Synod of Bishops, for the collegiality we share, and for the responsibilities each bishop shoulders through the year as they lead various portfolios.

Collegiality is also shared with Bishops and Archbishops of the past, and in thanking God for them, I particularly want to pay tribute to Archbishop Philip Russell, who died in July. Last month we interred his ashes in Greytown, in a quiet but moving service, at which Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu preached, with Natal bishops, current and retired, present. Let us observe a moment’s silence as we thank God for all this passionate, compassionate, unsung hero meant to, and did for, our Province.

I also need to add that, since we went to print, a member of our Synod who should have been with us today, Mr James Thomas, a church-warden in the Diocese of Cape Town, was murdered in the terrorist attacks in Nairobi. We pray for his wife Colleen and family, as they hold his funeral tomorrow.

It is always a delight to welcome new bishops to Synod – eight in all! Those of you who were here three years ago will remember me admitting I dreamed of consecrating a woman bishop for our Province – by the grace of God, we now have two! This is also the last Synod for several bishops, and we thank God for them and their ministry.

I’d also like to express gratitude to the Revd Canon Dr Sarah Rowland Jones. She came to South Africa 11 years ago to marry Bishop Justus Marcus, and, since his death the following year, has spent a decade as Researcher to two Archbishops. Later this month she returns to Wales to take over Cardiff’s city centre parish. We give thanks for her unstinting enthusiasm and hard work in serving our Province, as well as for all she continues to do for the worldwide Anglican Communion and global ecumenism. We pray God’s blessing on her and her husband in their new life.

It is the hard work of these, and many others, which allows us to say, in the words of Zechariah, ‘Come, let us go to entreat the favour of the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts.’

So let me turn now to the substance of my Charge, for which we are blessed with two pertinent lectionary readings. Our primary purpose is indeed to meet the Lord: to seek his face, and seek his guidance. We come because the Lord calls us to be his people, whom he loves, and whom he calls to return his love, and to share his love.

Zechariah writes that when our lives clearly demonstrate that we are God’s people – that God is with us, and guides us – then others will be drawn to us, so they may also find God, and God’s ways, and God’s blessing.

Zechariah was writing at the time of the Babylonian Empire, which spanned many peoples, languages, cultures, and faiths. The Jewish people had returned to Jerusalem from exile, some 18 or 19 years earlier. 19 years ago, Southern Africa returned from the exile of apartheid’s hold on South Africa and dire impact on its neighbours. In our region of many peoples, languages, cultures, and faiths, there is – as there was in Zechariah’s time – a yearning for a deeper sense of identity, purpose and blessing in their lives.

We are to reflect the hope they seek – being those in whom others can recognise God’s presence, and therefore say, ‘let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’ We too seek God’s clarity for our identity and purpose, so we may be a channel of blessing, through our Vision: ‘Anglicans ACT – Anchored in the love of Christ, Committed to God’s Mission, and Transformed by the Holy Spirit.’

Our gospel reading, in contrast, points out that not everyone will respond in this way. Some will reject Jesus Christ’s messengers, and the good news of his gospel. Today too, some of Christ’s messengers also respond inappropriately, wanting to ‘command fire to come down and consume’ those who reject him and us. Yet we are not to reject them in turn, says Jesus – for the love of God rejects no-one. And even if we are rejected or rebuked, we are to continue walking with Jesus, who ‘set his face to go to Jerusalem.’

This is not his journey to his crucifixion, but an earlier visit to the place where the Jewish people celebrated their calling from God, and found nourishment for their faith journeys. We too must be focussed on what nurtures and sustains our pilgrimage of faith. Our capacity to be God’s people, for the sake of God’s world – rooted in our baptism, and affirmed at confirmation – must be diligently fed throughout our lives. Regular, deepening, prayer, Bible-study, worship, and receiving the sacraments – none are optional if we are serious about witness and service; if we are serious about the re-evangelisation of the Anglican communities of Southern Africa; and if we are serious about truly being salt and light in God’s world.

This is why, for me, education in all its forms is so central. This is why I have chosen as Synod’s theme ‘A Vision for Education – Education for a Vision’, and invited three distinguished speakers to address us. We also have a special session led by Mr Henry Bennett, Provincial Registrar, to educate us in better understanding and use of our Canons, to help us live out the identity and purpose to which God calls us. Godly education can help form, inform and transform us and our church, so we – like those whom Zechariah addressed – can walking together confidently, knowing that God is with us, promising his good favour, and that therefore we need not fear whatever obstacles come our way.

Last year Provincial Standing Committee decided that 2013 should be our ‘Year of Theological Education’. Well-trained leaders, clergy and laity, will help us grapple more deeply with our faith – and not merely with our heads, but inwardly digesting, so we are better able to hear and respond to God’s call to us in our own contexts, within and beyond the walls of the church.

I am grateful to Revd Canon Professor Barney Pityana, Rector of the College of the Transfiguration, and to his staff, for spearheading this work. I commend to you all their ‘From Root to Branch’ study series. Thank you also to Bishop Raphael Hess, HOPE Africa, and all who worked on our special Theological Education Sunday in August; and thank you to everyone who gave generously.

Prof Pityana will be our keynote speaker on how investing in theological education is a vital step towards ensuring our Church’s future. We congratulate him on moving COTT towards registration of courses with the South African Qualifications Authority. My dream is to go further, and to have an Anglican owned and run university campus, focussed on theology and the liberal arts, launched from the COTT campus. Please join me in exploring how this vision might find concrete expression.

Good education – theological and otherwise – is at the heart of our capacity to grow into our Provincial Vision, ‘Anglicans Act’. This is why I am asking Synod to look particularly not only at what we hope to achieve in each priority area, but how we aim to educate our Province to what we are doing. For work at Synod is just the beginning: our responsibility is to ensure that what we do here makes a difference when we go home. As you debate and decide, keep asking yourself ‘What do I want to happen, as a result of seeking God at Synod?’

From liturgy and worship to the environment, from health to young people, from leadership development to public advocacy, from finance to gender issues – in all these areas, we want to see our Lord more clearly, love him more dearly, and follow his lead more nearly – and help the rest of our Province to do the same. We thank all who are involved in media and communications, for the contribution they make to this task.

I’d also like to highlight the work underway to revise our Prayer Book. I cannot overestimate the importance of the centrality of worship that draws us ever closer to our Lord and Saviour. To this end, I want to thank Revd Bruce Jenneker and the Liturgical Committee as they lead this task. May God guide and strengthen you in your work.

Earlier this year, I followed a 30-day retreat, which brought me profound new insights into how to listen to God speaking through Scripture directly into today’s challenges of mission and ministry. Five years into my Archiepiscopate, it was a tremendous privilege to step back, and take stock with the Lord, and find fresh perspectives, and deeper insights. There was a new level of encounter with God, beyond what I had expected. My hope is that through theological education, we will encourage all our people to take risks in faith. We need to let ourselves be led beyond our comfort zones into places of unexpected grace and rich encounter.

Last year’s Anglicans Ablaze conference was such a place, for me and many others. It was the largest gathering from across our whole Province anyone could remember. Everyone was there – all races; all languages; all ages; all sexes and sexualities; high church and low church; Anglo-Catholics (or Afro-Catholics!), Evangelicals and Charismatics. We all felt God’s presence among us; and recognised how, in Christ, we all belonged to one another. We learnt that our common life was not threatened, but enriched, by our diversity. It was the most amazing celebration of God’s life pouring through us all! It was a time of renewal, and let me stress I mean renewal in its broadest sense: we felt God breathing freshness into a holistic life of evangelism and discipleship and integral mission and social justice. I found myself confronted by a vision of the breath-taking beauty of Anglicanism, when we allow God’s inspiring love to weave a gloriously colourful cloth from our different threads! This has stayed with me: finding new vibrancy in reading my prayer book, new freedom in celebrating the sacraments, and a new liberty in speaking with honest confidence about the realities of our diversity – and the riches, as well as the challenges, this brings.

It delights me to announce there will be a second Anglicans Ablaze Conference from 2 to 5 July, next year. Furthermore, Archbishop Justin Welby, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, will be one of our speakers!

Both at Anglicans Ablaze, and in international meetings, I am increasingly appreciating that Anglicanism is a precious gift, as well as a challenge. At our best we can show the world what it means to live in creative, enriching, harmony, across diversity and difference – daring to make ourselves accountable to one another, committed to pursuing a common life that is not an ‘obligation’ but a ‘choice’ that sets us free to deepen the charism of being members together of the body of Christ. This is why I am promoting the ratification of the Anglican Covenant, which we provisionally adopted three years ago. ACSA belongs at the very heart of Anglicanism, offering our own experience of deepen bonds of affection across difference, to those who share this commitment.

That we live by grace and covenant, and not by law, is at the heart of the rejuvenation of the Canon Law Society. This, like the Anglican Covenant, is not about placing legalistic and legislative burdens upon us. Rather, it is for helping us to use Canon Law better: as our good servant, not bad master. This is also an educative task.

Both our readings spoke of God’s people within wider contexts. In today’s world far too often the immediate response to disagreement is to rush to litigation as the first, not last, resort: whether in politics, business, or even running football clubs! Alas, Christians often follow the same path. The amount of time and money our church has spent in the last five years in secular legal processes is shocking. It pains me deeply that legal cases have consumed significant resources that should be devoted to mission and ministry. It also distresses me to see the church falling into ungodly practices of lobbying and putting on pressure, to get our own way, or to get our own back when we can’t get what we want through proper processes.

God calls us instead to wrestle with one another within the body of Christ, and together to wrestle with him, so we may discern his will in the complexities of our relationships in this complex world. Better understandings of Canon Law should help resource us to deal with difficult issues in more holy ways.

This is also the aim of revising disciplinary Canons: that these should bring us greater confidence and freedom in following our calling, just as the introduction of Pastoral Standards has done. God calls us to offer models of good and holy practice to the world – for those who long to find the Lord’s favour, as in our first reading; and even to those who think they know better, as in our second. We must follow good governance and best practice in all that we do, where necessary revising both structures and practices. We must be good stewards of our resources, for example asking whether the expense of meetings could be better handled through having our own Anglican conference centre.

As we live before the watching world, we should not fear difference, or even disagreement, because it is through wrestling together – as brothers and sisters who know our unity in Christ is greater than anything that can divide us – that we can be like rough stones polishing each other to become beautiful smooth gems. It is a demanding calling, but I am sure it is one to which God especially calls Anglicans, in Southern Africa and around the world.

Turning now to a subject very near to my heart, the education of our young people, I want to pay a particular tribute to Bishop Peter Lee and his team; and to STEP Consulting, a Christian-based company who have deployed some bright young Anglicans to help us develop our strategy for education. Bishop Lee has taken PSC’s resolution on the Archbishop’s Initiative in Education, and breathed vibrant life into it.

We made three commitments then:
• to strengthen what our Province is already doing in education;
• to encouraging parishes in the on-going upliftment of communities through partnership with local public schools; and
• to create more excellent church schools for all.
We shall hear how all three have seen wonderful growth and development. Let me just mention that our Province now has a fully registered NPO, ‘ABESA’, the Anglican Board for Education in Southern Africa, working across ACSA’s countries. Great educationalists on the board are bringing synergy between private and public schools. Through this initiative, and in partnership with Vuleka schools, the Archbishop Thabo Makgoba Boys’ School will soon be built in Gauteng.

I am delighted to welcome Professor Mary Metcalfe as our keynote speaker on the theme of education. Ours is a continent of young people. We thank God for the work of AYSA and ASF, and all our programmes with children and youth. Within our schools, colleges and universities we aim to form fully rounded individuals, capable of analysing critically the world around us, and acting compassionately.

Indeed, our Vision priority of leadership development is designed to promote this among all our people. As Zechariah said, God’s people should be those who lead communities to walk in the ways that lead to blessing. Revd Professor Bev Haddad will give our keynote address on ‘Transformational leadership: building redemptive communities’.

Our world needs the combination of critical analysis and compassionate hearts. We need it in Syria, Egypt, Israel and Palestine, Kenya and Pakistan. There are rarely easy answers to finding lasting peace with justice. Any attempts to find solutions through simplistic military engagement are almost certain to lead to greater violence. Prayer is the best route to wise action. Sudan and South Sudan also need this. We look forward to hearing more from you, Archbishop Daniel, about how we can best support you and your Province.

We all need to know how God’s timeless principles apply in our own context – in each of our own countries, as we pray for our political leaders. This is especially true where, as in South Africa, we are headed towards elections next year. We must also, as individuals and local congregations, learn what it means to live out the gospel within our own communities, in our work, in family life, wherever we find ourselves.

We continue to give thanks for the life of Nelson Mandela, Madiba, who helped us find a way forward based on gospel values. His example has been a pillar of strength to me, and to so many of us in church leadership, and to all who continue to strive for social justice. Gospel values, wisdom and compassion, living within us by the power of God’s Holy Spirit, will guide our lives and direct our energies. His Spirit will help us, whether in pursuing the deepening of democracy, or countering corruption in all its forms, or opposing such brute force as we saw at Marikana, or working for peace and reconciliation, or tackling gender-violence.

There is so much that we can do – and I commend the work done by the Anglican AIDS and Healthcare Trust, and by HOPE Africa, working with various partners, including Tearfund and USAID on the 16 days of Global Activism, and others.

There are a great range of topics addressed in our draft motions, and I invite you to wrestle with them as fully as you can, asking God to give you holy wisdom and insight.

Let me just mention that we continue to work towards finalising guidelines for pastoral ministry in response to Civil Unions. We all know that the matter of same gender loving has created great anguish both for those who feel called by God to this state, and those who oppose this. I long for the day when faith leaders can apologise authentically for the pain we have caused through our inept handling of pastoral realities, and our theological reflection on them. I want to add my own small voice of apology that, in our sensitivities and fears of upsetting one another, we are still at such an undeveloped state; and I pray that we may dare to engage together more deeply in critical theological praxis and move forward together as a Church.

Yet as we look at the breadth of issues before us, it is important to remember that none of us are called to do everything. Each of us must attend to our own particular calling – as I find myself putting the spotlight on education, on water and sanitation, and on the environment. I am honoured to chair the Anglican Communion Environmental Network, and proud when Anglicans lead the world, as the Diocese of Auckland did last month, becoming the first New Zealand institution to divest from fossil fuels.

Whether in specific public walks of witness, or by the witness of our daily lives, we are to be living testaments to the Good News of Jesus Christ – and it is the Church’s task to equip our people to be such leaders in the world. Education can, and should, be an evangelistic tool. We cannot nurture our children, our people, in mind, and heart, and body, without also nurturing their souls.

As I travel around our Province, I find my soul lifted by meeting Anglicans in every imaginable walk of life. It can be a tremendous joy to leave behind Synods and meetings, and the complexities of institutional life; and to spend time with people who have such pride in being Anglicans, and such joy in the Lord, in their own contexts. It teaches me that ‘revelation is on-going’. God’s eternal unchanging truths find fresh expression in every new circumstance. And here let me commend to you the on-going work of Growing the Church, in developing authentically Southern African ‘Fresh Expressions’. These draw on our sacramental and theological traditions and our concern for social justice in finding ways to promote new congregations. Christ is indeed born anew in us, day by day by day – the living Word of God, active among us, challenging our staleness, and surprising us by springing up where we had not expected it.

Jesus himself, the greatest teacher of all, calls each of us to follow him, wherever we find ourselves. Our two new members of the Order of Simon of Cyrene illustrate how broadly Christ’s call can come – whether to faithful years of service in the structures of the church; or, equally, to be salt and light in a life that has gone from Robben Island to the South African Council of Churches and then to the highest echelons of our country’s movers and shakers.

I come to Synod conscious of a spirit of deep thankfulness within me, for all God is and for all God does for us. For I know that, whatever our weaknesses, the fragrant aroma of God’s Spirit among us continues to attract people to himself, and to his mission and ministry. We know, in our heads, our hearts, our deepest selves, that God is faithful and he will do this. Day by day he sends forth faithful people, men and women, young and old, who give their time, their money, their gifts and their resources, to take forward the work to which God calls the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, and to enable my own ministry, and the ministry of so many others within it.

For all our benefactors, for our ordained and lay leaders and their families, for our fellow pilgrims on the road, for all our brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the ages, we give thanks to God.

Like the people of Zechariah’s time, our journeying to Jerusalem to seek the Lord and entreat his favour may be difficult and daunting, with complex challenges. But let us go forward in faithfulness and confidence, sure of our identity in the one who gives us life, so we may share this life with the peoples of all the races and nations among which we find ourselves.

And to God, the source of all blessing, be the glory, now and in all eternity. Amen.

Praying for Madiba

Below is the prayer I was privileged to pray today at Nelson Mandela's home in Houghton, Johannesburg.

I share it on this, the International Day of Prayer for Peace, and the day after so many of us joined in a Human Chain in Pretoria to stand up for the values for which Madiba has dedicated his life – values of unity, non-racialism, democracy, and a nation free from poverty (see http://www.sabc.co.za/news/a/607ffb00412aeb6ba3c8af9aacc0ad31/South-Africans-urged-to-make-rainbow-nation-a-reality---20130920). I ask Anglicans in Southern Africa and around the world, and everyone else who feels able, to join me in continuing to pray for Madiba, for his legacy to bear a rich harvest, and for the peace of the world.

Let us pray:
Creator God, Lord of Life and Love, you hold the whole universe in your hands
and yet you also number the hairs on all our heads.
You know the fates of the nations, and the hopes and fears of each individual.

On this, the International Day of Prayer for Peace, we pray for the peace of the world –
for peace without, and for peace within.
Jesus Christ, Prince of Peace,
may your shalom touch every place of conflict, division, brokenness, or fear.
May it fill our communities, families, and lives.
From the horrors of Syria and the turmoil of South Sudan,
to the fractured relationships and violence of too many homes,
bring your reconciling love.

We pray also for South Africa on the eve of Heritage Day.
Help us to draw on the best lessons of our past,
and build on the firm foundations that, by your grace, Madiba laid for us.
Give us courage to hold fast to his values, to follow the example of his praxis,
and to share them with the world.
We thank you that, in human chains, we can stand together for the united,
non-racial, democratic nation, free from poverty, for which he strove.

We lift our hearts, with gratitude for your loving care,
giving thanks that Madiba has been able to come home.
We thank you for all who have tended him, and who continue to do so,
and that he now is stronger and more comfortable.
We especially pray for courage and strength for Ma Machel at such a time as this.

Hold him in the palm of your hand, surround him with your love,
and give him – and all who love him – that deep sense of assurance and inner peace
that we are all kept safely in your infinite merciful care, that never lets us go.

Draw him ever closer to your heart, so that when your perfect time comes
he may make that final journey home to you, without fear and without pain.
Give all who love him the courage to entrust him to your never-failing care,
knowing you are doing for him things beyond all we can think or ask.

Come, Holy Spirit, renew the face of the earth with your breath of life,
so that even as we walk in the valley of the shadow of death,
we may know that Jesus Christ has opened for us the gates to everlasting life.
This we pray in his holy, precious name. Amen

To the Laos - To the People of God, August 2013 - and July 2013

Here is this month's To the Laos letter, and below it follows the letter for July 2013, which, though sent out, did not make it onto the blog, in what was a very busy month.

Dear People of God

As August comes to an end, many of us have been reflecting on the fiftieth anniversary of Martin Luther King’s famous speech, ‘I have a dream’.

On 28 August 1963, he stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and addressed over a quarter of a million civil rights supporters who had joined in the ‘March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom’. He was the last speaker at the end of a long rally, and the crowd was tired. Prompted by gospel singer Mahalia Jackson saying ‘Tell them about the dream, Martin!’ he departed from his prepared text and launched into the passionate words that are now so well remembered. I do encourage you to read them again, as he speaks of the self-evident truth that everyone is created equal, of the call to sit together at one table of fellowship, of freedom – God’s freedom – ringing loud and clear. Many churches, in the USA and around the world, commemorated the day with peals of bells.

Martin Luther King stirred the crowds as he said, ‘Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream.’

These words are an inspiration for all of us, when we look at all the challenges and problems that face our societies and our churches. They are also inspiring words to direct us towards Provincial Synod, in the first week of October. Every three years, the full representative body of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa meets – and this year, now with 28 Dioceses, will be our largest Synod ever, with some 180 episcopal, clerical and lay delegates, as well as representatives of the Youth and various Provincial organisations, invited guests and staff.

Our theme is ‘A Vision for Education – Education for a Vision’. When we met three years ago, we affirmed and celebrated our new Vision and Mission Statement – that Anglicans ACT, Anchored in the love of Christ, Committed to God’s Mission, and Transformed by the Holy Spirit’. Our work now to take forward our Vision, including through the priority areas for action at Provincial level, inevitably must include an educative element, in order to ensure that all we do is communicated across our Province, so it can be accessed as ‘user friendly resources’ for dioceses, parishes and people.

Anyone who has been reading my recent letters will know that we have been prioritising Theological Education this year, as we establish an endowment fund for the College of the Transfiguration. Ensuring we can produce, and keep producing, well-trained ordained and lay leaders, is an essential foundation stone for the church’s future. I want to say a huge ‘thank you’ to everyone who has made donations, including on Theological Education Sunday. We have received some remarkably generous gifts – though, as I write, the money is still coming in so I cannot tell you yet how much we have raised. At Synod, we will hear a keynote address from Revd Canon Professor Barney Pityana, Rector of COTT.

Education is also a vital part of moving forward in all other areas. Therefore, looking at what needs to be done from this perspective will be a major task of our group discussions around our Vision and how we support the whole life of ACSA. This is part of the leadership that we, as Synod members, are called upon to offer to the rest of our Province. Another of our keynote speakers, Revd Professor Bev Haddad, will address us about leadership – both within the church, and in how we encourage and equip Anglicans to be good and confident leaders in whatever walks of life God calls each one to serve.

Education should be a life-long task. None of us ever reach a point where we can stop learning! That said, education is especially rooted in how we bring up our children, nurturing them in mind, heart, soul, and body. Professor Mary Metcalfe will be our third keynote speaker, helping us get to grips better with this vital theme. Since we last met, we have made great strides in taking forward the Archbishop’s Initiative in Education, including through the registration of the Anglican Board of Education in Southern Africa as an NPO, thanks particularly to the hard work of Bishop Peter Lee and his team – and, as I have written about in previous letters, there are many other exciting initiatives developing across the Province.

Another important area of our work relates to the rejuvenation of the Canon Law Society, and the work we are doing particularly to update our disciplinary canons. Though at first glance this might appear to indicate that we are becoming more ‘legalistic’, in fact the reverse is our true aim! We live in a world where increasingly people rush to litigation as the first solution in any disagreement – whereas we want to show that our rules and regulations, properly understood, can provide far more effective frameworks for handling differences and disagreements among us. This is the same approach that underlay our Pastoral Standards: having clear, well-understood, guidelines actually gives us greater freedom in living as the people of God in this area. Without such education in how canon law can be such a good servant, but poor master, we risk going further down the road of spending far too much of our parishioners’ generous giving on legal action over issues that should have been handled in far more godly, Christian, ways.

Alongside this, we shall conduct our usual business, from looking at the place of the church in the wider world, through to the details of our own administration and finances. The Second Agenda book also gives notice of a wide range of motions, on everything from the alcohol and drug abuse through to eco-congregations and sustainable energy, from the structure of Synod to the election and retirement age of Bishops, from a provincial conference centre to the Anglican Covenant, and more besides. If you can, I encourage you to find out who your Diocesan representatives are, and to engage with them on these issues.

And whatever else, please pray for them, and for all of us as we prepare to meet in Kopanong in October. Below you will find the Collect, written to guide us.

Meanwhile, I am sure you are keeping the traumas of the world in your prayers – especially Syria and Egypt. At home we continue to hold Madiba before the throne of grace. May God’s peace flow like a mighty river, wherever it is needed.

Yours in the service of Christ

+Thabo Cape Town

Lord of all wisdom, you led your people through the wilderness
in the cloud by day and the fire by night:
grant to all who gather in Provincial Synod
the grace to listen to your direction
the assurance of the inspiration of your Spirit,
and the joy to celebrate your presence in prayer and praise
that all may be done to your honour and glory;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour
who reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God now and for ever. Amen


To the Laos – July 2013

Dear People of God

Last week, Nelson Mandela celebrated his 95th birthday – to the great relief of so very many of us. We thank God for the continuing life of South Africa’s former President, and pray that in his frailty he may know God’s strength and comfort, in body, mind, heart and soul.

And we also dare to ask, in the ancient words of those prayers used as evening falls, that God will grant dear Madiba ‘a peaceful night and a perfect end’, in God’s own perfect timing. At the end of this long life of faithful service, we pray that he may know the assurance of God’s compassionate presence, and know that Jesus Christ, who is the Resurrection and the Life, has opened the gates of paradise to all who hear his voice and follow his call. We pray also that Me Graça, Madiba’s children and grandchildren, and all who love him, may know God’s strengthening in this long time of watching and waiting – that his peace may enfold them, and help them to find a good and holy way forward, through all the struggles with which they have battled in recent weeks.

This year, more than most, as Madiba’s birthday approached, I found myself giving thought to how best to celebrate this remarkable man and most appropriately honour his legacy. How should I spend 67 minutes serving others, in order to honour the 67 years of service of his life?

What I did was to join in a ‘human chain’ stretching along the Klipfontein Road, through the Rondebosch, Athlone and Gugulethu areas of Cape Town – several thousand of us waving flags and singing joyfully, despite drizzle! Yet I must admit that when I first heard the idea, I thought twice. Was this just ‘gesture politics’ and an easy way out of doing something more tangible with my 67 minutes?

But when I thought about it, I reached a different conclusion. For on Mandela Day we are asked to spend some time taking action that will help change the world, in ways that honour Nelson Mandela’s own example, in his life of service for the good of South Africa and its people. And Madiba’s example is that of a man with a servant heart, whose words and actions were driven by his dream – the dream of a united, democratic, non-racial, South Africa.

It struck me that if we do not make this dream our own vision, if this is not the foundation stone on which we base our lives and build our future, then all our other 67 minutes of service risk being undermined or diminished. For we need to tackle not only the symptoms of our wounded society, but their causes. And the persistence of past divisions – exacerbated now by growing new economic fault-lines – are amongst our most fundamental problems.

The Klipfontein Road in many ways illustrates the core issue: three distinct, separate communities were positioned at a distance from each other along its length. In contrast, our Human Chain was a living demonstration of our commitment to breaking down past divisions and building up a new reality in which we are all connected, all belonging to one another, and joined in the common life of our city and in the shared future which we create together in Cape Town and South Africa.

All this is ‘gospel-shaped work’. For, St Paul wrote, ‘God … has reconciled us to himself through Christ, and given us the ministry of reconciliation’ (2 Cor 5:18). And through Christ ‘God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross’ (Col 1:20).

Wherever there is division, mistrust and suspicion, evil can find a foothold. The spiritual cracks between us become fertile soil for other divisions to flourish, bearing destructive fruit in every part of life. When we dare to step into these breaches with prayer, God will pour in his healing compassion, reaching out and drawing others closer to himself in redeeming love. We are called to be channels of this love, so others may come to know God in Jesus Christ by his Spirit, for themselves.

Sometimes people ask me if I think Madiba is a saint. Well, it depends on what you mean by saint! I don’t agree, if it means we consider his life so miraculous that it is impossible for anyone to follow his example. But the New Testament calls all God’s people ‘saints’, with some translations clearly reflecting this Greek word, as St Paul’s begins his letters with ‘greetings to the saints’ or ‘to those called to be saints’, in Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae … Indeed, God calls each one of us – Nelson Mandela, you, me, whoever we are – to let ourselves be used by him, for his purposes in his world. This is the true meaning of being a saint. And while he may not use us in spectacular ways, he will certainly use us in ways that are significant for the building of his kingdom.

So then, let us honour Madiba, not only for 67 minutes once a year, but throughout our lives, by following God’s call, to be his ministers of reconciliation, his channels of love, his saints in his world. We can make every day a Mandela day! We are now looking at whether we can form human chains on some other specific day of the year – perhaps on Heritage Day, with the chain marking our links with the past and our determination to forge a better future, in the way we commit ourselves to breaking down old divisions and building new relationships, which uphold Madiba’s vision of a united, non-racial, equal society.

Human chains can be used as a powerful sign and symbol of commitment to transcend any divisions, past or present. And those who come together can sing, pray, and even dance a little! Then you might do as we did – pray specifically for Madiba, with thanksgiving for all he has achieved, and all he has challenged us to become, as well as praying for his comfort now. Then, after a little silent reflection, we said the pledge together. You will find the text at the end of this letter – please do use it wherever it can help us go forward in reconciliation, hope, and commitment to the shared good, that echoes all that God desires for people everywhere. Then we sang the national anthem.

And please do send in photos of your chains – or post them on Facebook (you can see many photos of what we did on the Klipfontein Road, on the ‘Human Chain - Mandela Day’ FB page). I hope that we might be able to gather some of these pictures together, and send them through to Madiba

In my last letter, I wrote at length about ensuring firm foundations for future training and formation of ordained and lay leaders, including through the Theological Endowment Fund for supporting the College of the Transfiguration. As part of this, I am asking every member of ACSA to make a special donation, on Theological Education Sunday, 18 August, of R10, or R100, or whatever you can manage.

You will be glad to know that I believe that Bishops should offer leadership in this as in all other matters – and therefore I have pledged R1000 out of my own pocket, for the Fund, and am challenging all the other ACSA bishops to match me, or even do better!

This month we congratulate Revd Canon Cynthia Botha, who heads the Publications Committee, on achieving 30 years on the staff of the Province. She started out as secretary to the Provincial Liaison Officer, who was then the future Archbishop, Njongonkulu Ndungane, and then to his successor Bishop John Carter. When he retired, she became secretary part time to both Emma Mashinini, who headed the CPSA’s Department of Justice and Reconciliation and to Publishing, taking on Publishing full time when the departments closed down. We thank you, Cynthia, and we thank God, for your long years of dedicated service!

This month was also the tenth anniversary of the consecrations of Bishops André Soares of Angola and Mark van Koevering of Niassa. There were rather more celebrations in Niassa, where they held their once-every-three-years Diocesan Synod. At the end of this they held a Diocesan Family Day, inaugurated a church dedicated to the first ever Mozambican priest, Yohannah Abdallah, and, as if that were not enough, compounded the joyful celebrations with the ordination of the first two Mozambican women to the diaconate, alongside four other deacons! We thank God for them all, with particular prayers for Reverends Claudina Cabral and Albertina Mucona as they begin this new ministry.

Yours in the service of Christ

+Thabo Cape Town

PLEDGE AT THE HUMAN CHAIN ON MANDELA DAY, THURSDAY 18 JULY, 2013

See http://archbishop.anglicanchurchsa.org/2013/07/more-on-human-chain-for-mandela-day-and.html

Sermon of Thanksgiving - Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi

This is an edited version of the sermon preached in Ulundi on 26 August 2013, at the service of thanksgiving to mark the 85th birthday of Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi

1 Corinthians 3:11-14
For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— the work of each builder will become visible, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. If what has been built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a reward.

May I speak in the name of God, our firm foundation and our true reward.

Today is truly a day of great celebration and thanksgiving! Thank you, for the privilege of being the one who gets to stand here now, and voice our joy, and our appreciation. First, my dear Prince, my friend – we congratulate you on your birthday, tomorrow. And we congratulate you also on this splendid statue.

It is of course to the statue itself that our eyes are drawn. Yet, if we pause to reflect, we realise that it could stand there, so impressive and so imposing, if it did not rest upon a solid, stable, firm foundation. And of course, exactly the same is true of you, my Prince, in real life. So, as we give thanks today for your long life, we also give thanks to the one who is faithful to all his children, whose steadfast love for each one of us never ceases.

We thank God that, so many years ago, at the knee of your mother, Princess Magogo, herself a staunch and faithful Anglican, he planted within you the seeds of faith. We thank him that throughout the years since, he has nourished that seed, giving you the gift of faith so you could grow in his love, and bear much fruit. We thank God that he has walked with you, in all the challenges of your life – from the public, political, sphere, through to the way you pursued family life, upholding the pattern of Christian marriage with your wife, and later in the sorrow and pain of losing children.

We thank God for the grace and courage which he gave you, to speak so frankly about the effects of HIV and AIDS on your family – especially at a time when there was so much stigma and such conspiracies of silence. These were issues for which our churches had to bear some of the responsibility. Your honest speaking [especially your heart-breaking words at the funeral of Princess Mandisi] was the task of a prophetic leader – someone who speaks God’s truth so others may see life as it truly is. You helped take forward the public discourse of the nation, when it was sorely needed. And you encouraged the Church to move more decisively into a place of speaking and acting with greater honesty and compassion. The whole nature of how we deal with HIV and AIDS in our country is now completely changed – and though it is an uphill struggle, the signs are that we can move in the right direction, if we persevere. For this we thank you.

The stance which you took on this issue illustrates for me one of the key messages of our reading today from St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. This reminds us that the true value of what we say and do rests with God. It does not matter what we achieve – or what we fail to achieve – in the eyes of the world. Earthly money, and power, and status, and popularity are neither here nor there as far as Heaven is concerned. Yet what God judges to be important, has eternal significance. What we say and do today, that is right in his eyes, is like a pebble thrown into the pond of eternity. The ripples have effect that lasts for ever.

And this can be a source of great courage for us – to stand up and speak out what is right and true, no matter whether it goes against the grain, either in society or within the Church. Dear Prince – here, I have learnt something from you! I have known your family since 1984-85, when Prince Zuzi and I met and became friends in our student days. Since becoming Archbishop, I have had the privilege of getting to know you better. I was deeply touched by the message you sent me when I was elected, and that you have continued to remain in touch. Over the years, I have been grateful for your hospitality (especially on my visit here 4 years ago), and for your support, in more ways than I can count.

But when it comes to speaking out, I shall not forget your wise advice – which you may recall, from that occasion when we were both sharing a stage with F W de Klerk. You warned me then, ‘Your Grace – never speak without reading from your text. For otherwise, the press are bound to misquote you, and make a feast out of it.’ Well, I have taken that to heart – at least, most of the time. But I hope you will forgive an Archbishop who at least sometimes finds he must speak from the heart, and from the soul!

And I am confident that you will understand this, for I know very well that your heart and soul are more than merely in balance with your head! For I know you best for your great laughter, and your courage – a word that comes from the Latin for ‘heart’. And I know you for your love – of your people, and your God, and his Church.

It was right and fitting that the Anglican Church should award you the Order of St Simon of Cyrene, our highest accolade to lay people. For, despite the many and weighty demands on your time, you have been a faithful servant of the church in many capacities over long years – including at the historic 1963 Anglican Congress in Toronto. You have also been a regular participant in Diocesan and Provincial Synods, and served our church in many other capacities. In addition, of course, you have been a devoted lay-minister, with long service at St Mary’s. All of these, I know, will withstand the test of fire.

More than this, I thank you for the way you have shown how the life of faith informs and helps shape a life spent in the public spotlight. You challenge others to explore how Christ calls us all to servant leadership. As we look at your life, we too must never forget that whatever earthly power and authority we may have, always finding its true identity in the greater power and authority which comes from our Lord and Saviour, the Servant King. We too must never forget that to stand firm, to stand tall, we also must stand on the one sure foundation, who is Jesus Christ – and then build faithfully with whatever material he gives us; using whatever opportunities come our way to serve him and serve his people and his world.

St Paul tells us that when we build on the true foundation, we shall receive the reward. And of course the reward is Jesus Christ himself: knowing what it is to be united with him in all the greatness of his love, and receiving in full measure all that he has won for us, in this life and in the life to come.

Therefore today, it is with overflowing hearts, that we give thanks to God for his loving presence among us – for all he does for us, and especially for all he has done for you, and through you, my friend. We bless his holy name for the gift that he has made you to so many, over such long years. And we ask, with confidence, that he will continue to bless you, preserve you, and keep you, in the years ahead, and for always. Amen.

Sermon at Ha Mojela, Lesotho

This is an edited version of the sermon preached on 10 August 2013 at Makhemeng for the unveiling of the tombstones of Matsoso Samuel and Mamolapo Alice Mojela

Hosea 6: 1-2, Ps 34, 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18, Luke 24:1-8

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

Thank you, Louisa and Seedy Lette-Mojela, to you and your family, for inviting me to preside here today. Your Majesties, I acknowledge your presence here today, and I extend to you, King Letsie, my congratulations on your recent 50th birthday. I am sure you have endured the singing of ‘Happy Birthday’ many times – but let us do so here again …!

Let me also acknowledge the presence of their excellencies, the South African High Commissioner, the Honourable Minster of Energy, Meteorology and Water Affairs, the Honourable Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, and all other Government figures. I also acknowledge the clergy present – some who have come all the way from Gauteng – and including Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana of the Ethiopian Episcopal Church; as well as our own Dean, and Bishop Adam Taaso, of the Diocese of Lesotho. Bishop Adam, thank you for your kind words of welcome, and to your wife also, for your warm hospitality.

Today we meet to celebrate the holy mysteries together – the sacraments of Baptism and of the Mass or Eucharist. Baptizing these two lovely girls reminds us that we are united with Christ in both his death and resurrection; while the Eucharist gives us a foretaste of the heavenly banquet in which we shall one day share, in all its fullness.

Our context is that we meet in Lesotho, in the village of Ha Mojela and the homestead of Makhemeng. We meet, conscious of wider context of Southern Africa, and the African continent, with all the challenges of poverty and inequality, yet with all its staggering physical beauty, and with all its untapped potential for abundance.

We also meet in the context of our Scripture readings, with the Old Testament lesson in which God, through his prophet reminds us that God’s desire is to intrude into our lives, and bring healing – to us as individuals, to our nations, to our region and continent. His is a message of redemption and hope, no matter what circumstances we find ourselves facing – a message that we too are called to share with others.

As well as baptising these young lives, we are also unveiling the tombstone and the family tree monument. This locates the Mojelas as descendants of the great King Moshoeshoe of the Basotho. Today we also weave the hat that Louisa will wear, as the Anglican Consultative Council’s representative on the Anglican Communion’s Standing Committee. It is the Communion’s highest advisory body, in which I am delighted Southern Africa has a presence – we are grateful to you, Louisa, for taking on this responsibility.

All of this reminds us that our context is part of a far greater context. We are part of those who have worshipped here in years before, and are now at rest, like Louisa’s parents; and we are part of the global family of Anglicans. Baptism has reminded us of our unity with one another, through our shared unity with Christ. In him we are all one, and we are all called to Christ-like living, in our acting, speaking and thinking. And so we recall those who in the past followed Christ’s call, and give thanks for all the good they did here – good that is written not just in epitaphs, but on our hearts.

As we do so, I am reminded of the mysterious men of our gospel reading, often seen as angels, who said to the grieving women ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead?’ They challenge us to ask ourselves, what are we really doing here today? Why do we stand at the grave of those we have loved, and do these things - especially when, though we know that mortal bodies lie here, we are those who ‘look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come’, to quote the words of the creed.

Death is hard for us to grasp. It is hard in two particular ways: first, when someone dies, it is so difficult to comprehend what has happened, how someone so alive can then be not so. Second, it is hard to live without those we love, who have died.

This is why we need our rituals, of funerals, and of the longer process of mourning. Through honouring our dead, and through acknowledging our own sorrows, we become those who do our grieving properly. We become those of whom Jesus says ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.’ We open ourselves to receive God’s comfort, as we bare before him the sadness we have, missing those who have been so much a part of our lives.

Louisa, I never knew your father – though I knew your mother well, from those far off days when I was a mere curate at the Cathedral. I remember her faithfulness, week by week. I remember her straightforward faith – in many ways simple, and yet profound in its depth and strength, through the challenges of life. I remember her through the years since – at your wedding, at your brother’s wedding, at baptisms, at funerals. Indeed, there have been times when I almost wondered whether I had a second job alongside my licensed positions within the church – namely that of the Mojela family’s domestic chaplain!

Yet it is one of the joys of priestly ministry – especially in parish life – to walk with families, through the years. I remember the tiny flat you had in Hillborough, all those years ago. Look how far we have come since! Indeed, when I visited your mother, when she was so frail at the end of her life, she was determined that she should get out of bed for ‘The Archbishop’. But I insisted that for Thabo she should just stay where she was and relax!

It was a joy to minister to her at that time, and to see the strength of her faith. She had walked so closely with Jesus all her life, she knew that she would know him by her side on her final journey. She knew with certainty that, in the end, he would indeed ‘raise her up, to live in his sight’, to take the words of our first reading.

Jesus has conquered death for us. He has overcome everything that tries to separate us from God’s unending love, or from God’s eternal life. He has opened for us the gates of glory.

Therefore, as St Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, in the verse that come just before those we heard read, ‘We do not grieve as others do, who have no hope.’ For we are indeed those who believe that Jesus died and rose again, and that we too, though we die, shall in a similar way be raised – and so we shall one day again be united with those we have loved.

This is our hope today – our sure and certain hope. Yet even so, the mysteries of life and death are hard to grasp. Our heads here the words, but our hearts still tremble at the death of others, at the knowledge of our own mortality – for one day, we too will lie in the ground, and others will gather round.

But God knows our frailties – and he invites us to seek his help, as the Psalmist tells us. He frees us from our fears, by giving us faith in our hearts, and the knowledge of his comforting, strengthening, presence alongside us, no matter what we face in life.

This is why, in the funeral service, we can pray with confidence: ‘Heavenly Father, in your Son Jesus Christ, you have given us a true faith and a sure hope: help us to live as those who believe in the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, and the resurrection to eternal life – and strengthen this faith and hope in us all the days of our life, through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen’

This is our prayer today – we believe, but we also ask God to meet us in our unbelief, our doubts, our fears. We cannot see across to the other side of the bridge between life and death – but Jesus has walked it for us, and assures us that it cannot be shaken.

So may he indeed strengthen this faith and hope within us, all our days. Let us grieve those we mourn – but let us do so with grateful thanks for all the love that we shared; and with joyful, certain, hope – that one day we shall indeed be caught up with them to meet the Lord, and so we shall be with him for ever.

And until that day, let us follow Christ faithfully, so that when we in our turn are recalled by our maker, his resurrection values will be remembered in our lives, by family, by friends – and more than that, by the poor, the needy, in whom we serve our Lord; and so be remembered by our Lord himself.

As our funeral service says, ‘I heard a voice from heaven saying “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord henceforth.” “Blessed indeed” says the Spirit “That they may rest from their labours, for their deeds follow them!”’ May it be so for us. Amen

St Dominic's, Hanover Park - 40th Anniversary Celebrations

This sermon was preached at the Patronal Festival of St Dominic's, Hanover Park, Cape Town, as they celebrated their 40th anniversary, on 4 August 2013.

Hosea 11:1-11; Col 3:1-11; Luke 12:13-21 (Good News Bible / New International Version)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, dear People of God of St Dominic’s Hanover Park, let me say again what a great delight it is to be with you, and to share in the celebrations of your patronal festival and 40th birthday! Congratulations! Thank you, again, to you, Fr Gilmore Fry, to your wardens, for your invitation, and to everyone who has welcomed me so warmly, and who has contributed to this wonderful service – and what I am sure will be the equally wonderful refreshments afterwards! I also acknowledge Councillor van Rheede.

Today we join together in thanking God for the great faithfulness of the people of St Dominic’s over the last 40, turbulent, years. And we also give thanks to God for his great faithfulness, in giving the strength, the perseverance, the courage, the hope, that has kept you going through all the ups and downs of life, and through all the challenges, past and present.

The gospel account gives us a wonderful story and picture that I want to unpack today. Money itself is not a bad thing but there is more to life than pursuing millions. I guess we all know that. But having more does not necessarily make us happier. And if our lives become focussed just on getting more, evidence shows we will probably be less happy – and then, because we don’t understand the dynamic, we’ll just think we need even MORE, and so get into an even worse spiral.

As St Paul wrote to Timothy, the love of money (not money itself) is the root of all evil (1 Tim 6:10). If we have a false treasure at the centre of our lives, then pursuit of it is always going to take us further away from the real, genuine, treasures of life.

Real treasure, life in all its abundance, comes from growing into Christlikeness – into the life that Jesus models for us and offers to us. It is a life that is based on living in love with God, in our hearts and souls and minds and strength; and living in the same love with our neighbours. In other words, we are to grow in Christlikeness in our hearts – in our emotions and how we feel; in our minds – in the way we think; in our souls – in our spiritual lives; and in our strength – in the way we treat our bodies, in the way we live within the physical world around us.

And all of this then spills over into how we live as neighbours – as members of the community of Hanover Park, as colleagues, as friends, as family members. So then, how shall we go about pursuing growth? How do we work to encourage mature emotions, mature thinking, mature spirituality, and maturity in how we life – I might even say, mature citizenship?

The answer lies in nurture and education.

Our Old Testament Reading, from the prophet Hosea, paints the most wonderful picture of God as our tender parent – father or mother, even. God is there, helping, encouraging the small child, the toddler, to stand on its feet, and to walk for itself. God is there, always ready to catch us when we fall – and it is true, isn’t it that we are always falling, always stumbling, like the weak person in the gospel, pursuing millions or narrow interests and forgetting the bigger picture. The good news is, however, when we don’t get it right, he puts us back on our feet and encourages us to keep on going. His tender encouragement is the same for us all.

I was thinking about this earlier this week. One of the delights of Bishopscourt is the garden – and all the animals and birds that visit and make their home there. I know they can be a bit of a pest, but I am rather fond of the Egyptian geese. There is a pair which nests in the garden. A couple of weeks ago, they had three babies, three goslings. This week, alas, there is only one gosling left. So I spent a bit of time watching the mother goose and her baby.

Whenever the mother goose nibbles at the grass, her gosling nibbles at the grass. Whenever the mother goose flaps her wings, runs, swims her baby also follows the actions, flapping, running and swimming. The goose was showing her gosling exactly how to live well. And the gosling was wise enough to copy whatever its mother showed it.

Surely here is a deep spiritual lesson for us too! For we are to follow the pattern of Jesus. And also, maturer Christians are to be the pattern for younger Christians; and adults for children; throughout our communities.

In other words, it is all about ‘Education, education, education’ – to quote British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, when he was asked what were his three priorities for government. Well, I often don’t agree with Tony Blair, but on this I think he was 100% right. We all need education - our country, our communities, our churches, our children – indeed, children of every age, because God does not want any of us to stop learning, or to stop growing, into a greater knowledge and love of himself, and of his Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Of course, here I am, saying all this, in a community that knows these truths very well! For I know that you are very active in supporting education in many different forms. I know you have very active youth work, and many organisations for people of every age – from the choir and servers guild, through the AWF, CMS, band and dance groups, through to holiday clubs and more besides.

All these support and encourage and teach the life of Christian worship, witness and service – the life to which we pledge ourselves when we affirm our baptism promises at confirmation. This is what it means to say that we have died and our lives are hid with Christ in God – so that we can reveal Christ truly to the world!

Thank you for all you do with Back to School Sunday. Thank you for your support of the Upward Bound initiative, which I also support. Thank you for walking alongside learners – as Hosea spoke of God walking with us – to encourage them, especially to stick with school, to stick with education, and to be the best they can be.

Education is one of the top priorities of my own ministry. It is not just education for the classroom, though it includes this. The ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, said that ‘Education that only teaches the mind, but does not teach the heart (and here I would add ‘soul’, also), is no education at all.’ As the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we firmly believe this.

And so I launched the Archbishop’s Initiative in Education, to make our commitment more focussed, and, I hope, more fruitful. We have three priorities, which we affirmed last year at Provincial Standing Committee, and on which we shall build again at Provincial Synod in October. The three priorities are:
• To strengthen what ACSA is already doing in the field of education
• To encourage parishes in the on-going up-liftment of all their communities through partnership with local public schools
• To create more excellent church schools for all.
And so we are taking various steps, including restructuring the Anglican Education Board, so we can make these commitments concrete. In Gauteng we are piloting various projects, including ways of strengthening initiatives at parish level, which I hope we will be able to roll out in places like Cape Town before too long.

So be encouraged – you are doing a great job, because God in his grace has given you this understanding of what true riches are, and how they are to be pursued. Keep up the good work, because education, in its broadest sense, is what we most need – the nurturing of individuals and communities, so we may keep on growing as part of the true vine, Jesus Christ, so we can bear fruit that will last.

I am sure that within the Cape Flats, it is education that has the greatest potential to be a vehicle for the social changes that we so earnestly desire. It will do this through schools, through colleges, through continuing education, through training in practical trades and the skills of our technological age.

And we, God’s people, are to be at the heart of this – sharing, and promoting, our understanding of holistic education of the whole person. For God’s delight, above all else, is in human beings who are ‘truly alive’, flourishing and bearing fruit, in heart and soul and mind and body, as individuals, and as communities. And we are called to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world – God’s instruments, and channels of God’s love and blessing and hope, for one another, and for the wider community.

Therefore I challenge you to consider the call to plant your own chapelry, with a school – just as you were planted – and in this way to sow seeds that can flourish in the next 40 years.

As I end this sermon, I want to ask again ‘Where does true treasure lie?’

Where does true treasure lie? It lies here – right before my eyes. You are God’s great treasure in Hanover Park! God has blessed you, and blessed Hanover Park for 40 years – may he bless you in the 40 years, and all the centuries, ahead! Amen.

Remarks at the Funeral of Judge Pius Langa

This is an edited version of the remarks made at the funeral of Judge Pius Langa on 3 August 2013.

Thank you for this opportunity to share deep condolences with the family of this ‘gentle giant’ whom we remember today. I do so, as a representative of the Christian ecumenical and inter-faith communities – and thanking Fr Molo, for being our preacher today.

I’d like to share some words from Psalm 37, which reflect my own personal journey with Pius. In March last year I was privileged to bless his new house. I referred then to these Bible verses, which also speak to us again today, as we mourn the death of this remarkable, and lovely, man. Psalm 37 contains these words:
‘If a man’s steps are guided by the Lord: and he delights in his way,
Though he stumble, he shall not fall headlong: for the Lord holds him by the hand …
For the Lord loves justice: he will not forsake his faithful ones.

Today we are celebrating the life of a man who, like our God, loved justice. And he loved justice in the way that God loves justice – true justice, which serves the genuine wellbeing of all people, ‘without fear or favour’. Perhaps better than anyone else I have ever met, Judge Pius understood the true meaning of the rule of law. He understood how the letter of the law must deliver the spirit of the law; in the service of Constitution, country and all its citizens. His view of justice, like God’s view, was that it must uphold the rights of the weak, the poor, the voiceless, the marginalised. It must pursue truth. It must promote – yes, I will use a religious word here – it must promote righteous living. It must encourage each of us to be the best we can be, for the good of all our brothers and sisters in South Africa. True justice does not lie in us using the law in order to justifying the maximum we can get away with, nor for our own advantage, regardless of the consequences for others. Nor should it ever become a screen behind which we can hide dubious actions.

I was privileged to get to know Judge Pius when I served on his Press Freedom Commission. From him, I learnt new insights into the inseparable nature of truthfulness and honesty – in both our speaking and our actions – and justice. It is clear that he let himself be guided by God’s own principles in his own highly principled life. We thank God for the gift Judge Pius was to our country, at a time when we most needed his insight and judgement, his generous spirit, his deep wisdom, his unwavering commitment to the highest possible standards of integrity and service.

If we are serious about honouring his legacy, then we too must ‘love justice’. We must choose the path of truth, of all that is good and right, of faithfulness to God, not only in our professional lives, but in every part. And we must speak up against anything less.

As I remember Pius, and all he meant to me, it is not so much what he said, but how he made you feel, that sticks with me and has lasting impact. And he made me feel valued, accorded God-given dignity, respected, someone with true equality before the law. He epitomised the scripture passage I have read – reminding me of Jesus’ promise that ‘blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it’ (Lk 11:28). Many of us today will say fine words, but will we keep them? Will we follow Pius’ example, and live by what we say, especially when we speak of lifting up the poorest of the poor, and embracing the most marginal? We speak also of offering our condolences, yet surely the greatest consolation we can offer to those who have loved him, is to learn from Pius and do as he did – living by the highest ethical standards, administered with truth, justice and fathomless mercy.

Today we mourn not only one of the finest legal brains our country has ever produced and an amazing intellectual, we also mourn a gentle, kind, delightful man, whose mind was always informed by his true heart and his faithful soul.

Therefore, though we are so sad he has left us, we draw comfort from the Psalmist’s words: ‘the Lord loves justice: he will not forsake his faithful ones’. Pius, true to his name, was a faithful child of God: and God will not forsake him, but will surely welcome him into his heavenly home, where there is fullness of joy and delight for evermore.

Well done, faithful servant of God. May you rest in peace, and rise in glory. Amen

Celebrating Joyce Piliso-Seroke's 80th Birthday

This is an edited version of the Sermon preached at the Eucharist held on 13 July 2013 in celebration of the 80th birthday of struggle stalwart, and staunch Anglican, Joyce Piliso-Seroke. You can read more about this Grand Counsellor of the Order of the Baobab in gold at http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/pebble.asp?relid=7585

Ezekiel 37:1-14, James 2:14-26, Matthew 5:1-12

Scripture says ‘just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.’

May I speak in the name of God, who creates us, redeems us, and sustains us in life. [Words of thanks.] Me Seroke, Mam Jwara, it is a particular delight to be celebrating your life today with you. You will remember, I am sure, that after Judge Fikile Bam’s funeral, you told me that you were booking me for your funeral also. Well, I am sure I am not the only one who rejoices that today is certainly not a funeral – and that you are alive and well and more than thriving!

For this we give thanks to God. Indeed, today’s service is so much about gratitude. We have heard so much about all the achievements of your long life. Our country has honoured you – as Grand Counsellor of The Order of the Baobab, in gold. Now is our chance, as the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, also to honour you.

We give thanks to God for all you have done, for all that he has enabled you to do. We also give thanks for all that he does for us. The word ‘Eucharist’ itself, of course, means thanksgiving. We give thanks for Christ’s for his victory over sin and death, over all that threatens to distance us from his love; and give thanks for God’s sustaining presence through all of life. We give thanks that he calls all of us to live lives of significance – lives, like yours, that bear the fruit of the kingdom: the fruit that lasts, and makes a difference into all eternity.

Though today is a celebration of your birthday and of your life, today is also a challenge. It is a challenge: issued by you, Mam Jwara, and by your life, and by your God – to the rest of us. It is the challenge to let ourselves be used by God, as you have let yourself be used by God, so that we might make a lasting difference in God’s world and among God’s children.

It is the challenge to be people of faith and works. For, just as faith without works is dead, so too works without faith risk being only an empty shell, without the living beating heart of God within them.

The Churches need to hear this encouragement in these challenging days of consolidating democracy. Our faith and our works find themselves in very different contexts to the bad old days of apartheid. Then, God, in his grace, gave us the conviction that the dried bones of our situation could be given new life. And so we did not lose courage, and dared to persevere, even when we might have felt helpless, or the situation might have seemed hopeless, to those who lacked the eyes of faith.

In today’s South Africa, there are also temptations to helplessness and hopelessness. Perhaps we were naïve – in imagining that democracy would automatically bring a swift end to all our social and economic struggles. Perhaps we were naïve – in failing to realise quite how much hard work it would take, how much education at all levels, how much capacity building, to turn our country round. Perhaps we were naïve – in assuming that the self-sacrifice that drove so many in our darkest days would continue to outweigh the attractions of self-interest.

Whatever the reasons, it does seem that we have taken our eye off the ball. And though much has happened in the last two decades which we can applaud, there is also too much that falls short of, and even betrays, the vision for which so many gave so much.

It is easy to name the issues – education, freedom of information, corruption in its myriad forms, and crime. Me Seroke – you worked so hard, especially with the YWCA, for the rights of women. Gender equality is now enshrined in law, but our attitudes, our habits, and our practices still have not caught up. We know this, from the reports of abuse and violence we see on TV, and even from the depictions of women in the advertising that punctuates the news broadcasts.

Then there are drugs, and gangs, and the health sector, and the failures in land reform, and environmental protection … I could go on.

Worse, I think, is our complacency – we have, for example, become used to dire poverty in all its manifestations; and the weaknesses of our political sector. There is a lack of urgency about completing the unfinished business of our transformation to democracy.

All these are the dead bones of today’s South Africa. God asks us today - Can these bones live?

What is your answer, Mam Jwara? What is the answer that you give? What does the testimony of your life cry out to us? It is surely the answer that the Lord himself gives. ‘O, my people, I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live.’

This is why we need both faith and works. We need prayer and action. We need God’s Spirit, working through us. Ours is a valley of very many dried bones. We are none of us called to tackle everything. If that were the case, we would all feel completely overwhelmed.

But all of us are called to do something. As we hunger and thirst for righteousness, God by his Spirit will show each of us where to direct our energies, so that we might know blessing – for ourselves, but most of all, for those areas which need justice, which need God’s redemptive hand upon them.

We have heard how Me Seroke directed her hunger and thirst for righteousness particularly through the YWCA, and blessing came to so many through that work. In those days, many might have thought that safeguarding the status of African women was not the most important or priority task in the fight against apartheid. But God saw that it mattered – and enabled you, Mam Jwara, to make a lasting difference that improved the lot of thousands, even millions.

We don’t have to make a big song and dance, or hit the headlines, to bear the fruit of eternal significance. When I think of you, Mam Jwara, I think of your quiet, dignified presence (so often found in the company of the rather more talkative Hlope Bam!). I think of your gentle warmth – especially to the young clergyman I used to be, and to so many other young people. I think of your enormous generosity – so often behind the scenes. And I think of your calm but iron-willed resolve – to stick with what God called you to be and to do; regardless of whether it was centre stage, or whether it was with those whom society marginalised – as was so often the case with African women.

You have shown us that what matters is God’s particular call, and being faithful in response. We must all look to whichever dry bones he leads us to face.

Since becoming Archbishop, I have found education increasingly becoming a context of dry, dry bones where I believe God is calling me to help breathe his Spirit of new life.

And it is important to recall that the word for ‘spirit’ and the word for ‘breath’ are the same in Hebrew. We need to be filled with the Spirit, in the same way we need to fill our lungs with the breath of oxygen, in every moment of every day. Too often I have seen people, wonderful people, launch themselves on projects they think will do good. But unless they let the Spirit guide each step, unless they let the Spirit empower their speaking and acting – then, all too often they soon become burnt out; and do not have the impact they ought.

On our own, we can look at the dry bones, and see which ones fit. We can even bring them together. But only God’s Spirit will restore their sinews, their flesh, their skin, and breathe new life into them.

Dear friends, dear sisters and brothers in Christ, our God is the God who desires to bring new life wherever death is at work, to bring light to our darkness, hope to our discouragement. Today we give thanks, for the powerful way he has demonstrated this, through the life of our sister. We see her faith at work in her actions. We have seen the blessing that comes daring to follow the God-given hunger and thirst for righteousness. We have seen that, though reviled and persecuted for doing what was right, God used her experience of incarceration redemptively so that she might bring depths of compassionate insight to her work with the TRC, and the Human Rights Committee.

Mam Jwara, we give thanks to God for all you are, all he has made you, and all that he has done through you. We have seen your works, we have felt your faith. May our God give each of us here today his grace, that we might also follow his call with obedience, with faithfulness, and with fruitfulness – for the blessing of his people and his world.

Amen.

Sermon at St James the Great, Worcester

This sermon was preached at the Patronal Festival of St James the Great, Worcester, on 28 July 2013.

Jeremiah 45; Acts 11:27-12:3, Mark 10:35-45

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, dear People of God of St James the Great, Worcester, dear friends. It is a great joy to be with you as you celebrate your patronal festival!

Thank you, to Fr Victor Adams, for your invitation. Thank you, also, to your wardens; and to everyone else who has contributed to today’s service, and made me feel so welcome. May I also thank you, on behalf of all the other visitors here today. Mr Mayor (Basil Kivedo), I thank you for your welcome – and I am honoured and humbled by the city’s ‘appreciation’ that you are extending to me later today.

154 years is a very long time – and I congratulate you all on celebrating this wonderful anniversary of the founding of St James the Great. When I visit churches such as yours, I am very moved by the knowledge that I am walking in the footsteps of my predecessors – and especially of the first Bishop of Cape Town, Robert Gray himself.

As we all remember, Bishop Robert saw his calling as the three-fold – to Preach the Gospel, Build Churches and Plant Clergy. Here in Worcester he did all three: he preached and confirmed on his first two visits, and he encouraged the church to be built, and brought its first Rector, the Revd John Melville Martine, from England.

His first visit was in December 1848. In his journal, he records that he got up at 3am and set off at 4am, to begin the journey from Swellendam, and arrived at 5pm the following afternoon. Well, I am glad that my journey was considerably easier, and that at 3am this morning I was still fast asleep in my own bed!

I’ve been thinking about Bishop Gray, in relation to our gospel reading.

James and John come to Jesus with very ambitious ideas. Their grand desires are rather modified by Jesus’ questions but they still claim commitment to their ambitious goals – to follow him, share in his life, and stay close to him, in the coming of his kingdom. They really have no idea what they are asking, or what they are letting themselves in for. Yet, in a way, in the end they get what they ask for – to drink the cup that Jesus drinks. For they do follow Jesus in faithfulness, faithfulness even to an early death, in the case of James.

And I wonder to what extent Bishop Gray found himself in a similar position. Did he really have any idea what he was letting himself in for when he agreed to become the first Bishop of Cape Town?

It seems from his letters that he had plenty of grand ideas about how he would go about his ministry. But I suspect he found the reality more daunting than he anticipated! Having arrived in the Cape in February 1848, in August he set off on his first visitation. It lasted four months, and he covered nearly 3,000 miles – that is, just a little short of 5,000 kilometres.

Yet in his journal as he finally reached home, he writes a very moving passage. He had set off, he said, ‘enfeebled and worn’, yet returned ‘in strength and health’. His early discouragement had been transformed into optimism. Why? Because, he records, although it had been an extremely demanding time, both physically and spiritually, he had found God at work at every turn.

He wrote (and I paraphrase slightly)
‘I have seen our people, though long neglected, still clinging to their mother church, ready to make great personal exertions and sacrifices … I have seen very remarkable effects resulting from the mere celebration of our holy services – sufficient to prove them to be of God; and apparently showing that God has been pleased to bless the Church in this desolate land with a double measure of his gracious presence …’

He gives thanks to God, who has clearly encouraged him, and given a fresh vision, for all the difficult and demanding work that still lay ahead, and which he pursued with such energy and diligence for the rest of his life.

But to return to today’s gospel passage: often we read it and we warn ourselves against the hot-headedness, and naked ambition of James and John.

Yet today I think I want to preach in favour of this recklessness!

I support the way that, in moments of rash enthusiasm, we can make great commitments, which have us wondering later, what on earth we were thinking! For it seems that God honours whatever is good in this impulse within us. He will keep this fire burning, and help us channel our energies so that, in the end, we do, in a way, achieve what we had yearned for. Most of all, he helps us achieve it in ways that bring glory to God and build his kingdom, rather than bringing glory to us and building our egos! This is God’s invitation and promise to us all.

Let us go back to the gospel reading: the two brothers come to Jesus, with a request. And Jesus responds ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ He invites us to bring to him the deepest yearnings of our hearts.

If we step back from superficial desires, what do we find? We long to matter; we want our lives to matter. We want to be noticed, to be acknowledged and loved for who we are. We yearn to be special.

And God wants all of this for us too – but he wants it for us in ways that are good for us, and good for the world. God sees us – he sees us with his eyes of love. We matter to him. And he wants to help us do great things – not necessarily to achieve wealth and status and power. These are the world’s superficial attempt to acquire the deeper riches, and lasting satisfaction, that only God can give. God wants us to live significant, meaningful, lives, which share his love and build his kingdom.

We can see in James and John’s desire to sit beside Jesus in his glory, how our deeper, spiritual, genuine, yearnings get tangled up with the ambitions of the world. But then we see how Jesus steers their desire into commitments that are more closely aligned with the call to follow him – and to be united with Jesus in our Baptism, and following his example of a life of self-giving and faithful service. As we trace the lives of James and John through the gospel, and into the book of Acts, we see how Jesus continues to teach them, and guide them. As they follow him on his last journey to Jerusalem, through Holy Week, and the Last Supper, we see him lead them into greater understanding of who he is, as the Messiah, the Christ; and of what it means to follow him. Then, of course, they meet the risen Jesus; and the Spirit comes upon them at Pentecost, and they are empowered to become leaders of others in the life of faith.

This is the way that God works with us all, if we let him. For myself, I had no idea when I made my first rash commitments to the Church, that God would lead me to Bishopscourt. Yet when I look back, I see his hand at work, again and again: leading me away from avenues that would have been destructive, and nudging me in the right direction.

We have been thinking so much about dear Madiba in recent weeks – and we can see God at work in his life in a similar way. In the last chapters of Long Walk to Freedom, he writes about how first of all it was personal freedom that he sought; then he realised that he should pursue freedom for those discriminated against by apartheid; and finally he saw that freedom was what everyone needed, no matter what their race. And so he records that he realised his life must be dedicated to ‘preaching reconciliation, binding the wounds of our country, engendering trust and confidence’.

It is gospel-shaped stuff.

But I don’t think it was what he had in mind when he first became involved in politics, and helped found the ANC Youth League. Yet the vision that first fired him, nonetheless held the seeds of what became his life of great service. God plants those seeds, and longs to water them, nurture them, tend them – even prune them when we need it – so they may flourish and bear the fruit that will last!

So do not be afraid to set your heart on ambitious goals for God.

St James, who, in our gospel reading, seems to have got it so wrong, became the first great leader of the Church. And his brother, St John, equally hot-headed and misguided, became the first great theologian, writing his gospel, in which he reflects not just on the actions of Jesus’ life, but interprets their meaning and significance for us and for the world. They wanted to lead – but they had to become servants first. Only then could they give the authentic lead that reflects the Lordship of Jesus, the servant king.

So today, let us not be afraid to embrace the great ambitions that God plants within us. Let us dare to think big, and reach far! Let us not be too afraid of our own mixed motives, our complicated hopes and fears, the grip of our egos, and our insecurities. Let us place them all into the hands of God, so he can thin out the weeds and nurture the good seeds until they bear much fruit.

Today, I am very privileged to be honoured by the city of Worcester. But let us dare to imagine what it might mean for every inhabitant of Worcester to receive ‘the freedom of the city’ – freedom from the shackles of poverty, unemployment, and inequality, and from the emotional and spiritual oppression that can overcome any one of us, rich and poor alike.

Let us ask God to dream in us the sort of dreams he dreamt through Madiba – dreams of reconciliation, unity, non-racialism, and lasting peace and justice. Let us share Madiba’s passion for constitutional democracy – and may our passion drive us to live and work for the fuller realisation of all the hope and promise enshrined within our Constitution.

In just over a week we shall be celebrating women’s day. We know that rural women are among the most marginalised people in South Africa. Let us dare to make wild and rash commitments to pursuing genuine equality for all women, and true freedom – including freedom from all forms of violence, and from fears of violence.

And may God turn these commitments into concrete reality.

Dear people of God of St James the Great, today we celebrate 154 years since your foundation. We don’t know the people who first built this church – no doubt they were much like us, ordinary human beings, each with their gifts and their flaws; their ambitions full of mixed motives. But we know this – that God honoured the risks they took, and the sacrifices they made. And over more than a century and a half, that God has been faithful to the generations who followed them, through all the turbulent history of this town, this country.

This same God will be faithful to us in our turn. Like Baruch in our first reading, we may not get what we think we want, and we may not have an easy life – but we will certainly receive God’s guaranteed gift of life, flowing in us and through us for the good of his world.

So today we thank God for all that has been, and for all that is. And we say our Yes to all he has in store for us!

To echo the words of Robert Gray, after his first visit, May God be pleased to continue to bless this Church with a double measure of his gracious presence …’ Amen