Anglican Primates meet in "spirit-led, forward-looking, inspiring" meeting in Jordan

Archbishop Justin Welby leads a service at the River Jordan

The Archbishop has issued the following comments on the recent meeting of the heads of churches of the world-wide Anglican Communion, held in Jordan in the Middle East:

We had a good Primates' Meeting, spirit-led, forward-looking, inspiring and held in a cordial atmosphere.

We met in the context of the Middle East, and the biblical historical context reminded me of God’s presence in our lives and throughout history.

To the Laos - To the People of God – October 2017

Dear People of God

I am writing this as I prepare to travel to Canterbury, where I will attend a meeting of the Primates of the Anglican Communion over the next week. Following that I will chair a meeting of the Lambeth Design Group, a body which oversees planning for the next Lambeth Conference, to be held in 2020. Our Province is committed to faithfully showing up and participating in these key meetings of the Communion, doing so because our reward is to be faithful servants of God and God's witness and mission in the world. Please pray for both meetings.

The Communion meetings follow a busy week of debates and decisions, first at the second session of the Synod of Bishops this year, then at the annual Provincial Standing Committee (PSC), at which bishops, clergy and lay representatives from every diocese in the Province are represented. The Dean of the Province, Bishop Stephen Diseko, “embarrassed” me, almost marketing my new book to both meetings by congratulating me on it. I appreciated it but as you all know me, I always try to push attention to Jesus, the church and not me. 

The bishops dealt with a wide range of important issues, including the election of a new bishop for Mthatha, the situation in the Diocese of Umzimvubu, the future of the College of the Transfiguration and the Archbishop's Commission on Human Sexuality. You can read the details in our Pastoral Letter.

At PSC we also considered in detail a very wide range of questions ranging from theological education and the environment to how we should organise our youth work and our role in combating substance abuse. Of particular note was the statement we received from the special conference marking the 25^th anniversary of the ordination of women as priests in ACSA, which was held at the same venue and simultaneously with the Synod of Bishops. At the end of their conference, we all celebrated a special Eucharist with arriving members of PSC.

While those who met in conference celebrated the 1992 decision to ordain women as priests as “a victory over exclusion, inequality, and injustice in the church,” they said these features continued in our leadership, structures and practices. They called for a series of changes, including the election of more woman bishops. You can read their statement on the ASCA website, as well as a pledge to which they committed themselves.

Apart from the challenging task of presiding over the deliberative bodies of the Province, the life of an Archbishop is also taken up with difficult pastoral issues. Before the recent Provincial meetings got under way, my ministry and that of a number of my fellow bishops in a number of dioceses in the Eastern and Western Cape were overshadowed by tragedy.

Firstly, I had to preach and preside at the funeral of a senior priest, Archdeacon Lunga Vellem, in Kokstad in the Diocese of Umzimvubu. As someone who held an MBA, he was a valuable asset to the Diocese but was killed when he sustained head injuries in a car accident. Then in Cape Town we had the sudden death of the Revd Mark Abrahams, Rector of the Church of the Holy Spirit in Heideveld. He died just after undergoing an operation and only a week before his 54th birthday. Large numbers came both to the Church of the Resurrection in Bonteheuwel and to Holy Spirit to commemorate his life and ministry.

Soon after that, I buried a young priest in the Diocese of Mthatha, Archdeacon Sibulele Njova, his wife, his son and his younger sister. They all died in a head-on collision with a van which was allegedly forced out of its lane by a taxi – which then sped off without stopping, apparently realising what it had inflicted on this young family. As we lowered the four coffins into the grave in Mqandule in rural Transkei, not far from the picturesque Wild Coast resorts of Coffee Bay and Hole-in-the-Wall, the wailing of the mourners seemed – very painfully – to be matched by the sound of the sea. After the funeral I went to Mthatha Hospital with the Dean to visit the two surviving daughters, aged 11 and four. The 11-year-old was battling with her injuries but the four-year-old could hold a conversation with me and even gave me a high-five. She was happy that we were in cassocks because we reminded her of her dad. But she had not yet been told her parents had died and thought they were arriving back from a conference later that day. I suspected she must have sensed that her parents had gone – she was, after all, in the car with them – and I felt that I was betraying her by not saying anything. But I was on my way back to Cape Town, so I resisted the temptation to tell her and then to leave her and fly off. If her sister pulls through, they will both be orphans. Their grandparents are ageing, so they will have to stay with an aunt in conditions far inferior to those of a rural Anglican rectory.

As I reflected on the lives of these three clerics and their families, I thought of the Gospel assurance that “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4) – but also of the Psalmist's words: “Why are you so full of heaviness, my soul: and why so unquiet within me?” (Psalm 46) We all have finite lives, and as St Paul says to us, “We do not want you to be uninformed... about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.” (Thessalonians 4:13) Well done, good and faithful servants, and may you enter into your Father's rest.

Fortunately I can end this letter to the laity on a note of hope and new life. On my return from the Communion meetings, Bishop Martin Breytenbach of the Diocese of St Mark the Evangelist will marry Colleen Thomas of Cape Town. After they both suffered the loss of their spouses in tragic circumstances in recent years, we celebrate and rejoice that they have found new happiness and give thanks for this life-giving sacrament, marriage. God be praised!

God bless,

†Thabo Cape Town

Communiqué from the Primates in Canterbury

Communiqué from the Primates

Walking Together in the Service of God in the World

The meeting of Anglican Primates, the senior bishops of the 38 Anglican Provinces, joined by the Archbishop of the Anglican Church of North America, took place in Canterbury between Monday 11 January and Friday 15 January at the invitation of Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The first morning was spent in prayer and fasting.

Global prayer for Primates Meeting

Archbishop Thabo will be one of those attending this meeting, together with other archbishops from across Africa and the Communion:

[Anglican Communion News Service] Christians around the world are praying for next week’s Primates Meeting taking place in the grounds of Canterbury Cathedral.

To the Laos - To the People of God

Dear People of God,

Today, as I write, is Candlemas (2 February), the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, which draws the season of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany to a close. It is rather a ‘bitter-sweet’ day, as we celebrate with Simeon and Anna their recognition of the one who comes to be their Saviour, our Saviour – but also recognise that he must taste the pains of human suffering, if he is to share with us the promise of heavenly life.

We find the bitter and the sweet together so often in life. I have just returned from the Anglican Primates’ Meeting, where I felt both great sorrow at the painful divisions that led some Primates to stay away, and yet also was profoundly touched by the depths of our shared worship, Bible study and discussions. We did have some ‘business’ issues to address (including the harassment of Anglicans in Zimbabwe and persecution of Christians in Pakistan; political developments in Egypt, Korea and Sudan; violence against women and children, and the murder of the Ugandan gay rights activist David Kato; and climate change). But for the most part, we took counsel together on what it means to be a Bishop and a Primate in the Church of God, sharing one another’s joys and burdens in conversation and in prayer. In the cold Irish winter, sheltered at the Emmaus retreat centre, we were conscious of our weaknesses, and our interdependence, and kept those who were not present alive in our hearts, through a lit candle, remembering Christ, in whose body we are all members together, as our light.

Prayer and fellowship, study and reflection, are our bedrock, as we seek to care for one another, giving mutual support, and taking counsel with one another. Our aim is to deepen our relationship – especially on a spiritual level – and to help one another grow in Christ, by the leading of the Spirit, and so to be faithful to our individual and shared callings. This is the task of all Christians wherever we find ourselves: as Primates, in the Synod of Bishops, in Dioceses, and at Parish level and within our families too. We do not choose who we find ourselves alongside, and we often have very different backgrounds, or expectations, or personalities. It is not easy to get along with everyone, all the time, and sometimes we will disagree quite strongly. But wherever we recognise Christ as the cornerstone in the life of another person, we have no option but to continue striving to be built together as God’s ‘living stones’ (1 Peter 2). And so I came home full of hope that, without underestimating the challenges in our Communion, we nonetheless still have something dear to us, to hold on to and to cherish.

There have been other bitter-sweet moments in the life of our own Church. It saddened me greatly that the consecration of the Rt Revd Sebenzile Elliot Williams as the first Bishop of Mbhashe was only able to proceed after the courts threw out unsustainable challenges to his election. Of course, the church must uphold both the spirit and the due processes of our canons and the laws of our nations. But it perturbs me that when people do not get their own way through following the proper courses, there is such a temptation to dash to a lawyer to try to overturn what should be accepted with grace. We should take to heart Paul’s admonition that secular legal action is our last resort (1 Cor 6). At times, sadly, that point does come, as we found in the Diocese of George – so now we wish them a fresh and ‘sweet’ beginning, following the election of Revd Canon Brian Marajh as their new Bishop. He will be consecrated on 7 May. Please keep him and his family in your prayers.

Your prayers are also asked for Nelson Mandela, and all who love him. He is an old man of 92, and we cannot hope for him to stay with us for ever! We thank God for all he has done for South Africa, and the inspiration he has been to so many beyond our borders. But we must also commit him into God’s hands, asking, as the ancient prayers say, that when his time comes, he may have a ‘good end’ and not be afraid to make that final journey to his eternal home, trusting in the one who gave his life so that we might know the life of heaven with him. But until that time, we ask God to strengthen and uphold Madiba, and surround him with his love and care.

In the three years since becoming Archbishop of Cape Town, I have been twice to the Holy Land – a place of great bitterness and sweetness. Most recently Lungi and I travelled there last October as the guest of Mickey Glass, a former executive officer of the Jewish Board of deputies. Later this month I shall return, to participate in an international conference at the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, which will consider the theme ‘Challenging Empire: God, Faithfulness and Resistance’. I have found it humbling to listen to stories from all faiths, all backgrounds, and to walk alongside those from every background who desire a just and lasting peace. There are both parallels and differences with our own painful history. It is my deep prayer that we might be able to share the best of what we have learnt, in order to support and encourage Israelis and Palestinians, and the whole international community, to keep striving urgently for justice, and a sustainable solution for everyone. So soon after Christmas, as I continue to ponder the enormity of God taking human flesh as a baby, I am struck once again by the need to for us to see and encounter others – especially those ‘others’ who are different from us – as children of God, bearing his divine spark, living with the same human frailties as we do. It is in sharing our vulnerabilities and weaknesses that we build the trust that is necessary for going forward together.

I hope too, that I shall learn lessons about the public voice of our own Church, and the role we play in our own nations. That will be one of the subjects on the agenda of the Synod of Bishops, when we meet from 7 to 12 February. Please keep us in your prayers as we also elect the new bishop of St Helena. We wish Bishop John Salt a happy retirement and thank God for his ministry.

Yours in the service of Christ

+Thabo Cape Town

A Pastoral Letter from the Bishops to the People of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa

We, the Bishops of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, have been meeting in synod at Modderpoort 16-19 February 2009.

As teachers of the Church, we have spent a full and joyful day discussing Christian education ‘from baptism to the grave’. We want to develop a training framework for Christians of all ages in our Church. We were pleased to receive baptism training material from the Publishing Committee, which is meant to be the first of a series of aids to theological education in our Church. We note with gratitude many other such initiatives around the Province.

We also welcomed staff from the College of the Transfiguration in Grahamstown and the Anglican House of Studies in Pietermaritzburg, and received presentations on these and on the TEE College. We were encouraged at the positive reports from each of these as they develop numbers of talented people for ministry and leadership (Ephesians 4:11-14). We gave all of them our support for the future.

The Growing the Church initiative has been very much with us in recent months and is already bearing fruit. It is exciting to know that congregations are growing and some dioceses are contemplating giving birth to new ones; the Diocese of Ukhahlamba will be born out of Grahamstown on 3 October this year.

Our Archbishop has recently returned from the Primates’ Meeting. We were gratified to hear that all the Primates in Africa were present and engaged with the discussions and planning. Following the positive experience of the Lambeth Conference we remain committed to the ongoing process of reconciliation in our Church; because of our historic experience, we have previously said that we may have some insight to share with others in regard to tolerance and reconciliation. In the spirit of the Lambeth Indaba process, we will be glad to offer that – but we know very well that unity begins at home, and we need now to take account of our own life where tensions exist which need to be pro-actively addressed.

We have spent some time discussing the proposed Anglican Covenant, and support it in principle. There is much work still to be done in this regard, including dissemination and discussion in the life of the Church.

As we arrived in the Free State we were disturbed to hear that the provincial Department of Health is discontinuing the provision of anti-retroviral medication to HIV-positive patients for financial reasons; we have issued an urgent statement on this matter.

Naturally for South Africans, the forthcoming elections fill the horizon. We are concerned that voter education should take place, and that voters should be able to turn out in numbers to vote without fear of intimidation. We give our full support to the Independent Electoral Commission and to its Chair, Ms Brigalia Bam. We therefore offer ourselves as mediators in places of conflict and we urge our people to offer themselves as election monitors where this is needed and possible. We hear the cry, ‘where has ubuntu gone?’ This country needs to choose selfless and credible leaders who will use power for the common good.

We remain concerned about democratic processes not only in South Africa but in neighbouring countries, particularly Swaziland and Zimbabwe. The global economic crisis is damaging both the capacity of southern African countries to take care of their citizens, and the work of the Church especially where international funding or the exchange rate are threatened. We note that the battle against malaria is continuing, notably in Mocambique, but there is still much to do.

In 1999 we were among the first to call for a judicial commission of enquiry into the South African arms deal, and to question the levels of spending in that deal when so many other needs persist in our society. We still believe that unanswered questions around the deal will obstruct the way forward in South Africa's public life, and that a full and comprehensive judicial enquiry is essential to the future health of our society.

Now Lent is coming and we turn our minds to the discipline of prayer, reflection and giving which we associate with the coming season. Archbishop Thabo Makgoba has called us to focus in prayer on Zimbabwe on Ash Wednesday and we will want to join with others who are already fasting for that country and its people on that day. We must pray for the country and its new government; for the right treatment of Zimbabweans in neighbouring countries and for fair treatment at the hands of police and officials, especially in South Africa. We must pray and work for tolerance and patience on the part of citizens, so that among other things, xenophobic violence may never happen again. We further urge governments in the region not to act hastily in seeking to repatriate refugees to Zimbabwe.

These are difficult days for many people but we say with St Paul, We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our bodies. (2 Corinthians 4: 8-10)

The darkness of suffering yields to the light of resurrection, and the hope of Christ transforms all our days of hardship.

May God bless you all.

Leaders of the Anglican Communion Hold "Moving" Discussions on Zimbabwe

The Primates of the Anglican Communion, meeting in Alexandria, held what the Anglican Communion News Service called a "moving discussion on Zimbabwe" on Monday night, February 2, led by Bishop Albert Chama of Central Africa and Archbishop Thabo.

You can hear a recording of the news conference, addressed first by Archbishop Phillip Aspinall of Brisbane, media spokesman for the meeting, and then Archbishop Thabo, at the ACNS website.

You can also read reports referring to Archbishop Thabo's contributions to the meeting by the U.S. Episcopal Church's correspondent at the meeting, and a report in The Guardian, London.

The full text of the statement issued by the Primates follows:

Primates' Statement on Zimbabwe ACNS4568

The Primates of the Anglican Communion, meeting in Alexandria, Egypt on 3rd February, 2009, heard first hand reports of the situation in Zimbabwe, and note with horror the appalling difficulties of the people of this nation under the current regime.

We give thanks to God for the faithful witness of the Christians of Zimbabwe during this time of pain and suffering, especially those who are being denied access to their churches. We wish to assure them of our love, support and prayers as they face gross violation of human rights, hunger and loss of life as well as the scourge of a cholera epidemic, all due directly to the deteriorating socio-political and economic situation in Zimbabwe.

It is a matter of grave concern that there is an apparent breakdown of the rule of law within the country, and that the democratic process is being undermined, as shown in the flagrant disregard of the outcome of the democratic elections of March 31st 2008, so that Mr Robert Mugabe illegitimately holds on to power. Even the recent political situation of power sharing, brokered by SADC, may not be long lasting and simply further entrench Mr Mugabe’s regime. There appears to be a total disregard for life, consistently demonstrated by Mr Mugabe through systematic kidnap, torture and the killing of Zimbabwean people. The economy of Zimbabwe has collapsed, as evidenced by the use of foreign currencies in an independent state.

We therefore call upon President Robert Mugabe to respect the outcome of the elections of 2008 and to step down. We call for the implementation of the rule of law and the restoration of democratic processes.

We request that the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Chair of the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa, in consultation with the Church of the Province of Central Africa, commission a Representative to go to Zimbabwe to exercise a ministry of presence and to show solidarity with the Zimbabwean people. We also request the President of the All Africa Conference of Churches and the Chairman of the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa to facilitate a meeting with the African Union president and other African political leaders (especially those of SADC) to highlight the plight of the Zimbabwean peoples.

We call upon parishes throughout the Anglican Communion to assist the Anglican Communion Office, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Office and the Anglican Observer to the United Nations in addressing the humanitarian crisis by giving aid through such mechanisms as the Archbishop of Canterbury is able to designate, and asking that Lambeth Palace facilitate processes by which food and other material aid for Zimbabwe can be distributed through the dioceses of the Church of the Province of Central Africa.

We urge the Churches of the Anglican Communion to join with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa in observing Wednesday 25th February 2009, Ash Wednesday, as a day of prayer and solidarity with the Zimbabwean people.

As representatives of the Anglican Communion, we reiterate that we do not recognise the status of Bishop Nolbert Kunonga and Bishop Elson Jakazi as bishops within the Anglican Communion, and call for the full restoration of Anglican property within Zimbabwe to the Church of the Province of Central Africa.

We affirm the initiative of the Diocese of St Mark the Evangelist (ACSA) in collaboration with Lambeth Palace, the Anglican Communion Office and the Church of the Province of Central Africa in establishing a chaplaincy along the Zimbabwe-South Africa border for the pastoral care of the many refugees, and call upon the Anglican Communion to support this work.

Photo of Archbishop Thabo Makgoba: Matthew Davies/Episcopal Life Online