Sermon for the Easter Vigil – St George’s Cathedral Cape Town

Romans 6:3-11; Psalm 118:14-18; Mark 16:1-8

Alleluia, Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia! Sisters and brothers in Christ, may all the fullness of Easter Resurrection life be yours!

It is a great joy to be sharing this Easter celebration with you in the mother church of the Diocese and Province. It is particularly special to be sharing with our Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, who for me epitomizes in reality Julian of Norwich’s saying that “...all shall be well, and all manner of thing[s] shall be well.”

Mr Dean, your staff, licensed and unlicensed, the clergy, the wardens, the lay leaders of the Cathedral, those who conduct music and all your other ministries, including the office staff, the cleaners as well as the verger, thank you for all that you are and all that you do.

Everywhere I look, everywhere I go, there is a great anticipation about Easter. Unquestionably, Easter, and Holy Week leading up to Easter, are profoundly personal for Christians everywhere. But why do we celebrate Easter? What makes Easter so intensely important?

‘Prophets and Healers in Broken Communities’

This address was given on Saturday 18 May 2013, at the Annual Certificate Celebration, at the Centre for Contextual Ministry, Pretoria

Good morning everyone. Let me begin by greeting the Dean of the Theology Department, Prof Johan Buitendag, and Deputy Dean, Prof Dirk Human, together with all who are present today. I express particular thanks to Dr Stephan de Beers, Director of the Centre for Contextual Ministry, for your invitation and warm welcome.

This morning I want to address our theme of ‘Prophets and Healers in Broken Communities’ by reflecting on how this connects with my own spiritual and personal contexts. I shall draw on Scripture and church teaching, and set this alongside my own journey as a member of the broken community of Makgobas of Makgobaskloof. The challenge of dealing with these past pains has opened up new possibilities of redemptive grace, shaping me as a channel of prophecy and healing to others. I hope that bringing my own experiences into conversation with the Bible and Christian tradition will help you to find your own ways of engaging with hurt and brokenness in service to others as healers and prophets.

Yesterday, as I was preparing to come here today, I was prompted to reflect further the last chapter of St John’s gospel, after reading the part that was set for Anglicans for the daily Eucharist. It is the account of Peter and six other disciples going fishing, and meeting Jesus. This happens after Easter, after the resurrection. The seven of them have returned to Galilee, where they take a boat out on the Sea of Tiberius.

They catch nothing, and then encounter the risen Jesus on the shore, though at first they don’t recognise him. He tells them to throw the net on the other side of the boat, and they get a huge catch – at which point they recognise him. He invites them to breakfast; and though they know it is Jesus, they are very shy to speak openly with him. Finally, Jesus and Peter have a conversation by themselves. Three times Jesus asks Peter if he loves him – and in response to Peter’s affirmation, Jesus tells him ‘Feed my lambs’ then ‘Tend my sheep’ then ‘Feed my sheep.’

All of us are in the business of tending and feeding God’s lambs and sheep. All of us, whether ordained or lay, in full-time or part-time ministry, are engaged with showing God’s love to God’s people, and teaching and encouraging them in their faith. It is our task to help them to grow in knowledge and love of God, and in sharing that knowledge and love with the world around, through lives of faithful witness and service.

We should teach our people to integrate the good news of Jesus Christ into their daily life, whatever that is. God is the Lord of all creation – and so we should never fall into the temptation of dividing life into two separate compartments, the religious and the secular. Not at all – God has an interest in every part of his creation and every activity of human life.

We know that God does not call all Christians to be clergy or pastors. We know that instead God calls for his people to lead godly lives as teachers, doctors and nurses, civil servants, politicians, business leaders, entrepreneurs, factory workers, bus drivers etc; and as family members, neighbours, friends. Whatever people do, wherever they find themselves, they are to be God’s salt and light in the world.

I am reminded of the words of one of my heroes: William Temple, who was Archbishop of Canterbury during the second world war, 1942-4. He was a great Christian, and a great social reformer, who was criticised by both Christians and politicians for taking stands on political and social questions. In response, he argued that the church was ‘bound to “interefere”’ in these issues, because, he said ‘it is by vocation the agent of God’s purpose, outside the scope of which no human interest or activity can fall.’

Furthermore, he said, ‘nine-tenths’, 90%, of this ‘interference’ by Christians in political, social and economic questions, should and would be done, not by the church formally – but through the influence of individual Christians in their capacity as engaged citizens. They would bring Christian values to bear in every area, through their work, and through their involvement in the networks of their communities. And therefore, said Archbishop Temple, it was the job of the churches to equip their people to do this, by teaching Christian principles which Christian citizens can then apply in whatever circumstances they find themselves.

How then are we to do this? The passage from John 21 points us in the right direction. For Jesus makes clear that loving him comes before tending and feeding his sheep.

As some of you may know, I spent almost 40 days earlier this week away on retreat. At the heart of the retreat was a period of 30 days spent in near silence, following a programme of guided meditations and prayer that were developed by St Ignatius of Loyola. He was the founder of the Jesuits – the order of Catholic priests of which the new Pope, Francis, is a member. All of us around the world have been impressed by this man – by his holiness and simplicity of life, and by the way his deep, deep, spirituality is also matched with a deep, deep commitment to the poor and needy. This is the life that St Ignatius tried to help people discover, through this long retreat, known as the Full Spiritual Exercises. Its aim is to help people come close to Jesus. By reflecting on God’s creating and redeeming love; and by reflecting on Jesus life and ministry and self-offering on the cross, we find ourselves drawn into the love of God, and therefore also drawn to share his love wherever it is needed.

We too are called to self-offering: offering ourselves in love to Jesus, and in service to the world. This is the two-fold action at the centre of this passage. We have to love Jesus first, in order to be able to feed his sheep.

During my retreat, through spending time reflecting on various passages from the gospels, I felt myself shaken to the core by encountering Jesus with a new freshness and depth. And through this – though it may sound odd for an Archbishop to say this – I felt refreshed, and I feel renewed, in my vocation as a Church leader in ordained ministry. It was a call that I needed to hear again, as Peter needed to have those hard questions ‘Do you love me?’ I too needed to put myself back in that place where loving Jesus and receiving his love came first of all.

For, looking back, I came to realise see that I had often been trapped in understanding ordination too much as being about ‘doing’, about being a ‘professional’. And so I worked hard at the best presiding at the Eucharist with every detail correct, making the best pastoral visits, conducting the best funerals… At times, it was as if I saw myself as a sort of NGO in the religious sector. It felt as if I’d got my mandate from God, and now he could step back while I got on with it myself.

It is like the disciples – they had encountered the risen Jesus for themselves, but now he had ascended, they went back to running their lives the way they knew best – by being professional fishermen. They all, like Peter needed to realise that being a Christian was not merely doing their own professional thing, and saying they were dedicating it to God. Instead they needed a radically new way of living, which was entirely focussed around following Jesus, and obeying his call.

My retreat helped me to see clearly what I had been doing – that I too had fallen into that same trap. But it also turned me round, and radically changed my perspective, I hope, for ever. God touched my heart with an amazing sense of the privilege of ordained ministry. This is something of course I’d known in my head – but I’d never integrated my head with my heart in this way before.

God calls all of us here today in this same remarkable way. He invites us to allow ourselves to be set apart, for a particular life of faithfulness. It is above all, fidelity to God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity. We are to abide in God’s love, shown in Jesus Christ – and letting it burn in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whose coming we celebrate again tomorrow. Through abiding in their love, we come to see and hear and feel, more clearly, more dearly, the God who is Trinity.

We also come see and hear the Trinity in ourselves, and in other people who are also made in God’s image. When we truly see the beauty of God in others, and in nature, we can serve God in them in new ways. Indeed, it is as if I and the other are together caught up into the love of the Trinity, as the ‘God in me’; and ‘God in the other’ resonate together in holy love. This is a very precious mystery.

Yet to abide in such love is demanding. Most of all it demands that we live with an attitude of openness and vulnerability, before God and even before one another, before those we serve as Christian leaders. For if we are to be ‘Prophets and Healers in Broken Communities’ – the title which I was given for this address, then we need to experience for ourselves God’s compassionate touch on our own brokenness; and we need to share what this means for us. In this way we can be living models of how God deals with us in our woundedness and pain.

During my retreat, I found myself drawn to acknowledge and explore how deeply I am wounded by the past history of the Makgobas. I knew it mattered, but had not realised how scarred I was, bearing deep anguish within me at events of the 1880s. After the first Anglo-Boer war, which the Afrikaaners won, they came into conflict with many of the local people. They fought the Makgobas between 1883 and 1885. Finally the king was captured and beheaded, and the clan was scattered. Today we are still wrestling to get out land back; and we are still trying to find the King’s missing head.

I need to acknowledge the woundedness of my whole family, my ancestors, over more than a century, and the pain that we cannot live on our own land, with the freedom we ought to know. Even with land returned, and the head found, we would still remain scarred and traumatised.

We need God’s compassionate touch upon us continually. And if we – if I – can be open to receive from him in this way; then, I show others what it means to live like this – so they also can receive his compassion.

It is as St Paul writes in the first chapter of 2 Corinthians:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.

So then, let me sum up: to be prophets and healers in broken communities, we must reject secular styles of ‘strong man’ leadership. We are to abide in Christ, above all else – to immerse ourselves in the sort of prayer that helps us rest in him, and grow in receiving his love, and especially in the most wounded and broken places of our lives. For in our own woundedness and brokenness we will then receive the consolation of God, which we can then share with the wounded and broken people, communities, and country, to which God sends us.

So may he bless you with this fresh call upon your lives; so that you may grow in his love, and be a blessing to others. Amen

Call for Prayer and Fasting on Reconciliation day

The following statement was issued on 12 December 2012

The Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town is calling on South Africans to fast and pray for the nation on Reconciliation Day.

In a call made first in The Sunday Independent on 25 November, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba is urging people of all religious communities to tap into the strength of their faith for the sake of the country, much as they did in apartheid years. ‘It is too easy to feel hopeless, even despairing, after the Marikana tragedy, unrest among Western Cape farm-workers, crises in education and unemployment, failures in service delivery, and endless reports of crime and corruption’ said the Archbishop. ‘But we are not helpless, and should not let ourselves feel overwhelmed.’

‘Prayer and fasting are concrete actions, which connect us with the strong foundations of our beliefs: the power of God, eternal moral guiding principles, however we want to describe them’ he said. ‘They will provide new focus and energy, to work for all that is right and true and wholesome for South Africa, in which all people of good-will can join us. Standing together and speaking out together, as so many did before, is the best way to ensure that the vision and promises of the struggle are achieved.’

‘Reconciliation Day is entirely appropriate for such prayer and fasting, especially for Christians’ said Archbishop Makgoba. ‘In the weeks before Christmas, we think about Jesus coming not just as a baby, but also as the one who reconciles all of creation in the love of God the Father. In Jesus Christ, God promises to overcome divisions, heal relationships, mend our brokenness, defeat evil, and ensure that all that is good and right and loving finally triumphs. Furthermore’ he noted, ‘as St Paul tells us, God also entrusts this “ministry of reconciliation” to all who follow him. So we have to play our part too.’

The Archbishop added ‘Therefore, we are truly in the business of promoting genuine, eternal, reconciliation. Perhaps the government did not realise how profound it was to rename 16 December ‘Reconciliation Day’! Yet I like to believe God guided their hand, because I know that true reconciliation is one of God’s greatest desires for our nation. May he bless us, and help us to grow in authentic reconciliation, based on our best hopes for the future, for the sake of all South Africans.’


Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Inquiries: Ms Wendy Kelderman 021 763 1320 (office hours)

Message for our Times: God Listens, God Saves

This is the opening devotional reflection shared with the Church Leaders' Consultation on 15 October 2012

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let me share some reflections on what it might mean to ‘read the signs of the times’ through God’s eyes, at this time in our nation.

I shall begin with a verse which was part of the Old Testament passage set today within the lectionary of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. As you might know, we have a two year cycle of readings for Morning and Evening Prayer, which takes us through the whole of the Bible – well, apart from a few genealogies, and some of the more duplicative parts of the books of Kings and Chronicles! Today, we were reading from the book of the prophet Micah – and chapter 7, verse 7, says this: ‘As for me, I will look to the Lord, I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.’

There are two key points to note here. First, God listens. Second, God is the source of our salvation, our redemption. They are obvious – but they bear repeating, and applying to our own context.

Recent months have been very hard. I have been to Marikana a number of times – as have some of you. Though I grew up in dire conditions in Alexandra, I was shocked - my stomach was turned – at the conditions in which workers and their families are expected to live. And though I found a deep desire for solutions to be found, I also felt my soul deeply troubled. It was as though the very ground cried out, with all the sorrow, the despair, the anger, not only at recent deaths and violence, but at a long, long history of inhumanity and inequality, oppression and exploitation – not always by the employers, but also by loan sharks and others who feed off the needy and vulnerable.

Then, on Saturday, I presided at the funeral of Zwelakhe Sisulu – a man of high principle, a son of all that was best about the struggle. His death seemed to me to represent how so much of the values, the standards, the excellence, of the past are being lost to the present and the future.

Well, these are just two instances of what we face in South Africa today. We could compile a long, long, list of all that is wrong. It is easy enough to do. Journalists do it, commentators do it, opposition politicians do it – and so often, we do it too.

Criticism is easy. But then what?

Christians are called to something more. We are called to bring another narrative to bear: one that is not content to rest with the stories of all that is going wrong; all that is undermining the best for which so many strove.

Our task is to say God listens, and God saves. For we know that while our God is a God of both judgement and hope, ‘mercy triumphs over judgement’ as St James writes (Jas 2:13). Though God judges, the message of redemption that comes with judgement is always greater, louder, stronger. When I recall John 3:16, I always want to add John 3:17: ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.’

God is love – and it is through love that he implacably opposes all that diminishes humanity; and it is through love that his overwhelming desire is for the redemption, salvation, renewal, healing and wholeness of all humanity, and all human society.

This is what our country most needs to hear from us now. It does not need to hear how bad things are – everyone knows this. People want to be reassured that there can be a better way; and that things are not inevitably going to get worse and worse and worse.

St Paul wrote to the Philippians ‘Whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things’ – or, as another translation puts it, ‘let your mind dwell on these things’ (Phil 4:8). Behavioural science tells us the same as St Paul: when the positive vision is central, it becomes magnet that draws us forward. If we always focus on problems, we lose sight of where we are going, and get dragged down.

So we should encourage people not to be focussed on the failings to uphold the values of the Freedom Charter, and the Constitution – but rather to continue to ensure that the vision they encapsulate remains the centre of their lives and the life of this country. We must let this be the touchstone that shapes all our words, our actions, our policy-making, and that draws us all forwards.

I started preaching in this way about two months ago – before the shootings at Marikana – and I was surprised at the strength of the response I received. People are hungry to hear us state God’s promises of new life, new hope, so clearly. People express such a sense of relief, when we say that ‘Yes, there can be a better way – and this is what God wants to bring. All we have to do is align ourselves with this, and God will help us.’

Earlier this month, we had a large conference of Anglicans from across Southern Africa, called Anglicans Ablaze. It was a wonderful time, with a sense of God’s comprehensive renewal in ways far broader than the evangelistic terms in which we often see renewal. It was as if God was wanting to breathe new life into us in a holistic way that encompasses evangelism and discipleship and mission and social justice.

As part of this, it seemed his message to us was that we must step back from criticism – from criticising and pulling down those who are different within our church, but also from criticising and pulling down our nation. We should ‘bless and not curse’, as St Paul writes to the Romans (Rom 12:14). In these dark days, our calling is to be beacons of hope and channels of blessing – to remind the world of God’s better way; and to say that this is a tangible, realistic, achievable, option before us.

Perhaps this is seems like a ‘big ask’ in these troubled times. But I am reminded that today, many of us celebrate the life of St Teresa of Avila. This visionary woman of the sixteenth century said this: ‘You pay God a compliment by asking great things of Him.’ So let us dare to pay him the compliment of asking him to help us be these beacons of hope, channels of blessing, to our nation.

Let us not be afraid to proclaim, with the prophet Micah, that God listens, and God saves. Let us be confident, and share our confidence with our nation – even if we feel ourselves challenged by the ways he calls us to live out this faith, in tangible and concrete ways.

And let us also pray with confidence, the famous prayer which St Teresa wrote:
‘Christ has no body now, but ours.
No hands, no feet on earth, but ours.
Ours are the eyes through which
Christ looks with compassion on the world.
Ours are the feet
with which Christ walks to do good.
Ours are the hands
with which Christ blesses the world. Amen’

Lenten Reflection - The 'Good News' about Sin

This reflection draws on recent sermons at St George’s Cathedral, Cape Town, and Christ the King, Sophiatown.

‘Turn away from sin, and believe the good news.’ These are the words with which each of us are anointed with ash at the beginning of Lent, and they tell us that sin and good news go hand in hand. You don’t get one without the other.

Sin is of course a very unfashionable word in contemporary society, but there is no escaping it. More importantly, we must not deny its reality, for we cannot have God’s good news if we do not acknowledge our involvement in sin. In other words, if we are better to appreciate, and receive, the fullness of God’s good news – the gospel of salvation and redemption – we, and our world, need a better grasp and fuller acknowledgement of sin, in every area of life.

This means we need to be honest about our shortcomings, weaknesses and failings; about our mistakes and misjudgements; about our bad attitudes, inappropriate thoughts, ill-chosen words and wrong actions – and not just in the personal, domestic, sphere, but also in public arena. Alongside politics at every level (national to local, elected to official), this also means in business and professional life, in academia, in the media, across civil society, even within the communities where we live, and among whom we network and socialise.

The aim of bringing sin into the light is not to put ourselves or others under condemnation, but rather, to open up ourselves, our church, society and world, to the glorious opportunities for God’s salvation and redemption in every area of human life and activity. And let’s be honest: we certainly need God’s rescue and recovery in so much of society! Yet if we do not acknowledge sin, how can we receive God’s more than wonderful solution to sin?

But admitting guilt, and feeling shame, appear increasingly alien in today’s societies. Sometimes it seems the only sin is being caught. Short of a criminal conviction, we are asked to believe, and act as if, everyone is more innocent than the proverbial dove. And no matter how dubious a person’s reputation, or how dodgy their track record, if that person’s suitability for some task or role is questioned, then it seems that the questioner is the one branded as being in the wrong. Further, when apologies are issued, too often they are given, in terms not of an admission of wrong doing, but rather of regret that someone was offended. It is as if the offended person is being blamed for being too soft-skinned!

Why have we got ourselves into this position?

It seems to me that the main cause is as much about failing to understand salvation, as it is about failing to understand sin. For if there is no hope of salvation – no hope of forgiveness or redemption, no hope of God wiping the slate clean of guilt and shame, and providing an opportunity to make a fresh start – then no wonder we don’t want to admit to being in the wrong. We see it in little children: ‘Did you eat the chocolate cake?’ we say. ‘No Daddy’ replies the small child, even when caught with a face smeared with icing! As adults, we are little better – though we may be far more skilled at constructing (or having our spokespeople construct for us) sophisticated excuses about how we really weren’t at all responsible, and should not be considered as having failed in any way, or as bearing any sort of guilt in the matter!

But if no one is guilty of anything; if no one has failed, or fallen short, or let anyone down – then how can we go forward? How can we speak of righting wrongs, of addressing shortcomings, of doing better? It is a recipe for accepting mediocrity and failure – and this is a disaster for our societies, for our nations; a disaster for all hope of moral and ethical living.

But, thanks be to God, we have a remedy! For God too does not want us to be left standing under condemnation. Therefore, as we well know, God sent ‘his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life’ (Jn 3:16). And the next verse further underlines for us – should we have any lingering doubts – that God is far, far, more interested in liberating us from the quagmire of our weaknesses and failings, than he is in pronouncing us guilty. It reads ‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.’

And so, now we live in a world where Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, has taken away the sins of the world (cf Jn 1:29); where he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness (1 Pet 2:24). We live in a world where forgiveness is freely offered for true repentance and readiness to make amends.

Even more than this, the God of infinite love promises to redeem all that has gone awry; to rescue what is lost; to heal every hurt; to mend the broken; to cleanse what is marred; to overturn evil and bring good out of every situation and circumstance: all of this, and more besides, provided we turn to him, acknowledge our failings and our dependency upon him, and put ourselves into his hands.

So then, what is the particular lesson for us this Ash Wednesday, this Lent?

It is this: that we must be gospel people, good news people, in declaring through the way we speak and act and live our lives that God forgives the sins of all who turn away from sin, and turn to him. We must demonstrate that we are not afraid of sin – not afraid to admit we are ‘only human’: that we are less than perfect, that we often fail, that we get things wrong, that we make mistakes, and even that we sometimes intentionally choose wrong over right. And in declaring we are not afraid of sin, we also declare – even more loudly and clearly – that the God of love desires to deal with sin: not through condemnation, but through salvation and redemption; through rescuing and restoring; through his infinite love and compassion for his needy children and his needy world.

This is what we need to hear, throughout the whole of human society – private and public. It is especially what our leaders need to hear, in every walk of society and nation. They need to know that the ultimate good news only comes to human beings when we acknowledge the reality of what it is to be ‘only human’ – and this is something of which we do not need to be afraid. For to admit our failings is not the worst thing that can happen to us, but rather it is the key to opening the door to the best thing that can happen to us.

So then, in conclusion, what is God’s word to us this Lent? What is his word to us, which we need to share with one another, and with God’s world? It is surely no more and no less than this: ‘turn away from sin, and believe the good news’.

May it be so. Amen

A Necessary Covenant

The following Press Release was issued on 10 January 2012.

Archbishop of Cape Town's Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury – 'A Necessary Covenant'

The Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Revd Dr Thabo Makgoba, has written to the Archbishop of Canterbury in response to his Advent Letter to the Primates of the Anglican Communion and Moderators of the United Churches. In his letter, Dr Makgoba reflects on the Anglican Covenant as ‘necessary’ for Anglicans ‘in recalling us to ourselves’. He argues that the Covenant must be considered on the basis of its ability to help Anglicans recover their true vocation within God’s One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. This includes growing more fully into the life of ‘mutual responsibility and interdependence’ which the 1963 Toronto Congress identified and from which the Communion has since drifted. Recalling how the Communion was able to stand in solidarity with Southern Africa in the past, he sees the Covenant as being an effective vehicle for more fully expressing Anglicanism’s theological, pastoral and missional understandings and callings.

Therefore, he says, it is a mistake to focus too narrowly either on the disagreements around human sexuality, or on seeking legally or structurally based solutions to current Anglican difficulties. The identity of the Communion’s member churches ‘should not principally be conveyed through legal prisms, whether of some form of centralising authority, or of Provinces’ constitutions and canon law which must be “safeguarded” from external “interference”.’ The Covenant also ensures that the Communion cannot ‘rest content with the sort of “autonomous” ecclesial units that implicitly privilege juridical unilateralism over autonomy more rightly understood as the growing organic interdependence that must inevitably mark the living body of Christ’ and so is necessary in taking the Communion beyond the context in which current difficulties could arise and be pursued so acrimoniously.

Though recognising the reality of human fallibility, the Communion should look to ‘the salvific work of Jesus Christ’ and put its trust in him, rather than appearing to seek structural or legal solutions to its difficulties. He sees the Covenant as a means for doing this, since it ‘places God’s vision for God’s Church and God’s world centre-stage; and then invites us to live into this as our ultimate and overriding context and calling.’ The provisions of the Covenant – which neither create new structures nor interfere in Provinces’ life – should be understood, he argues, in terms of ‘the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus’ (Rom 8:2). Covenanting together does not mean legal restrictions, but instead, says Dr Makgoba, ‘constraining ourselves through the same sort of mutuality of love St Paul had in mind when he wrote “all things are lawful but not all things are beneficial – all things are lawful but not all things build up” (1 Cor 10:23). The Archbishop encourages those who are daunted by the challenge of living together in Christ by noting that ‘St Paul is under no illusions as to how difficult it can be’, in illustrating this by the mutual incomprehension of seeing and hearing within a human body. He also points to Southern Africa’s experience of bridging vast differences in the past and today.

Finally, he encourages those Provinces of the Anglican Communion which have yet to do so, to adopt the Covenant. He says ‘echoing St Paul, we affirm that we cannot say “We have no need of you” (1 Cor 12:21).’ He concludes by urging ‘all of you, as partners covenanting to go forward in newness of life together, are “indispensable” (v.22) to our own ability to grow in faithful obedience to what we believe is God’s vocation for all Anglicans, and ultimately towards the fullness of his vision for his One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town. Inquiries: Ms Wendy Kelderman on 021-763-1320 (office hours)

The full text of Archbishop Makgoba’s letter follows below.

My dear brother in Christ

With love and prayers, I greet you this Epiphany-tide in the name of Christ, made manifest as Lord and Saviour of all.

Reading your Advent letter again, in the quieter period following Christmas, underlined the particular gift that the Communion has the potential to be, as together we share the message that Jesus Christ is truly ‘the Light to all nations’, in whatever troubles the world faces. This was vividly evident in the visit I made with you to Zimbabwe. The capacity to act together – across old divides of colonisers and colonised, and contemporary differences of rich and poor, north and south, through God’s gift of unity to the Communion – gives considerable force to our joint proclamation of Christ as the Light of the World. We cannot put in jeopardy our ability to spread the Gospel in this way. In everything from standing in solidarity with Bishop Chad of Harare and his clergy and people, to contributing effectively to debate on reshaping international economic structures in ways that are more just, we need to do our utmost in ensuring God’s word is effectively expressed in and to his world.

Support during the apartheid era to us in Southern Africa from across the Anglican world demonstrated how great a difference the Communion can make: from the pastoral care such encouragement brought, through to its impact in helping us speak truth to power. Our theological convictions that God had called us to a particular expression of common life within the body of Christ thus bore both pastoral and missional fruit during the struggle years. Enjoying an identity that has dimensions beyond the borders of our Province has continued to empower us to speak courageously and truthfully in all circumstances – for we believe that, as in the past, if any of us are adversely touched in any way, the whole Communion is touched.

Yet such mutuality cannot be taken for granted, and indeed, the way that our disagreements on human sexuality have played out suggests we had already begun to drift from that particular sense of belonging to God and to each other, within the wider body of Christ, which was so strong in Southern Africa’s great time of need. It seems to me that the Covenant is entirely necessary, in recalling us to ourselves. Only in this way can we continue to grow in bearing this rich fruit that comes from living the life which is both God’s gift and God’s calling. This is how we have seen the Covenant, and so the Anglican Church of Southern Africa has taken the first step towards adopting it, with the concluding stage of ratification on the agenda for our next Provincial Synod in 2013).

Conscious of this, I offer these reflections on the Covenant, and its potential – if we are prepared to work wholeheartedly within its framework, trusting God and one another – to help us grow more fully into our calling as faithful Anglicans, faithful Christians, faithful members of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. This is the proper context for our discerning of truth, our pursuit of unity, and our understanding of (and, indeed, our disagreeing over) how they relate. It concerns me greatly, therefore, that, from what I read on line and elsewhere, and from the responses I received to the article I wrote for The Living Church last year, too much of the debate around the Covenant seems to have lost sight of this as our true context. There appears to be a too narrowly blinkered focus on questions not primarily directed towards growing as faithful and obedient members together of the body of Christ, of which he is the one true head, with all that this entails.

Arguments that the Covenant is ‘not fit for purpose’ (for example through ‘going too far’ or ‘not going far enough’) are too often predicated upon an inadequate model of ‘being church’ and what it means to live as members of the body of Christ. Implicit, it seems to me, is a diminished view of God’s grace, God’s redemptive power and purposes, and God’s vision and calling upon his people and his Church, and so of Anglicanism’s place within these. Our sense of who we are, and called to become, should not principally be conveyed through legal prisms, whether of some form of centralising authority, or of Provinces’ constitutions and canon law which must be ‘safeguarded’ from external ‘interference’. Nor should we primarily look to structural or legal solutions to our undeniable difficulties or for regulating our relationships.

Scripture reminds us that solving our problems ultimately rests not on our efforts but on the salvific work of Jesus Christ. He is the one who can make the Church faithful and obedient, holy and loving. For he ‘loved the Church and gave himself up for her, in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, so as to present the church to himself in splendour, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind – yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish’ (Eph 5:25-7). Do we truly believe and trust in this promise of God for ourselves? Do we truly believe and trust in this promise of God at work in the lives of other Anglicans? Of course we must work with the reality of human failings, but surely we should debate and behave and order our lives on the basis of the overriding sure and certain hope of God’s redemption in Christ.

Seeing the Covenant merely as a product of disagreements over human sexuality, or in terms of whether or not it provides particular solutions to these disagreements, is therefore to miss the fundamental point. As I noted earlier, it seems that, especially in the acrimonious and bitter ways we have often handled our differences, disunity over sexuality was symptomatic of a deeper malaise within our common life. I suspect this reflects a failure to take seriously the commitments to ‘Mutual Responsibility and Interdependence in the Body of Christ’ made at the 1963 Toronto Congress. We said then ‘our unity in Christ, expressed in our full communion, is the most profound bond among us, in all our political and racial and cultural diversity’ and in consequence, ‘our need is … to understand how God has led us, through the sometimes painful history of our time, to see the gifts of freedom and communion in their great terms, and to live up to them.’ The Congress warned ‘if we are not responsible stewards of what Christ has given us, we will lose even what we have.’ But it appears we have not been responsible, taking one another for granted, being content to drift apart, allowing ourselves to be preoccupied with our own concerns, so that when differences arose we had lost our ability to connect and work through them in love together.

Therefore, to ask if the Covenant is ‘fit for purpose’ should be to ask whether it helps us address the foundational question of growing together in faithful obedience within the body of Christ. And it seems to me that, above all else, the Covenant does indeed do this, in the way it places God’s vision for God’s Church and God’s world centre-stage; and then invites us to live into this as our ultimate and overriding context and calling. It does not create new structures or authorities, nor alters constitutions; and scope for individual action remains considerable (as your letter underlines). But nor will it allow us to rest content with the sort of ‘autonomous’ ecclesial units that implicitly privilege juridical unilateralism over autonomy more rightly understood as the growing organic interdependence that must inevitably mark the living body of Christ. As ‘Covenant’, it propels us towards understanding and expressing its legal provisions in terms of ‘the law of the Spirit* of life in Christ Jesus’ (Rom 8:2); constraining ourselves through the same sort of mutuality of love St Paul had in mind when he wrote ‘all things are lawful but not all things are beneficial – all things are lawful but not all things build up’ (1 Cor 10:23). It thus invites us – invites God’s Spirit – to breathe new and redemptive life into the Communion’s existing frameworks.

Where we are apprehensive about our ability to ‘lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace’ (Eph 4:1-2), then it is reassuring to note that St Paul is under no illusions as to how difficult it can be to relate to those who are different within Christ’s body. Members who are otherwise completely mutually incomprehensible (as seeing is to the ear, hearing to the eye – 1 Cor 12:17) can nonetheless hold together, if they can recognise that Christ lives in the other. This is something we learnt in the past in Southern Africa, and continue to experience across vast ethnic, cultural, political and socio-economic differences. More than this, we have found that, even in painful difference, we are better able to discern God’s truth together than apart. All this is why we hold together in ongoing debate across the whole spectrum of views on human sexuality – we do not agree, and our differences are sharp and painful, but we will not turn our backs on brothers and sisters in Christ and instead will keep wrestling together. This is why we are proceeding towards adopting the Covenant.

Finally, this is why we hold in our prayers those Provinces, including the Church of England, who are still considering the Covenant. The Communion, and all it has the potential to be and become, under God, matters. Echoing St Paul, we affirm that we cannot say ‘We have no need of you’ (1 Cor 12:21). Rather, all of you, as partners covenanting to go forward in newness of life together, are ‘indispensable’ (v.22) to our own ability to grow in faithful obedience to what we believe is God’s vocation for all Anglicans, and ultimately towards the fullness of his vision for his One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Yours in the service of Christ

+Thabo Cape Town

To: His Grace, the Archbishop of Canterbury; cc: Primates of the Anglican Communion, Moderators of the United Churches

Note: ‘Eyeball-to-Eyeball Communion’, The Living Church, posted 17 June 2011, is available at http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2011/6/17/eyeball-to-eyeball-communion.

Archbishop’s concern for white South African men sparks emotional debate

The continuing damage done to both white and black South Africans by the “dehumanizing” effect of the struggle against apartheid led to an emotional debate at the triennial Provincial Synod of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa today (Friday 1 October 2010).

The synod was discussing a resolution arising out of concern expressed by Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Cape Town for white South African men who were conscripted to fight for apartheid. Opening the synod, he described the issue as an “unmentionable area that we must dare to tackle,” and added: “Many are still wounded from that time, and need to be able to speak and find healing.”

During debate on a resolution supporting his concern, a number of white male priests, sometimes struggling to speak through tears, said they had been surprised by the intensity of their responses to an issue they had long thought something of the past. Bishop Jo Seoka of Pretoria added that “there are many black boys and girls who are still suffering as a consequence of their experience, not forgetting the young ones who went through June 16 [1976].”

Proposing the resolution arising from Archbishop Makgoba’s expression of concern, Dean Andrew Hunter of Grahamstown said of those conscripted: “All of us were shaped, marked and scarred to a greater or lesser effect… For some there has been long-term damage.” Although he welcomed the Archbishop’s initiative, he also said he wondered: “Are we ready for this? Are we big enough as a church for this? Should we also link this to the effects of belonging to MK or APLA on young black men?”

Full texts:

Archbishop Makgoba told the synod in his opening Charge:

“I want to name one unmentionable area that we must dare to tackle: the dehumanising effect of conscription on a generation of young men – barely more than boys. Many are still wounded from that time, and need to be able to speak and find healing. Our society makes this almost impossible. But before Jesus there are no taboo subjects.”

Dean Hunter’s resolution:

“The Dean of Grahamstown, seconded by Bishop R Hess, gave notice in terms of the rule for motions arising from the Archbishop’s Charge:

“Noting the Archbishop’s call for the Church to tackle the effects of conscription, THIS SYNOD welcomes this initiative, and prays for the healing of all those who were involved or impacted in any way.”

Archbishop Hopes for Woman Bishops

The Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Revd. Thabo Makgoba, said today that one of his dreams during his term of office was to consecrate the Church's first woman bishop.

Archbishop Makgoba was delivering his Charge to the three-yearly Provincial Synod of the church in Benoni. The synod is his first as Archbishop and Metropolitan of the church.

Opening the synod, the Archbishop said the church was “hugely unrepresentative in relation to gender... Women constitute the majority in our pews, but the reverse is true at every level of leadership, lay and ordained.”

The Anglican Church resolved in 1992 to ordain women as priests, but as yet has not elected a woman as a bishop. Unlike some churches in the worldwide Anglican Communion, no separate decision is needed to admit women as bishops.

Archbishop Makgoba told the synod that, in South Africa, “the roles of men and women alike, of every culture, were distorted by apartheid. We need to develop appropriate spiritualities for us all, for contemporary living – that are also channels of healing for the legacies of our brutalising history.”

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

“Many are still wounded from that time, from their time in Namibia and Angola, and need to be able to speak and find healing. Our society makes this almost impossible. But before Jesus there are no taboo subjects.”

Archbishop Makgoba also expressed his solidarity with Anglicans in Swaziland, saying he could not remain silent on the issue of democracy in the country, “where power and wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few, and political debate is hardly permitted.”

The Anglican Church in Southern Africa comprises dioceses in Angola, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and the islands of St Helena and Tristan da Cunha.

Referring to divisions in the worldwide Anglican Communion over the position of gays and lesbians in the church, the Archbishop said the church in Southern Africa refused to allow disagreements to split it. He said:

“For us, what has mattered most is: being centred on Christ; agreeing on the central matters of who Jesus is and the salvation he brings; and therefore recognising one another as being united in him, and, in consequence, with each other.

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

Read the full text of the Archbishop's Charge >>

Letter to the People of the Diocese of George

Letter from the Archbishop of Cape Town, 10 July 2010 (Please read this in conjunction with the Letter to the Laos, in the posting below.)

To God’s faithful people in the Diocese of George

Greetings

In January 2009 I was informed about administrative mismanagement within the Diocese of George. The document informing me of this mismanagement was signed by the majority of the Trust and Finance Board as well as by all the Archdeacons. The document asserted that mismanagement was a result of the Diocesan Bishop, Bishop Donald Harker, not carrying out his fiduciary responsibilities in a responsible manner. This document was generated in accordance with Canons and Constitution of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa.

Since then three Provincial Teams have visited the Diocese of George to investigate more fully the assertions. What became clear was that significant fraud and theft had taken place in the diocese of George and that a Forensic Audit was required to ascertain the extent of the amount embezzled. Messrs PKF, an audit company operating in Port Elizabeth, was contracted by the province to undertake the audit which was completed some five months after the original engagement date. The delay was largely brought about by the number of fraudulent transactions. In most Forensic Audits fraud is limited to approximately 15-20 transactions. In the case of the Diocese of George this figure was approximately 1000 counts of fraud or suspicious transactions.

At the conclusion of the visit a report including recommendations was provided to me. As a result of the recommendations I have taken the following actions:

1. I have visited the Diocese of George and met with Bishop Donald Harker and his wife, Mrs Joan Harker. During the course of our discussion, Bishop Donald Harker agreed to step down as Diocesan Bishop with effect from the 10th of August 2010.

2. Consequently, I have appointed the Revd Canon Brian Marajh as Vicar General to act on my behalf until a new bishop is installed. The mandate of the Vicar General will include the implementation of good governance structures and the oversight of legislation.

3. I met with the Rectors and Churchwardens of the diocese to share the general findings of the forensic audit and the measures taken to normalise the present situation of uncertainty.

4. I have appointed a small team under the chair of the Diocesan Registrar, Mr Kenneth Peters to determine whether individuals named in the report would face civil or criminal liability and to report back to me by the 10th August 2010.

5. I have dissolved the current Board of Trustees and Finance and have appointed an interim Board to oversee the asset management of the Diocese until the next sitting of Diocesan Synod.

6. Furthermore I have agreed to lead a clergy retreat as part of the process of healing and renewal.

Having visited the Diocese, I am reassured that the remedial steps taken to date are providing a firm foundation for the management and good governance of the Diocese and the steps above will further enhance this process.

And now unto him, who is able to keep us from falling and to present us without blemish before the presence of his glory with rejoicing to the only God, our Saviour through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time now and forever. Amen.

Yours in the Service of Christ

+Thabo Cape Town

To the Laos - To the People of God, August 2010

Dear People of God

St Peter wrote ‘Beloved, beware that you are not carried away with the error of the lawless … but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ’ (2 Pet 3:17-18a), and Jesus himself had particularly harsh words for those religious leaders, who, by their conduct or teaching, undermined the faith of those entrusted to their care.

I write these words, because one of the most difficult and distressing parts of life as Archbishop is dealing with reports of Christian leaders – ordained or lay – who in some way fail or otherwise fall short in living out their calling. Whether this is by neglecting responsibilities, or abuse of position, too often the root cause lies in putting self interest above the interests of those they are called to serve. Jesus rightly warned, ‘Be on your guard against every form of greed’ (Lk 12:15) – alongside money and material acquisition, this can mean status, power (including the abuse of relationships), or other forms of selfishness.

We serve a holy God, who calls us to holiness in every part of life. While he does not expect us to be perfect, he does call for sustained discipleship, in which we strive to grow in Christlikeness. In this way we are called to be salt and light to the world. Yet we cannot speak out against corruption, call for the highest ethical standards and integrity in politics, business, and throughout society, and press for an ethos of service rather than self-promotion, if we do not insist on the same standards ourselves. We must ‘walk the talk’, as I was reminded when I participated in the Radio 702 5km walk with St Monica’s Midrand last month.

Ours is the God of infinite mercy and infinite justice – but not of ‘cheap grace’. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian killed for opposing Hitler, described cheap grace as ‘preaching forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ.’ St Paul also opposed cheap grace in his letter to the Romans (Rom 6:1-4).

And so this leads me to comment on one such case, reports of which have appeared in the media. In the Diocese of George, Bishop Donald Harker has stepped down, after a forensic audit identified fraud or suspicious transactions in the Diocesan accounts. For the sake of transparency, I am releasing onto my blog and the ACSA website my letter of 10 July to the Diocese of George, which gives fuller background to these events.

Due processes still have some way to run, and there is no intention to sweep anything under the carpet. As the Provincial Treasurer has since told the media, parties named in the audit are being afforded the chance to answer queries, and in some cases, missing documentation has been supplied which accounts for some of the transactions. Where anyone is found to have been enriched, but without criminal intent, it is possible for funds to be recovered either by repayment to the church or through civil action. But where there is evidence of specific fraud or theft, a criminal case will have to be made, and a small committee has been established to assess criminal and civil liabilities.

Meanwhile, I have appointed the Revd Canon Brian Marajh as Vicar General, with a mandate that includes implementing good governance structures and overseeing appropriate new Diocesan legislation. Please pray for him, and for all the Diocese, as they go forward from this point. My intention is to lead a clergy retreat early next year, as part of the process of healing and renewal.

Sisters and brothers in Christ, we are all frail and fallible human beings, and we must beware not ‘to think of ourselves more highly than we ought’ (cf. Rom 12:3), especially those of us in leadership, and so risk falling into temptation. Brothers and sisters in Christ, do pray for your leaders, and do not be afraid to speak out where warning needs to be given. As older Bible translations put it, ‘let us provoke one another to good deeds’ (Heb 10:24), and let us always model best practice, holding it up for the world to see.

Transparency in the running of parishes and dioceses, as well as the Province, is always to be welcomed, as it helps us hold one another to account. This is true not only of church governance but also in politics, and throughout wider society. As Jesus said, knowing the truth sets us free (cf.Jn 8:32). This, and the reverse – namely that abuses can be perpetrated under censorship and inappropriate secrecy – was our experience under apartheid. Media freedom, properly used, is our ally in this area. For this reason, I am seriously concerned by the proposed South African Protection of Information Bill.

Dear people of God, though I write of such serious matters, do not be downhearted, for Jesus has broken the power of sin and death, and these will not prevail. There is far more happening throughout our Church that spreads the good news of Jesus Christ, builds the kingdom of God and proclaims his glory! I see this myself, as I travel around the Province. Since I last wrote, we had a wonderful celebration of the inauguration of the new Diocese of Mbashe; and a joyful consecration of Bishop Daniel Kgomosotho, as the second Bishop of Mpumalanga. On 1 August, I joined around three thousand people, perhaps more, in Sekhukhuneland, for the annual Manche Masemola pilgrimage service. It was a remarkable time of remembering the faithfulness of this young girl, despite opposition that cost her her life – and of the redemptive power of God to use the tragedy of her death to bring newness of life. It was a wonderful affirmation also of God at work in and through African life and culture: he is the God of every people on this planet, and he meets us where we are as he calls us to follow him.

Finally, let me end with a prayer drawn that underlines the confidence that is rightly ours, in our God’s desire and ability to enable us to walk the path to which he calls us: ‘Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing, to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time and now and for ever. Amen’ (Jude 24-25).

Yours in the Service of Christ

+Thabo Cape Town

Holy Remembering - Dealing with Difficult History

This Statement, on the Centenary of the Union of South Africa, was issued on 7 June 2010

June 2010 marks the centenary of Union of South Africa. Speaking of this anniversary, the Deputy President, Kgalema Motlanthe, said that South Africans must deal with our history in its entirety, and embrace it for what it is. He warned against merely focussing on feel-good moments, while avoiding those parts that make us feel uncomfortable.

He is of course right. I should like to add to his words, by saying that Christians in particular should have confidence to engage with history in this way, knowing we have resources to look back on the chequered past of our country and to find the seeds of redemptive hope. Our faith enables us to dare to be honest about ambiguous events such as the Union of South Africa. It was in many respects an unsatisfactory compromise at best, even though it brought solutions to other painful issues of that era. Many who supported it recognised its limitations at the time, but nonetheless hoped it might be a potential stepping stone to a better future. Yet as we know, these hopes were not realised and its provisions were twisted to far worse ends.

We can confidently risk engaging in holy remembering, because we remember as those who belong to Jesus Christ, Saviour and Lord, who suffered for our redemption. In Him we can give thanks for what was good, while at the same time finding freedom to acknowledge what was not. We bring this into His presence with our prayers for His transfiguring touch. Where we have reason to repent, we can do so, knowing He does not leave us under condemnation, but rather delights to forgive, transform and redeem.

Human history is little different from our present or future. The choices before us today are equally filled with ambiguity and unpredictability, and laden with both positive and negative consequences, predictable and unforeseeable. Yet the redemptive promise of Jesus Christ is what enables us not to stand back from the challenges that face us, but rather to take the risks of ‘getting our hands dirty’ in the tasks of political and socio-economic nation-building.

So may God bless us and our nation – as we continue to engage with our past history and its continuing legacies, and as we go forward, tacking with courage the complex questions and challenges that face us. Let us all be ready to step up and play our part in God’s redemptive mission to his world, and especially to South Africa today.

Mass of Thanksgiving - Fr Michael Lapsley SSM

Note: On 28 April 1990, Father Michael Lapsley, SSM opened a letter bomb. On 1 May 2010 Archbishop Thabo Makgoba preached and Archbishop Desmond Tutu presided at a Mass of thanksgiving for his survival and for all that God has enabled him to do during these last twenty years, including through the Institute for the Healing of Memories, and to pray for all victims of violence and torture.

Readings and Collect from the Feast of St Michael and All Angels: Job 38:1-7; Rev 12:7-12; Mt 18:1-10

May I speak in the name of God, who sends his angels to watch over us.

Well, Fr Michael, you have caused your Archbishop to find himself in a state of confusion! First of all, today is the Feast of St Joseph, but you choose the readings for the Feast of St Michael and All Angels, almost 5 months away – though we do understand that St Michael is the patron saint of the Society of the Sacred Mission. Second, you invite us to a service of thanksgiving. But how are we to greet you? Normally on such an occasion, one would say Happy Birthday, or Happy Anniversary or something similar. But somehow Happy Bombing really does not sound right!

But it certainly is a privilege to be here today. Thank you, Fr Michael, for inviting me to share with you – and with the many people around the world who are holding us in their thoughts and prayers. As the many messages in the service booklet bear witness, we have so very much to give thanks for. We give thanks, dear Fr Michael, for your survival of that terrible deed of premeditated violence, perpetrated upon you twenty years ago by agents from within the apartheid government. So perhaps our greeting is Happy Survival!

And we give thanks that God – through the subversive triumph of the cross and resurrection – has enabled you to turn that act of evil into a stepping stone to redemption: not only in your own life, but to others, through your testimony, through the witness of your living example, and through your vision for the Institute of the Healing of Memories and the work in which you have led it so effectively.

For myself, I give thanks for many years of friendship and collaboration in the gospel which we have shared. I particularly remember the time, 18 years ago, when you stayed with me, and Lungi, my new bride, in the Rectory that had previously been your diocesan offices, Archbishop Tutu. Fr Michael, you should have known the uncertain ways of old church buildings and their plumbing. But you used the spare shower that we had never tried out – and we soon found ‘living water’ seeping through the ceiling of the kitchen, the dining room, the lounge ... No, Lungi and I, will never forget that visit! Thank you also for our partnership as chaplains to Anglican students, where I succeeded you as Provincial; and for the many blessings I have received from the Society, for which I am privileged to be Visitor.

Today I want to reflect on the glorious mysteries of God’s transformative love and power, through which he has turned an act of deliberate hatred and cruelty reflecting all the evil of the apartheid regime, into a beacon of compassion and hope that shines far, far brighter; far, far wider. Around the globe, wherever evil and violence are perpetrated, we know they will not have the final word.

Yet even so, our hearts grieve that brutality and torture still continue today. We do not understand why it is that our all loving, all powerful, heavenly Father, does not step in and thwart such evil in its tracks. Nor do we understand why it is that one man survives devastating explosives, deliberately intended to murder; while a student who walks in on a burglary in his own home, is stabbed to death, as happened in this city two days ago.

The purposes of God are beyond our ability fully to grasp. Job recognised this, when, after wrestling to find answers to his own suffering, he encountered the Lord speaking out of the whirlwind. He received a glimpse into the unknowable – enough to see that there is a whole spiritual realm where ultimate truths of good and evil, life and death, are played out.

There is deep mystery here. We cannot fathom it all – but we can encounter enough to know that it is so, and that, as is recorded in the Revelation to St John, ‘now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah’. We do not need to understand – we need only to believe and trust.

As our gospel tells us – we need to become like children: not childish, but child-like. When my children were small, they used to love to run and throw themselves into my arms. They knew I would catch them. They didn’t worry about how, they just trusted that I would not let them fall.

Fr Michael – in your life, you are a vivid challenge to us to do the same, to trust ourselves unconditionally, as little children, into the hands of the living God, who will not let us fall. We do not know what life will bring – I don’t suppose that when you first left New Zealand, you had even the smallest idea of how events would unfold. But you dared to say an unconditional yes to God’s future for you.

Any of us may find that terrible things do happen. But you are a living demonstration of the truth of Romans 8:28 – that ‘all things work together for God for those who love God’. This is not to say that all things are good. By no means. But nothing is so terrible that God cannot work in it for good, if we let him.

Indeed, I want to go further and say, however great the evil, the good that God can bring is greater. Easter shows this. The glory of the resurrection more than trumps the devastation of the cross.

And you, Fr Michael, show us this is true in your life. The good that has followed – because you dared to keep on trusting God as his little child – the good that has followed has been far greater than the evil that began it all.

We thank God for his amazing goodness at work within us all – and especially as we see it displayed in your life, Fr Michael. Therefore, let us in turn entrust ourselves into the hands of God even as we boldly root out mediocrity, corruption, greed, malice, inequality, racism, and anything that undermines, demeans and marginalises God’s people and harms our planet in our lifetime.

So we thank God for his angels that watch over us, and – in the words of the collect – we ask that as they inspire us in our worship, they may also strengthen us as they have strengthened you, dear Fr Michael, in our fight against evil.

Now may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip us for every good work, so that we may always live ‘to the glory of God, in the doing of God’s will’. Amen