Address to RSCM Ecumenical Indaba, 19 March 2010

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you to Bishopscourt, for this Royal School of Church Music Ecumenical Indaba.

It is good to see old friends and to greet new faces. I’m particularly glad to be able to welcome Mr Lindsay Gray, Director of the RSCM, not only to Bishopscourt but also to South Africa. May God bless your time here. We hold you in our prayers as you meet, asking that God will bless your time together, and guide you in taking forward the conclusions that you reach here today.

‘Be filled with the Spirit’ writes St Paul to the Ephesians, ‘as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Eph 5:18,19).

The RSCM is certainly something for which many of us give great thanks, for all that you have contributed to the worshipping life of Christian people round the world, as you have grown and developed since your foundation in 1927. Good music, well-integrated with good liturgy, has the capacity greatly to enhance the mission and ministry of God’s people in God’s world.

Yet it is no secret that this is not always easy to achieve, and, if achieved, to sustain. The context of South Africa – indeed, Southern Africa, for many of our churches – provides more challenges than I suspect are faced in most areas of the world. Diversity is the codeword for our greatly differing languages, cultures, traditions, theological emphases, ecclesiological styles, resources, educational levels, and more besides.

Images of harmonies and symphonies come to mind!

Within Anglicanism we have everything from imposing cathedrals to tiny rural chapelries, from considerable affluence to great poverty, and spanning 7 nations and 13 languages. Others here today may have similar breadth. Addressing all these situations is no mean feat.

Yet they all have their strengths, and all can be sources of great enrichment and dynamic and stimulating cross-fertilisation – not least when we come together.

I like to hope that my own service of Installation as Archbishop, managed appropriately to draw on sources as diverse as Schubert and Kudu horns. David Orr, organist and Director of Music at St George’s Cathedral, participating in this Indaba, is one of those who composed some pieces especially for the service, including a particularly lovely rendering of the gospel, read in various languages and interspersed with choral responses – for which I remain grateful. Those of you who were there, indeed, who contributed music to the occasion, will be better judges than I of what does and doesn’t work on such occasions.

Within the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, one of the ten priority areas we have identified for the Province as a whole, as part of renewing our vision through to 2020, is ‘Liturgical renewal for transformative worship’. As we unpack what we mean by this, we have given ourselves various touchstones.

The first is our desire for worship that is ‘vibrant, inclusive, contextual and life-changing, while remaining in touch with our liturgical inheritance’. As if this were not enough of a challenge, we have said that inter-generational issues and the perspectives of young people need to be taken into account. We have also looked at the wider picture, and identified the imperatives of justice and reconciliation, as well as of gender equality and poverty, as further matters that must be kept before us.

It’s a tall order – and of course, music plays no small part in this. I’m glad there are those among you today who would call yourselves primarily liturgists rather than musicians. Both are needed, working together in the service of the Church and its people, in the life to which God calls us.

Again, images of harmonies and symphonies come to mind.

And as you look at all the different options on which to draw, the different contexts for operating, the different needs to be met, you will know better than I, what these analogies might mean in practice – whether in terms of the harmonies of similar voices singing different tunes; or the glorious breadth of sound and texture that can be achieved with a full orchestra of different instruments, each contributing parts best suited to their own particular distinctive qualities.

Perhaps too our understanding of the Godhead as Trinity can help us here: God the Father, creator, as the great composer; God the Son, incarnate, as both conductor and leader of the orchestra that is humanity; God the Spirit, breathing life into the notes on the page, and animating us all in our performance.

Ah yes, reflecting on the Trinity brings me to a final point, perhaps the most important of all. For, no matter how carefully crafted are the words of our liturgies; no matter how precisely the liturgy is put together and choreographed; no matter how technically excellent the music – worship is actually not a ‘performance’. It is about our humble encounter with the living God. And as the Psalmist says, ‘Unless the Lord builds the house, their labour is but lost that build it’ (to quote the version of Ps 127:1 in our Psalter).

Our worship must all be rooted and grounded in a living relationship with our living Lord – open to him, for him to meet us in and through it, and to use it as he wills. So, though we strive for excellence in our music, our liturgy, our worship – and though we bring our professional best to all our planning and preparation and execution – we must do so conscious of seeking his guiding and direction, and also his joyous inspiring and encouraging, every step of the way. For surely this is what it means to worship ‘in spirit and in truth’.

So, to conclude, I hope to hear you ‘making a joyful noise unto the Lord’ as you continue your work. May God bless you in your debating and discussing. And may he make you a blessing to others, through all you decide here, and take forward in the days and months and years ahead.

And to God be the glory, now and for always. Amen.

Archbishop in Sharpeville on 50th Anniversary of Shootings

The Most Revd Dr Thabo Makgoba, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, will preach in Sharpeville Sunday, 21 March 2010, on the 50th anniversary of the Sharpeville Shootings.

The Archbishop will be leading the 9am Service at St Cyprian’s Church, which stands 500 metres from the 1960 shootings.

In his sermon, Archbishop Makgoba is expected to reflect on what it means to be a true follower of Jesus Christ, who came to ‘bring good news to the poor and liberty to the oppressed’ – whether in the face of the political impoverishment and oppression of the past, or in relation to contemporary economic hardships and crises of service delivery. All those who strive for such ends should receive honour and recognition, regardless of what part of society they come from, since they are most certainly acknowledged in the sight of God.

This will be Dr Makgoba’s first visit to Sharpeville since becoming Archbishop at the beginning of 2008. The Archbishop’s mother and grandmother were from Sharpeville, and the family still own property there.

Archbishop of Cape Town to Visit Haiti

Press Release

The Most Revd Dr Thabo Makgoba, Archbishop of Cape Town, will leave Cape Town on 2 March 2010 for a pastoral visit to Haiti.

The purpose of the visit is to give tangible expression to the mutual commitment shared across the world-wide Anglican Communion that 'when one part weeps, all suffer together'. The Archbishop will spend time in supporting Bishop Jean-Zaché Duracin, both personally and in the care of his clergy and people, following January's devastating earthquake. Dr Makgoba will present an initial cheque for $15,000 donated by his parishioners in Southern Africa, towards the Diocese of Haiti's relief and reconstruction work, and discuss how further funds raised in Southern Africa for Haiti might best be used. At the end of his visit the Archbishop will travel with Bishop Duracin to Florida, where his wife is in hospital in a stable condition, following treatment for injuries sustained during the earthquake. (Bishop Duracin himself visited the Anglican Church in Southern Africa in 1999, as part of a delegation from The Episcopal Church's Standing Commission on Peace with Justice.)

The visit is being made in partnership with The Episcopal Church, of which the Diocese of Haiti is a part. The Rt Revd Pierre Whalon, Bishop in Charge of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe, will accompany Archbishop Makgoba, as will the Revd Canon Robert Butterworth, the Provincial Executive Office of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa.

The Archbishop will go to Haiti under the generous auspices of the South African NGO, The Gift of The Givers Foundation. Dr Makgoba will be travelling with Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, founder of the Foundation which has played such a prominent role in bringing immediate search and rescue and medical relief to Haiti and is now bringing longer-term relief to those in need. Dr Makgoba will accompany Dr Sooliman on visits to projects supported by The Gifts of the Givers, and the South Africans currently in Haiti under their auspices, who work closely with local partners, including the Roman Catholic and other churches.

Notes: The visit follows the endorsement given by Archbishop Makgoba for the 'Africa for Haiti' initiative launched by Mrs Graça Machel. The text of the Archbishop's message may be found at http://archbishop.anglicanchurchsa.org/2010_01_01_archive.html. Further details of the initiative are available at www.africaforhaiti.com.

Those who still wish to make donations via the Anglican Church can do so as follows: Account Name: CPSA Disaster Relief Fund; Standard Bank of SA Lts; Branch - Cape Town, IBT Cod 02 000; Account Number 07 007 834.

Archbishop Makgoba will return to Cape Town on 9 March 2010.

Message of Condolence on the Death of Professor Steve de Gruchy

This message has been sent to Marian Loveday, on the death of her husband, Professor Steve de Gruchy, following an accident on the Mooi River on 21 February

My dear Marian and family

On behalf of my wife and myself, and also on behalf of the whole Anglican Church of Southern Africa, I am writing to convey our condolences on the death of your husband.

Steve was a long-standing and dear friend of the Anglican Church, not only in Southern Africa, but of the whole world-wide Communion and will be sorely missed, even as we thank God for the fellowship in the gospel that we shared with him. Indeed, at times we have been tempted to think of him as 'one of us', and not only in that he held the Bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman's licence when he was at the Moffat Mission Trust. We were privileged to have him as a keynote speaker at the international 'Towards Effective Anglican Mission' conference in 2007, and I am glad that I was able to spend some time with him during my visit to the University of KwaZulu-Natal in September 2008. In various ways in recent years he has also had a significant input to our church's engagement with development issues, including in the vital area of training both parish clergy and bishops.

We shall miss Steve hugely, for the gifted theologian that he was, with a remarkable ability to draw links between academic theology, government policy-making, and the realities of the lives of the poor. I, and the Church I serve, shall keenly feel the lack of his insights into issues of poverty and justice within our country, and the challenges they pose to all who claim the name of Christian. But more than that, I shall miss a dear brother in Christ, a man of great warmth and humour, and someone whom I was privileged to call a friend.

Dear Marian, at this time our hearts go out to you, your family, and all who loved Steve. We hold you in our love and in our prayers, asking that our Lord - who wept at the grave of his friend Lazarus, and then was not afraid to face death himself, so that for all of us who put our trust in him it might become the gateway to life - may surround you with his compassion, his comfort, his strength, and the assurance that nothing, neither in life nor in death, can separate us from the love of God that is ours in Christ Jesus.

May Steve rest in peace and rise in glory, and may you all in your mourning know the consolations of Christ who promised that 'blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.'

Ministers of Reconciliation - a Reflection for the Beginning of Lent

This reflection is based on readings set for Ash Wednesday: Joel 2:12-18, 2 Corinthians 5:17-6:2, Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18.

Lent may be summed up in the words with which we receive the ash on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday: ‘Turn away from sin, and believe the good news.’

Sin, we know – and God knows too – is part of the human condition, and at times is all too evident. Our newspapers overflow with the sexual indiscretions of our country’s leaders – to say nothing of assertions of corruption and abuse of power. This behaviour is not acceptable. The Synod of Bishops made this clear in a statement we issued at the end of our meeting last week. Those we elect to serve our nation should lead through good example, and put the needs of others before narrow self-interest. Promiscuity, adultery and sexual exploitation are wrong in every culture; so are dishonesty and fraud. So too is the denial of human rights – whether undermining democracy or refusing women equality before the law, as happens in some countries of our Church’s Province, or in the criminalisation and persecution of gay people, as has been proposed in Uganda – all, again, matters that the Synod of Bishops has condemned.

Yet it is easy enough to point fingers. In the Gospel, Jesus warns against merely condemning others, like the hypocrites, and then washing our hands of the society to which we belong. Rather, he calls us to action, to become part of the solution. We are, to use the words of St Paul, to take up the ministry of reconciliation – participating in God’s reconciling of the world to himself through Jesus Christ. By his death on the cross, Jesus bridges the gap between the messy reality of human failings, and the glory of God himself.

The prophet Joel speaks of the priests similarly bridging the gap: standing ‘between the vestibule and the altar’ – between the world outside and the holy place of offering to God.

This is precisely where Jesus enacts reconciliation. In his incarnation, fully human, he is fully part of the world outside the vestibule – and yet he also the perfect lamb of God, the acceptable sacrifice upon the altar. All believers share in the holy priesthood of Jesus, as members of the body of Christ. We are also to inhabit this space between vestibule and altar. We live with one foot in the world, one foot in the kingdom of heaven.

At Lent we particularly recognise this tension of being sinners, yet redeemed. We face it in two ways. First, we weep, as the priests of the Old Testament were called upon to weep. We weep at our own failings, and we weep at the failings of our society, our nation. We lament and we repent. We also weep as Jesus wept when he looked down on Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, and saw the pains, the brokenness and weaknesses of its inhabitants – yearning to take them under his wing, like a mother hen shelters her chicks. For it is not our task to condemn. We remember that God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through him (John 3:17).

Therefore, second, we face Lent committing ourselves to turn from sin and to believe the good news – the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. In doing this, we model what it means to turn towards the redemption which Jesus offers. We become ministers of reconciliation by encouraging others to follow us in living – not with promiscuity or corruption – but in pursuing faithfulness, trustworthiness, honesty, generosity of spirit. We demonstrate the morals, the values, the ethics, we’d like to see upheld, in every relationship – whether personal, professional or political. We follow Jesus in bringing good news to the poor, feeding the hungry, visiting the imprisoned, and ministering to the needy.

So let me challenging you to adopt some specific action as a minister of reconciliation this Lent. Perhaps you can build, or deepen, a relationship with someone from a different background from you – helping weave and strengthen the fabric of our historically divided society. Perhaps you can make a donation to Haiti or some other needy cause. Perhaps you can join a project run by your Church, Diocese or another Christian group, or by an NGO, or become involved in a local political issue.

Lent is traditionally a time for prayer and fasting. This is its starting point. But it is also a time for acting. You might be familiar with the words in which Mahatma Gandhi encouraged people to take up the challenge of responding to the needs of the world: ‘Be the change you want to see in the world’. Scripture takes the same sentiment and expresses it from the perspective of the God who reaches out in love to us, and calls us to share that love with others: ‘Be a minister of reconciliation.’

Amen.

Statement on the Ugandan Homosexuality Draft Bill

We, the Bishops of the Anglican Church in Southern Africa, meeting at Thokoza Conference Centre, Swaziland, from 8 to 11 February 2010, are disturbed by the debate among Ugandan law-makers of a draft bill that seek to criminalize homosexuality and to prosecute gay people. It even proposes imposing the death penalty, which we regard as a breach of God’s commandment, “You shall not murder,” given in Exodus 20:13. We also deplore the statement, attributed to our fellow Bishop, describing those who are opposed to this legislation as “lovers of evil”. Though there are a breadth of theological views among us on matters of human sexuality, we see this Bill as a gross violation of human rights and we therefore strongly condemn such attitudes and behaviour towards other human beings. We emphasize the teachings of the Scriptures that all human beings are created in the image of God and therefore must be treated with respect and accorded human dignity.

We are therefore also deeply concerned about the violent language used against the gay community across Sub-Saharan Africa. We thus appeal to law-makers to defend the rights of these minorities. As Bishops we believe that it is immoral to permit or support oppression of, or discrimination against, people on the grounds of their sexual orientation, and contrary to the teaching of the gospel; particularly Jesus’ command that we should love one another as he has loved us, without distinction (John 13:34-35). We commit ourselves to teach, preach and act against any laws that undermine human dignity and oppress any and all minorities, even as we call for Christians and all people to uphold the standards of holiness of life.

We call on all Christians to stand up against this Bill so that its provisions do not become law in Uganda or anywhere else in the world. We also call on our President and Law-makers to engage in dialogue with their counterparts on the rights of minorities.