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Easter
2004
Jesus
told Thomas, “Because you have seen me, you have believed;
blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” John
20:29.
Metropolitan
blessed by visit
The
Metropolitan of the CPSA, Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, visited
our diocese from 17 to 22 February and said, "I have felt
blessed by God in my ministry as I ministered to you in the diocese,
and have been blessed by you.”
Speaking
at the cathedral on the Sunday, he said he’d travelled through
Cradock, Middelburg and parts of Port Elizabeth where he had meetings
with churchwardens and with clergy. In PE he visited the House of
Resurrection Haven (he is their Patron), the Kouga project and also
enjoyed a dinner with clergy, their spouses and invited guests.
Have
minds been changed?
Andrew
Symes, self-supporting priest at St Nicholas Charlo, has written
this thought-provoking report on the two addresses by the
Metropolitan to the clergy of our diocese.
“We’ve
read and heard a lot about the Archbishop, and what he’s
supposed to have said. It's such a relief to hear from him face to
face to know that many times he has been misquoted, and to see that
here is a man in whom we can have confidence”. Words to this
effect were said after the Clergy Forum at the Church of St John the
Baptist in Walmer, where Archbishop Ndungane took the opportunity to
address the clergy and answer questions. In a time of turmoil caused
by major disagreements within the church, many clergy are hoping that
the fears of the doom-mongers will prove unfounded, and unity and
peace will prevail after all. Did the Archbishop say or do anything
to change minds in this predominantly conservative Diocese?
The
theme of living together in love and unity, despite disagreements,
was the major theme of Archbishop Ndungane’s presentation. He
opened with a well-constructed sermon on how the nature of our
calling as baptised Christians stems from our Trinitarian faith. The
conclusion was: how do we as the church, united in Christ with all
believers everywhere, live with difference? Often we claim to have
moral and theological differences with others, but really it's just
that we don’t like them! If our unity is a given, then we must
believe that all things work together for good for those who love
God, and so differences in the church must be seen not as a reason
for splitting, but as God’s way of leading us into growth. We
should celebrate the creativity of our diversity rather than seeking
to impose a uniformity. Dissensions and factions belong to the sinful
nature. Instead of arguing, we should join together in the mission of
the church, which is kingdom-building work in the world.
The
homosexuality issue
The
second address dealt specifically with the conflict in worldwide
Anglicanism over the homosexuality issue. The Archbishop said that
“in the CPSA the current position is that priests with
homosexual orientation must be celibate”. However, this position
may well change. After Lambeth 98, many Anglicans believed that the
question had been settled, but clearly this is not so, as Njongo
later outlined. Firstly in South Africa, we now have a liberal
constitution which has already allowed homosexual couples to adopt
children, and will soon allow gay couples to “marry”. The
church may, if it maintains it current stance, find itself taken to
court for discrimination. Then there has been the consecration of
Gene Robinson. He was democratically and canonically elected Bishop
after many glowing testimonies of his life including one from his
daughter. Then there is the experience of many gay people all over
the world, who are children of God, baptised Christians, and yet feel
that they are being treated as “aliens in the household of
God”. Then there is new research coming from scientists and new
methods of interpreting Scripture coming from theologians.
As
Archbishop Njongonkulu said, he has been charged to listen to the
Holy Spirit and to his people, to preside over the processes and
structures, to seek consensus, and to carry out the wishes of the
church. It is not for him to tell the church what to think, but he
has to warn people who think they have made up their minds, that the
debate is not over. This is not being “wishy-washy” –
it is taking the responsibility of a leader seriously in encouraging
his people to live together in unity and find creative solutions to
problems caused by diversity.
The
subject of homosexuality and the Anglican Communion took up the bulk
of the Archbishop’s second address. He concluded with a few
remarks about his visits to Finland and Washington in recent weeks,
which have resulted in major new partnerships with Lutheran and
Anglican church structures there. After this there was time for a few
questions and comments from the floor.
Archbishop
"misquoted"
Is
this Archbishop someone who has been “misquoted”, and a
leader in whom we can have confidence? My feeling is that the
Archbishop was asking the clergy of Port Elizabeth to prepare to
change the historic teachings of the church, based on the Bible, for
the sake of compromise with the world.
The
Archbishop can look us in the eye and tell us he is being neutral
and not pushing an agenda. But he is! In the document he sent to
parishes in early 2003, and in his recently published book, and in
other writings and speeches he clearly advocates full acceptance of
homosexual practice as an alternative for Christians. He has already
said that he does not recognise the stance of the Diocese of Port
Elizabeth clearly stated in a Synod and emergency Chapter resolution,
and that we need to “think again and do more research and listening”.
The
Archbishop, who was prepared to spend time on Robben Island because
he could not tolerate the unchristian laws of the previous regime, is
asking us to change our doctrine so we don’t fall foul of the
laws of the present regime.
The
Archbishop can preach a sermon on the need for unity in the church
based on Ephesians 4:1-6, implicitly blaming conservatives for
promoting division by their opposition to homosexual practice. Yet he
ignores the fact that later in the same chapter the apostle Paul
urges the same readers to get rid of sin and explicitly mentions the
horror of sexual immorality (4:17-24; 5:3). Could it be that part of
the Bible is the word of God, and the other part is not? The same
ambivalence is shown in the fact that in his talk he encouraged his
clergy to read Scripture as a way of abiding in Christ, yet in his
book he claims that Scripture is not the ultimate authority for
Anglicans (The World with a Human Face, David Philip 2003, pp118,121).
Finally,
am I reading too much into his final asides about the links with
overseas donors and the implicit potential of huge funding? African
Provinces north of the Limpopo, who have severed ties with ECUSA
because of its apostate nature demonstrated by the Robinson
consecration, are no longer in the running for much of this money.
After telling us to put away our prejudices and fully unite with all
those with whom we disagree, did Njongo dangle a juicy financial
carrot, just for a few seconds, to suggest “all this is yours,
if you follow me”?
Time
will tell if the Archbishop has done enough on this visit to bring
the Diocese of Port Elizabeth into line with his thinking.
An
enlightening Shrove Tuesday
Iindaba
visited two parishes to sample their pancakes on Shrove Tuesday and
reports on salad pancakes and Israeli dancing.
Salad
pancakes
The
first stop was at St Hugh’s in Newton Park where pancakes and
puddings were being served. The pancakes included savoury meat and
also salad pancakes. Iindaba asked the convenor of the evening, Penny
Slater, about the decision to serve salads and puddings. She said,
“February is the hottest month of the year and we have women
sweating over gas burners making pancakes all afternoon which seemed
unfair. I’ve seen salads put into many rolls, roti’s etc so
thought a salad pancake would go down well. As for the puddings,
well, nearly all the ingredients are no-no’s for Lent so it
seemed good to allow everyone to enjoy them before the Lenten fast.”
Israeli
dancing
The
second stop was at All Saints’ in Kabega Park where each
parishioner was allowed three pancakes free. The choice was of
cinnamon sugar, savoury mince and caramel.” When all had had
their fill, they took to the floor to learn how to do some basic
Israeli dancing led by Eve Murphy and the Shalom dancers.
Appointed
by the Queen
Margaret
Rumsey reports that Eddie Daniels, the rector of St Saviour’s,
was recently appointed by Queen Elizabeth II, as overall Assistant
Chaplain to the ‘Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John
of Jerusalem’.
The
notice was signed by the secretary-general of the Chancery of the
Order, in London, and published in the London Gazette on 19 January
2004. As a postulant, Eddie will be invested later on during the year
when the Priory has finalised suitable dates. Eddie is already often
involved in the local PE Chapter of the Order of St John.
Members
of his parish say, “Our congratulations, Eddie!”
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