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Anglican leaders pledge to take 'aggressive' action Posted 10 November 2000 Anglican leaders pledged to take aggressive action against corruption, crime, terrorism, poverty and injustice in their communities throughout the world, in a consultation on 'Community Transformation' this week (31 October to 2 November). "The Church's own form of 'aggression' is passionate prayer and radical unity in calling for God to transform our broken and hopeless communities and environments into places of peace, joy and hope," stated the Revd David Harper, chairman of the key mission agency, SOMA (Sharing of Ministries Abroad). A worldwide gathering of Anglican leaders from nearly 30 countries made a pledge to renewed prayer for the world and conceived a host of initiatives for their continents and countries to bring about the transformation of cities, regions, and nations. They called on church leaders throughout the world to place a priority on the desperate need of the places in which they live, rather than the selfish maintenance of their buildings and congregations. In the consultation, 'Beyond 2000 -- Community Transformation', Anglicans committed themselves to prayer, repentance and renewed action in the cities, towns and villages in which they live. The consultation was based on a new movement that has seen drug cartels brought down in Colombia, and whole urban landscapes transformed in a variety of countries. Over 200 Anglican opinion formers, including Archbishops, bishops, clergy and lay leaders, were invited by SOMA to the consultation and, after three days of meetings, worship and discussion, declared their commitment to a radical vision of the future in which whole communities, cities and nations could be transformed. "God's agenda is to forever renew his world with us as his agents," said the Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Revd Njongonkulu Ndungane. "We must have an openness to the future and an openness to the Holy Spirit. Any transformation and renewal has to begin with me." Bishop Henry Tengatenga, presenting the findings of the bishops from the consultation, said: "God wants to transform the nations -- our role as bishops is to take leadership in our dioceses for the transformation of society." Every single regional group (Asia, West and Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, Latin America and the West) declared their intent to pray in unity with other churches for change for the good in their societies and cultures. In Asia the delegates began the planning of a prayer march to traverse the entire continent. In Latin America, the delegates called for prayer chains, prayer meetings and prayer marches. Yet another theme of the consultation emerged as a renewed call to holiness, humility and repentance on the part of the Churches. The western churches (UK, Europe, USA, New Zealand and Australia) expressed public repentance for what they described as a "spiritual poverty". The West and Central African group called for spiritual warfare to break the grip of strongholds. They reminded western delegates that the Western churches also needed to take up the challenge of spiritual warfare. East Africans declared themselves strongly committed to children and young people and pledged to work for Christian education in their countries. Southern Africans (South Africa and Mozambique) said they had come to a realisation of "utter dependence on God" and the "need to seek his face and a willingness to change their worldview". At the centre of all the commitments lay: The belief that no one church could tackle the world's problems on its own, and the desire for unity in 'desperate' prayer together. A discovery of 'humility' in admitting that the problems of the world are too great for any institution, individual or church to tackle and the need for "utter dependence on God". In a moving statement a Singaporean representative, one of 12 at the consultation, described how the delegation were 'shocked to our beings' by the Singapore airlines crash. "We believed that there is one airline that cannot fail and crash, and that was the Singapore Airlines. We were called to repent of the pride and arrogance of our nation." The Revd David Harper, Chairman of SOMA, and the Revd Trevor Pearce, Vice Chairman, closed the consultation by releasing a statement summarising the events and conclusions of the consultation (see attached document). SOMA mission teams will now be travelling to different parts of the Province of Southern Africa in order to share and teach on Community Transformation. Released by Andrew Carey and Miles Giljam Media Co-ordinator for Cape Town Consultation: Miles Giljam Tel: 27 21 465 1557 Fax: 27 21 465 1571 Cell: 082 713 0276 Email: goodhope@ctdiocese.org.za Index of news & reports

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