April 2008 - The Transformation of Resurrection

Dear Friends

The Transformation of Resurrection

In my letter to you all last month I spoke of transition. Easter speaks of something more: transformation! Some may say, “Yes, yes, it’s all words …” and you’d be right. However, each word gives us a different perspective, highlights a different facet of the diamond that is life in God. How has your life been transformed, how is it being transformed, as you grow in relationship with God and God’s people? Are you encountering God in life, in worship, in relationship? Where are you encountering God in your involvement with Corpus Christi? Do people encounter God as they encounter you? You and I, we … are called to be instruments of transformation in our families, our friendships, our society and our nation, our world. To be transformed by the resurrected life of Christ is to be the same, but different; to be aware that as we accept Christ into our lives we, too, are risen! At Corpus Christi our primary core purpose is to be a place where others meet Christ: how is your life an instrument of love in the world of others?

I encourage you to dwell on these questions as the answers may not always be immediately obvious, but they are there.

A Dream

In my reflection last month on our need to be a community in transition towards greater inclusivity I shared that for me it is “a dream” that as yet has no great clarity. In further reflection I realise that the exposure I have received as an Anglican Priest forms the foundation of my vision for our future. Perhaps I need to share something of my journey …

… a Stretching Journey

I was dragged up in a largely liberal-English fashion in a home where people were always acknowledged as people, no matter their creed or colour, and a grandmother who had been an active Black Sash member. My early life was, however, marred by Apartheid in that few opportunities arose in Apartheid South Africa to meet and interact meaningfully with so-called “non-Europeans”. My exposure to other South African cultures was sadly lacking. I became conscious during my two years of mandatory National Service in the mid 1980’s that for me black people had no individuality, and that I needed to set this right. This led to an overnight move at the end of my two years in the South African Defence Force to living in Garankuwa (North-East of Pretoria) and sharing a mission house together first with Kabelo Thlokoe (who sadly never made it to Priesthood) and then with Gilbert Mashiane (from Mamelodi) and Johan Viljoen (the son of an Apartheid Ambassador), while studying Missiology part-time in Pietermaritzburg with some very radical young black fellow-students.

This move was probably the most stretching of my life as I was immersed in anti-apartheid structures and conscientised for the first time in my young life to the realities of life on the other side of the Apartheid coin, a painful place. My worldview was transformed, and left me in a lonely place: my friends no longer understood me, and seemed uncomfortable with my new perspective on life; my new environment was an uncertain and uncomfortable place; a position in which I had chosen to immerse myself. This journey also absorbed me in the breadth of Anglicanism, and especially in the invigorating worship environment of township communities; and new friendships in a new environment; new, different insights into what it means to be a Christian in South Africa. A stretching journey that began to inform my desire for a comprehensive, broad Southern African Anglican inclusivity.

In White River, my first posting as Rector, I had responsibility for a largely English-colonial community in town, and responsibility for the township parish in Kabokweni made up largely of Swazi people, as well as mixed African-cultural groupings in Bushbuckridge and Shatale. I was then posted to Nelspruit, a largely English and Indian parish, while also having responsibility for Kanyamazane. I was in Nelspruit towards the end of the 1990’s and we saw a number of black folk move into town and into the parish during this time, which for some reason was more threatening to the Indian community than the English. As Chaplain to Uplands College I encouraged tutor groups to lead the prayers, and individuals had the right to use any language they chose – the most challenging (and creative) moment being when a Muslim student stood up and prayed the Lord’s Prayer in Arabic! Now at Corpus Christi, the most integrated Sunday community I have ever served, I also carry responsibility for the Anglican community in Stanza Bopape.

Stanza Bopape, as those who occasionally join me there from Corpus Christi will attest, is an amazing experience of inclusive language: the Psalm is said antiphonally, the odd verses in Setswana/Sepedi and the even verses in isiZulu/isiXhosa. The Eucharistic responses happen in all four languages at the same time, and the Lord’s Prayer in English (I think for my benefit).

The point I am making is that in twenty years of ministry my weekly/monthly worship-life has always been diversely inclusive, even if in quite culturally-specific congregations; regular worship in different languages and cultural patterns is “normal” for me.

Ministry in the Anglican Church and specifically in the Diocese of Pretoria has given me, from the earliest days of my training, a vision for what we can be as the people of God, for the unity that is possible in the midst of our huge diversity.

Possibility

As I look out over our Sunday congregation at 9am I see for the first time in twenty years, in a congregation I serve, a real possibility of being reflective of the unity we find in Christ in our fuller diversity as Anglicans and as Southern Africans. And thus my pressure on us to reach out towards a greater inclusivity in worship styles and cultures. I am aware that this is a stretching vision for us, one with which many in our community are not comfortable, and that even limited use of other languages has created distress. I am an eclectic at heart, which possibly adds to the discomfort, as my desire to piece together the best of our diversity often lacks specific focus and so appears to raise its head in creative disorder.

We have the building blocks; each of us is resourced with language and cultural experience and a relationship with God through Jesus Christ; do we have the will to make it work? And do we have the courage?

It requires a letting go … of what has been “normal” at Corpus Christi … and what has been “normal” in our diverse congregations-of-origin. Do we have the courage to let go … and be transformed?

POST SCRIPT – Thank you

Thank you to all at Corpus Christi and Willow Glen for your generous Easter gift to me – I greatly appreciate your love shown in this very concrete manner!

POST SCRIPT – Sudan

As the Chairperson of the Diocesan Companion Links Committee I will be attending the enthronement of the new Archbishop of the Episcopal Church of Sudan (ECS) in Juba. As a Diocese we are attempting to develop a Companion Link with the ECS Province, and so I will hopefully also be able to explore possibilities for this relationship – one the recently retired former Archbishop was keen to develop – with them while I am there. Please keep the new ECS Archbishop, Daniel Deng Bul, in your prayers as he leads the ECS during a critical phase in the national life of Southern Sudan. Please keep me in your prayers, too. I will be away from 16 to 24 April 2008.

Blessings
Mark

March 2007 - Transition towards a greater inclusivity

Dear Friends

Transition …

Transition is another word for change, but one that reflects a journey: a move from one state of being to another. Life in the 21st century is full of change on a complexity of levels, often leaving us “changed out” and desperately seeking constancy. One place that we seek this constancy is in the Church, and yet the church itself is only a microcosm of the greater world. The Church is impacted by the society in which it exists, and is drawn into the transitional journeys of the communities it serves.

… a journey toward Christ-likeness

Corpus Christi is in transition, we are on a journey. This journey primarily should reflect a movement towards deeper Christ-likeness; our Christ-likeness embracing the transitional journeys of our society. One of the ongoing transitions in our society is a move away from racial discrimination towards a greater wholeness of relationship on the basis of our humanity, and while our new Constitution embraces this, we still struggle with unchanged attitudes (as seen recently on the campus of the University of the Free State). There are other areas of concern in our wider society, including the disturbing growth in xenophobic behaviour with its basis in ethnic discrimination given increasing momentum by the huge influx of refugees from Zimbabwe in particular, not to mention the draw-card our economy is to others within the African continent.

… a greater inclusivity

As our South African society struggles to deal with these complexities a real opportunity develops for the Church to give leadership in this arena. One of the defining imperatives of the Church is to be inclusive in embracing all of God’s people. Mission and Evangelism from an Anglican perspective is to invite people into the Christian community and for them to be converted through involvement (rather than insisting people should be converted prior to being welcomed into fellowship as happens in some other denominations).

Being inclusive is an Anglican value. It is one of our Corpus Christi values as well: “… we offer inclusive, flexible, reverent and dignified worship opportunities”. What does it mean for us to be “inclusive”? Our roots as a parish are in the English speaking, high-church Anglican tradition. We began our parish life as a largely “white” Christian community in the early 1980’s. However, the picture has changed and we find ourselves in 2008 an increasingly diverse multi-cultural community with a broad representation of African cultural origins from both within and beyond the borders of South Africa. There is need for us to find ways to reflect this increasing diversity in our worship if we are to be true to our value of inclusiveness.

How to be inclusive is the challenge we face. Use of different languages, while being an option, is a difficult one due to English being the only language common to us all. The use of any other language automatically excludes someone from fully participating, yet says to those who do understand, “You are welcome in our midst!” The Liturgy in our Prayer Book is another uniting factor that offers room for creativity. Perhaps the answer is not in language, but in creatively exploring our set Liturgy from different cultural perspectives. Music can also be a powerful instrument of unity in the midst of increasing diversity, but requires a willingness to move beyond the British Colonialism of Hymns Ancient & Modern (even if revised!).

… constancy a barrier

All of this, however, undermines our deep and compelling desire for constancy. The response at our Annual Vestry to my Rector’s Report underlined this desire, and was reflected in the comment, “Why change what’s working well?” - A valid question. A question, though, that seeks to maintain; not a question that grapples with the imperative of our Diocesan call to become more mission focused, more evangelistically orientated.

The crux of the matter is that we are in transition: we seek to give Gospel values to this transition, making it a journey that we seek to direct and form. It is not a journey that we can control because it is a transition whose imperative is driven by the society in which we live; a society itself made up of a variety of cultural perspectives, themselves in transition. As a Christian community we are moving from a place that we understand and can define to a future that is emergent, but not yet clear. Our fear is letting go of what we know and have come to trust, and stepping out in faith to a future that is glimpsed dimly.

… a call to “Go!”

Even as I encourage us towards greater inclusivity in our worship (which will translate into greater inclusivity in other areas of our Parish life) I am not sure what this greater inclusivity looks like, I have no clear picture of where I want us to go. What I do know is that I have a deep desire to find out, to explore the possibilities, to move beyond our current boundaries.

The Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you …” (Genesis 12:1-2b; TNIV).

I hear the call for us to go to a new place – a new place of greater inclusivity, greater unity within our growing diversity – and I hear that we will be blessed. That was enough for Abram to comply and to be obedient. Is it enough for us?

Blessings

Mark