September 2011 - Family

Dear Friends

Diocesan Family Day

The Diocese will come together for a Diocesan Family Day on Sunday 11 September 2011. The last Family Day was held in 2008, and was a great occasion. It is not often that we have the opportunity to remind ourselves that we belong to the wider Anglican family, and so really do encourage you to make this pilgrimage. The outdoor service will begin at 09:30 at St Alban’s College (Clearwater Road, Lynnwood Glen) on the Cricket Field below the Pavilion. There will also be access to parking on the field from Maldon Road. We are asked to be “seated” by 09:15 – please bring a blanket to sit on, or a garden/camping chair and something to protect yourself from the sun. The Archbishop of Sudan, the Most Revd Dr Daniel Deng Bul, will be the preacher.  We are encouraged to stay on after the service and enjoy a picnic together. Please note that braai-fires are not allowed and alcohol is discouraged. Also, there will be no services at Corpus Christi on 11 September 2011.

Please pray for Diocesan Synod that takes place on the Thursday to Saturday  prior to the Family Day. It is the most prominent decision making body of the Diocese, and will set our direction as Anglicans in Pretoria for the next three years.

Family Cross

The Corpus Christi Family Cross is continuing its journey around the Parish. It is wonderful how the Cross has been welcomed. It is also proving  a joy for the Clergy and Layministers to be able to visit the family hosting the cross for family prayers on a Wednesday evening. If you would like to have the Family Cross in your home, please contact the parish office to find an available week. And while we encourage the family to give testimony when they return the Cross on a Sunday, there is freedom to just hand it back without testimony, too.

Family

As many of you have been aware, Dawn and I spent July in the UK meeting “new” family, and catching up with “old” family on my side. It has been quite a journey, and has stirred many emotions for both of us. Dawn’s comment, just before we landed in Manchester, was pertinent: “This is like going to meet the future in-laws, except you haven’t met them yet!” Contact via email and contact via Skype before we left meant that we weren’t travelling into the complete unknown, but I was apprehensive as we walked through the airport doors to meet the family for the first time. I find it very difficult to find the words that fit the moment or the feelings that accompanied our meeting, and the time that we spent together. I began, during our time with my father and step-mother, brothers and their families, as well as the wider family, to realise that I have carried an empty space in my being for them all my life. To have that space filled is truly amazing.

Joyce Rupp, in her book Open the Door speaks of “The Power of the Threshold” and says that “A threshold contains the power of transformation.” Our visit to the UK has been in many ways a threshold experience, a doorway that has opened up the reality of new relationships unfolding into the future. And we embrace those relationships, the welcome and the love we are given, the home that is made ours. We are eager to explore this new space together. There is so much to celebrate.

Joyce Rupp also speaks of the threshold as a “bleak in-between place”, which may sound strange and paradoxical to the goodness of our visit, but is – I think – a place that we find ourselves in as we return home. In being embraced by a new family we embrace a new narrative, and a new history. But there remains an existing narrative that is my and Dawn’s experienced history, and is a narrative I can’t lay aside. Rather it needs to become a transformative process for us all, old and new family alike. The threshold is, in Joyce Rupp’s words, a space where we lose a sense of clear identity, question what seems to be a dissolving relationship with our self and, perhaps, with our God; a space in which we are cleansed of false perceptions and weaned from feeding on what no longer nurtures us.

The process of building a narrative that embraces who I am, who I might have been, with emerging possibilities of who I want to be, has begun. The journey of building a transformed identity has begun. My journey through the threshold, its impact on my identity and clear sense of self, is costly. Dawn walks a similar path as we walk it in concert, transforming the narratives that impact on the life we share together.

Blessings

Mark

June 2008 - Transformation, Identity & Xenophobia

Dear Friends

from Transformation to Identity

The theme I have constantly returned to during the Easter to Pentecost journey has been “Transformation”: the transformation of Life itself through the death and Resurrection of Jesus; the transformation of the Jesus of History into the Christ of Faith through the Ascension; our transformation through the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost. The Feast of Corpus Christi (The Body of Christ) takes us the next step: identity.

Transformation, Identity and Xenophobia

I have grappled with the resistance I have had even to using the term “Transformation” in relation to our parish life. In reflection I realise that underlying this resistance is the issue of identity: who am I, who are we? What is it to be Human, African, South African? What is it to be a person/community of Faith, Christian, Anglican, a member of the Body of Christ? What is it that primarily defines who I am, who we are?

It strikes me that often we define ourselves not in the more universal terms of being human or Christian, but in terms of particular aspects of our existence: we highlight ethnic priorities or specific traditions; and these have led, ultimately and sadly, to Xenophobic violence in our country. This “Us” verses “Them” dichotomy leads to the breakdown in community relationships. This is true in South African society and in the Church, even at Parish level.

Somehow we need to embrace a concept of “Us” that does not create a “Them”; an “Us” that revels in embracing different perspectives in creative balance; an environment where “They” are “Us”. Perhaps this ultimately is the source of transformation, a transformation where, from a Christian Faith perspective, we become ever more Christ-like, and in so doing become ever more human, recognising that we all are made in God’s image, in the image of the Creator.

Xenophobia and a new Way of Living

The horror of recent and ongoing Xenophobic events in our country point to a failure in Government – but also to the failure of the Church – to build a truly democratic, free society. Yes, the number of refugees from other parts of Africa has reached intimidating levels with the statistic of up to 25% of informal settlements being made up of foreigners. Yes, service delivery has not impacted on the poor in ways they find meaningful. Yes, crime is sometimes perpetrated by foreigners. However, it is largely our own children, the so-called “Born Free” generation – who are estimated to make up 70% of all unemployed people in our country – that are perpetrators of much of the recent upheavals. We as Government, as Civil Society, as Faith Communities, have failed to instil a moral core into our young people; we have failed to give them an identity of which they can be proud; an identity onto which they can build a solid moral code.

And so it hurts that we at Corpus Christi, we who carry the name “Body of Christ”, are so resistant to facing up to the call to be transformed. Within our Parish life we have a wonderful opportunity to explore our diverse cultural heritage, to experiment with what it means for “Them” to be “Us”; to build transformed relationships and community in a way that offers HOPE to our wider society, to our Nation. I hear, “Don’t rock the boat”; I hear, “Things are going well – don’t spoil it”. But what do I see?

What do I see?

Despite verbal resistance, I see transformation in action; I see greater involvement from groupings in the Parish that previously were less visible; I see people who struggle with change reaching out across perceived barriers; I see new relationships germinating; and I feel … yes … sense a new ownership of Parish life growing in people’s hearts. I see a community struggling to find a new path, a transformed identity. We are not there yet, but we have begun a journey. Let us persevere, together.

Blessings

Mark

July 2007

Dear Friends

I write this as I prepare to take some leave (“Again?!” I hear you cry!). I’m looking forward to having some time to myself, to immerse myself in some gentle reading, to reflect on life and ministry, and to restock my reserves. It is good, too, to be available to my family without the pressures of parish demands. And it will be good to return to you all, refreshed and ready for all the challenges the next few months will hold.

What are you doing where you are?

In my May letter to you I asked the question, “Who are we?” - a question of identity whose answer directs us in our mission. Our Patronal Celebrations, particularly our “Cultural Dinner” gave us an unusual vision of ourselves, a vision of who we really are as the people of God at Corpus Christi—a kaleidoscope of cultural colour and diversity! Let us hold onto the image we saw of ourselves, and continuously bring it alive again and again within the different contexts of our existence together.

With this image in mind, we need to begin to ask what are we collectively doing where we are? Perhaps another way of asking this question is, “Who will miss us if we cease to exist tomorrow?” - Tumelong? Louis Botha Homes? Irene Homes? Those of us who worship together week by week? Yes, yes and again yes! But … would Garsfontein miss us, would Faerie Glen, would Constantia Park, Moreleta?

Hmm … probably not?

The issue is, “What community need in our own geographical area do we meet?”
I can’t answer this question … and I find this of concern. We need to explore our “local” community and prayerfully explore where Jesus wants us to meet him in the wider community within which Corpus Christi physically exists.

As we reflect on our mission in terms of the above questions, we need to hold in mind that a Christian community is missionary in its existence, not in its programmes. Just as finance follows good ministry, so growth follows mission with integrity.

I would value your shared insights to these questions.

Caring and Serving

I was reminded this afternoon that we have a “Good Samaritans” group in the parish, presently eighteen people who have offered to help others wherever and whenever needed. Many of them have not yet had an opportunity to help anyone, and others only on one or two occasions. Why?

Most of us are inherently selfish in sharing our need (myself as much as anyone else), and thereby withhold from others the opportunity to experience God’s blessing in being able to help us. Many of us have been brought up to be independent and to believe that asking for help is weakness.

What is your need? How can we help you? Perhaps a lift? Change a light bulb? Visit for a cup of tea? Prayer? Financial help? Baby-sit a child for the afternoon? A movie? Mow your lawn? A lift to church? Home Communion? Advice? Help? HelP? HELP?

… please let the Office know how we can HELP you!

Blessings
Mark

May 2007

Dear Friends

Who are we?

A basic human question people have asked throughout the ages is, “Who am I?” There remain many answers, but one that continues to hold my attention is an answer that affirms my existence in the context of relationship. It is an answer that emerges from our African context, one that makes me proud to call myself African: “I am because of others.” This is a powerful statement of community, of belonging, as it speaks to my humanness and to my value as a person.

However, beyond our humanness we need to explore our spirituality, who we are in God. This is an exploration of our core, that part of our existence around which everything else revolves: our essence, our spirit. Our spirituality is partly defined by worship: the way we address God; the manner in which we acknowledge and respond to God; the environment within which we discover God.

The Church seeks to provide a context for such discovery. Too often we approach our faith – our worship, our relationship with God – from the perspective of what we can gain from such encounter, hoping for some cure-all that will magically and instantly make us whole people. When this does not happen we walk away despondent and unfulfilled, often angry. What is it that we are missing?

A beginning of an answer is that we are often overly “I” focused. It is in focusing beyond ourselves that we begin an adventure in faith; it is in immersing ourselves in a spirituality that draws us out, that stretches us, that makes us uncomfortable with being comfortable, that introduces us to God; it is in sharing the adventure and the moments of discovery; it is drawing alongside other people who will mentor us, and whom we can mentor, that the journey of faith gains meaning. Christian spirituality calls us to discipleship, and to make disciples. We are called to give before we receive, and to receive through our giving: in serving we are served; in caring we are cared for; in healing we are healed.

Traditional?

Our parish “Statement of Purpose” declares that at Corpus Christi we are traditional Anglicans. What do we mean by the word traditional? There are numerous legitimate ways to interpret this word: what it does mean for us? Sadly, in the wider Church context, traditionalism has become synonymous with maintenance and a refusal to accept new ways of doing things (e.g. the Ordination of Women). At Corpus Christi we need to beware this danger, and in order to do so we need to explore our interpretation of the concept.

I suspect that at the core what is important to us at Corpus Christi is that we do not lose the sacramental rituals that are richly filled with symbolic meaning. We fear that new innovations, new ways of doing things, will dilute our sacramental heritage; and so we are tempted to cling to those things that we associate with our past experience, such as classical hymnology. However, Christian praxis evolves and we need to recognise that much of what we consider core is just dressing. An Anglican Prayer Book 1989 is very different in perspective from the older South African Book of Common Prayer, and yet it is recognisably based on our earliest Anglican prayer books: Cranmer’s liturgical innovations of the 16th century.

In preparing and experiencing our Lent Course this year I was struck that in terms of the new social paradigm (referred to by some as “post-Christian”, “post-Modern”) – essentially defined by the attitude “anything goes” – that it is sacramental tradition and its complex symbolic imagery that has the power to reach our post-Modern society. However, we need to dress it differently: we need to liberate ourselves of the stuffy image mainline denominations are perceived to carry; we need to discover a greater flexibility in order to be relevant to a new generation who consciously avoid institutionalised religion. This is the challenge on which our future existence as Anglicans hinges.

Vision?

In our March Council meeting it was agreed that we (Corpus Christi’ians) are content with our values, our sense of purpose (as defined in our Statement of Purpose), and that this gives us a foundation on which to build. What we now need to develop is what Jim Collins in his book Built to Last refers to as a “Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal”: something that will draw us into the future with expectancy and enthusiasm. Twenty-five years ago building a parish on the eastern border of Pretoria was such a goal. We now need to develop a new Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal (a BHAG) that will guide our purpose for the next ten to twenty years. What is God calling us to? What is the vision God is setting before us? We need to seek God for our direction.

When we seek God, we are essentially asking him to lead us. Joan Chittester in her book The Rule of Benedict: Insight for the Ages says, “The function of leadership is to call us beyond ourselves, to stretch us to our limits, to turn the clay into breathless beauty.” She goes on to say, “But first, of course, we have to allow it to happen” (pg 174). The question must then be: are we willing for God to lead us in directions we may not yet have contemplated, may not be entirely comfortable with? In this regard our comfort zones are often defined by our own limited sense of who we are, and the challenge is to be open to seeing ourselves as God sees us. Chittester says, “The reality is that we are often incapable of assessing our own limits, our real talents, our true strength, our necessary ordeals” (pg 173).

Special Vestry

As a first step we will be holding a special Vestry Meeting on Sunday 13 May 2007 after the 9am Eucharist. We will consider our building – the place we meet to worship (the word “Church” actually refers to the people of God, not the building). It needs urgent maintenance, and this becomes an opportunity to increase its size. The building may sound a strange place to start seeking God’s direction, but it is the one constant in our Christian community life: it is our gathering place; it is the place from which we are sent, Sunday by Sunday, back into the world to serve God and humanity.

Thank you!

A big thank you to you all for the generous Easter gifts I received. Your care and love is much appreciated.

Blessings

Mark