September 2008

Dear friends

The Anglican Communion: what it means to be “Church”

In my letter to you all last month I reflected on what it means to be Church. Since then, Lambeth, the decadal conference of Anglican Primates and Bishops from around the world, has come and gone. Excitingly, the conference has strengthened relationships within the Anglican Communion, and despite contentious issues around sexuality, the Communion is, it seems, stronger than ever. This is largely due to the nature of the Conference itself, a deeply spiritual event focused on listening, rather than debate and resolutions. There is a renewed understanding among bishops as to the challenges of mission and ministry in the multitude of different contexts in which they find themselves, and a renewed commitment to support the Archbishop of Canterbury as a symbol of our unity. The threat of schism, overplayed perhaps by the media, did not find light of day, and we thank God that we remain in fellowship with Anglicans around the world. In reflection, our Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, says in his Ad Laos communication: “… when I look back, I realise that most of all Lambeth was about relationships – with Jesus, with one another in Christ, and with the world.” This is something to celebrate!

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, in a reflection to the Bishops post-Lambeth, notes: “First, there was an overwhelming unity around the need for the Church to play its full part in the worldwide struggle against poverty ignorance and disease. … Second, on the controversial issue of the day regarding human sexuality, there was a very widely-held conviction that premature or unilateral local change was risky and divisive, in spite of the diversity of opinion expressed on specific questions. … Third, there was a general desire to find better ways of managing our business as a Communion. Many participants believed that the indaba method, while not designed to achieve final decisions, was such a necessary aspect of understanding what the questions might be that they expressed the desire to see the method used more widely – and to continue among themselves the conversations begun in Canterbury.” We have a lot to be proud of, as Anglicans!

Diocesan Family Day: Sunday 5 October 2008

10:00 at St Mary’s DSG

This is an important Diocesan occasion where we celebrate being part of the wider Diocesan Family. It is also our celebration of Bishop Jo’s 10th Year as Bishop of Pretoria, so an important day for us. It is likely that the preacher will be Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan.

As has become tradition there will be NO SERVICES at CORPUS CHRISTI on this Sunday. I am also aware of the temptation to play golf, visit neglected family, or generally do something other than be part of these BIG events, so my plea is that you breath deeply, put temptation behind you, and come join us at St Mary’s DSG (one of our Anglican Schools in Pretoria) in Duxbury Road, Hillcrest! These days are always fun once one gets there, so please make the effort to join us and be a participant in this event.

As we will be outside, you’ll need to bring a chair, a hat, maybe an umbrella (for the sun, hopefully not the rain) and a picnic for after the service.

Blessings

Mark

August 2008

Dear friends

What it means to be “Church”

As I write, Lambeth, the decadal conference of Archbishops and Bishops from around the world, is in the second week of meeting at Kent University in the UK. A major focus of their time together is grappling with the definition of “Church” and “Christian Community”, highlighted by the ongoing concern for many that The Episcopal Church (TEC) of the USA may have stepped beyond the boundaries by electing a Bishop (Gene Robinson) who is in an active Gay relationship. In many parts of Africa and Asia homosexual relationships are considered a criminal act, while in the USA and other parts of the world it is recognised as just another way humans celebrate relationships. It seems over two-hundred Bishop’s may have boycotted the conference due to the perceived “permissiveness” of TEC in particular. An Anglican Covenant is under discussion to try to address “orthodoxy” (sound doctrine and practice), but whether or not this will help bridge the large gap in both doctrine and practice around the issue of sexual orientation is yet to be tested. This is not the only issue under discussion, and our Archbishop’s Blog (http://archbishop.anglicanchurchsa.org/) is instructive, as is a UK site called “Thinking Anglicans” (http://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/).

The Nature of “Church”

In a lecture given on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Ripon College, Cuddesdon (UK) in 2004, Archbishop Rowan Williams had the following to say about the nature of the Church: “… the Church is first of all a kind of space cleared by God through Jesus in which people may become what God made them to be (God’s sons and daughters), and that what we have to do about the Church is not first to organise it as a society but to inhabit it as a climate or landscape.” This brings to mind our parish slogan: “Our lives: a place where others meet Christ.” It is a call not just to live out our faith in life, but to live IN our Faith: to immerse ourselves in God.

Archbishop Williams’ thought is a radical one for many of us who possibly prescribe to the view that, “… the Church is essentially a lot of people who have something in common called Christian faith and get together to share it with each other and communicate it to other people ‘outside’.” Williams’ comments that this view is “… harmless enough … but a good way from what the New Testament encourages us to think about the Church.”

The perspective that Church primarily constitutes a place to be inhabited, not organised, shines a fresh light on what it means to be involved with the Church, with the people of God, and again Williams comments, “When Christ calls, he calls, we are told, into a community with diverse roles and tasks, not into a mass of individuals vaguely looking for things to do …”

This beggars each one of us to ask the question: what role, what task, am I fulfilling? Or am I just vaguely passing through?

[The full text of this lecture can be found at: http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/1185].

Gifting

The above brings us back to my comment in my last communication that Hilary Davis, in the Stewardship portfolio, has worked hard to distil questions that will prompt us to acknowledge our individual God-given gifts. The second set of questions is available elsewhere in this magazine – please look at them, and perhaps revisit last month’s magazine for the first set of questions. I am always willing to make time to discuss issues of faith and calling with you, and will be happy to include discussion around how and where you are encountering God and the myriad of gifts he places into our lives. Please feel free to phone and book some time with me.

Thank You

Thank you to everyone who made a special effort to make Dawn and I feel special this month as we celebrated our birthdays: we received FOUR birthday cakes (!); we much appreciated spending time with those who could make it around the Braai on Sunday 6 July; we are most thankful for the cards, gifts and fellowship given to us in such abundance!

Web Presence

We are still planning a parish web page, but this seems to be taking a while! In the meantime previous editions of “… from the Rector’s Desk” can be found at

http://fromtherectorsdesk.blogspot.com/

where there is also a link to our parish Picture Gallery, which can also be accessed at

http://picasaweb.google.com/garsfontein.acsa.

Please feel free to browse!

Blessings

Mark