A news article on Anglicans Ablaze from Ray Hartle

Anglicans from across Southern Africa are meeting in Johannesburg this week in the biggest gathering of the whole church in recent years.
Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba, who leads the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA), has said the conference, “Anglicans Ablaze”, is an opportunity for Anglicans who endured turmoil and strife in South Africa and the former frontline states to explore the challenges of the new century.
The conference would also allow churchgoers from South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Angola, Lesotho, Swaziland, St Helena and Tristan de Cunha to "build up the common life we share in Christ".
Anglican church leaders meet for official synods every three years. However, this is the largest gathering of ordinary members of the church from across Southern Africa in living memory. It has also drawn people from across the various theological and worship styles found in the denomination, in itself a significant demonstration of unity despite diversity.
Makgoba says the conference is about discovering "what it is to be the body of Christ in our time, and who God is in Jesus Christ, for us here and now.’
"We are a hugely diverse church, stretching from St Helena to Mozambique, from Angola’s border with the DRC to Cape Agulhas, from rich urban centres to impoverished informal settlements, from lush veldt to dry Karoo. We also live with great human diversity, in our languages, our cultures, our contexts."
Makgoba said the "glue" that bound these diverse communities together was that "God loves us".
"The call to be anchored in the love of God is the starting point of all Christian life; and the starting point for all that the Church is, and is called to be."
It was also what gave him courage to visit Marikana after the shooting of miners. "It is not in human strength, but in God’s love, in which I stand as my protection."
Makgoba said ACSA had an opportunity to begin a fresh chapter "acknowledging our past but now facing the new challenges of the twenty-first century".
"Our church, and all the countries of Southern Africa, have been through enormous turmoil and strain in the last fifty years or more. Conflict, strife, oppression – we have all known them in many ways; and some of us have lived with full-blown civil war.
"The task of the church was to preach and model and share the good news of Jesus Christ in these terrible circumstances.
"And so we did: proclaiming the Scriptures, speaking up for God’s truth, standing for righteousness, opposing oppression, burying the dead, comforting the sorrowing, and – no matter how dark our darkest hours – always holding up the light of Christ, always sharing the hope of the gospel.
"But all our lives were distorted by the horrors of apartheid, and its impact within and beyond South Africa.
"When democracy and peace finally came, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu then famously said ‘Now we can get back to truly being church!'
"Well, what does it mean for us to be truly church, in our new circumstances? Makgoba said.
"Who is God in Jesus Christ, for us, today, in Angola, in Lesotho, in Mozambique, in Namibia, in South Africa, in Swaziland, even in St Helena and Tristan da Cunha? What is God’s desire for our church, and for our world?"
Earlier, Bishop Martin Breytenbach said Southern Africa, together with the rest of the world, was experiencing a crisis in politics, the financial sector, the environment and as a result of natural disasters.
The Anglican church was also in crisis, as it faced the real possibility of schism and a drop in numbers of church-goers, especially among the youth. But times of crisis were also times of opportunity, he said.
The Conference runs from 3 to 6 October.