Dear People of God
‘Come, thou long-expected Jesus’ is
a well-known Advent hymn which goes on to describe Jesus as ‘hope of all the
earth … desire of every nation … joy of every longing heart.’ Advent has been described as a ‘season of
desire’. It is a time for us to listen
to the yearnings of our hearts, our souls: our profound longing for Jesus to
come with the fullness of his redemption, into our lives and the situations
around us. It is a time for giving
voice, in prayer, to the ache we feel for every person, every circumstance,
which needs the compassionate, loving, healing, touch of our Lord and
Saviour. It is also a time for giving
thanks for all that we have seen of God at work in our lives, and fervently
asking that he may be present in ever greater abundance.
I have been pondering this,
particularly as I look back on November, which was a truly remarkable month,
diverse and full. When it began, I was
in New Zealand, participating in the Anglican Consultative Council, with other
Anglicans, nearly bishops, clergy and laity from around the world. We shared deeply together around all aspects
of the Anglican Communion’s ministry and mission – often from very different
perspectives, but in a way that I felt was healing to relationships. Please pray that it may be a turning point
for moving ahead united in Christ, even where we do not wholly agree; and especially that the ‘Continuing Indaba’
and ‘Bible in the life of the Church’ projects will keep on bearing fruit. Please pray too for God to further guide and
bless major issues which we tackled: the
environment; violence especially against women and children, and churches as
places of safety; and Christian witness in a multi-religious world. There is much here that we can pick up on, to
enrich our own lives, and equip us in our own calling to be faithful witnesses
to the good news of Jesus Christ. You
can find out more through the links at www.anglicancommunion.org.
It was the last Anglican gathering
with our beloved Archbishop Rowan before he steps down and returns to academic
life. My heart was full to overflowing –
and so were many others – as he gave his final address to us. We give thanks for his remarkable servant
ministry over the difficult times of the last decade, and ask God to bless him,
his wife Jane and family, in their move, and to continue to make him a blessing
to so many others. In the same vein, we
thank God for Bishop Justin Welby, who will succeed him in the new year, and
pray for him, together with his wife Caroline and their family, as he prepares
to take on the great responsibilities that lie ahead. I am reminded of the ‘Charge’ in our service
of ordination and consecration of a bishop, which says ‘No one is sufficient
for these things’ but then says ‘May the God who makes us able ministers of his
new covenant equip you with grace and give you his blessing and joy.’ This is surely what we long for, for the new
‘ABC’.
And I am sure it is our prayer also
for our newest Bishop in Southern Africa, Bishop Ellinah Wamukoya, whom we
consecrated in Swaziland with such joy on 17 November – the first Anglican
woman in Africa to be made a Bishop! We
rejoice with her and her diocese, and ask the ‘long-expected Jesus’ truly to be
‘Emmanuel’, God with her, and her clergy and people, as they go forward into
this new chapter of life. We pray also
for The Ven Margaret Vertue, who will be consecrated Bishop of False Bay on 19
January; and the Revds Dintoe Stephen Letloenyane and Revd Stephen Moreo, who
will be consecrated Bishop of the Free State and Bishop of Johannesburg,
respectively, in two services in March.
As we thank God for, and pray for,
those he calls forth as leaders, shepherd of his flock, in every generation, let
us also pray for the Church of England, so traumatised by their long synodical
processes around the consecration of women to the episcopate, and the failure
of last month’s vote. May God give them
light in their darkness (a powerful Advent theme), to show them his path ahead.
For our part, we are moving forward on the path
we believe God has set before us, the path of our Vision, ‘Anglicans ACT’,
which we celebrated in a service in St George’s Cathedral, Cape Town at the end
of November. You can watch it on You tube
at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5-9b7tWFFw, and copies are being made
available via Dioceses on DVD. The
various teams are making progress in their work – watch this space in the new
year, as plans unfold for helping equip dioceses and parishes in our priority
areas!
So,
within the life of our church, at home, and globally, we have much to thank God
for, even as we desire to grow more into the newness of life that is his
promise. But when we turn our eyes to
look at the world around, our yearning for God’s redemptive touch becomes much
more urgent. In South Africa, we have
had the tragedy of Marikana, now being investigated through the Commission of
Inquiry headed by Judge Ian Farlam who is ACSA’s chancellor. All involved need our prayers. There is also the complex situation around
farm workers’ salaries in the Western Cape, where we yearn for just living
wages. We also anticipate the ANC
conference in Mangaung from 16 to 21 December.
With a vote on the ANC’s, and hence the country’s, presidency, it is of
major importance to our future, and our ability overcome trends of corruption
and self-interest among political leaders, and return to putting the needs of
all citizens at the top of the agenda.
Elsewhere around our Province, countries battle with consolidating democracy,
with food shortages, with wise use of mineral resources, with the scourge of
HIV and AIDS, and with the ongoing long slow struggle to overcome poverty and
all its consequences.
Therefore,
especially for those in South Africa for whom 16 December is the Day of
Reconciliation, I am calling for a day of prayer and fasting. Let us not be afraid to pour out our hearts
to God – bringing before him all our hopes and fears for our countries, all our
yearnings and desires for his kingdom to come and his will be done among us. In Advent we look forward to God’s promise to
reconcile all things in Christ to himself (Col 1:20); and we also recall how he
has entrusted his ministry of reconciliation to us also – so let us make this a
day truly of God’s Reconciliation.
Let us plead that we may know the fuller coming
of Christ, ‘risen with healing in his wings’ within our nations and our
communities, especially where there are divisions – whether of history,
politics, economics, language or race, personality, or through some unhappy
force of circumstance. Let us pray
fervently that God will meet us in all our needs, in Jesus Christ, so that
there may be good news for the poor, freedom for the oppressed, liberty for all
who are afflicted (Lk 4:18). May those
who walk in darkness find a new light dawning (Is 9:2), and may all of us have
the wisdom, the courage, the commitment, to walk in the paths God lights before
our feet (Ps119:104). May justice roll
down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream (Amos 5:24),
and may God’s kingdom be found among us.
This Advent-tide, let us wholeheartedly pray
for Jesus Christ to come to us, ‘Come, O come, Emmanuel!’
Yours
in the service of Christ
+Thabo Cape Town
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