She was speaking at a seminar organised by the United States Consulate General in partnership with the Diakonia Council of Churches, on 18 August.

Dr Anderson said the Church must abandon its traditional interpretation and come up with another perspective and alternative theological framework on the bible and HIV and AIDS.

The traditional ABC approach to HIV and AIDS, she said, has largely been unsuccessful and proposed a theological framework that takes into account what is rather than what ought to be.

"ABC does not address what people are doing, but what people ought to be doing. It also implies that C is a failure, that is, people who use condoms have failed to abstain and to be faithful", Dr Anderson said.

  She advocated for ‘Inclusive biblical interpretation', that is, interpretation that takes into account the realities and perspectives of the marginalised and the excluded, and the consequences of traditional interpretations on those groups.

Dr Anderson said the marginalised and the excluded must be at the centre of any biblical interpretation. The Old Testament prophets, Jesus himself and later Paul, all considered the impact of an interpretation of their traditions and scriptures on the marginalised, she said.

Any biblical interpretation, she said, must identify the absolute requirement of God. Love of neighbour, Dr Anderson said, is what God requires, and on it hang all the law and prophets.

She took a swipe at the popular fundamentalist interpretation of the bible which views the biblical text as consisting of writings that were inspired by God, if not actually dictated by God, word for word, and so making the community of faith accept all its contents as they are.

Rather, Dr Anderson proposed a view of biblical interpretation which understands creating scripture as a human activity that takes place within communities of faith.

"The bible is inherently the live word of God which recognises that it is divine communication that has been refracted through many different authors who wrote from their own circumstances. Biblical authority is exercised in community rather than over it, and the community of faith's participation is called for rather than its submission. Biblical interpretation is contextual and necessarily influenced by the human beings who do it", she said.

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Bishop Phillip was honoured at the annual Diakonia Lecture and presentation of the Diakonia Award ceremony at the Durban City Hall on 12 August.

In justifying Bishop Phillip's choice for the Award, the Diakonia Council - the supreme decision making body of the organisation - noted his involvement with the anti apartheid movement as far back as the 1960s, through his advocacy and involvement in the Zimbabwe crisis to his solidarity with the shack dwellers movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo.

The Council acknowledged Bishop Phillip as a veteran anti-apartheid activist who was put under house arrest for three years by the apartheid regime due to his open protest in the 1970s.

"In the post apartheid era", the Council said, "when he saw that justice was under threat, Bishop Rubin openly took a stand in solidarity with the victims, and has not hesitated to apportion blame where it belonged."

They added that Bishop Phillip's commitment to justice and human rights was not confined to South Africa's borders. Rather, his firm conviction that a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, saw him leading solidarity and advocacy work in support of human rights and justice in Zimbabwe. 

"With the escalation of the socio-political dynamics in Zimbabwe, Bishop Phillip together with Paddy Kearney, successfully obtained a court interdict preventing arms shipments destined for the brutal regime in Harare - with its history of blatant violations of human rights - from being transported through South Africa", the Council said.

Recently, the Council noted, Bishop Phillip has had to deal with the Abahlali crisis. "Believing in the genuineness of their struggle, Bishop Phillip has openly and unashamedly stood by Abahlali through their trials and tribulations, offering his full support. He has released numerous press statements condemning the violent persecution of Abahlali in the Kennedy Road informal settlement blaming political interference and has repeatedly called for an independent commission of enquiry into the Kennedy Road violence of September 2009 ‘to establish the truth'", the Council said.

In conclusion, the Council said, the Award is to thank him for his devoted service to human rights, to justice and to democracy through many long years - from the days of the struggle against apartheid to the struggle against poverty, corruption and injustice.

In his acceptance speech, Bishop Phillip said he dedicates the Award to shack dwellers, especially those from Kennedy Road and all those who have stood in solidarity with them.

He urged politicians to fulfil their electoral promises or else the church will continue to pressure them to deliver. "The Municipality must provide water, electricity and adequate housing to shack dwellers. We will continue to knock at the doors of politicians until the situation is resolved. If we could host the World Cup, why can we not provide water and electricity to a handful of shackdwellers?" he asked.

Delivering the Annual Lecture at the same gathering, Dr Danny Jordaan, Chief Executive Officer of the FIFA 2010 Local Organising Committee, who was sharing the stage with his wife, Revd Roxanne, speaking on How does the church contribute to sustaining the spirit of nationhood, after the World Cup? said he had no regrets that South Africa hosted the World Cup.

Since 1994, Dr Jordaan said, South Africa was a deeply divided nation. It is only the soccer tournament that catapulted the nation to do what it had failed to do since the demise of apartheid.

Dr Jordaan said, "The soccer tournament was a second liberation for South Africa. If we attained freedom in 1994, with the 2010 World Cup we achieved our humanity".

Revd Jordaan said after the unity enjoyed during the World Cup, the nation is at a point where it cannot turn back to its old ways of division. It is therefore the role of the Church to make sure that the unity is maintained.

One way of doing that, she said, is for the church to stand in solidarity with the poor. "What is needed is a preferential treatment of the poor with the view of making poverty history".

Revd Jordaan added that the country has enough resources to change the lives of those who starve. "The Church must engage government and demand that they deliver on their promises to end poverty. There cannot be genuine unity when our children walk tens of kilometres to school and when millions live in shacks", she said.

For the full text of the citation for Bishop Phillip's Award: Bishop Rubin Phillip's Citation

Lebohang Pheko, Policy and Advocacy Director at the Trade Collective, has said the majority of South Africans feel as if they are exiles in their own country, and as such the talk of the nation as an inclusive society is a myth.

She was addressing participants at a lunch time briefing on Towards an Inclusive Society, at Diakonia Centre on 22 July.

Pheko said South Africa is the most unequal society in the world with glaring riches living side by side with utter poverty. Because of this, she said, the majority of citizens are living at the periphery of decision making.

"Most South Africans feel uninvited to the table. This is because the society was built on legislated social exclusivity of our apartheid past", she said.

This exclusion, she said, did not end with the fall of apartheid. Rather, it has continued to haunt the rainbow nation.

"There is disequilibrium at every level - age, sex, race, education, generation and nationality. The frustrations and tensions that we witness in our society are thus understandable", she said.

Human beings are born included, she said, but in South Africa one has to strive to be included. "It is a travesty that children walk hundreds of kilometres to school to be included. We should be born included, rather than strive to be included. If rights are born why should we struggle for them?" she asked.

Pheko had a word of warning if this social exclusion continues: "It is very dangerous for people to feel that there is no place for them at this table. Such frustrations are a potential weapon of mass destruction and can easily lead to xenophobic violence."

She also spoke about the exclusion of African foreign nationals. "We were good at welcoming Spanish, German, English and Brazilian fans during the FIFA World Cup, but cannot welcome our Zimbabwean, Mozambican and Malawian friends. How can one talk of social inclusion when people are set on fire?" she asked.

For Pheko's full address Pheko on Challenges of Social Inclusion

After a two-hour closed door meeting between the state and the defence team, it was agreed that the five be granted R1 000 bail each.

The five appeared visibly relieved after more than ten months of incarceration.

Samkelisa Mkhokhelwa could not hide his joy on his walk to freedom as he said, "There is every reason to be jubilant as this is our moment of victory. However, the battle is not yet over. We are waiting for the end of the trial for our names to be cleared. We have always maintained that we are innocent of all these charges."

S'bu Zikode, President of Abahlali baseMjondolo, said their eyes are now fixed on the dropping of all the charges against the twelve. "Although this is a partial victory for us", he said, "we want to see all the charges against these innocent people dropped, as we have always maintained that this case is politically motivated."

Earlier on, the accused had not been brought to court because of logistical problems on the part of prison officials.

Only three out of twenty state witnesses appeared in court prompting the magistrate, Sharon Marks, to say that she would issue a warrant of arrest should the witnesses fail to come to court when the trial begins on 29 November.

Meanwhile, most of the bail conditions of all the twelve accused were removed except that they should not visit Kennedy Road or interfere with state witnesses before the end of the trial.