Author: Diakonia Church Administration

“Our souls, soil and society need healing. But first we need to lance the boils to release the ugliness within. This is the way of the crucifixion on the cross, a terribly painful experience.”

Methodist Bishop of the Natal Coastal District, Mike Vorster, told thousands of worshippers while delivering the sermon during the early morning annual ecumenical Good Friday service at the Durban Exhibition Centre, under the theme Bruised but healed through the cross, on 25 March.

“The legacy of Apartheid has left festering wounds in three areas: our souls; soil and society. There are still so many things around us that bruise our souls daily: rejection, betrayal, the lingering trauma of racism, violence, sexism, rape, xenophobia, Afrophobia, exclusion, poverty,” he said.

Bishop Vorster decried the expropriation of the soil from its indigenous owners in the past through centuries of violent colonisation adding that even in this day the soil continues to be stolen from indigenous people to make way for greedy corporates who already have more than they need.

Our soil, he said, has become what author Karen Armstrong calls ‘Fields of blood.’ “We have poisoned the soil and will continue to do so through fracking; more mining; nuclear waste from nuclear plants and the list goes on. With the exponential development of unchecked technology, we are now at a time when we will not only see fields of blood, but the mutilation and destroying of the earth in its entirety,” Bishop Vorster said.

He also called for a boycott of Australian products in the wake of the gunning-down of Sikhosiphi ‘Bazooka’ Rhadebe, leader of the Amadiba Crisis Committee who are resisting titanium mining on the Wild Coast by an Australian company, Mineral Commodities Limited.

When we talk of the healing our society, he said, we need to speak simultaneously of socio-political and economic influences.

On healing of our society, Bishop Vorster said, our souls need to be on fire as we confront those who are allegedly holding our fledgling democracy to ransom through the so-called capture of our state by wealthy business people. “With the revelations of the so-called capture of state, is this not a Kairos moment when all of us need to have a ‘crisis of conscience? Are not NGOs economically captured by donors? Are not churches economically captured by the big givers who want to dictate how the church should be run? Are not churches captured by money through the prosperity Gospel? Is not the private sector captured to the practise of profit before people? We also need to investigate the wealthy white elite who allegedly keep black people out of their white economic club unless they bring political favour,” he said.

Bishop Vorster said corrupt leaders should be removed from office but was quick to point out that this removal would not automatically translate to elimination of corruption.

He said “Yes we can remove leaders who are corrupt and this must happen, but will it guarantee that others who follow will not do likewise? The key practises for all those in leadership and their followers are: honesty; integrity and accountability.”

Current efforts by civil society to bring healing need to be intensified. “Let us form thousands of groups throughout the land where the poor; the oppressed begin to tell their stories of pain in safe spaces and move from victims to wounded healers, whereby dignity is restored,” Bishop Vorster said.

He concluded by warning that the path to national healing is not going to be an easy one. “Let us remember that the cross as an instrument was meant to ensure maximum pain. This could be likened to the needle which pierces the boil that needs lancing as a metaphor for the pain of sacrificial; courageous and honest conversations we need to have with each other as South Africans.

“The late Nobel Peace laureate, Inkosi Albert Luthuli, once said: ‘Freedom comes via the cross’. This will be a costly journey for the soul. It would mean taking up our cross daily of voluntary personal and communal sacrifice and through this sacrifice make a new world possible,” he ended.

After the first part of the service, worshippers then processed in meditative silence to the steps of the City Hall where the flowered cross was lifted up as a sign of the hope that the cross of Christ will heal us of our multiple-woundedness.

South Africans have allowed themselves to believe in the myths of Ubuntu and the ‘rainbow nation’ and these have prevented the nation from moving forward in addressing racism. This is according to Teresa Oakley-Smith, Founder and Managing Director of Diversi-T.

Oakley-Smith was facilitating transformative conversations on racism organised by Diakonia Council of Churches on 29 February and 1 March.

She said, “There are some myths that white South Africans particularly enjoy which continue to be problematic. The first one is that of Ubuntu. Ubuntu in its pure form as it was initially conceived by African people is part and parcel of the way people live in communities, caring for each other. But we have assumed it to be part of the way people are in South Africa; that we care for one another and a person is a person through other people, yet we remain in our segregated groups.”

The other concept that prevents South Africans from combating racism, she said, is the belief that we are a rainbow nation.

“The concept of the rainbow nation was put forward as a project. When Archbishop Desmond Tutu first spoke about it, it was an aspiration and somehow we were so happy to take it on board and it made us too comfortable. We have to disabuse ourselves of the idea that we are a rainbow nation, but maybe holding it out as something we would like to work towards. Confronting racism is a step towards building a rainbow nation, if that is truly what we would like to be,” Oakley-Smith said.

She also noted that it is impossible to divorce racism from the environment characterised by mass poverty in which South Africans live.

“There is something terribly violent about poverty, about having nothing. We just cannot play with the ideas around racism without how they are embedded in the whole issue of inequality and poverty. Inequality has its roots in apartheid. We still have this huge legacy of inequality and poverty and it is not possible to address this racism without being conscious of this background,” she said.

Oakley-Smith also spoke about the importance of exposure of different races to each other, noting that there is limited interaction between people of different races in the country.

Delegates agreed that the issue of racism in South Africa should not continue to be swept under the carpet, but should be spoken about and dealt with.

A plaque commemorating the first Diakonia Good Friday service was unveiled at the remaining wall of the former Durban Central Prison, on 1 April.

The unveiling coincided with the 30th Anniversary of the annual ecumenical early morning service.

It was on 5 April 1985 when the first ecumenical Good Friday service procession wound its way in silence at dawn through the streets of Durban from the Central Methodist Church to the Durban Central Prison, to pray for sixteen treason trialists incarcerated there, among them Frank Chikane, Albertina Sisulu, Sam Kikine and Archie Gumede, and other political prisoners in jails throughout the country.

Outside the walls of the prison, the worshippers said prayers and sang hymns as the prisoners listened from inside.

Since then Diakonia Council of Churches has held annual Good Friday services and each year highlighting one particular aspect of national suffering and injustice.

Speaking during the unveiling ceremony, Bishop Mike Vorster of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa chronicled the history of the service noting that South Africa still faces similar challenges that continue to ‘crucify’ people even today.

“We are still facing many challenges today and these can be summed up in one word, abuse. We suffer abuse by financial institutions. If we look at them today, we see that they fall horribly short of the three principles of honesty, integrity and fair dealing.

“People are exploited through debt and through other means by these institutions. Each year we see how the captains of industry receive huge bonuses and those at the other end of the scale have to fight with their lives in order to get a mere twelve percent increase. The people who are faced with such a reality are in fact crucified today because of this economic injustice,” Bishop Vorster said.

He said the other worrying forms of abuse are that of women and children. “It is disheartening to read about the statistics of women who are killed by their partners. The abuse of children is absolutely disturbing. 2014 was the worst year on record in this country on the abuse of children. How can a society murder its own children? How can a society rape babies? How can a society allow that to happen?” he asked.

Bishop Vorster spoke strongly about the need for healing in South Africa adding that we are an extremely traumatised society. “The process that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission started was only setting the agenda for us to continue the conversation. We need to revive that conversation so that we can create spaces where people can talk about their hurts. Most of us are walking around with these tremendous traumatic experiences which are not dealt with,” he said.

He ended by affirming the service as the church’s way of saying another world is possible: “The ecumenical Good Friday service is the visible expression of the church to Durban each and every year that it is still prophetic and is still consistent with its message that we want justice for all, not just for some.”

Methodist Bishop of the Natal Coastal District, Mike Vorster, has been conferred with the Diakonia Human Rights Award for being a true servant of God and champion of the poor and marginalised who has worked tirelessly to bring God’s love and compassion to the “least of these”.

Bishop Vorster, who was recently honoured as a Living Legend by the eThekwini Municipality, was presented with the Award during the Annual Diakonia Lecture on 29 September.

Bishop Vorster was described as an ardent advocate of social justice and a regular face at a variety of events related to those in need, most notably during the recent outbreak of xenophobic violence.

“The recent outbreak of foreigner violence in and around Durban has seen him engage in not just promoting relief work, but also seeking a more long term solution. For a number of weeks he was the only church leader going into the camps on a regular basis and reporting to the rest of us on the latest developments. By so doing, he opened our eyes to their plight and championed their cause. To date, Bishop Mike continues to be involved in initiatives that seek long term peaceful coexistence,” the Diakonia Council noted in the citation.

The Council also described him as an outstanding leader who demonstrates the true heart of a servant.

“His public witness is borne out of an inner drive to see the justice of the reign of God on earth. He is willing to engage with people who are experiencing difficulties and injustice in order to find out firsthand what the real issues are, and to ensure that it is those issues that are addressed and not the assumptions of the more fortunate among us.

“His commitment is always to ensure that the least, the lost and the last within our context are no longer disadvantaged because of our blindness or the weight of the systems that we have developed in order to shape our world. His vision is of a world that Jesus imagined for us,” the Council noted.

Bishop Vorster has also spoken out against the numerous injustices that plague the country: “He has been able to speak into environmental issues, economic disparity, and the continued racism that lurks below the surface within our context. Many a time, he has denounced global capitalism for the mess that it has led poorer economies into. He has also highlighted the need for healing in our hurting society,” the Council said.

The purpose of the Diakonia Human Rights Award is to promote a culture of human rights and to mobilise churches and communities to be actively involved in social justice issues.

Social cohesion comes through narrowing the distance between black and white, closing the gap between rich and poor, and giving hope to the hopeless.

This is according to Yaa Ashantewaa Archer-Ngidi, Founder and Director of the Institute of Afrikology.

Archer-Ngidi was delivering the annual Diakonia Lecture under the theme Creating a socially cohesive society, on 29 September.

“I believe that South Africa and Africa must agree that the gap between rich and poor is unfair. Inequality is the basis of wars and suicide bombs across the globe. It is responsible for the continued marginalisation of the new members by the old members, the castigation of the new arrivals by old arrivals. It is unjust. It is unsustainable. It must end,” Archer-Ngidi said.

She spoke about the importance of the empowerment of women in achieving social cohesion.

“It comes through empowering women to rise to their highest. Empowering women is the surest means to peace and the upliftment of a nation. Socially cohesive countries provide economic opportunity for all and attract the best minds to run its institutions. If we can secure the majority in their homes, provide jobs and business opportunities to the majority and educate the masses, then most of our problems will be solved. Socially cohesive nations are happy nations and have diminishing levels of crime.”

Africans have always migrated and seeking to control their movement will not succeed, she said.

“Africans, on the continent and the Diaspora, must be allowed into every African country, of course following all legal routes. For the African Diaspora, there must be a right of return. Those that were stolen from Africa and sent to the Americas and Caribbean as slaves must be allowed to return home. It is a no-brainer. Barring or seeking to control African movement in Africa is unworkable in the face of economic integration led by the people themselves and only delayed by politics, power and patronage.

“South Africa’s internal cohesion is important, but it is unsustainable unless it is linked to Africa’s destiny. There must be regional economic cohesion, political alignment and free movement of Africans across borders,” she said.

Archer-Ngidi also spoke against xenophobia adding that disputes of whatever nature can be resolved through transparent dialogue.

“In truth xenophobia in South Africa is fuelled by ignorance as it is by sinister agendas. Xenophobia today sees minorities as enemy, the newly arrived, foreigners and those who line our streets with their aggressive commercial enterprises.

“Black people were so dehumanised by apartheid that they continue to eliminate each other at the slightest provocation today. What mindset says a business dispute over taxi routes is never resolved until blood flows through the streets?” she asked.

Former Methodist Bishop of Johannesburg and veteran human rights activist, Revd Dr Paul Verryn has urged the church not to make Karl Marx’s dictum that religion is the opium of the people, come true.

Dr Verryn was addressing the Diakonia Annual Meeting under the theme “Churches and church groups as social justice hubs and centres of hope.”

“What irritates me about Karl Marx is that what he said about religion is by and large true. Nowhere in our sermons do we speak of justice as we really confront it in this country. We speak about social justice over and over again without knowing anything about it. People walk out of the service feeling pretty happy about injustice. I want to plead with you not to enable the Marxist dictum to be true,” he said.

Dr Verryn, who is spearheading efforts to start hearings throughout the country for people to tell their stories of trauma and pain, said every community should become a community of hope and healing.

He said, “We should create in every gathering a place where issues of justice become part of the breathing mechanism of the church. If we do not bring these issues onto the centre stage, I think we are defying the gospel and denying ourselves of credibility.

“The reason we engage in issues of social justice is because we know for a fact that as we begin to liberate the potential of the most irrelevant people, we begin to unlock the potential of our full humanity. We need to start to break down the prison of memory that destroys people’s proper functioning.”

Dr Verryn said the most critical issue South Africa faces at the moment is the disparity between the haves and have-nots, adding that we should begin to realise how critical our responsibility is as religious people.

He ended by reminding delegates that the journey of social justice requires concerted efforts of all people of faith.

“The journey with the dispossessed will demand of us every fibre of our intellect and how we begin to start addressing it so that the next transition we have got to make in this nation – if we are not going to have a bloody revolution – is going to demand of those of us who have brains in the faith based-community, to engage comprehensively with everything that we have got. Right in the nerve system of the reason for being as people of faith is this issue that will challenge every dimension of our intellect.

“This work cannot be left to theologians alone. It is going to mean that we have to connect with people from all professions, because the injustices in this nation filter into all sorts of places,” Dr Verryn concluded.