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United Congregational Church of Southern Africa
Executive Committee Meeting
Maryland Educational Centre, Hanover Park, Cape Town
19th to 22nd March 2007
1. Introduction:
The UCCSA is going through some interesting times through which we are looking for ways of coming alive through the Vision Plan and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This process requires all of us to find ways through which we can be responsive to the spirit. Like the seven Churches of Asia Minor the Spirit is challenging and speaking to us, and it is for us to allow the Holy Spirit to interpenetrate, mould and direct us. Our meetings should be opportunities for listening to the Spirit and the Mind of Christ rather than just go through agenda items. We have to create a new spirituality of meetings, which will decrease the pace of the meetings and spend more time in prayer than just rush through the business. The last executive committee meeting took at bold step in deciding to explore the possibilities of adopting the ‘Kgotla Consensus Model' of conducting meetings. This way we will move away from the culture of having officious and at times adversarial meetings to that of seeking the mind of Christ.
2. One Church, one faith, one Christ
One of the things that we have to work hard at is our mutual identity. It concerns me that over the years we have become so decentralized that what holds ‘the whole thing together' is very minimal. Everybody wants to do their own thing and only come to the UCCSA office when things aren't going well. Whereas it is important that we strengthen the local church, the regions and synods, this should not be done at the detriment of the denomination. It is worrisome that there are some of our courts that are developing a self-sufficiency mentality and are almost competing with the denomination. We have to know that we are one Church that shares in one faith, tradition, and most importantly one Christ. This is the core of our covenant theology upon which our life together as a denomination is based. None of us is too rich to need the other nor is there anyone who is too poor to contribute to our life together. This
is a theology that we have to orientate all our new leaders into, especially those who exercise leadership at a synod level.
At the risk of overstating the point, I do need to mention that some of the problems we have had in the past few years were based on a wrong theological assumption of being Church. There are people who have adopted the ‘us and them' mentality when it comes to their relationship with the UCCSA. This only helps to break relationships, increase frustrations and anger, and take our focus from the ‘core business' of the Church. We need to find each other because it is only when we are together in mind and spirit that we can confidently demonstrate to the world that ‘In Christ there is a Future!'
As we look at the days ahead we have to be thinking at what are the core values of our existence together. We have to clearly articulate these and teach them to our members. Some of our people think the sum total of the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa is where they are. We have to help each other to start thinking beyond our parochial confines to a ‘denominational mindset'.
3. The UCCSA and Social Justice
The UCCSA comes from a legacy of social justice and being a church that existed with and among ordinary people. Some of our ancestors, such as John Philip, James Read, John Mackenzie, BNB Ngidi, Joseph Wing, Bethuel Mongwaketse, A.B. Maart and many others, were a people who were committed to fighting for justice for those trodden by the powers. We have to reclaim this heritage and the spiritual impulses of these people.
My reading of our theme, In Christ there is a Future, is that it calls us, among other things to an ecclesiological transformation. The UCCSA has to re-position itself and consciously become a movement for justice and empowerment of communities. Not long ago we were part of the struggle for political freedom in Southern Africa. Many of our leaders were imprisoned, abused and even killed for this course. I believe we now need to take the struggle to the next level. The majority of the people that sit in our pews and that we minister to day by day live in poverty and do not enjoy the benefits of political freedom. We have to position ourselves in such a way that our local churches become communities of refuge and hope for the poor, our ministers and lay leaders become campaigners for justice and our denomination is a regional advocate for economic justice. This ecclesiological transformation will require that we seek ways of making faith reflection a public issue.
To this end, the Social Justice Group is currently developing a transformation-training programme for the whole denomination. This will involve the training of ‘justice advocates' in all our regions. This transformation programme will also involve assisting local churches on how to be ‘justice churches.'
i) Congregational Peace and Justice Award
In order for us to be able to live and promote justice we need to acknowledge those people in our countries and communities who work for these virtues. There are many of our members and others who are not necessarily related to us as a Church who are tirelessly working for peace and justice in their countries and throughout Southern Africa. I think we need to create an award that will recognize such people. Such an award will encourage and promote this kind of work in our region. We would have to develop guidelines for assisting us in accepting people for this award. It would have to be people whose work leads to the promotion of peace and justice, and would have to be work that is of a national character.
Through this award the UCCSA would place herself at the cutting-edge of transforming societies, and would become a major player in seeking justice. It would also encourage justice activists to clearly recognize the link between their work and Christian faith. Like Chief Albert Luthuli said many years ago, ‘I am a politician because I am Christian.'
The award would simply be a plate with the inscription of the name of the recipient. There would be no monetary benefit for this award.
ii) Community Empowerment Award
Whereas the above award would be for people whose work has a national character, this award would be for people who are involved in local community development projects. In this case too the award would be a token and would not have any monetary incentive.
I believe that through these awards the UCCSA would locate herself at the centre of what is happening with regard to the struggle for peace and justice, and community empowerment initiatives. We would have to appoint a panel of people to scrutinize the list of nominees for these awards.
4. UCCSA Vision Plan
The Vision Plan is slowly taking momentum, and the various organs within the life of the Church are responding positively to the process. It is important for all the Synods, regions, local churches and organizations to find ways of how this vision can come alive in their activities.
The Vision Task Force has been meeting and looking at ways of promoting and implementing the vision. However, for this process to really have optimum effect on the life of our Church we need to find someone to coordinate and spearhead it. We have catered for this in our MPSF2 budget for the next three years.
The Mission Secretary would coordinate all the UCCSA Vision Plan activities. He/She would work with the different organizations to enable them to implement the plan. The Mission Secretary would also work with the Mission Council to promote and coordinate its work. This position would be for three years and would be renewed only if funding is available to continue the post.
Recently the Vision Task Force and the Mission Council started meeting together to consider how the two can work together in the implementation of the Vision Plan. Other groups such as the Soldiers of Christ and the youth have had an opportunity to discuss how they can live out the vision in their life.
5. The San in the Central Kgalagadi Game Reserve (CKGR)
The long-standing feud that led to a legal case between the Botswana government and the Basarwa (San) of the CKGR came to an end recently. A panel of three judges who presided over the case ruled in favour of the Basarwa returning back to their ancestral home in the CKGR. Although the case is over, it is important for civic groups such as churches to ensure that the Basarwa enjoy their human rights in the CKGR. Stories of abuse of the Basarwa by wildlife officers are already all over the media. I raise this matter here because of my believe that the Basarwa continue to be the most oppressed group in Southern Africa. The judgment in favour of them returning to their ancestral home does not go enough to protect them against further abuse. Whilst the Basarwa are allowed back into the CKGR, government is not compelled to provide them with amenities and protection. This is a matter of concern and I think we have to monitor the situation and openly champion for the rights of the Basarwa.
The case has also revealed that Basarwa are a people that have been neglected for too long. Their relationship to the mainstream Batswana and other groups has only been in the fact that they provide cheap labour to them. The UCCSA has to do something to show their solidarity with the Basarwa. As part of our church planting objectives we should find ways of establishing our presence in either New Xade or one of the other villages of the Basarwa.
6. The future of the Joseph Wing Centre
This matter has been on our agenda once before, however we have been unable to find a lasting solution. The Joseph Wing Centre plays a very important place in our life together as a denomination. It is a unifying factor, and provides a spatial opportunity for us to gather together and be able to conduct the business of God. Unfortunately though, the place costs money to maintain. Last year our long-time tenants, the UPCSA, left the building and the South African Synod will be leaving at the end of this month. We now have to decide once and for all what we should do with the building. Some of the options available to us are the following:
i) Selling the Property
We have an offer from a property developer who wants to purchase the building. The developer wants to convert the building into students accommodation.
ii) Transforming the Property into student accommodation
One thought is that we could convert the building into students' accommodation ourselves. The property is situated ten minutes from both WITS University and Johannesburg University. There is a demand for this type of accommodation in the area.
There is also a possibility of making an arrangement with the Garden City Hospital, with the idea of providing them with space for extra consulting rooms.
iii) Transform the ground floor for projects purposes
There is also the possibility of turning the ground floor into a projects centre. The ideas that have been muted have been to establish a coffee shop, a bookshop and a textile factory and locate all of them in the ground floor. We could then find a tenant for the middle floor, or simply turn it into consulting rooms for the hospital, if they are interested.
As we discuss these possibilities we have to be also considering the bigger picture. The Vision Plan is challenging us to become a learning church, and for us to get going with the Leadership Academy we need the right premises. It is my considered opinion that we need to try and acquire a conference centre, which could double up as our denominational office. This place could also be available for use by other churches, civic and governmental groups, in order to generate extra revenue for the denomination.
We could use the self-support funds to purchase such property.
7. The UCCSA as a regional entity
The UCCSA as a regional body has some specific challenges it needs to address. Some of these challenges include the fact that national legislations affect us in a direct way and have the potential of undermining our integrity as a regional body. A case in point is the recent attempt by a congregation to extend a call to a minister from another synod. Notwithstanding the other issues involved in this case, the incident nevertheless ought to be a wakeup call to the fact that the laws of our countries could easily subvert our regional entity. Is our dream to encourage and promote inter-synodical ministry still realistic when our laws say we must first ensure that there is no local to fill the post to which we are appointing a foreigner? How do we recruit other staff for the Joseph Wing and be able to get work permits for them without the hassle of having to give preference to locals?
There are other challenges that relate to being a regional entity. Over the years we have had to decentralize our pension fund in order to comply with our national legislations. We need to engage others in our situation, and our governments on how we can have common services such as medical aid, insurance and pension fund as a body.
he UCCSA also has to position herself and address regional issues. How do we address issues of economic injustice, the environment, moral decay and corruption, bad governance and other issues as a regional body? This means that we have to find sophistication in the way we communicate so that we are well informed of regional issues.
8. The UCCSA and the Struggle in Zimbabwe
This time last year we committed ourselves to journeying with our sisters and brothers in Zimbabwe. As it will be reported elsewhere some amount work has been achieved. However, the response has been poor, with each synod focusing on their concerns.
The officers of the denomination have spent much of their time in the past year going in and out of Zimbabwe to address the conflict in that synod. This delayed the ‘journeying with Zimbabwe' process, however the situation is now fairly stable.
I wish to remind us of the commitments that we made at the April 2006 Executive Committee meeting. We committed ourselves to:
a) An Advocacy of Prayer
As Christians we recognized that it is not by might or by power that we can make any achievement. It can only be through the guidance and the sustenance of the Holy Spirit that our efforts would bear any fruit. We therefore call on all our ministers and local churches to commit themselves to regular prayers for our Synod in Zimbabwe and for political change. Prayers can be offered regularly during prayers of intercessions, during special occasions called for Zimbabwe at our local churches and in our regions. Please share some of your experiences in this process.
b) Specific Support
We have all learnt that our ministers in Zimbabwe earn an equivalent of R60 a month! This is very sad, to say the least. We therefore request our churches and ministers to contribute to the Zimbabwe ministers' fund, which is hosted by the denominational office. We intend to disburse the funds from the Joseph Wing Centre, so that it can be done fairly. The office will share information to all those who are contributing to this fund.
c) Study the situation
The Executive committee recognized that the political situation in Zimbabwe is complex and therefore requires close monitoring and studying. We will therefore continue to do this in consultation with other stakeholders.
d) Prophetic advocacy
ike it was in the days of apartheid, the church is called to speak against the oppressive rule in Zimbabwe. We are disturbed at the so-called quite diplomacy adopted by the political leaders in the region. As the church we are convinced that Zimbabwe is under the clutches of oppressive rule, and those who are committed to democratic rule must mobilize for change.
e) Pastoral direction
What disturbed the Executive Committee members the most was the fact that there is conflict within the leadership of the Synod. The denominational leadership will be providing pastoral direction in these very difficult times.
f) Welcome the stranger among you
As Christians we are called to repent of our participation, either directly of indirectly in the continued xenophobic attitudes displayed against Zimbabweans and people from African countries. So-called illegal immigrants are often accused of each and every crime that is committed in our countries. They are often used for hard labour and then either not paid or paid very little. Christians participate in this abuse against other sisters and brothers, some of whom come from our own church family.
We are left with a few months to the expiry of the period we have set ourselves, which is at the next assembly. We need to double up our efforts to express our solidarity.
There is also the wider issue of political and economic instability. Many ecumenical visits have been undertaken to Zimbabwe to observe and encourage the people of Zimbabwe in this moment of difficulty. What seems to be lacking is a clear strategy of how to prepare the people of Zimbabwe for life after Mugabe.
It is also important that we engage the SADC leadership to address the question of Zimbabwe more candidly. The persecution of the people of Zimbabwe is unacceptable, and I believe that as a church we have to address this issue head on. The attitude of the SADC governments who on the one hand adopt a soft policy, so-called quite diplomacy, whilst on the one hand they adopt tough immigration policies against the people of Zimbabwe is inconsistent. For instance it is very difficult for Zimbabwean nationals to obtain visas to enter into South Africa. The other countries equally make it difficult for Zimbabweans to acquire work permits. The result of these tough immigration and labour laws against Zimbabweans only perpetuates the increase of illegal immigrants across Southern Africa. Zimbabweans are paying a high price for Robert Mugabe's misgovernment by languishing in prisons and asylum centres, waiting to be deported back to Zimbabwe. A meaningless, yet brutal, process as in most cases they simply find ways of returning back to try and make a living in one of these countries.
The UCCSA President, the Rev. Simon Zazaza challenged the Africa representatives at the CWM assembly in Jamaica last year to put the matter of Zimbabwe before the Assembly. This was done, however the matter was simply referred back to the Africa region to address. We can't continue to pass the bark when it comes to this matter. I wish to encourage this committee to consider putting pressure on the Council for World Mission to convene an ecumenical forum on Zimbabwe to develop a strategy for the emancipation of Zimbabwe. Such a forum could address the unfulfilled promises of the Lancaster talks, the land re-distribution policy, the different immigration policies of the SADC countries and how they affect Zimbabweans, and the role of the Church in the revitalization of life in Zimbabwe.
It is also my hope that this meeting will apply its mind to the ongoing violence that is currently taking place in Harare. The incarceration and alleged torture of the opposition leaders, especially President of the Movement for Democratic Change, Mr. Morgan Tswangarai must be condemned.
Recommendations:
Mr. President I propose that:
i) this report be received
ii) that the UCCSA establish two awards; the Congregational Peace and Justice Award and the UCCSA Community Empowerment Award
iii) the UCCSA creates the position of a Mission Secretary whose primary role shall be to coordinate the Vision Plan
iv) request the UCCSA, Synod of Botswana to organize a pastoral and solidarity visit, inclusive of the UCCSA Officers, to the people of the Central Kgalagadi Game Reserve.
v) request the Council for World Mission to convene and sponsor a forum of role players, in either South Africa or Botswana, to develop a strategy for the emancipation of Zimbabwe
vi) petition, along with ecumenical partners, the South African Foreign Ministry to use their status as members and President of the Security Council to bring the matter of Zimbabwe before the Council.
vi) this report be received.
Presented by:
The Rev. Dr. Moiseraele Prince Dibeela- UCCSA General Secretary
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