Thursday, March 08, 2007
Words to ponder from Archbishop Ndungane

Archbishop Ndungane is the Archbishop of Cape Town and the primate of the Anglican Province of Southern Africa. He called together this conference, and these are some quotes from his opening address to the 415 attendees at the TEAM conference here in Boksburg (including 60 youth in a parallel session). The quotes are as accurate as I can get from my typing speed. In some cases a word or two might be slightly off but the meaning is preserved. Powerful stuff.

"This is a momentous period in the life of our church. We have people of God gathered together in the context of prayer and theology … renewing the church’s commitment and capabilities to respond to God’s call to service in the 21st century. Bound together by bonds of affection that unite us and united against poverty let us seize this moment, seize this opportunity by blowing fresh winds of change into the lungs of the Anglican Communion."

"Mission is bringing the fullness of peace of love and of justice. It is the building of God’s kingdom so his will may be done on earth as in heaven. Mission is about comprehensive salvation. It must take us beyond the false idol of vertical vs. horizontal – the mistaken idea that we have to choose between preaching the salvation that brings eternal life and working to bring the kingdom here and now. None of us has that option. We must all do both." (he was in part quoting David Bosch here)

"The word was not made text. But the word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth."

"The church is called into being by mission for the sake of salvation. The church exists by mission as a fire exists by burning. The centrality of mission, not only for Anglican life, but for all life as a global communion, has been an explicit part of our self-understanding. Mission is to be understood as an activity that transforms reality. At the same time mission itself must be continually transformed." (again, quoting Bosch)

"We come together for God to transform us and to make us agents of transformation."

"This is a time in the life of our communion when it would be good for us to step back and take stock of the fullness of our calling. I do not deny that we face deep and difficult issues in our internal life. I do not want to pretend they don’t matter. We are rightly concerned with what it means to live faithfully and obedient to our Lord … but this must not be at the expense of God’s mission in God’s world.

"Too often the world around thinks we care only for one thing and one thing only and that is sexuality. This week’s meeting shows this is not the case. … As we live our tomorrow fully, the whole breadth of what it means to be God’s people in God’s world, we shall better understand how to tackle the differences and divisions among us .. Through following Jesus' example in serving the needs of others we will know better how to follow Jesus' example in other areas of our lives.

"This is the moment for the church to be more visible as the credible voice for the poor, the destitute and the disadvantaged. This is the moment for the church to unite against poverty and bring hope to the people of God."

"We are treating the climate as a credit card with no credit limit and no repayment date." (quoting someone, didn't get who)

"Unchecked global warming will more than quickly wipe out all the gains of development assistance of the past 50 years."

"It is for God’s peole to remind the world that human people are more precious than we can possibly imagine. The world has to rediscover how quality of life matters far more than quantities of dollars."

"It is for us to stand up together and declare loud and clear that we stand by the standards of justice, integrity, dignity and humanity and call everyone else to stand by them, too. We stand for equitable sharing of God’s abundance and responsible stewardship of the resources to which he entrusts us. We stand for sustainable development – environmental and economic. Poorer nations must be allowed to continue to develop, and rich nations must allow this to happen, taking responsibility for their larger share of global environmental costs.

"Globalization means that we are all neighbors now, whether it comes to economic systems or climate change. Our lives are intimately caught up in each other. We need a new morality for our global village – one that equally values every child of God on this planet. We need a new and effective earth ethic. It is for people of faith to make this message heard loud and clear."

"God’s world is crying out to him, and we know our God hears and our God acts. We meet because the hour demands it and we know we serve the living God who says TODAY is the time for salavation. We meet because God has calls us and we know those whom God calls, God directs, God equips to carry out those directives. Let us carry on with joy for we know that God has a purpose for us. " |
Mike at 3/08/2007 02:50:00 AM