150520 by The Southern Cross

The Southern Cross, May 20 to May 26, 2015

LOCAL

Pityana honours Naudé and Hurley M

AY 10 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great Dutch Reformed minister and struggle activist, Beyers Naudé. This year is also the 100th anniversary of the birth of Rev Naudé’s great friend, Archbishop Denis Hurley. The Denis Hurley Centre in Durban marked the Naudé centenary with a special lecture by Anglican theologian Rev Professor Barney Pityana. The event saw an audience of religious leaders from across the Christian family: the opening prayer was given by a Dutch Reformed dominee, the vote of thanks by a Lutheran pastor, and the closing prayer by an Anglican woman priest. In introducing the speaker, Paddy Kearney, who had known both the centenarians very well, recalled an incident when the Dominican theologian Fr Albert Nolan was trying to organise a meeting between the two men.

When Rev Naudé, who was under surveillance by the apartheid security forces, heard that Archbishop Hurley wanted to meet him, he apparently said: “That man gives me hope.” When hearing that he would be able to meet Rev Naudé, Archbishop Hurley replied with the exact same words: “That man gives me hope.”

ev Pityana—a commissioner of the World Council of Churches, vice-chancellor of Unisa, chair of the Human Rights Commission, and rector of the Anglican seminary—spoke eloquently of the contribution both Rev Naudé and Archbishop Hurley had made to South Africa, pointing out how despite their many differences they shared a similarly strong faith and an ability to discern. He added that while Archbishop Hurley sometimes struggled to bring fellow Catholics to his point of view, Rev Naudé suffered even

more by being expelled from the Dutch Reformed Church. Yet he remained determined to work with the Afrikaans community and provided the breakthrough thinking that enabled Afrikaners, including FW de Klerk, to abandon the dubious theological basis of apartheid. In 1990 the newly released Nelson Mandela, going to meet then President de Klerk at Groote Schuur, insisted that Rev Naudé be among the delegation. This was, Rev Pityana said, like the quote from Isaiah: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the corner stone.” Rev Pityana quoted from Pope Francis’ document Joy of the Gospel in which the pope presents a Church that is “bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been on the streets”. This, he said, was the vision of Church that both Rev Naudé and Archbishop Hurley shared and tried to present to their fellow Christians—a Church that is courageous,

that takes risks, that is not tied to comforts and privileges. Rev Pityana urged the audience to follow the example of these two men when leading the Church in South Africa. Both Rev Naudé and Archbishop Hurley knew that they could not proclaim the Gospel until they lived the Gospel, and all the risks that entailed.

imilarly, the Church today has to be willing to challenge the real powers in the country. Until there is such a challenge, it is not surprising that those who feel unheard end up targeting vulnerable people or inanimate objects even though they are not the real source of power—a reference to the recent violence against foreigners and statues. In the “season of discontent”, where there is a “culture of demand, anger and greed”, we live in “an economy of exclusion and privilege” where all that has changed is that the people with privilege are

no longer just white, Rev Pityana said. In this context, the Church cannot yearn simply to be a safe place surrounded by certainties and rules or looking in on itself. If it is beholden the Church ends up compromising with evil, as it had done in the days of apartheid, he said, adding that the ecumenical witness that Rev Naudé and Archbishop Hurley provided against apartheid should now inspire all Christians to be similar ecumenical witnesses to social justice today. The talk was organised in partnership with the Diakonia Council of Churches and the Ujamaa Centre at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Earlier in the day Rev Pityana, at the invitation of Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban, also preached at all the Masses at Emmanuel cathedral. nE-mail news@denishurleycentre. org for details on how to download a recording of Rev Pityana’s talk.

Southern African conference on communicating in new media STAFF REPORTER

Sr Agnes Grasböck was joined by Abbot Emeritus Godfrey Sieber OSB of Inkamana, Fr Stefan Hippler of Cape Town, Fr Ludwig Sperrer of Munich, and Comboni Father John Maneschg of Pretoria as she celebrated her golden jubilee as a Sister of the Precious Blood in Mariannhill. They are seen here with altar servers after a thanksgiving Mass. For many years Sr Agnes provided pastoral care for the German-speaking Catholic community of Durban. Meanwhile, Fr Maneschg, who has lectured at St John Vianney Seminary in Pretoria, is leaving South Africa for new assignments at the end of May. (Photo: Radio Khwezi)

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CONFERENCE for Church officials and formators tasked with communication from across Southern Africa will be held in July in Pretoria. “The new media must be seen as an instrument for making the Good News known,” said Jesuit Father Oskar Wermter, head of the pastoral department of Imbisa, which comprises nine bishops’ conferences in Southern Africa. “We need priests and pastoral workers who are computer-literate and able to take advantage of these new tools with which to reach especially young people,” said the Harare-based priest, who is also a veteran journalist. Fr Wermter is making contact with the seminaries in the region, meeting with rectors, academic deans, spiritual directors and Church communicators personally, saying that “electronic communication, though a terrific asset, cannot replace face-toface communication”. “The pulpit is not the only means by which we reach people,” Fr Wermter said. “In the 16th century the Church was very quick in picking up a new tool of communication: the

Members of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Catholic community at a workshop in East London. Fr Peter Whitehead at the centre is flanked by community coordinator evangelist Hailu Adalo and Peter Neo.

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printing press. “Today the world of the media is almost exploding, so many new social media are conquering the market. In what way do we use them for spreading our Good News, the ‘reason for the hope that is in you’ (1 Peter 3: 15)? To what extent do we find that people may abuse them, so we approach them with discernment?” Imbisa is producing a small book, Work and Image—Communication and the Media, which will be made available to all participants so that they can prepare for the conference, Fr Wermter said. The conference will be bilingual, in English and Portuguese. Odette Amaral of Johannesburg will do the simultaneous translation. An experienced translator, she did the same job for the Imbisa bishops at their assembly in Gaborone in November 2013. The conference is made possible by funding from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ solidarity fund for the Church in Africa, which also allows for travelling expenses to be covered. n The Imbisa Formation Conference will take place from July 20-25 at the Padre Pio Conference Centre in Pretoria. To book contact Fr Wermter at owermter@ymail.com

‘We are all Africans’

EMBERS of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Catholic community from King William’s Town and East London came together for a two-day workshop on the theme of unity of community while worshipping in the Catholic faith with local communities in a foreign land. The workshop, led by the community’s national coordinator evangelist Hailu Adalo and group leaders, was held at St Pius Pastoral Centre in East London. The community has been supported by Fr Peter Whitehead of Immaculate Conception parish in East London, who celebrated Mass with the group in the centre’s St Pius chapel, in English with the Word pro-

claimed in Amharic, the community’s native language. In his homily Fr Whitehead said that “we are all Africans”, therefore migrant communities must integrate with South Africans “as a Catholic family to be supported and loved by them”. “I attended the holy Mass with the Ethiopian and Eritrean Catholic community, and it was a great privilege for me to experience the Mass in a different language,” said Peter Neo Khasoane of East London. “It showed me that God created us to be united humans, as God’s family. Therefore we must love and care for one another, opposing xenophobia attacks in Africa,” Mr Khasoane said.