AN eight-day Anglican conference in Southern Africa ended on Wednesday with a set of guidelines on ways to support the achievment of the Millennium Development Goals.
The TEAM conference (Towards Effective Anglican Mission) was to be more than a talking-shop, said the Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Revd Njongongkulu Ndungane, in his opening address.
People living with HIV/AIDS, those from poverty-stricken areas, people experiencing discrimination and other forms of exclusion were present, alongside young people, clergy, bishops, and archbishops.
"The hour demands it," said Archbishop Ndungane. "Today we know we can no longer look at HIV/AIDS in isolation. We cannot do so, because we cannot overcome this scourge unless we deal with it comprehensively and within the wider context in which it thrives and spreads."
Amongst what he described as "terrifying statistics of poverty, disease and suffering", TB would claim two million lives and malaria more than a million in 2007 — 90 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa and mostly among young children.
The meeting showed the world it was not the case that the Anglican Church cared only about issues of sexuality, he said. "There is no doubt that we face deep and difficult issues in the internal life of the Communion, and I do not want to pretend that they do not matter. We are, rightly, concerned with what it means to live faithfully and obediently to our Lord, in pursuit of greater holiness and Christ-likeness," he said.
"But this must not be at the expense of God’s mission in God’s world. . . It is for us to stand up, and stand together; it is for us to declare loud and clear that we stand by standards of justice, integrity, dignity, humanity. And that we hold everyone else to stand by them, too."
The eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are set to be fulfilled by 2015. In his summing up on Wednesday, Archbishop Ndungane listed the meeting’s deliberations about each one:
Eradication of poverty
"The Church must exert pressure on governments and international bodies to ensure that food is used for the nourishment and development of our future — not as a tool of war."
Universal primary education
"By supporting school feeding programmes and strengthening the capacity of educational institutions within our parishes, we can have a very real impact."
Gender equality
"We will examine the Bible, the source of our mission, to speak against patriarchy and to advocate equality. We will use scripture to combat domestic violence and sexual abuse."
Child mortality
"In order to reduce child mortality, we will make every effort to ensure that in the pursuit of the MDGs, even those that do not specifically apply to children, we make sure their voices are heard."
Maternal health
"This assembly has expressed a desire to mobilise constituencies within the Church to raise awareness about maternal health issues."
Combat HIV/AIDS
"We must mobilise both human and economic resources. This body has expressed the need for our Communion to advocate for education about the prevention, transmission and treatment of HIV and AIDS. We will not forget the individuals behind the statistics and figures. We will remember and serve those orphaned and made vulnerable by this global pandemic."
Environmental sustainability
"We call on our members to seek to reduce our carbon footprint and to support renewable energy generation. We stress the urgency of this call to our Church and to our governments, both in order to overcome poverty and to re-establish the health of the planet."
Global partnerships
"We have heard of how other denominations, NGOs, faith-based organisations and multilateral institutions value who we are and the work we do. These partnerships must be developed within the context of mutually beneficial outcomes based on a common vision."
The meeting also developed two goals in addition to those framed by the United Nations:
Reducing conflict areas and assisting refugees
"We make particular note of uprooted individuals as they have no government and few formal networks actively advocating for them, and many of our dioceses are greatly impacted by forced migration. We reaffirm our Christian commitment to offer unconditional hospitality and pastoral care to the stranger."
Protecting children’s rights and preserving young lives
"This body has expressed a desire to integrate issues of child welfare and the full participation of young people into every aspect of church life."
In his keynote address, an exposition of the biblical principles and gospel imperatives of the mission of the Church in society, the Archbishop of Canterbury described the law of the Bible as "simply a way of guaranteeing that no-one is left invisible, that no-one is left unheard, forgotten".
Faced with the "nightmare problems and challenges" of the MDGs, the Church was bound to ask who were the forgotten and unheard, he said, in a study which focused on making small but real differences.
"Our great temptation in a global world with sophisticated technology and rapid communication, is to think that the only differences that matter are total and global differences, that if you can’t solve the whole problem you might as well not bother about solving any of it," he said.
He suggested that the widow’s mite principle showed the way: "You don’t have to make every kind of difference but you do have to make the difference that only you can make, and I think the Church’s great resource here is in valuing precisely that."
Dr Williams reiterated that not the Church was probably the only organisation of civil society that could deliver goals concretely at grass-roots level, in "modest but real ways", whether through the Mothers’ Union, micro-credit initiatives or small schools.
"The secular NGO, the international NBO with very clear requirements and hoops to go through with very large and ambitious aims is often desperately ill-equipped to make the difference at that local level. It will alienate, it will bewilder, and it will perhaps end up not delivering even the modest change that others might," he suggested.
"Yet what we need to do is not to think that there’s a solution which can be delivered from large agencies top-down and ignore the rest; nor to suppose that everything can be done by local initiative. We need to have a kind of mental and moral map in which each organisation at every level simply asks, ‘what is it that can be done here, in this way, with these people?"
He emphasised: "We are making ourselves less human if we don’t respond to God’s call to meet the needs of those who suffer. . . We are less than human while we allow others to be less than human."
The South African president, Thabo Mbeki, noted that his government worked closely with Archbishop Ndungane when he met Dr Williams during the week.
"There are these common challenges of peace, of development in this country, on the continent, of poverty and so on, questions of morality, of the soul," he said. He acknowledged that the role of the Anglican Church, both domestically and in the rest of the world during the struggle against apartheid, was well known, and pledged to continue the relationship.
Speakers and workshops grappled with issues around HIV/AIDS and malaria, with a call for the Church to play a great role in the battle and for greater openness on the part of faith-based communities.
The conference heard from a Zulu woman who was HIV-positive and criticised and ostracised for "simply for having a disease no-one was talking about". Malaria-prevention had been boosted by the success of simple initiatives like the distribution of long-lasting insecticide-treated nets, the conference heard.
It heard first-hand from speakers such as Bishop Nelson Onono-Onweng of Northern Uganda, who told of the challenges of living in the context of war. Ninety-five per cent of the parishioners in his diocese had been displaced and were in chronic poverty, he said, identifying education as at the heart of rebuilding his war-torn region. The Bishop’s diocese had established a foundation specifically to address educational needs.
The Revd Michael Lapsley, an Anglican priest and director of the Cape Town-based Institute for the Healing of Memories, was prominent in the anti-apartheid movement. In 1990, a letter bomb had caused him to lose both hands and an eye and shattered his eardrums, among other injuries.
Conflict was a major factor affecting development, he told the gathering. "We as faith communities need to add another goal specifically around the issues of healing and reconciliation — it is part of our core business."
Women spoke passionately on behalf of children, whose well-being was deemed to be at the root of poverty reduction. Sheila Sisulu, deputy executive director of policy and external affairs for the UN World Food Programme, described the Anglican Communion as "one of the oldest humanitarian organisations", one which counted both donors and recipients among its members and which knew how to turn "noble thoughts" into reality.
On a pastoral visit to Angola, a young diocese with its first bishop, the Rt Revd Andre Soares, Dr William told a congregation of 2000 Anglicans in a basketball stadium in Luanda, that the international community could be too cautious in wanting change in struggling countries before stepping in to help.
"One of the things the Church must say is that the help and the love must come first, not the success. And so I will promise you today that when I return to the UK these are things I will say there."
The life of any country, he said, depended on the willingness of every person to let go fear and hatred, and on "faith in the God who is faithful to each one of us."
Dr Williams elaborated a little on his meeting with the Archbishop of Central Africa, the Most Revd Bernard Malango, but made no further reference to the rogue Bishop of Harare, the Rt Revd Nolbert Kunonga, at a press conference in Luanda on Tuesday (News, 9 March).
In his keynote address, an exposition of the biblical principles and gospel imperatives of the mission of the Church in society, the Archbishop of Canterbury described the law of the Bible as "simply a way of guaranteeing that no-one is left invisible, that no-one is left unheard, forgotten".
Faced with the "nightmare problems and challenges" of the MDGs, the Church was bound to ask who were the forgotten and unheard, he said, in a study which focused on making small but real differences.
"Our great temptation in a global world with sophisticated technology and rapid communication, is to think that the only differences that matter are total and global differences, that if you can’t solve the whole problem you might as well not bother about solving any of it," he said.
He suggested that the widow’s mite principle showed the way: "You don’t have to make every kind of difference but you do have to make the difference that only you can make, and I think the Church’s great resource here is in valuing precisely that."
Dr Williams reiterated that not the Church was probably the only organisation of civil society that could deliver goals concretely at grass-roots level, in "modest but real ways", whether through the Mothers’ Union, micro-credit initiatives or small schools.
"The secular NGO, the international NBO with very clear requirements and hoops to go through with very large and ambitious aims is often desperately ill-equipped to make the difference at that local level. It will alienate, it will bewilder, and it will perhaps end up not delivering even the modest change that others might," he suggested.
"Yet what we need to do is not to think that there’s a solution which can be delivered from large agencies top-down and ignore the rest; nor to suppose that everything can be done by local initiative. We need to have a kind of mental and moral map in which each organisation at every level simply asks, ‘what is it that can be done here, in this way, with these people?"
He emphasised: "We are making ourselves less human if we don’t respond to God’s call to meet the needs of those who suffer. . . We are less than human while we allow others to be less than human."
The South African president, Thabo Mbeki, noted that his government worked closely with Archbishop Ndungane when he met Dr Williams during the week.
"There are these common challenges of peace, of development in this country, on the continent, of poverty and so on, questions of morality, of the soul," he said. He acknowledged that the role of the Anglican Church, both domestically and in the rest of the world during the struggle against apartheid, was well known, and pledged to continue the relationship.
Speakers and workshops grappled with issues around HIV/AIDS and malaria, with a call for the Church to play a great role in the battle and for greater openness on the part of faith-based communities.
The conference heard from a Zulu woman who was HIV-positive and criticised and ostracised for "simply for having a disease no-one was talking about". Malaria-prevention had been boosted by the success of simple initiatives like the distribution of long-lasting insecticide-treated nets, the conference heard.
It heard first-hand from speakers such as Bishop Nelson Onono-Onweng of Northern Uganda, who told of the challenges of living in the context of war. Ninety-five per cent of the parishioners in his diocese had been displaced and were in chronic poverty, he said, identifying education as at the heart of rebuilding his war-torn region. The Bishop’s diocese had established a foundation specifically to address educational needs.
The Revd Michael Lapsley, an Anglican priest and director of the Cape Town-based Institute for the Healing of Memories, was prominent in the anti-apartheid movement. In 1990, a letter bomb had caused him to lose both hands and an eye and shattered his eardrums, among other injuries.
Conflict was a major factor affecting development, he told the gathering. "We as faith communities need to add another goal specifically around the issues of healing and reconciliation — it is part of our core business."
Women spoke passionately on behalf of children, whose well-being was deemed to be at the root of poverty reduction. Sheila Sisulu, deputy executive director of policy and external affairs for the UN World Food Programme, described the Anglican Communion as "one of the oldest humanitarian organisations", one which counted both donors and recipients among its members and which knew how to turn "noble thoughts" into reality.
On a pastoral visit to Angola, a young diocese with its first bishop, the Rt Revd Andre Soares, Dr William told a congregation of 2000 Anglicans in a basketball stadium in Luanda, that the international community could be too cautious in wanting change in struggling countries before stepping in to help.
"One of the things the Church must say is that the help and the love must come first, not the success. And so I will promise you today that when I return to the UK these are things I will say there."
The life of any country, he said, depended on the willingness of every person to let go fear and hatred, and on "faith in the God who is faithful to each one of us."
"We’re also very concerned to strengthen the capacity of the Church in Zimbabwe in its humanitarian work. Many in our church are doing a great deal of work with HIV/AIDS. As the crisis deepens in Zimbabwe I think it is very important that there are reliable bodies like the churches who can provide more and more humanitarian work," he said.
"And, of course, that conversation took place against the background of arrest of some pastors from the Christian Alliance some 10 days ago, and in recent days we have seen more cause for concern."