"Earlier this year the Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Rev. Njongonkulu Ndungane, led an extraordinary pilgrimage of reconciliation and hope to Robben Island. Robben Island was the place where the former South African Government imprisoned those African leaders it saw as a security risk during the apartheid years. President Nelson Mandela, Dr. Stanley Mogoba, Robert Sobukwe, and the Archbishop himself have all been incarcerated there."
"Reprinted with permission from 'The Witness Magazine', Volume 67, Number 12, December 1984." -- p. [2].
"Second Printing". -- p. [2].
12 excerpts from addressed delivered between 1977 and 1984.
Contents: United States a 'strange country' -- Violence of apartheid, racism -- SACC not fly by night group -- Taking Bible seriously -- Suggested code for investors -- 'Want our chains removed' -- Convoluted logic, linguistics -- May trigger World War III -- On being a Native -- Jesse Jackson caused stir -- Perceptions in Black and White -- Modern day parable -- Resources.
The Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, has joined Methodist and Roman Catholic leaders in a strong denouncement of the South African government's plan to amend the country's constitution. This means that the leaders of the three largest multi-racial churches in South Africa have rejected the plan to hold a referendum to vote on the creation of separate houses of parliament for whites, coloureds and Indians. Under the plan blacks would continue to have no share in the legislative process whatsoever. Only whites will vote if the referendum is held.
The Archbishop, the Most Rev. Philip Russell, in an interview with Seek, Southern Africa's Anglican newspaper said, "Christians should make their votes as members of a family, eight-tenths of whom are being excluded from this referendum." He approved a Diocesan Council statement which declared, "South Africa is one country, one people. The country belongs to all who live in it and those who will come after them." The Council resolved to "reject and resist" the constitutional plan which would "lead to greater separation and division" of South Africans.
A few days ago the President of the Methodist Church, the Rev. Khoza Mgojo announced that his Church would called for a vote to reject the plan, as, "its implementation will lead to further polarization, unrest and violent conflict."
Meanwhile the Southern Africa Catholic Bishops have released the text of a pastoral letter to be read in all parish churches this Sunday. It describes the plan as "a serious moral failure" and states, "we cannot accept a constitution that prevents people from crossing racial barriers and working together for unity."
In an unprecedented move, the Methodist and Anglican monthly newspapers in South Africa are publishing a joint editorial in their October issue. In it they will call for the rejection of the plan which, they argue, will entrench apartheid laws, removing "the potential which exists in the present constitution for a future government to extend meaningful franchise and full citizenship to all South Africans."
Archbishop Russell says his Church will continue to press for a national convention of leaders to decide the country's future. "This is the most sensible and peaceable way to bring about change," the Primate said. Dr. Mgojo has repeated his Church's similar call for a national convention "representing all South Africans."
Arrest and trial in South Africa and conditions existing under the laws of apartheid, are described by the former Anglican Dean of Johannesburg, Canon Gonville Aubie ffrench-Beytagh, touring Canada from October 21 to November 13, visiting 15 Canadian cities.*
The Dean, accused of encouraging the violent overthrow of the government, was arrested in Johannesburg in January 1971 and held in solitary confinement for eight days. On November 1, 1971 he was convicted and sentenced to five years in jail but charges were subsequently dismissed in April 1972. The Dean then left South Africa and is now living in England.
Canon ffrench-Beytagh has been invited to Canada by a committee of Canadian deans of Anglican Cathedrals so that both churchmen and the general public of Canada can learn more about apartheid and its effect on the more-than-two-thirds of South Africa's population which is black. His visit is financed by the Primate's World Relief and Development Fund.
Over the past two decades the South African government has slowly stifled all normal channels for contact with Africans and all legitimate forms of active dissent. According to the English newspaper, the "Guardian," the net is now tightening on the church, the last white organization left with regular access to Africans as well as access to the world outside South Africa. It called the Dean's conviction a savage verdict, saying "a five-year prison sentence for giving money, clothing and food to the wives and families of political prisoners illustrates starkly the extent of the repression now practiced in South Africa's police state." A member of the World Council of Churches Program to Combat Racism, Mrs. Justice Jiagge of Ghana, has said "the crime of Christians is that we have allowed the South Africa situation to go on for so long and still do so little to stop it. If there is among Christians a feeling of solidarity with the human race, situations like South Africa will not exist."
The "Christian Century" suggested that the Dean's arrest was part of a stepped-up campaign to silence clergy criticism of government policies, especially racial apartheid. The article point out that some 50 clergymen had been subject to government penalties during the past 12 months.
The Chief Justice of the Appeals Court dismissing the Dean's conviction noted that although the Dean consistently opposed many laws, especially those enforcing apartheid, it was clear that he was no supporter of terrorism.
The Dean of Johannesburg believes that the doctrine of apartheid is "damnable heresy," and that "a man born black cannot come to the fullness of his humanity." He cites verses of St. Matthew 25 as a need for church involvement, "for I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; I was in prison and you visited me."
The theory of apartheid is that each race should be able to develop separately along its own lines, in peace. But laws used to implement that theory involve hardship and injustice. No black South African has the right to vote, to strike or to bargain with his employers. This leaves him no legal way to change the discriminatory laws.
There is probably not another country in the world where distribution of income is so unequal. Africans was are 70% of the population, receive less than 20% of all income and live on 13% of the land. More than half of them live in white South Africa, in cities and suburban townships or on white farms, the remainder are crowded into "tribal reserves," known as "homelands." Those not living in reserves are nevertheless regarded as inhabitants of reserves and have no right of tenure in white South Africa. If a married man loses his job, his whole family can be ordered to live on a reserve even though his wife still has a job and his children are at school.
Since control of the land and economic power is in the hands of the whites, foreign investors in South Africa automatically develop a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.
Large corporations enroll whites from Europe to fill top jobs in South Africa and non-whites, despite personal qualifications, may not supervise whites.
Apartheid policies have been blamed for the country's growing economic difficulties. South African industry has not been able to make full and effective use of the large and willing reservoir of labour that it available to it. Better jobs and better pay for the African majority would not be bought at the expense of the European worker. On the contrary, "African advancement could certainly make possible much more rapid advancement for Europeans also," says Harry Oppenheimer, Chairman of the Anglo American Corporation of South Africa.
As dependence on black workers increases, more and more of them move into urban areas, fear grows in the minds of the white minority, and repression gets worse. Time is running out.
What the Dean of Johannesburg would most like to do is to discourage immigration to South Africa. Voices of African resistance too, have called for economic isolation until racial policies are changed. They are aware of the hardship that economic boycott would entail.
The late Chief Albert Luthuli, Nobel prize winner and former head of the African National Congress, who was, for many years, forbidden to speak or write, said, "economic boycott is a method which would shorten the day of bloodshed and that the suffering would be a price we are willing to pay. In any case, we suffer already, our children are often undernourished and at times we die at the whim of a policeman." Canadian Anglicans have been asked by their General Synod, "to demonstrate their concern for all their South African brothers by refusing to purchase or consume any product manufactured, processed or grown directly or indirectly in or through the Republic of South Africa."
The Central Committee of the World Council of Churches meeting in August this year doubled its special fund to combat racism and voted to liquidate its financial stake in all corporations doing business with white-ruled African countries.
The Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, the Most Reverend E.W. Scott says, in welcoming Canon ffrench-Beytagh, "some of the creative church leaders in South Africa have voiced with courage the Judeo-Christian conviction that law and order should be the servant of justice not the structure of oppression and discrimination. This principle clearly challenges apartheid. Here on this continent, we need to recognize that the same principle should lead us to be constantly evaluating the goals being sought by those who call for law and order - are they seeking justice or preservation of privilege?"
* Toronto, Halifax, Fredericton, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City, Kingston, Hamilton, London, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Vancouver, Victoria, Edmonton and Calgary.
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For more information, contact:
Shelagh Kendal
Press Officer
924-9192
or
The Rev. Robert D. MacRae
Secretary, The Primate's World Relief and Development Fund
Contents: Introduction / John Carter, Johannesburg, January 1977 -- Foreword / Tim i.e. Timothy Bavin, Bishop of Johannesburg -- Proper Words: Speech Day, St. Martin's School, Rosettenville -- The Difference: Confirmation, Johannesburg -- Down to Earth: Parish Meeting, Vereeniging -- What is God Saying to Us ? [Dean Gonville ffrench-Beytaugh] -- Alexandra: Protest meeting, Saxonwold School, April 1972 -- Desecration : [University of Witwaterswand, 5 June 1972] -- Crooked Christmas" South African Outlook, February 1974 -- Anglicanism -- The Man of God: The Foundation of His Faith: Salvation Army Officers' Conference, Magaliesberg -- Christian Holiness: St. Benedict's House, Rosettenville, 1976 -- Christian Involvement -- Let There Be Light: St. Mary's Cathedral, Johannesburg, Easter -- Epilogue: The Rich and the Poor: [re Soweto Massacre] St. Mary's Cathedral, Johannesburg, June 27, 1976
A collection of 13 brief addresses and sermons delivered by the author, the first Suffragan Bishop of Johannesburg, between 1971 and 1976.
"Dear Child of God, I write these words because we all experience sadness, we all come at times to despair, and we all lose hope that the suffering in our lives and in our world will ever end. I want to share with you my faith and my understanding that this suffering can be transformed and redeemed. There is no such thing as a totally hopeless cause. Our God is an expert at dealing with chaos, with brokenness, with all the worst that we can imagine. God created order out of disorder, cosmos out of chaos, and God can do so always, can do so now -- in our personal lives and in our lives as nations. The most unlikely person, the most improbable situation -- these are all 'transfigurable' -- they can be turned into their glorious opposites. Indeed, God is transforming the world now -- through us -- because God loves us". -- Intro., pp. vii-viii.
Contents: Introduction -- God Believes in Us -- God's Dream -- God Loves You As You Are -- God Loves Your Enemies -- God Only Has Us -- Seeing With the Eyes of the Heart -- Stillness: Hearing God's Voice -- In the Fullness of Time -- Postscript: Your Part of God's Dream -- Acknowledgements.
"Father Michael Lapsley SSM is Chaplain of the Trauma Centre for Victims of Violence and Torture in Cape Town, South Africa. Here he writes about the work of the centre and its importance in the new South Africa".
"Compiled by Mothobi Mutloatse and edited by John Webster."
"With a Foreword by the Right Reverend Trevor Huddleston, CR."
"An edition of this book was first published by Skotaville Publishers of Johannesburg in 1983. This edition first published in Great Britain by Fount Paperbacks, London, and in the United States of America by William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1984". -- verso of t.-p.
"Here, in these pages, is the authentic voice of Christian prophecy in our day. Unafraid to proclaim with urgency the truth about 'apartheid' as the evil and destructive force it is. Unafraid to challenge the Government and its representatives for their callous and sustained assault on human dignity and human rights. Unafraid to risk the consequences for himself in making such a proclamation. But always in hope: always in love: always in the certainty that God is present within the situation and that therefore His purposes must prevail". -- Foreword.
Contents: Foreword / Trevor Huddleston -- Bishop Tutu: A Biography dated Soweto, 11 May 1983 / Mothobi Mutloatse -- Introduction / Buti Tlhagale -- Introducing South Africa -- Liberation as a Biblical Theme -- Current Concerns -- The Divine Intention.
OTCH copy has some highlighting with yellow marker.
On front cover: "Colin O'Brien Winter, Bishop in Exile".
"'Namibia' is an Anglican bishop's searing account of racial oppression in South West Africa [Namibia] and of his struggle to minister to the needs of his diocese there in the face of apartheid. [Bishop Winter] has for thirteen years been intensely involved in the church in Namibia as Bishop of the Diocese of Damaraland [now Namibia]". -- back cover.
Contents: The Removal of Undesirables -- Diocese in a Desert -- Into Africa -- A Bishop and Apartheid -- Windhoek: The Whites -- Windhoek: Old Location -- Windhoek: Coloured Community -- Community of Simon the Zealot -- The Bite of the Snake -- The Contract Labour System -- A Time to Listen -- Strike -- Bloody Sunday -- Trial -- Judge Booth -- Violence and Nonviolence -- The Birth of a Nation -- Profit or People ? -- The Cost of Discipleship -- The Yearning for Home -- Epilogue -- Appendix: Statement of Toivo Herman ja Toivo.
"First published by Wm. Collins Sons and Co. Ltd. 1956. First issued in Fontana Books 1957. Second Impression, October 1957. Third Impression, July 1958. Fourth Impression, February 1960. Fifth Impression, November 1960. Sixth Impression, May 1964. Seventh Impression, September 1965. Eighth Impression, June 1968." -- verso of t.-p.
The author "described his twelve year ministry in Sophiatown, the coloured quarter outside Johannesburg from 1944-1956. The last years were bitter years, when he found himself embroiled in constant conflict with the government and the police; indeed the manuscript of his book only escaped seizure by a matter of twenty-four hours. .... He tells of the successive intrusions by the South African government upon the personal liberties of its subjects. South Africa has become, he says, a police state. He tells of his fight to uphold the rights of the black man and of the acts of defiance to which circumstances and his conscience as a Christian have driven him. Is the Church again, he asks, to bend over backwards to appease a government set upon a policy that is evil and un-Christian ? In posing the question of the church's attitude to politics, Fr. Huddleston, a man of great compassion and love for his fellow-men in distress, raises a problem of fundamental importance in this or any age". -- back cover.
Contents: Preface to the Fontana Edition / Trevor Huddleston -- Out of Africa -- The Daylight and the Dark -- Till There Be No Place -- The Christian Dilemma -- The Tsotsi -- Shanty Town -- Sophiatown -- Who Goes There ? -- Education for Servitors -- Out Damned Spot -- Comfort, Use and Protection -- Joy and Woe -- And Have Not Charity -- Epilogue -- Appendix: The Fagan Report -- Father Huddleston.
Colophon: Printed in Great Britain, Collins Clear-Type Press, London and Glasgow.