Anglican Communion News Service - Digest News

Transfiguration and inspiration

The College of the Transfiguration, Grahamstown, in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, has been a centre of study and support for the Anglican Church for nearly eighty years, and it was here that seventeen theologians and church leaders met in November 2009 to work on resources for the first formal conversations of the Continuing Indaba project.

Welcomed and inspired by Bishop of Grahamstown the Rt Revd Ebenezer Ntlali, the group was convened by the College’s Lecturer in Systematic Theology, the Revd Janet Trisk, and included the Revd Canon Suzanne Peterson, Public Policy and Advocacy Officer for the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, representing Archbishop Thabo Makgoba.

Setting the Scene

Continuing Indaba’s Canon Phil Groves reminded the group of the Project’s purpose of strengthening the bonds of relationship and affection within the Anglican Communion by restoring and renewing the web of conversation across continents and cultures about difficult and challenging issues, and so working towards a refreshed way of dealing with difference and diversity.

Reflecting that the first taste of Indaba for many in the Communion outside Africa had been at the 2008 Lambeth Conference in the UK, Phil compared that experience to that of his first curry – a bit of a shadow of the real thing, but good enough to encourage a search for something better. For him, his visits to this meeting and the earlier one in Kenya were part of the search and he hoped to expand his understanding of the concept of Indaba (or Baraza in Swahili).

Picking up the thread from Limuru

Professor Joseph Galgalo and the Revd Catherine Njagi introduced the work of the October 2009 meeting in Limuru, Kenya, with a summary of the papers presented there, to give a flavour of the work done to date.

Bishop Ntlali offered his reflection that the retreat before the Lambeth Conference, and the worship and Bible study preceding the Indaba, had been highly significant, and there followed a discussion of Indaba in its traditional and contemporary contexts in South Africa. It was acknowledged that, as with the use of the term Ubuntu, expanding the concept of Indaba risks divorcing it from its African roots, requires care in ensuring that it is not manipulated (deliberately or otherwise) to exclude the powerless, and yet needs adaptation to embrace a lengthy process that spans continents, cultures and languages.

The group of women and men was able to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of Indaba in South African political life. The women in particular reflected upon the frequent experience of being ignored in a process that was intended to be inclusive. The group identified particular areas on which they would work to guide Continuing Indaba in the Communion. Janet Trisk, the group convenor, will develop a paper on power, while and Kevin David, Youth Co-Ordinator of the Diocese of Mauritius in the Provice of the Indian Ocean, is to write on the significance of Continuing Indaba for young people.

Indaba within our one family

On the final morning, the group was deeply moved by Bishop Ntlali’s reflections on the potential of Indaba for bridging the difficulties of communication and understanding within the Anglican Communion. In a passionate address he called on the Anglican Communion to continue in the spirit of Indaba, to recognise we are one family and to look to engage constructively with one another.

The meeting discussed ways that the process of Continuing Indaba might develop, and noted that the Anglican Communion Office ) reflecting the nature of Anglicanism itself) does not have any power to compel any group to participate. This inevitably means that participants in the project – both in the Resource Hub meetings of which this was one, and in the conversations that will follow – are self selected. This in turn emphasised the need for the agenda to concern matters of mission which will encourage the search for unity, rather than focusing on those areas of disagreement which will tend to divide.

Among those present and contributing were: Cheryl Bird, Percy Chinganga , Kevin David, John Klaasen, Sefularo Mogopodi, Titus Motau, Makhosi Ndzimande, +Ebenezer Ntlali, Suzanne Peterson, Miranda Pillay, +David Russell, Natalie Simons, Desiree Snyman, Janet Trisk, Zweli Tom, Chris Utzinger.