Anglican Communion News Service

Anglican leaders pledged to take aggressive action against corruption, crime, terrorism, poverty and injustice in their communities throughout the world, in a consultation on 'Community Transformation' this week (31 October to 2 November).

"The Church's own form of 'aggression' is passionate prayer and radical unity in calling for God to transform our broken and hopeless communities and environments into places of peace, joy and hope," stated the Revd David Harper, chairman of the key mission agency, SOMA (Sharing of Ministries Abroad).

A worldwide gathering of over 200 Anglican leaders from nearly 30 countries made a pledge to renewed prayer for the world and conceived a host of initiatives for their continents and countries to bring about the transformation of cities, regions, and nations. They called on church leaders throughout the world to place a priority on the desperate need of the places in which they live, rather than the selfish maintenance of their buildings and congregations.

"God's agenda is to forever renew his world with us as his agents," said the Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Revd Njongonkulu Ndungane. "We must have an openness to the future and an openness to the Holy Spirit. Transformation and renewal has to begin within each one of us."

Every single regional group (Asia, West and Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, Latin America and the West) declared their intent to pray in unity with other churches for change for the good in their societies and cultures. In Asia the delegates began the planning of a prayer march to traverse the entire continent. In Latin America, the delegates called for prayer chains, prayer meetings and prayer marches.

Yet another theme of the consultation emerged as a renewed call to holiness, humility and repentance on the part of the Churches. The western churches (UK, Europe, USA, New Zealand and Australia) expressed public repentance for what they described as a "spiritual poverty". The West and Central African group called for spiritual warfare to break the grip of strongholds. They reminded western delegates that the Western churches also needed to take up the challenge of spiritual warfare. East Africans declared themselves strongly committed to children and young people and pledged to work for Christian education in their countries. Southern Africans (South Africa and Mozambique) said they had come to a realisation of "utter dependence on God" and the "need to seek his face and a willingness to change their worldview".

At the centre of all the commitments lay:

1. The belief that no one church could tackle the world's problems on its own, and the desire for unity in 'desperate' prayer together.

2. A discovery of 'humility' in admitting that the problems of the world are too great for any institution, individual or church to tackle and the need for "utter dependence on God".

In a moving statement a Singaporean representative, one of 12 at the consultation, described how the delegation were 'shocked to our beings' by the Singapore airlines crash. "We believed that there is one airline that cannot fail and crash, and that was the Singapore Airlines. We were called to repent of the pride and arrogance of our nation."

The Revd David Harper, Chairman of SOMA, and the Revd Trevor Pearce, Vice Chairman, closed the consultation by releasing a statement summarising the events and conclusions of the consultation. The statement emphasised a call to unity, holiness, humility, fervent prayer and intercession, persevering leadership, compassionate service and a special concern for the younger generation. SOMA mission teams will now be travelling to different parts of the Province of Southern Africa in order to share and teach on Community Transformation.

Background:

What the Speakers at the consultation said:

George Otis, Jr

A researcher who has led the research into community transformation and produced the best-selling Transformations video. Otis works with the Sentinel organisation in the United States.

George Otis, Jr, says that over 40 communities in the last three or four years have been 'dramatically impacted' by community transformation. These are no longer isolated cases -- they are mainly being experienced in Africa and Latin America, to a lesser extent in Asia and North America, and eventually Europe will get there, he says.

He says that this process of transformation is affecting neighbourhoods, hamlets, to small towns, to cities, to large territories like the Arctic.

"What is unique is the magnitude of what we are discovering today," he declared to Anglican leaders in Cape Town. "I truly believe that this gathering will prove to be a historic occasion in the life of the Anglican Church. Probably most of you have sensed in your spirit that something is happening here. This is a moment that the Lord has been leading us towards."

Ruth Ruibal

The assassination of Ruth's husband Julio, prompted the pastors of Cali in Colombia to seek greater unity based on a pattern of united prayer. As a result she points to massive changes in the city, including the fall of the notorious Cali drug cartel.

"We need a paradigm change. We must learn to live in the centre of his God's will no matter what the cost may be," she says.

"We must have answers not only for individual salvation, but for cities and nations that have discovered that the ways and philosophies of this world do not work. The answers will be found in the church, united in Jesus Christ," she says.

Most of all, Ruth Ruibal emphasised unity among Christians and their leaders. "You can't do 'unity'. It is a revelation from God. With Julio's death there was no choice in Cali and we realised our deep need for each other. No single one of us had the whole of the truth, instead the body of Christ together has the truth."

Alistair Petrie

An Anglican minister, who has worked as a parish priest in England, Scotland and Canada, Alistair Petrie now works with George Otis, Jr on community transformation.

"The Anglican Church is one of those churches that God has raised up to understand, endorse and apply transformation," says Petrie. He believes that because the Anglican Church is a territorial church based on the parish system, it has an added advantage in understanding the issues raised by 'transformation' research. Reconciliation between the people and the land is a vital part of community transformation, he insists.

Harold Caballeros

Leader of a rapidly growing network of independent churches in Guatemala, Harold Caballeros, was the first to research the massive transformation that occurred in the small town of Almolonga in Guatemala. He discovered that as a result of a movement of prayer and deliverance, alcoholism rates fell dramatically, the prisons were closed because they were no longer needed and the town and surrounding land changed dramatically.

"We need to renew the culture and thinking and change the mindset," said Harold Caballeros, who made gave a series of keynote talks at the consultation. The worldview of each culture has spiritual connections, and these need to be challenged, he argued. The western worldview of humanism does not understand Biblical realities and western Christians, in particular need to recover an understanding of spiritual territories and the 'powers and dominions' which the Bible talks about.

"Transformation is not something spontaneous. It will happen as a result of leadership and strategy. When the leader has a vision, he will achieve transformation," declared Harold Caballeros.

SOMA is a worldwide mission agency working in every continent for the renewal of the Anglican Church.