Anglican Communion News Service

Service of Consecration of Revd Martin Breytenbach as Bishop of the Diocese of St Mark the Evangelist, and Revd Brian Germond as Bishop of the Diocese of Johannesburg

Johannesburg Cathedral
5 February 2000

It is a joy to be with you all this morning. I would like to thank the Archbishop of Cape Town for inviting me to preach at this splendid consecration service, as it allows me to reflect a little on the office and work of a bishop in God's Church. And may I thank you, Archbishop, for your Church which over the years has exercised a prophetic and sacrificial ministry to the oppressed and victimised.

To your new bishops, Brian Germond and Martin Breytenbach, who today will be consecrated to new and demanding tasks in the Church of God, I offer my warm congratulations. I assure you and your families - and indeed all the people of the dioceses of Johannesburg and St Mark the Evangelist (Pietersburg) - of my ongoing prayers.

It is impossible to miss the theme of leadership in this service. We are commissioning and consecrating two men whom the Church through its election processes has brought to this Cathedral for the laying on of hands. But where might we turn for a model of truly faithful leadership? We need look no further than to the One who is our true pattern, Jesus Christ. The leadership that Jesus demonstrated both in His life and in His death was that of a person whose heart was always open to God, and whose arms were always open to humankind. So are we to pattern our own lives and ministries.

Let us not underestimate that in my country and yours great changes are taking place - changes that the Church universal must address. The world in which we are called to proclaim the gospel is increasingly complex. There are far fewer certainties: our societies no longer appear to have either a shared understanding of the world or a shared system of moral values. Of course, your experience here in Africa will, in many ways, be very different from that in the increasingly secularised West. But the challenge to us all to exercise Christ-like and responsible leadership remains.

And this is precisely the kind of leadership that St Paul commended in his Second Letter to the Corinthians. In my own reading and reflection, I find myself turning to this epistle time and again for its realism, its honesty and its humanity. As you may know, 2 Corinthians was the epistle chosen for the Bible studies during the 1998 Lambeth Conference. Embracing the theme, 'Leadership under Pressure', we studied Paul's experience in ministry and related it to our own. The text reveals a very human Paul, spaced out and stretched out. Something happened to Paul in Asia Minor that knocked him for six - something he described as akin to "receiving the sentence of death." Paul confessed to feeling "crushed" and at the point of desperation. These are feelings, no doubt, with which some of us may be familiar. Yet, in the face of desperation, Paul set forth a powerful vision of gospel-centred leadership. Across the years, his model of ministry continues to shape and inform the Christian Church.

So what does Paul have to teach us about faithful episcopal leadership at the dawn of the 21st century?

Three aspects of leadership emerge for me from this rich passage from 2 Corinthians 4. First, we as Christian leaders are entrusted with a commission. Then, we are called to proclaim the faith entrusted to us. Finally, we are called to keep the vision alive.

First, God gives us a commission. The New English Bible makes this sound rather grand: "Seeing we have been entrusted with this commission…" Commissioned officers are we - fancy that! But in case this goes to our head, the Greek brings us down to earth. We are not commissioned as officers but as servants, and the Greek word here is mundane: diakonia, describing those who performed menial tasks. A healthy reminder to all ordained persons that we are ever deacons, servants of the Lord! Nevertheless, the translators may have done us a favour by making it a 'commission' with which we are entrusted; the language conveys its importance. God says: "I have chosen you and appointed you to be my servant. You are a steward of the faith. Don't take it lightly. I'm counting on you."

Now, I said a moment ago that this was a daunting task - and so it is. Brian and Martin, you may be thinking, "Who am I to merit such trust?" Who are you, indeed! Paul, too, was familiar with this question. Note, for example, his emphasis upon treasure and pots. It is an interesting analogy. In Paul's day, banks did not exist. You stowed your precious goods away in a safe place, hoping that no one else would find them. And the wise man didn't put his precious things in fine, beautiful jars - precisely because fine, beautiful jars were an obvious 'give away'. Strong and serviceable jars were far more practical. It didn't matter what they looked like; what was important was the treasure within.

So it is that the gospel - the resplendent treasure of our faith - is preserved in broken, human vessels. We know well that "we are no better than pots of earthenware to contain this treasure." But our weakness itself is no barrier to God's power. On the contrary: God takes ordinary people and makes them extraordinary. He takes powerless people and surprises them by making them powerful. Hence Paul's catalogue of calamities ('hard pressed, bewildered, hunted, struck down') reveals tremendous treasure ('never hemmed in, never abandoned, never left to die').

And we hold this treasure, too. But what does this responsibility require of us? According to Paul, it demands renunciation of underhanded ways and calls for genuine holiness of life. As Bishops, you will have a duty to be transparent in every aspect of your life. In prayer, in study, in your working together as one body, in your care for one another, you are called to manifest Christ in all that you do. Above all, you are to enable all your sisters and brothers in Christ to be truly the People of God. Not an easy job, certainly - but absolutely essential to the life and growth of the Church.

Second, We are called to proclaim the faith entrusted to us. Hear Paul's plea for honest witness: "By the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." Woe betide us as clergy when our preaching and teaching sinks into apologies for God instead of straightforward testimony of who God is and what He has done for us in Christ! We are not here to keep the 'rumour of God alive,' as some have said, but to preach the truth we know from our ongoing encounter with the Lord.

But we Christian leaders also need to be humble enough not to pretend that we always have all the answers. Any good teacher knows that he often can learn as much from his pupils as his pupils can from him. Bishops in particular have an opportunity to provide a sort of 'living canon' for the Church - a focal point where dialogue with issues of Christian belief is invited and encouraged. Without question, proclaiming the Christian faith is always challenging; sometimes it stretches us right to our limits. But it is rarely boring. Personally, I regard it as one of the central - and most life-giving - privileges of ordained ministry.

And third, We are called to be 'Vision Bearers'. In his book The Way Ahead, Brian Davis, the former Archbishop of New Zealand, urged that "Church leaders need to see themselves as vision bearers rather than problem solvers." In my view, 'vision bearers' is an appealing term for leaders in God's Church, for they are respected as much because of what they are and what they see as because of what they do.

Why this emphasis on vision? Because there is a clear correlation between visionary leadership and church growth. Where there is visionary leadership, new Christians are made and churches grow. This means looking forward to the future and envisaging a Church not simply 'the way it's always been', but rather one that is dynamic and open to change. But this openness must begin with us. All Christians - and particularly those entrusted as leaders - are called to the life of self-giving love embodied in the Incarnate Lord. We are called to be vulnerable and to engage with those whom we are to lead. When we give ourselves to the people of God wholeheartedly, both trusting and loving them, then we are able to animate the Christian community in a unique - and, indeed, in a visionary - way. If we are in real relationship with those who have called us to this great task, then our exercise of authority will be accepted and valued.

Paul understood this leadership strategy, too. After all, he enjoined the Church in Corinth to bear "the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ" to all the world. Yet Paul also knew that the gospel incorporates the Cross as well as the Resurrection. No Easter Sunday without Good Friday. Therefore we are "always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies." There are times when being a visionary bishop means making hard choices, sometimes being tough and uncompromising. Such is the Way of the Cross. But this notion stands in stark contrast with a common sentiment encapsulated in a twentieth-century American novel: "Leadership is the quality of telling people what they want to hear." The quality of Christian leadership is not, in fact, telling people what they want to hear, but instead telling people the truth about Christ - even when that truth requires making unpopular or painful decisions.

Yes, the call to the episcopate is quite hard work and can be overwhelming at points. Anything worth doing involves some struggle and some difficult times. But may I say emphatically that the call to the episcopate is also a call to the abundant life. As the great theologian Jurgen Moltmann wrote: "A life which is worthy of the gospel liberates us to be ourselves and fills us with the power of the Spirit ... The life worthy of the gospel also has its discipline, but it is the discipline of love and JOY, not the discipline of anxiety under the threat of the law." I don't believe for one moment that our calling is to reflect a joyless Christianity. I simply cannot envision our Lord standing in the market place with a miserable expression on his face. So enjoy your faith: continue to be open, joyful, friendly, relating people. More than anything else, the Church needs joyful servants of Christ who embody "the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ."

Brian and Martin, thanks be to God for your witness and ministry to the people of God in South Africa. May God bless you.