For all that has been - thanks!

It’s Monday 26^th: the case is packed: and it’s time to come home. As always I’m loath to leave, but since Saturday morning, when I returned the car, there’s been a strong sense that my window of opportunity is now closed.

 

 

 

Thursday last week I went to Kanana for the day and met with MU, and joined in their service. The rector, the Revd Pule Lekoko and I left to do a couple of short visits. At the first the 85 year old lady insisted on giving me R6 – about 30p – to buy some sweets. It’s very humbling when that happens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the workers at the Centre



 

Then we went to see a project that helps HIV/AIDS sufferers, orphans and vulnerable young people and elderly people. It was started by Canon Rebecca Maphitikazi when she was rector, and is currently part funded by the Province. Links with the parish had deteriorated, but Fr Pule is keen to rebuild them. Then it was back to the church for lunch with the MU.

 

 

 

 

 

The rest of Thursday and Friday were taken up formatting 2 services for +Steve. The first proved especially difficult as there was no English version and I had no idea what was instruction, prayer said by one person and prayer said by everyone. I took most of the week to do! For the second there was an English version and was much simpler.

The four Archdeacons

Lesley and John arrived Thursday evening, and after a quick cool drink were whisked off south for a couple of days. They returned for the service on Sunday, which began on time at 08.00: I think they’d had to leave at 05.00!! There were special 25^th Anniversary stoles, which the  clergy had to buy, but Lesley and I were given them as a gift. The huge hall filled over the next hour until it was standing room only. As I was about to read the gospel I got a mouth full of incense and only a squawk came out instead of the greeting. I quickly recovered and was reading without a microphone, till one suddenly appeared over my shoulder and everyone was deafened!

 

 

Lesley’s sermon looked back and on into the future, echoing the words on the celebration cake: “For all that has been – thanks! To all that will be – Amen!” The singing, as always, was brilliant, and the service finished at 12noon, the shortest Family Day service ever. But we had to get out to let the army in – there had been a mix-up with the bookings.

 

 

After the service there was a very quick reunion for Fr Guma, Mpho, Pulane and myself -  they had visited St James in 2004. The majority of people then went to the local recreation ground / park, found a space and set up their barbecues. A good time was had by all – and a real celebration of the first 25 years.

So I sign off with my thanks to everyone who has read this and kept me in their prayers; to those who have written to me, helping to keep my feet in the UK: to those who have kept St James the Great, Clayton running in my absence: to + Steve and his family who have been my family here: and because the last shall be first, to “Morena wa rona, Jesu Kreste” who opened a window of opportunity and gave me the graces I needed to do his work here”.

This is Africa ....

......and today, Wednesday, we have seen various bok, zebra, kudu, a giraffe, 9 rhino and a troop of monkeys – all wild; and brown and white lions, leopards, hyenas and tigers all in enclosures for the conservation programme – and all 50k from Klerksdorp at Bona Bona. It has been a wonderful day out.

 


The Giraffe wishing us 'Au revoir'.

On the way we stopped at what will hopefully become the new Diocesan Centre. Because of the economic climate the proposed Desmond Tutu Centre has been put on ice; but the need to move the Diocesan Office out of the red-light area of Klerksdorp remains. The Dutch Reform Church is willing to sell one of its redundant buildings to the Diocese for R4m, around £200,000. That they will even talk to the Anglican Church is something of a miracle, let alone let them buy a building and its associated facilities. It is a fantastic property; talks have begun with the bank, and the Diocese are hoping to take possession in January.

  

Above is the church, and to the left the magnificent hall. There is also a block of 10 very small classrooms, much open space around the buildings, and a house next door.

 Today, as on Monday when I drove up to Mafikeng, about 175k away, I enjoyed the wide open spaces and the chances to stop and listen to the sounds of Africa. I also saw lots of dry, dry fields. One priest told me that the farmers can’t plough because the land is like dust. No ploughing, no sowing, late, poor crops. We really do need rain. There’s plenty of thunder and lightning – but no rain!

This visit to the Diocese feels very different from any other, and today’s Morning Prayer reading from 1 Cor.16 sums it up in a way I have been struggling to find. Paul says he is staying in Ephesus because ‘a window of opportunity has opened for (him)’. That I have stayed so long this time was initially selfish – I just love it here! But perhaps it was all part of the plan, and the retreat God’s way of opening windows of opportunity. I brought a pottery hand to use at the retreat, and time and again clergy have told me what an impact it made on them. I am leaving it with +Steve, and hopefully it will be on the altar for Family Day. Today I met one of the Archdeacons who pulled his holding cross out of his pocket. He had been to a difficult pastoral visit and used it to pray on his way there. At the retreat and since, some clergy have spoken to me about what is going on in their parishes and their lives, and we have prayed together, sometimes with powerful results. That is a huge privilege – it means they trust me not to speak to anyone else about what they say. It seems I am being a spiritual director for the Diocese. I began the Retreat full of misgivings about what I could offer to people who in the main had been through more than I can ever imagine. But God, who is faithful, knew the need (theirs and mine!) and met it. Thanks be to God.

A curate's egg of a weekend!

This last week has been one of highs and lows, of the mundane and the exhilarating. Much of my time was spent at my computer completing the service sheet for Family Day. With the Bishop’s permission I have reformatted it, and the hymns are now in the place where they will be sung rather than all together at the end, which meant constant flicking back and forth. There was a cover to design and the whole thing contains elements in English, Setswana, Sotho, Afrikaans, Xhosa and even a sentence in Venda. In all there are 12 hymns, some of which I had to type out in the other languages. Things that in England take seconds, like working out the appropriate place for a line break, were major exercises here, by the time I’d managed to get someone to understand what I wanted to know. Proof reading involved everyone in the office – Philip did the Setswana, Ruth the Afrikaans, Sophie the other languages and +Steve the rubrics. Oh, and of course, I did the English and the layout. But it is now finished, the Bishop is very happy with the end product and should be going to the printers today. It has been a real collaborative effort. I said ‘very happy’ – in fact he’s now asked me to format 2 other services so that ‘they look professional’ too. Someone else has typed them and he is going to proof read them, but the question of where to break a sentence if necessary still remains!

The traditional Friday night Pieterse family braai
Megan's under the blanket!

Friday I went to Potch for the weekend to stay with Jacques and Melinda Pieterse and their children Megan and Quinton. Jacques is Rector of St Mary’s, the ‘white’ church, which will celebrate 150 years of life and witness next year. Melinda works in Klerksdorp, which means a lot of travelling for her, which is expensive and tiring. Megan was starved of oxygen at birth and, though now a full grown 16 year old, has the mental age of 6. She is a lovely girl and was confirmed last year. Quinton is 15, fishing mad, and a very personable young man. He is the one who lent his guitar to the group who did the Sunday School training at Easter. We had a brilliant time together. Friday evening was just a getting to know you time – Jacques and I talked till midnight: Melinda, having been up since 4.45am called it a day at 10. Saturday morning he shared some of the frustration and difficulties of life in his parish, and then I was taken out by his curate Magda for lunch. She was one of the deacons on the ordination retreat last year and it was good to catch up with her. Her son, a 21(?) year old theology student was at home and is usually very quiet apparently. A main area of interest for him is languages – Hebrew, Latin and Greek – so we had interests in common and we had a very good talk about the problems of balancing academic study with faith. Magda was over the moon that he had been so open with me, and at one point disappeared into the kitchen to give us space. A definite ‘Thank you God’ time.

After that it was back to the Rectory to be shown how to make the Afrikaans delicacy ‘Milk Tart’. I got the job of ‘stirrer’! Then it was the all-important job of the day – watching South Africa play Wales in the Rugby World Cup! There was much leg pulling, cheering and shouting as the match went back and fore, much to the consternation of the dogs, who were disconcerted by all the noise. Jacques is half welsh, so had a little toe in the Welsh camp, but would not have watched it if I had not been there. However, his verdict was that it was a great game, which he had thoroughly enjoyed: that it had been very therapeutic: and that it had awoken a desire to know more of Wales. Amen to that!! Our evening meal was a mutton curry, followed by our milk tart, which was delicious.

Sunday I was to preach and preside at the Cathedral. Normally that is a high point of my visit: this time the less said the better! Suffice it to say that of the 4¾ hour service 3 hours was spent collecting money. I felt like walking out at one point it was so bad. I certainly was in no frame of mind to preside at the Eucharistic Prayer. However, God is good. As I was censing the altar, I stopped to look up at the figure of the crucified Christ and sent up a plea for him to sort me out – which of course he duly did.

Lunch was back at St Mary’s Rectory. Father Horace McBride and his wife Loraine – see my sabbatical post on the Bikers! - were there for a Braai lunch. It was a time of much fun and laughter and a much needed antidote to the morning’s experiences.

 

There are other things to say, but this long already, and they'll keep for tomorrow or Wednesday.

 

Tuesday 13th October

We have been suffering a heatwave here - though today is a bit cooler, cloudy and very windy. The ground is in dire need of rain, as this is spring and the eventual harvest depends on it. There was talk yesterday of the cattle that died around Zeerust – in the north of the diocese - last time there was an El Nino. The heat is very energy sapping!

All busy watching a toddler during the Collection.

Last Sunday I was in Jouberton, where I was based last year. I first went here in 2007 when a typhoon had destroyed the church and clergy house. The priest had to leave – some of the money for rebuilding had ‘disappeared’. So a new priest came, and began well, but left with no notice in December 2013, leaving a divided congregation. I filled in for 3 months, and when I left last March a new priest arrived. He lasted three months – and divided the congregation even further. So they have been without a fulltime priest since last June. Their troubled history shows – the congregation is smaller, all of the lay leaders are different and they are having great trouble paying their Share. No-one seemed to be doing any work with the children, and the number of servers is down. A new priest should arrive in January. Pray for that parish, its people and its new priest.

Later on Sunday the family took Letlotlo, the Bishop’s eldest daughter, back to school. She is sitting the equivalent of her GCSEs – and battling with Macbeth! Shakespeare is bad enough when your first language is English, goodness knows what it must be like if your culture and first language is Setswana. Leruo has to change schools in January, and hopefully today we shall know if he has been accepted at the first choice school. Ngata goes on her merry way, having a Top 10 badge in her year for academic work. They are all lovely children and a credit to +Steve and Brenda.

It is very busy in the Diocesan Office at the moment, tying up ends left after the Archbishop’s visit and the clergy retreat, and of course, preparing for Family Day on 25^th. I have been preparing the Service Book, but now am waiting for the Bishop to choose hymns and decide who is doing what so that I can finish it. +Steve is very busy interviewing clergy and church wardens about the clergy moves that he plans for January. At the Retreat I encouraged them to dream a dream, identify hopes, think what they would like to see in their obituary if they were to die in five years’ time. One person came out of his interview yesterday beaming – his dream already coming true!

I nearly didn’t get to see the Welsh match last Saturday – but in the end, as I was by myself, I went out for a meal to a place where it was being shown. Having lost, we now have to play South Africa. I think I shall be the only person in Klerksdorp shouting for Wales! But I shall keep my end up, wherever I end up watching it. I too can dream and hope!

One momentous weekend later

Thursday 8^th October



As predicted things didn’t turn out quite as expected last weekend! I neither chopped vegetables nor went to the welcome meal for ++Thabo. But Saturday during the day was very quiet, with plenty of time to catch up on the rugby. In the evening it was the Gala Dinner, which was well attended, and the food plentiful. But here the speeches come before the food, and it was gone 21.30 by the time we got food. However there had been some fascinating Tswana tribal dancing: being traditional dances for a wedding there were some very suggestive moves!! In his speech, ++Thabo reminded us of the Mission Statement of ACSA (African Church of Southern Africa) and its summary of ACT – Anchored in Christ; Committed to Discipleship and Transformed by the Holy Spirit.

Sunday I went to the Cathedral. The clergy robed in a school just up the road and were part of the procession which included the Men’s Fellowship and Evangelists; the Youth Fellowship; the Lay Ministers; servers; clergy; +Steve and of course ++Thabo.

 

 

The people were so pleased to have ++Thabo among them and it showed in the vibrancy, joy and volume of the singing and dancing. 

One of the highlights for me was the 3 little boys who were dancing away merrily in the chancel. The liturgy obviously spoke to the Archbishop as he put aside his prepared sermon and spoke from the heart. He reminded us that within each of us a war is being waged between a way that leads to sin and a way which leads to righteousness. The choice as to which wins is ours.  At the Peace, the archbishop announced that it was +Steve and Brenda’s 18^th Wedding anniversary, and that he was going to lead them in the Renewal of their Vows. It was very moving not least for them as they had had no warning of his intentions. A good bridegroom always has a hankie ready, and +Steve was no exception.

I have to confess to a fit of the giggles at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer – the most sacred part of the service - as the final Great Amen was sung with great gusto to the tune of ‘On Ilkley Moor ba’ tat’! Service over – some 3+ hours after the start – there was food for everyone.


Archbishop or not, the food was prepared in the traditional way - a very hard way!

 

Sunday evening I decided to cook apple crumble – thereby managing to trip the main switch, leaving myself in total darkness. Peter and Ritha were out, and whilst talking on the phone to Peter and trying to find my way around in the dark my air time ran out!! Eventually I managed to find the master switch and light was restored. We did eventually eat apple crumble and custard at 23.30!!

Monday I transferred to the Bishop’s House in Klerksdorp where I will remain till I come home. I am also now independently mobile, having picked up my hire car. Tuesday I handed over the £1,000.00 that St James’, Clayton raised during Lent for the Matlosane Diocese Shoe Appeal, and did various things in the Office.

Wednesday 17^th October was Desmond Tutu’s 84^th birthday, and the Dr Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality, which includes Potch and Klerksdorp, organised an event for about 150 young people from three townships who are studying tourism. The Programme Director stated at the beginning that the purpose of the day was to learn about a life well lived; give honour to someone who had lived such a life and to continue to learn from that life well lived. They had asked the Bishop to give the keynote address but he had asked the Revd Dr Guma to do it on his behalf. He reminded the students of ++Desmond’s very humble beginnings here in Klerksdorp and Jouberton, and his determination never to believe what others said about him; but to be himself the master of his fate and captain of his soul. He also urged them to value Ubuntu. The event has great potential, but it was very badly organised and the mayor spoke for over an hour – or should I say ranted. Some of what she said was very unjust and the Bishop had a long conversation with her over lunch. We eventually got back to the Office just after three, and it closes at 4!

Over supper I asked +Steve and Brenda what exactly Ubuntu is, to which they replied “I am because you are, and you are because I am”. We agreed eventually that it is seeing Christ in every human being, including ourselves.

Today +Steve flew off to a meeting in Cape Town, the children are with their grandmother in Kuruman, Brenda has had a very difficult day at work and I explored the Mall with Mpho, with whom I stayed last year.  Tomorrow I have a meeting in Potch with a clergy person who has asked to talk with me following the retreat; Saturday Wales play Australia (got to get my priorities right!) and Brenda has a meeting for clergy wives. Sunday I return to Jouberton, where I was based last year, to do the Sunday service, and the children arrive home.

It’s hard to believe that 2 weeks ago tonight I was on my way here. But for what has already been, thanks be to God: for what is yet to come, bring it on!

Friday 2nd October

(Thought I'd posted this last week - don't know why it didn't happen!!  More news, probably tomorrow.  N)

The Retreat has now finished and I am recuperating at the home of Peter and Ritha Menyatso in Potchefstroom, where it is hot and sunny and the pool is appealing.

In some ways the final 2 letters to the Churches in Rev.3 seem to be the wrong way round. To the Church in Philadelphia there is nothing but praise, but to Laodicea there is no praise at all! There is however the promise that the risen Christ will never cease trying to gain entry to the human heart.

It could have been an anti-climactic end to the Retreat, but we ended with a Penitential Service – a service in which the priest leads a time of Recollection. We sang ‘Refiner’s fire’, which I had taught them earlier in the week – a fitting song for a gold mining area. I took the 10 commandments as the theme, broadening out the meaning of some: eg having respect for all living things rather not commiting murder; the use and abuse of authority rather than just honouring parents; etc. The form for individual confession is then used, leaving silence for each one to name their particular sins to God, and the formal Absolution pronounced. I then went to each one, anointed them and prayed for a fresh filling of the Spirit as they returned home. The service ended as they filled the chapel with their songs of thanks and praise, in their own languages. The tears, hugs and words of thanks said that God had truly been at work in their lives. Now it’s over to them. Do pray that as they return home they may find new strength and vision for themselves and their people.

This afternoon, Friday, I shall be helping to chop vegetables for the funeral meal after Ritha’s friend’s husband’s funeral tomorrow, and this evening there is a welcome meal for Archbishop Thabo at the Bishop’s home. Tomorrow looks as though it will be a quiet day for me, though Peter, who is a Funeral Director has 3 funerals to do, no doubt all before lunch, Saturday being the traditional day for funerals here. Sunday I shall probably go to the Cathedral with Peter – Ritha will be away at a conference – where ++Thabo is preaching and there is a lunch to follow the service. But this is Africa – and it could all change! And next week? it's called walking by faith!

Clergy with jumpers to go to very poor families. I wished I could have brought more.