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[ Back to index of November articles ] View a map of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa Building a bridge
to Africa
Plans to establish a formal partnership between the Diocese of Washington and the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (CPSA) are picking up pace. In September, the new affiliation was approved by CPSA at a synod in South Africa, and it is expected to be endorsed by the Diocese of Washington at its January convention. "The partnership will be celebrated and affirmed at our convention [in January], and then we will be going to a synod gathering in South Africa [in 2005] to do the same," Bishop John Bryson Chane told the Diocesan Council at its October meeting. The province's secretary, dean and primate - the Rev. Colin Jones, Bishop David Albert Beetge and Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndugane - will be special guests at the diocesan convention, he said.
Since February, when it was appointed by the bishop, the Southern Africa Partnership Task Force has been looking at ways to expand the diocese's existing relationship with the Diocese of Cape Town to encompass the entire province. This includes the countries of Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and St. Helena. "It seems almost overwhelming, it really does, and yet we have choices to make," Bishop Chane told the task force at an Oct. 6 meeting. "We can choose not to engage or we can choose to go forward."
The task force decided to go forward, and is now in the process of appointing a committee to continue its efforts. The committee will begin work in earnest after the diocesan convention. "It's exciting, I think," said task force member the Rev. Rona Harding, rector of Ascension, Lexington Park. "I know it's enormous, but as somebody said, 'How do you eat an elephant except by one bite at a time.'" Fueled by a shared desire to work together, both sides have been working on a framework for partnership and studying how the relationship might be mutually beneficial. The province has identified four areas - theological education, parish-to-parish links, women's issues and the HIV/AIDS pandemic - where it would like some help from the diocese, task force co-chairwoman Ellen Washington said.
But the task force is anxious that the partnership not be one-sided, she said: It is asking that the province share its rich tradition of liturgy and music, as well as its processes for dealing with social justice and racial reconciliation. "We did not want this to be simply a donor project," Washington said. "This is truly an exchange, and there is something we are going to receive of value from the province, as well as the province receiving something of value from us." While the task force is relatively new, the Diocese of Washington has had a companion relationship with the Diocese of Cape Town for more than 12 years, Washington said. "There are people and parishes in the diocese that have long-standing relationships with South Africa and Southern Africa," she said. "I feel like we are just standing on very solid ground." "It's about exchanging things, but in our opinion it's all about building a relationship," said task force member Katie McGervey. "It's not just a one-way thing, it's a two-way thing."
McGervey and her husband, Joe - also a task force member - recently returned from South Africa, where they spent two years visiting rural parishes and looking at ways to promote renewable energy. While they made some progress toward that goal, McGervey feels their most important contribution was to build relationships of mutual trust in the places they visited. "It's also just kind of being with people where they are," she said. "Not just feeling like you have to go in and do something."
Last month, Bishop Chane traveled to Nairobi under the auspices of CARE, an organization that is committed to helping families in poor communities improve their lives. All the Anglican primates in Africa also attended the meeting, he said. "To say that the climate was not strained would be to be a fibber," he said, referring to the current controversy over issues of sexuality. "But some of the conversations I had were very revealing." He learned, he said, that many of the African clergy feel that the American church does not understand the problems they have to live with on daily basis. In 2001, an estimated 40 million people worldwide were infected with HIV, according to a United Nations report. Of this number, 70 percent live in sub-Saharan Africa. And of the world's 14 million AIDS orphans, 92 percent are in Africa.
In Africa, many clergy are so busy performing funerals that they have no time to conduct regular worship services, Chane said. Parishes are understaffed, under funded and ill-equipped to cope with the massive demands on their time and services. "I am overwhelmed by the burdens that my brothers and sisters in other parts of the world have to carry," Chane said. While the prospect of sharing even a small part of that burden is daunting, the task force feels strongly that it is important not turn away from Africa in its time of need. "It's a very challenging thing," Washington said. "It's challenging just to contemplate it. But if any diocese were to take it on, it would be this diocese… It can be a gift to the whole church in just the modeling of this and the audacity to attempt it." Contact Lucy Chumbley at lchumbley@edow.org [ Back to index of November articles ]
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