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UCCSA SAYS #NOXENOPHOBIA
The reflection from our Newsletter of this past month is an
invitation to join in the struggle for peace. God is calling us to
confront the twisted animal na-ture that rules in us. To all
Africans who are eager to respond to the cur-rent Xenophobic
outbreaks. I AM AFRICA is a movement by ordinary Afri-cans to break
the silence against Xenophobia and to initiate real action for
people affected. The I AM AFRICA posters are available on Facebook
page or can be emailed to you. Email [email protected]
goal is for these posters to be in every shop, office, school and
places of worship as well as on every street light and bus stop.
UCCSA Communications Officers Mr Mthobisi Wellington Sibanda
Newsletter Date: April 2015
Congregational Chronicle
Inside this issue:
UCCSA says #Notoxenophobia
2
SACC message 1
UCCSA @ 50 2
Executive Com 4
A prophetic response
5
News Brief 6-7
OBLIGATIONS
OF CHURCH
8
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The SACC is
driven by the
gospel of Jesus
Christ who was
a baby-refugee
with his
parents in
Africa;
Page 2 Congregational Chronicle
The SACC Update on the Xenophobic Challenges in
South Africa .April 23, 2015
The South African Council of Churches is, shocked, appalled and
alarmed by the horrific acts of xenophobic violence that have
gripped South Africa, lately beginning in Durban and spreading to
Gauteng Province! We condemn this violence in strongest possible
terms. We are disappointed at ourselves as churches that are found
in every corner of our country, that we were caught unawares by
these sad developments.
We understand that there are many underlying social and economic
reasons for the apparent resentment of non-nationals in some of the
poor communi-ties, but none of these could remotely justify these
inhuman acts of violence. Even so, the factors behind this need
investigation and effective attention. On our part and Christian
communities, we commit to an abiding campaign of community
dialogues and the quest for reconciliation and healing. In this
regard we join the People's March in Johannesburg on Thursday April
23, to, together with civil society and government representatives,
register our ab-horrence for this and be a prayerful presence in
the midst of the massive public anger. We ask for supportive
prayers and cooperative actions.
The SACC is driven by the gospel of Jesus Christ who was a
baby-refugee with his parents in Africa; and it is compelled by
biblical concern and care for those considered as foreigners or
strangers. In this context Jesus says:
Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire
prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you
gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to
drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed
clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you
did not look after me. (Mathew 25: 41 - 43)
The SACC condemns this dastardly treatment of fellow human
beings, and seeks to collaborate with other faith organisations,
civil society organisa-tions, all tiers of government, and with
business organisations, for immedi-ate, medium term and long term
solutions to these pressing challenges of our country, and to
ensure that all migrants who live in South Africa live safely and
can freely participate in the economy and social life.
Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana, SACC Acting General Secretary
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The UCCSA is turning 50 years in 2017. This provides us an
opportunity to Remember, Re-new and Rejoice! We thus have to dream
of the future of our church. That includes: We need to make this
major highlight of our milestone. This is an opportuni- ty to
reflect, renew and dream as a church on the future of our
congre-gational family. Commissions for now Fundraising Committee
Organising Committee Logistic and Budget Information and Publicity.
Activities now The Communications Unit will start designing a Road
Map from the 1967-2017 in conjuction the with the members of the
UCCSA and will be Inviting people to write stories or journal on
accomplishments of Celebrations for the last 50 years. UCCSA
Leadership will embark on Road shows and publicity and marketing of
the UCCSA brand . They will be a call for Mass Choir festivities
and celebrations .The Central office will also Invite people to
suggest themes for celebrations and we intend to have a strong
Media and Marketing Campaign .
UCCSA 50th Anniversary Celebrations
Page 3 Congregational Chronicle
Executive Committee Member, 38th UCCSA ASSEMBLY 2015 Greetings
and the blessings to you on this week in which we await the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit!
DATES AND VENUE The 38th Assembly of the United Congregational
Church of Southern Africa will be held from
Wednesday 19th to Tuesday 25th August 2015, at Windhoek High
School, Namibia. The pre-assembly Executive meeting will commence
on Wednesday 19th August 2015. The As-
sembly itself will commence on Thursday 20th August 2015 and
will conclude with the closing service at 19h00 on Tuesday 25th
August 2015.
ASSEMBLY AGENDA/REPORTS Items for the agenda of the Assembly and
Reports to the Assembly should reach the Office
of the Secretariat not later than 26th June 2015. Items not
submitted in writing will not be placed on the agenda of the
Assembly.
Your co-operation in these matters will be appreciated. Yours in
Christ Rev. Alistair Arends General Secretary
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From Gods Silence to Gods word: A prophetic response to
xenophobic waves in South Africa:
Page 4
Introduction The article seeks to attempt a hypothetical
questions what is God saying when things are like this? Is God
silent or ignoring the situation? As a human being yes God is
silent, but as theologi-ans, I think someone is challenged to
discern the voice of God.
What is being said: Those attacking the foreigners are accusing
them of taking their jobs. The Migrating for Work Research
Consortium (MiWORC), an organisation that examines migration and
its impact on the South African labour market in 2012 found that 82
percent of the working population aged between 15 and 64 were
non-migrants, 14 per-cent were domestic migrants who had moved
be-tween provinces in the past five years and just four percent
could be classed as international migrants. With an official
working population of 33,017,579 people, this means that around 1,
2-million of them were international migrants.A racial breakdown of
the statistics reveals that 79 percent of international mi-grants
were African, 17 percent were white and around three percent were
Indian or Asian.
From Gods silence to Gods word! The section and the article
assume that there is/was a time when God was or will be silent is
our lives as if to suggest divine deafness. I would speak of divine
restraint instead. The reading of the book of Lamentation and
Isaiah 40-55 suggest that God other voices to speak till they have
said all they want or can say. He doesnt interrupt, comfort,
correct, explain or excuse. The prophetic question the articles
brings is: those who want to hear Gods word on the situa-tion where
should they put ear? Definitely not in the affluent suburbs there
in not attack there, no service delivery protest, only the interest
of Empire is there 1. His voice is heard in the auditorium of the
slum, emijodolo. Why, it is for the struggling Afri-can to identify
them with struggling South African, unfortunately, they only have a
handful, guarded jealously. The survival skill says dont share
Secondly, the liberation movements have failed to transform the
exodus theology to the across the river Jordan theology. Where
burning tyres is no longer the methodology, but dialogue and
tolerance As the UCCSA we need to redefine our public engagement
and prophetic theology to reflect that it is victim-centred. Not
all Zimbabweans, Mozambicans, Somalis are the vicims, but those who
hunted by the brutality of the regime in Zimbabwe, political
instability in Mozambique, those who can not defend themselves from
the Boko Haram and Al Shabbab. Whose dignity, equality of all
humans and the image of God is easy to take away. These are the
black poor Africans . Rev Sindiso Jele
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Extract from UCCSA Statement on Afrophobia/Xenophobia
A missional community
listens to and understands the stories of
their neighbors in order to be able to tell the Gospel
Story in ways that are Good
News to those specific
people.
Page 5
The United Congregational Church of Southern Africa condemns in
the strongest terms possible, the recent attacks on black non-
South Africans. As a church which ministers in five countries in
Southern Africa, we feel the pain of our brothers and sisters to
whom we are related, in the deaths and displacement of their
relatives in a country which they admired for the miracle in 1994.
We believe in the Christ promise of fullness of life for all, the
all has no distinctions or qualifications it means all of Gods
creation! While welcoming the governments response to debate the
issue in parlia-ment this week, condemnatory statements by the ANC,
COSATU and the SACP, we regret that the response is too little and
too late: When the first attacks occurred in Johannesburg in 2008,
the then President, Thabo Mbeki asserted that we must continue to
manage the reality of unfulfilled expecta-tions. Seven years later
the issues for those who live in abject poverty still remain. Greg
Nicholson has named them and we echo his view they are job
creation, skills development, hunger, service delivery, corruption,
wide-spread poverty while a minority remains obscenely rich. In
places of such social deprivation, here in South Africa, as in
other parts of the world, the scapegoating of the other in our
midst becomes the easy way out, even if the other is not
responsible for our misery. In South Africa such scapegoating has
found expression in extreme Afrophobia, the killing and
displacement of the stranger in our midst. Most people in
Government, who were in exile in North Atlantic countries will have
been at the receiving end of such racial discrimination, as the
graffiti in the UK shouted out loud: Wogs go home! Could we not
have brought the learning from that experi-ence home with us? And
when we first saw the signs in 2008 could we not have acted more
swiftly in the knowledge that competition for limited re-sources
(jobs, housing, a decent meal) leads to such displaced
victimisation? Racism is still alive and kicking in the so-called
rainbow nation and the storm still rages! Given the systemic nature
of racism and the ideology of superiority which underpins and
sustains it, both during Apartheid and now, it feeds a pecking
order, hierarchies between different ethnic groups in South Africa
with the Tsonga,Venda and Shangaan at the bottom of the ladder. But
then came people from North of the Limpopo and Zambezi, and
irrational though it may be, the poor and marginalised in South
Africa are not too eager to share the land of milk and honey with
them, especially if it is already, for them , in short supply! So a
lower rank of the ladder is quickly introduced. So the Presidents
statement that these are our brothers and sisters who provided
shelter and assistance for us in exile will be cold comfort for the
poor who were not in exile, suffered under Apartheid and thought it
will be a better life for all post 1994, but by and large it has
not been for them; on-ly for a fortunate few. So, a peace bus from
Gauteng to KZN to provide solidarity to the more than 2000
displaced from their homes is a laudable gesture of support
especially with basic necessities through Gift of the Givers. But
for Government and Church alike, the questions remain: Why did the
need to flee from their homes in an area of abject poverty? We
cannot every time only pick up the pieces. It is time to
consistently and urgently address the root causes which feed this
Afrophobia. We Express our deepest sympathy and sense of shame to
the families of those who died in this irrational violence
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The Synod Secretary Rev Ndlazi and the Central Region
Chairperson
Rev Hess with the IMB Central region IMB members leading a
march
to deliver the General Seceretary Rev Alistair Arends statement
about
the church's non tolerance to Xenophobia/ Afrophobia. We would
like
say a big thank you to the leadership, the President Mrs Mpho
Moo-
ketsi for reaching out and providing food parcels that were
received by
the ward councillor together with the UCCSA statement.
The CWM Team, composed of six members, visited the United
Congregational Church of South Africa (UCCSA) from 5 to 18 April.
They went to the UCCSA local congregations in Botswa-na, Zimbabwe,
Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa. From Left-Right
Rev Andrew Scott
Moon Kim Joeong
Angela Martins
Uva Rova
Rev Christopher Vijiyan
News Brief
The CWM Team Participants to the UCCSA
Common Leadership
The Officers of the Denomination Rev Phillip Strydom (UCCSA
Presi-dent),Rev Alistair Arends (UCCSA General Secretary),Rev
Mosweu Simane(UCCSA President Elect and Mrs Florince Norris(UCCSA
Tresurer) visited the UCCSA Zimbabwe Synod Conference. During that
time they met with Synod leadership, retired ministers and took
part in the activities of the Synod. It is hoped that through this
visits a sense of oneness, support and common vision for the Church
will be achieved. Part of the Executive members that were there
were The Acting Mission
Council Rev Kudzani Ndebele, Botswana Mission Secretary Rev
Mpatho
and UCCSA Communications Officer Mr Mthobisi Sibanda
The meeting
was very
convivial and
hopeful, and a
lot of
groundwork
was done.
Page 6
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GenerationNext Breakfast fellowship with Rev Marco Antonio
(Executive Secretary -Africa Office Global Ministries) ,UCCSA
Communications Offiicer Mr Wellington Mthobisi Sibanda and
Mfanafuthi Shezi (Past SA Synod Youth Convenor)and UCCSA Caretaker
Mr Thomas Mmolo
This was after an Official Visit to the UCCSA Central
Office where he met the UCCSA Leadership.Rev.
Marco Cable is the new Executive for the Africa Of-
fice. It was his first official visit to the Member
churches in Africa
To apply for this Programme, you must be a student preparing for
ministry and must not be already ordained
Interested applicants may contact the General Secretary of the
Denomination Church or the Principal of the Theological College.
Application forms may also be downloaded from the CWM website at:
www.cwmission.org. You may also contact Sudipta Singh, Programme
Secretary for Empowerment and Train-ing at (email):
[email protected]. Duly completed ap-plication must be
submitted via email at the above-mentioned email address or at hard
copy to this address:
Deadline of application is on 15 July 2015.
#GenerationNext Breakfast fellowship
CWM Face to Face Programme
Page 7
UCCSA Synods are kindly invited to send nominations to the UCCSA
General Secretary for the positions of President-elect and Treasure
,Assembly Training for Ministry Chairperson and Mis-sion Council
Convenors so that they can be published in the Next Newsletter. The
Synods are invited to send a picture of the person they are
nominating with a brief motivation of no more than two paragraphs.
Please note that we will be publishing the profiles of the
candidates for Treasurer and President-Elect in the next newsletter
if we have them before 31 July 2015
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OBLIGATIONS OF CHURCH MEMBERS The main obligation is to bear in
mind that the church was founded, not
by humans, but by Christ. Christ is the head of the church, its
life and its
authority. From this fact originates the church members duties.
To join in worship regularly Members should make a point of being
at services, with heart and mind
prepared. The goodness of God greatness of Gods mercy in Jesus
Christ call for our praise. As we worship, we receive new strength
and vision,
and at the same time contribute to the spiritual strength of the
Church. To share in the work of the Church One cannot expect to
obtain the benefit of Christian fellowship if you
leave all the work to others. The Church has many and varied
activities.
There is enough to do for everyone to offer their gift, develop
skills and
experience the joy of service. To join in governing the Church
Congregationalist sees the running of the affairs of the church as
part of
their worship. The Church meeting is its governing body, under
Christ; it
is our duty and privilege to take part. To support the Church
financially Consecrated giving is part of discipleship. The Church
cannot fulfil its mis-
sion without financial resources. To create a pattern of private
devotion If we are to receive what the Church fellowship has to
offer, we must
first be prepared to give to it by deepening our own spiritual
lives. We
should learn to live in Gods presence by having a daily quiet
time of pray-er and reflection, of studying the Bible
systematically and receptively until
it becomes the Word of God to us. To attend the celebration of
Holy Communion This is the feast of those who love the Lord, not of
those who are worthy
of his love. in it we celebrate the gift of Christs sacrifice
made once and for all. It is also the meeting-place where we renew
communion with him,
at his invitation.
To assist in creating a loving spirit in the Church The Church
is a body of people who have responded to Gods call in Christ. In
fellowship with them we learn the kindness, patient,
thoughtful-
ness and courtesy, which we owe to all people To maintain our
Church membership when we move to a new re-
gion The local church is part of the UCCSA. We must link up with
it wherever
we go To value our Congregational heritage We accept the unity
of all who believe in Jesus Christ, Lord and Saviour,
while also regarding our Congregational tradition as a unique
and vital
part of the church Universal. We are thankful for a heritage,
which gives
us so many opportunities to serve. The UCCSA is part of a great
compa-
ny consisting of sister churches throughout the world all linked
together
by the council for World.
Rev Alistair Arends The General Secretary
Email:[email protected] Rev Kudzani Ndebele Media Liason Officer
Mr Wellington Mthobisi Sibanda Communications Officer Email:
[email protected] Tel: +27 11 837 9997 Fax: +27 11 837 2570
Email: [email protected] Website: www.uccsa.co.za
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