{"id":4975,"date":"2016-03-18T18:12:06","date_gmt":"2016-03-18T23:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/?p=4975"},"modified":"2016-03-18T18:12:06","modified_gmt":"2016-03-18T23:12:06","slug":"south-african-archbishop-calls-for-renewed-vision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/south-african-archbishop-calls-for-renewed-vision\/","title":{"rendered":"South African Archbishop Calls for Renewed Vision"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"ImageGen.ashx\"<\/a>
Archbishop Thabo Makgoba
Photo Credit: ACNS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba, has called for South Africans to stop chanting \u201cthis must fall\u201d and, instead, work together to \u201ccreate a deafening chorus of what must rise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Archbishop Makgoba, the primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, made his remarks at the opening of a new Socio-Economic Future of South Africa (SEFSA) initiative which is being led by religious, civil society, business and community-based organisations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t need to preach to you that South Africa is in a state of crisis or epidemic distrust, perhaps one more serious than any we have faced since those dark days of the early 1990s when we risked being torn apart by violence,\u201d Archbishop Makgoba said. \u201cThis too is a crisis that threatens to tear our social fabric apart and to send us into a downward spiral from which we will struggle to escape.\u201d<\/p>\n

He described some \u201celements\u201d of the current crisis as the \u201cstubbornly high\u201d rate of unemployment, the \u201cstubbornly low\u201d rate of economic growth, poor education and nationwide student unrest.<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cOur nation is experiencing an unprecedented and historic crisis of distrust. Industry doesn\u2019t trust government. Labour doesn\u2019t trust government. Civil society doesn\u2019t trust government. Traditional leaders and religious leaders don’t trust government. International banks and markets don\u2019t trust government.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd in response, government says, it doesn\u2019t trust anyone either. In fact, I believe the most endangered species in South Africa is not what you think it is. It is trust. . .<\/p>\n

He said that South Africa had \u201cbecome a society in which \u2018me\u2019 has replaced \u2018we\u2019 \u2013 one in which we place our personal and family interests ahead of the interests of all of us.\u201d And that SEFSA wanted instead \u201cto build a courageous society in which we tap into the good in each South African instead of preying on their fears and promoting hate.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cThe faith leaders who form part of this initiative are saying that we as a nation have lost our moral compass, partly because we in the faith community have been too quiet for too long. We are asking and I am asking, what has led us to this epidemic level of distrust, this crossroads?<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Africans have been tranquillized by un-kept promises. They have been lied to and sedated into thinking that the promised answers are around the corner. For decades, the promises of equality haven’t been kept. The promise of equality of opportunity has failed to be delivered or achieved. We can’t just feel and preach. We want more than just talk \u2013 we want action.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me as a Christian, observing Lent and approaching Easter, the SEFSA process reflects the workings of the movement of the Holy Spirit, transforming people, offering them new alternatives and encouraging them to be bold.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis initiative offers the faith community an opportunity to express our support for those in government who are fighting to eradicate corruption. Perhaps it offers us all an opportunity to create support mechanisms for honest public servants. It offers us a chance to appeal to the humanity of both students who threaten violence and destruction, and those in authority who are tempted to demonise them. It gives us the space to say to the country: Stop! Vuka! Let\u2019s think calmly and rationally and look for a way out of this crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Report adapted from the Anglican Communion News Service (ACNS)<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba, has called for South Africans to stop chanting \u201cthis must fall\u201d and, instead, work together to \u201ccreate a deafening chorus of what must rise.\u201d Archbishop Makgoba, the primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, made his remarks at the opening of a new Socio-Economic Future of South…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":4976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","ctfw-has-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/610"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4975"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4978,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4975\/revisions\/4978"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}