It has been just over a month now that we attended the Winter School workshop at Khanya College (and particularly the faith based workshop) and I would like you to find a way of expressing our thanks and support to Khanya College for the excellent work that they are doing.
It is often difficult to explain this to people who have a certain (normally negative) view of Christianity and the Church. The truth is that the church was born in the prophetic tradition of Jesus of Nazareth and that some people have over the years attempted to hijack this message and baptise it in the message of Empire, etc. But Kairos has a way of rising above all of this all the time. Jesus himself said that if his followers proclaim his just reign, then even the stones will shout it out. So nothing can stop the prophetic message of Jesus even though it is being challenged from all sides all the time.
The Kairos document of 1985 was a huge eye-opener for the institutional church and one of the positive outcomes of the Kairos document was that many in the church (not all) joined the anti-apartheid movement and suffered with the people. We went to prison with the people, we advocated for sanctions and divestment from South Africa, and we generally kept the flame of hope in the darkest times of South Africa. But the problem with joining a cause is that once the cause is won, people tend to sit back. We did not have the language to be able to take the project of Kairos forward into the new South Africa, the project to express our faith and spirituality anew. Now we are in the process of finding that language again, and as we emerge once again, we want to stand shoulder to shoulder with the poorest in society – about that there must be no doubt. We have a lot to learn from the poor because that is where Jesus would have been found, and that is where he is to be found.
Our challenges are therefore many: we still need to find ways to get our church leaders to embrace this prophetic message of Jesus. So often they are caught up in day to day administration and in an old paradigm and therefore some of us, organising ourselves under the umbrella of Kairos Southern Africa, have no option but to move where others fear to tread. We cannot do this with a spirit of self-righteousness but rather in a spirit of humility, listening to the voices of the poorest.
So how do we take things forward? It is only by organising on a local level, by building networks and partnerships, not in a theoretical way, but in action. We are also involved in global solidarity actions, and at this time our focus is particularly on Palestine. That which is holding the church back locally also holds the church back globally. There is a false way of being in interfaith relationship, a relationship that excludes justice. This kind of interfaith relationship we are not interested in. We believe that there are certain values that bind us together and it is from these values that we move towards a relationship, and not simply from doctrinal issues for example, we are children of Abraham, etc.
Anyway, this note is just to thank Khanya on behalf of Kairos Southern Africa for the opportunity to be at this workshop and to express the hope that we will together look forward to a deepening of relationships as well as a strengthening of networks on the ground in communities across Southern Africa.
God bless,
Edwin
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