Boesak Challenges Anglican Meet
Episcopal News Service. May 7, 1987 [87101]
SINGAPORE (DPS, May 7) -- Speaking to a plenary session of the Anglican Consultative Council meeting, the Rev. Dr. Alan Boesak asked the delegates, "Where and who is the church? And does it speak only in assembly? Only when its leaders draft a statement? Or does it speak when people take up the struggle for the voiceless, the poor and powerless?"
Boesak is president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and Moderator of a branch of that church in South Africa. He was the third prominent, international, ecumenical leader to address the Council on the subject of "The Unity We Seek." He did so from the perspective of peace and justice, rather than from primarily textual and doctrinal approaches as had his predecessors, Roman Catholic theologian Nicholas Lash and Lutheran Harding Meyer.
The struggle for peace and justice is going on all over the world, Boesak said, with or without the approval of the church, which, in terms at least of bishops and synods, comes late to the struggle in many instances. The church as the people -- "the little peoples of rod who have faith in Jesus Christ and his promises and the reality of the Kingdom of God" -- goes into the streets and challenges evil.
This struggle is not just complementary to the life and witness of the church, Boesak said; rather it lies at the center of discipleship. It is when "we leave the pulpit and the hallowed sanctuary and go into the streets and worship God there, through the sacrifices of our lives, that we are the church."
No one church can tackle the problems of peace and justice alone, Boesak said. It is the church ecumenical which should and must respond, and participate, and become united in the struggle as the church.
That is happening, very well at the local level, where people share daily the life and death matters of survival. He told of a time when he was arrested, along with 10 others, during a protest march. It had been a long day, and they were tired and hungry even before they were arrested. One of those arrested had brought along a cheese sandwich for the march, and another had a bar of chocolate. They gave these to Boesak and asked him to distribute them.
"And so in prison, I did that, and we shared this bread and this chocolate," Boesak recalled. "And I thought to myself, 'Is it sinful to think that this is one of the most meaningful experiences of communion I've ever experienced?'"
Five Christian policemen guarding the 11 watched as they read scripture, prayed and ate bread and chocolate as communion. One need not worry about sacramental theology at such a time, this theologian said, because you cannot underestimate the power of the testimony that flows from such action.
Unity is also required at the international level, and within the councils of our own churches, where the truth is, Boesak said, we are often divided. The church too often becomes the refuge of the upper classes instead of the champion of the oppressed.
The question is, he said, "what price are we willing to pay for the unity of the church?" A unity based on a compromise with the Gospel is no unity, Just as there is no unity without truth and without the integrity of discipleship.
Essential to achieving justice, Boesak said, is learning to be peacemakers. Advising his Anglican brethren on this matter, he said the first step was to stop handling war as a problem and begin seeking peace as an achievable goal. No do this we must master the techniques of peacemaking, rather than the techniques of making war. Churches have a vital role to play as teachers of peacemaking.
Boesak noted that in South Africa there is a whole generation of children who have known nothing in their lives but violence and death. "What will they be like when they grow up?" he asked. "We can't wait until the moment of liberation arrives to do this. If we wait (until the struggle erupts into a revolution), by the time we've waded through the rivers of blood, will there be anyone left with whom we can work and reconcile?"
Boesak left no doubt that he is himself committed to non-violent protest rather than bloodshed, although he acknowledged that almost all the non-violent campaigns have ended in massacre. "The only way we can get out of all this is to break the cycle of violence."
In an interview earlier that day, Boesak said the only thing which keeps him awake at night is that he is the one who must make the decision to stage a protest or a march. "When I do, I know that some will be hurt, and some will go to prison, and some will die. But we must protest when we are told such nonsense as that we cannot pray for, or even think about these thousands of children that are being kept in prison." (He referred to more than 25,000 persons currently being detained in South African prisons, without charges or trial, 40 percent of whom are children.)
In a question period following Boesak's address, American Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning asked him how churches like the American church, which has declared its solidarity with those in South Africa fighting to end apartheid, could help?
Boesak replied that seeking an intensified campaign of "well targeted" international sanctions against the South African government was the thing which could finally bring the system to a halt.