Anglican Leaders Urge Justice and Peace in Meetings with South African Political Figures
Episcopal News Service. February 2, 1993 [93017]
In meetings with the three most significant political figures in South Africa, leaders of the Anglican Communion issued a consistent message -- words of gratitude for an end to legal apartheid, and words of pressure for a peaceful transition to majority rule in that country.
The meetings with Anglican Communion leaders and South African President F.W. de Klerk, African National Congress (ANC) President Nelson Mandela, and Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi of the Inkatha Freedom Party were held in conjunction with the joint meeting of Anglican primates and the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), January 19-30 in Cape Town, South Africa.
Following a private meeting in de Klerk's office, the president expressed gratitude for the church's pursuit of a climate of reconciliation in society. "The church obviously has a tremendous influence over the hearts and minds of its members," de Klerk said, and can help "bring Christians together, bring leaders together" to reach the majority of moderate South Africans who will support political change.
"I think the church in general, which includes the Anglican Communion, has a tremendous contribution to make in the reconciliation," de Klerk added.
However, the president stopped short of praising church leaders for their role in galvanizing international pressure on South Africa in the past. "The church definitely made a contribution, but the contribution was not the one of aggression; the contribution was one of prayer," he said.
Although de Klerk acknowledged the international Christian communities support for an end to apartheid, "at some times some of the more aggressive actions delayed change," he contended.
Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey described the meeting between de Klerk and Anglican leaders as "very frank, warm, friendly." He said that the Anglicans congratulated de Klerk on "his own personal achievements in bringing about remarkable changes" in South Africa. "We wished him well in his onerous responsibilities."
"I believe we're at the state now where we've seen the good will and commitment of the South African government, and that there ought to be good will on the part of the international community in supporting and encouraging the welcome developments," Carey said.
In a public address to the joint meeting of the primates and the ACC, Zulu Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party, chided the some of South Africa's churches for not recognizing their own complicity in maintaining apartheid in the past.
"I detect all too frequently...a sense of righteousness in which some of our church leaders are claiming the victory of the suffering masses who struggled against apartheid as victories for their avant-garde political thinking."
Instead, Buthelezi said, "Let us understand that there is a need for us to look at the reality that errors of political leaders everywhere imperiled the very souls of men and women, and that the church was too confused in its thinking to avert the centuries of suffering which mankind has known."
Buthelezi, who is an Anglican, added that "that is not to say that the church leaders have not played their prophetic role through decades of apartheid and oppression," and pointed to Archbishop Desmond Tutu as an example of that prophetic role of the church.
In a final meeting with political leaders, Mandela praised the Anglican Communion as "one of the most powerful forces" in the movement to end apartheid. "The Anglican Church has been in the front lines when our leaders were in jail," Mandela said. "The church has played a seminal role in the struggle for democracy and it will continue to play that role."
Mandela's visit with the primates and ACC was greeted by a throng of university students and supporters who sang political songs and danced the toyi-toyi, a shuffling, high-kneed dance usually seen at political rallies. When he entered the meeting hall to speak, students and supporters erupted in an impromptu song calling on Mandela to "show us the way to freedom."
Describing him as "one of the most powerful friends of the democratic forces in this country," Mandela said that Carey's visit to South Africa bolstered "the morale of our people far beyond the borders of the Anglican Church."
Mandela said that the support of the international community must not end when a majority-rule government is eventually established in South Africa. "We'll need progressive people in positions of authority and make sure that we have a civil service, army and police force which will which will defend democracy, not minority rule."
Mandela pledged that if the ANC has an opportunity to form a new government, it would be a "government of national unity" that will "invite other parties to join," including de Klerk's National Party.
In response to Mandela, Carey emphasized that "diversity is a characteristic of Anglicanism," and that "underlying it is a passionate commitment to justice and equality and freedom."
"Your visit to us has made a deep impression," Carey told Mandela. "You are a symbol of the amazing ability of the human spirit to conquer adversity, and to emerge from it."