Browning Named to Namibia Delegation
Episcopal News Service. September 21, 1983 [83170]
NEW YORK (DPS, Sept. 22) -- The bishop of Hawaii and the staff officer for public issues at the Episcopal Church Center have been asked by Archbishop Robert K. Runcie of Canterbury to join an Anglican delegation for a two-week pastoral visit to Namibia.
The invitation comes at the request of the bishop of Namibia, the Rt. Rev. James Kauluma, and with the support of the Primate of the Church in Southern Africa, the Most Rev. Phillip Russell.
It marks the second time this year that the Archbishop of Canterbury has asked a such a delegation to visit this region for pastoral reasons. The first was the Holy Week visit in support of Bishop Desmond Tutu in the face of a South African government investigation into the South African Council of Churches.
The Rt. Rev. Edmond Browning and the Rev. Charles A. Cesaretti will be joined in Johannesburg, South Africa by the Most Rev. John M. Watanabe, primate of the Nippon Sei Ko Kai (Japan) the Rt. Rev. Yona Okoth, primate-elect of the Church in Uganda, The Rt. Rev. J. L. Thompson, suffragan bishop in the Diocese of London, Mr. Terry Waite, Runcie's Anglican Communion affairs assistant, and the Rev. Winston Ndugane, provincial liaison officer for the Church in the Province of Southern Africa.
Browning, a member of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church, first served as a bishop in Okinawa and was director of the World Mission work of the Episcopal Church when he was elected bishop of Hawaii in 1976. Cesaretti has worked closely with Waite, Runcie and with Presiding Bishop John M. Allin in monitoring human rights and corporate involvement in Southern Africa.
In addition to being the second such visit to southern Africa, the event marks a significant change in the way that the Anglican communion operates. Rather than through single communion-to-communion relationships, the members are acting more in concert to express pastoral concern and collect and disseminate information about troubled areas around the world.
After briefings on Oct. 13, the group will travel to Namibia where they will break into teams. It is their hope to visit all of the parishes in the country between then and Oct. 25. After their visit, they will meet with Russell, make a public report and then report in detail to Runcie and to their own communions. Browning is expected to report to the Executive Council at its November meeting in New York.
This will be the second time this year that an American bishop -- and a member of the Executive Council -- has gone into Namibia. In June, the Rt. Rev. Furman C. Stough and lay and clerical representatives from the diocese of Alabama spent three weeks in the country and diocese with which they have a companion relationship. Their experience, as summed up by Stough in the August edition of the Alabama Churchman, hints at what the new Anglican delegation will encounter.
"Our Anglican brothers and sisters, particularly in the operational area in the north, feel a deep sense of isolation, and our physical presence among them seems to be most encouraging and supportive to them. We gathered always with a sense of joy and expectation, and an undergirding belief that God is in control of His World and his creation in spite of what we may see or encounter in the circumstances around us.
"Perhaps the greatest gift that we Christians can share with one another is simply to be with one another... to stand side by side and to experience together whatever life may bring.
"We came away from Namibia greatly blessed and deeply thankful that the Lord has led us into this companion relationship. We are enkindled anew about the relationship and believe that the Lord has much in store for all of us in the future."
Namibia, formerly known as South West Africa, has been under the administration of South Africa since December, 1920, under a League of Nations mandate. Since 1946, various international initiatives to place the country under United Nations trusteeship have failed. Current negotiations by the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France, and West Germany acting as a contract group to define the status of the territory have shown little progress due, in part, to the linkage to the political climate in Angola which is on Namibia's northern border.