Episcopal Press and News
South African Churches Work to Curb Violence, Support Electoral Process
Episcopal News Service. February 24, 1994 [94030]
Patricia Lefevere
On few occasions can the church take a bow and receive near universal praise on the world stage -- but it happened during a recent meeting of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in South Africa.
"If we notch up a victory against apartheid, it is your victory," Archbishop and Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu told the WCC's Central Committee at its January 20-28 meeting in Johannesburg. The 150-member committee is drawn from the council's 324 member churches representing nearly half a billion Anglican, Protestant and Orthodox believers in some 100 countries.
The WCC lifted its 14-year program of sanctions against South Africa at the Johannesburg meeting. North American and European churches were among the first to lobby their governments and businesses to sever economic ties to the apartheid government.
Most participants regard the WCC's role as prophetic. "Change is possible when people of faith stand together," observed the Rev. John Lindner, a Presbyterian minister from New Jersey. "The vocation of the church is to be people of hope -- not idle or false hope but real, tangible hope."
The WCC intends to serve as both a sign and instrument of hope as South Africans prepare for their first multi-party, non-racial elections April 26-28. To insure that the elections are free, fair and without fraud, the country will need 30,000 electoral monitors at 9,000 polling stations. The nation's churches are being challenged to provide the bulk of the monitors.
No one expects the task to be easy. Even as the apartheid "monster" lies comatose, "it has spawned some hideously deformed stepchildren -- the worst of which is violence," said Methodist Bishop Peter Storey of Johannesburg. Persistent violence threatens to disrupt not only the elections, but also the new majority government.
Most churches, including Anglican dioceses, will join efforts at voter education during Lent. The Rev. Earl Neill, former executive for national mission at the Episcopal Church Center who recently served in the Church of the Province of Southern Africa's (CPSA) Department of Justice and Reconciliation, described the CPSA's voter education efforts. "We held workshops about the whole democratization process targeted for vestry, parish councils, diocesan councils, men's, women's and youth groups. Our efforts were geared at training people to go on out to train others," he said.
"We emphasized that the elections are just one aspect of the whole democratization process and part of voter education through the church is making people aware of that," Neill added. "Not only do you have the elections, but once you elect someone to office, you have a right and a responsibility to hold them accountable."
The church's efforts will be most difficult in the Diocese of Natal because of continued fighting between supporters of Nelson Mandela's African National Congress and the Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party led by Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
The Diocese of Natal is giving extensive attention to the election in close collaboration with the Natal Church Leader's Group and local ecumenical agencies. The group has issued a public appeal to all parties to take part in the elections. However, Inkatha's opposition was making voter education difficult in some areas, according to Bishop Michael Nuttall of Natal. "It is seen as taking sides."
Inkatha has been calling for a boycott of the elections. Nuttall is worried that a boycott will undermine the secrecy of the ballot box. "To stand in a queue and vote will show you oppose the boycott," Nuttall said. Church leaders in Natal have called for Sunday April 24 to be observed as a special day of prayer for a free, fair and peaceful election.
In the neighboring Diocese of Zululand, Bishop Peter Harker has found "fairly strong feeling against participation" in voter education. Yet in the Diocese of Klerksdorp in Western Transvall, a stronghold of the Afrikaner Resistance Movement, people are highly politicized and ready to vote.
Participants at the WCC meeting heard General Secretary Konrad Raiser urge South Africa's churches and ecumenical bodies to "maintain their clear and independent voice on behalf of the people and in favor of social justice and basic rights." Moved by the leadership of the churches in peacemaking efforts, the WCC established a Program to Overcome Violence that will include a study of the effectiveness of sanctions in resisting oppressive regimes.
In what will be seen as a further attempt to strengthen support for the African members of the WCC, the Central Committee voted to accept an invitation from the Zimbabwe Council of Churches and the country's Roman Catholic bishops to hold the Eighth Assembly and 50th-year jubilee in Harare.
