CPSA Reconsiders Ban on Clergy Political Involvement
Episcopal News Service. October 5, 1994 [94168E]
At a recent synod, the bishops of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (CPSA) reconsidered the church's ban on clergy belonging to political parties. The bishops issued a document "reviewing and evaluating" the ban but not lifting it. Although the bishops agreed that the ban was necessary in some areas -- such as Angola, Mozambique and parts of South Africa -- the statement said that "because of the widely differing pastoral and political situations in which we find ourselves in the province, individual bishops will seek to work through these matters in their local context in consultation with their diocesan leadership and with those most directly involved." Bishop Michael Nuttal, dean of the province, added that "we would not call a bishop into question if, after this consultative process, he were to approve of someone, for instance, standing for local office in the forthcoming (South African) local government elections."