The Acts of Convention

Whereas, in its courageous stand against the evils of the illegal occupying South African regime and against South Africa's inhuman application of its racist policies in Namibia, the Anglican Church there, because of its determined refusal to accept the racist ideologies imposed by South Africa and because of its consistent stand with the oppressed, has undergone vicious persecution at the hands of that state;

Whereas, the Church has seen the expulsion of three of its bishops, the Rt. Rev. Robert H. Mize, Jr. (1968), the Rt. Rev. Colin O'Brien Winter (1972), and the Rt. Rev. Richard James Wood (1975), the removal of all its white missionaries, the forcible closure by the state of a major hospital at St. Mary's, Odibo;

Whereas, the Church has seen the daily assault of its people, the flogging of one hundred people in public, the killing of six of its people at Epingo (1971);

Whereas, the Church faces the total disruption through the possible closure of its Churches in Northern Ovamboland, the destruction of its Churches and schools and the threat of wholesale removal of its clergy and people there;

Whereas, the people of the Diocese of their sufferings have consistently shown a steadfast determination to make their stand by the Gospel, have manifested a spirit of forgiveness, forbearance, and love, thus demonstrating to the Church universal that God's power is revealed in weakness as an ensign of courage and hope; and

Whereas, the United Nations Commission at its meeting in Dakar, Senegal, in January, 1976, by resolution called upon international organizations throughout the world to do all in their power to support and assist the Churches in their struggle; therefore, be it

Resolved, the House of Bishops concurring, that the 65th General Convention request the Episcopal Church of America to assist and support in every possible way the people of the Diocese of Damaraland, Namibia, and their exiled bishops, in their struggle for justice, freedom, and human dignity: