Ad Clerum
Easter
Number 2/14
The celebration of Easter has been a joyous and fulfilling experience for us all. It is a good thing to be utterly exhausted, but with a real sense of spiritual accomplishment!
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for the intense and focussed effort put into a successful Lent and a glorious Easter in your respective parishes. Well done indeed! Your people have been blessed in the fine services that they have received from you. You truly are faithful servants of Our Lord Jesus Christ. I was most encouraged by the news out of our parishes and asked if any of you had taken any photos of your Easter experiences. Here are a few for your interest.
Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter
The wonderful procession through Seshego by the people of All Saints Pro-Cathedral; Note the traffic control by Palm Branch!
A parishioner admires the Palm Sunday décor at St John the Evangelist, Soweto Maundy Thursday
Christ Church, Brackenfell is a lively and growing parish. On Palm Sunday, the people of the parish walked together from the local shopping centre to the church, letting the whole community know of their presence as a Christian community.
The beautiful altar for Maundy Thursday at Christ Church, Brackenfell, Cape Town. The jug and bowl for the Foot Washing Ceremony can be seen in the foreground.
The Blessing of the Oils and Renewal of Priestly Vows took place at Holy Cross, Pretoria. Many clergy attended and I thank you all for the messages sent from the far-flung parts of the Diocese. We were able to pray for all our brethren not able to be with us for the service that day. Holy Oils for Unction are available to all the clergy. Please ensure that your stock is renewed. There is plenty for all.
Good Friday
Meaningful services, vigils and presentations took place throughout Southern Africa. Fr Lionel Kuiper sent me the script of his well-prepared and moving addresses, whilst I received reports of excellent services, with many of the faithful attending.
The lovely tableau for Good Friday at St Andrews, Mondeor, Johannesburg, showing Pilate’s judgement seat in the foreground, the Last Supper in the background. It is
exciting to see God’s people being so creative in their churches. Diocesan News:
Fr Mike Maseko has not been well and needs the prayers of the Diocese.
The recent operation on Fr Martin Magoleng’s eye has been successful, and he has expressed gratitude for the prayers and support from people in the Diocese.
R.I.P The Rev Fr Phuti Joconiah Thopola (05/05/1932 to 10/05/2014)
Fr Joconiah Thopola in his beloved church, St Matthews, Hammanskraal, 2008
Fr Thopola has been a wonderful and innovative Priest. His work in the area of Hammanskraal, North of Pretoria was energetic and innovative. His parish of St Matthew’s was founded in two old busses welded together by Fr Thopola himself, and his crèche and feeding scheme brought great relief to many in Mandela Village, Hammanskraal. He had a great love of music and was a deeply spiritual man of God.
In 2010, a fire devastated the St Matthews complex, and destroyed almost all of Fr Thopola’s hard work. The fire damaged his already frail health, and he never fully recovered from the shock of this event.
The St Matthew’s Centre Fr Thopola, Fr Mashiane and Fr Magoleng survey the fire damage in 2010
Fr Thopola’s funeral was a wonderful proclamation of hope and love.
Confirmation at St Martin de Porres, Ekangala took place on the Sunday after Easter. The parish is showing real growth and Fr Sekoba is to be commended on his work there. This vibrant and dedicated community will soon have to move into larger premises.
Holy Baptism at Ekangala The group confirmed at St Martin de Porres Project Soweto: St John the Evangelist.
This very exciting project is now ‘up and running’ in Protea Glen, Soweto. Fr Edom has had a month of services and the people were able enjoy a full Holy Week schedule. 30 people attended the first service and the numbers are steadily increasing; there were 50 on Good Friday! Please pray for this new parish and its success.
Some images of Holy Week at St John the Evangelist
Farewell to Fr Allen Smith.
After 13 years of diligent and highly successful ministry to the people of St Andrew’s, Mondeor, in the Southern area of Johannesburg, Fr Allen Smith is returning to England to retire. The parish held a series of farewell functions in gratitude for his fine service to the church. We wish him and Sue every blessing and know that they will continue to be a strong Christian presence wherever they are found.
Fr Allen was a part of the parish from its time in a school hall until the present, where the parish now has a beautiful and fully paid off building. Fr Allen has exercised a caring pastoral ministry, has remained faithful to his calling, and he can look back with satisfaction on a work of the Gospel that has borne its fruit, even during his lifetime. From a small group of enthusiastic people, the parish has developed into a dynamic Christian community, with good music, a flourishing Youth Group and full participation from the laity.
St Andrew’s is a truly ‘new South African’ parish, and the harmony and love between members is an inspiring witness in the community.
Fr Allen can be truly satisfied with what has been achieved in Jesus Christ’s Name. He has been a good and faithful servant of the Lord.
Please keep Fr Allen and Sue in your prayers as they relocate to England.
Easter at St Andrews – Fr Allen Smith’s last service with the parish
Church Warden Ross Shepstone thanks Fr Allen and Sue Smith for their fine work at St Andrews, Mondeor.
The Christian Priest and the path to holiness
The call to a holy life is basic to Christian living, and the development of a godly and holy lifestyle is the responsibility of every individual Christian person, young or old.
For the Christian Priest, a life of personal holiness and piety is absolutely essential, as he is called to be the focal point of the worshipping community and a living example to the Flock of Christ. Words spoken from the pulpit can have no integrity without an accompanying lifestyle that compliments his Priestly ministry. The Priest has the unenviable task of proving to the People of God that a godly and holy life is within their reach. Perhaps that is why it is so difficult for clergy to attain, for every Christian Priest that determinedly follows a holy life will certainly find his efforts and his witness under attack from the evil one. The ‘world, the flesh and the devil’ do not like to be put to shame by a godly and holy Priest! Personal holiness is hard for any person to attain, given the stresses and strains of daily life, but for the Christian Priest, it becomes an integral part of the daily proclamation of the truth of his calling and so he may not fail. To be the image of Christ at the Altar of the Lord requires a clarity of vision, a certainty of faith and a visible holiness that can come only from the power of the Holy Ghost.
The path to holiness is a lonely one, for the ‘man of the world’ has no real interest in either spiritual life or its accompanying values. Every person in the working world is called to compromise at some level, and compromise is the enemy of holiness. God’s holiness is something absolutely ‘other’ from our daily life, and the Christian Priest is called to show his people that focus on God’s high standards can and will make a difference for the good in ordinary daily living. The ‘ordinary’ man or woman faces enormous difficulties in walking the path of holiness. The pressures of family life and work mean that limited time is available for deep contemplation on the things of God. The possibility of failure is always present and its accompanying sense of guilt can demotivate and hinder their life of faith. The example of a godly and holy Priest is a life-line to the person seeking faith and meaning; an attainable level that he or she can see, and then hopefully reach within their own faith experience day by day.
So…how can I, the Christian Priest, attain holiness? There is only one answer, and that by fully immersing oneself in the life of Jesus Christ, His methods and His high standards. What was His method? It was the skill of being comfortably alone with the Father. Jesus built into His whole experience of life a sense of oneness with the Father that was intensely intimate, personal and open. His conversation with the Father in Gethsemane, recorded in the Gospels, is utterly open and personal; his confrontation of evil and temptation in the wilderness was directly in accordance with the Word of his Father and the result of His oneness with the Father through solitary fasting and prayer.
As social beings, we can say that we are comfortable with aloneness, but at the same time we also crave acceptance and popularity. Christian Priests are no different from other men in this regard. Perhaps our character type as pastoral beings means that acceptance and popularity are more important to us than we care to admit? There lies our greatest danger in the quest for holiness; and there are the very temptations confronted and defeated by Jesus in the wilderness during His Temptation. Many televangelists have indeed cast themselves down from the spires of the Temple or endeavoured to turn loaves into bread in order to fill their vast churches or TV ratings. Their fall has been inevitably spectacular. Modernity and its trappings hold grave dangers for us; Social Networks and communication can consume our time and our quietness; we must be careful with our souls.
Brothers, hours spent in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, searching the Holy Scriptures, or contemplating the Love of God in deep prayer are never wasted, but are, in reality moments well-spent. Solitude with God cannot be time wasted; it is the development of our deep and lasting relationship with the One we serve and seek to emulate in our life of ministry. Solitude with Our Lord is our spiritual life-line as we give of ourselves in ministry. How can we speak of Him we do not know as a true Friend and Brother? How can we follow in His holy steps if we are ‘texting while we walk’? We will stand before the Judge of all men and be measured, not by the hits on our websites, or our popularity in the community, but rather by the quality of our life of faith. The Psalmist says, “The Lord shall reward me after my righteous dealings, and according to the cleanness of my hands, will he recompense me” (Ps18:20)… yes, I will be rewarded according to the holiness (or cleanness) of my life.
Dedicate yourself afresh to that great quest, the quest for holiness, godliness and goodness, as we did together on Maundy Thursday. You will then be the Priest of God you have always ached to be…dedicated, disciplined, upright and.…..holy. God bless and keep you.
In Christ
Bishop Michael Southern Africa
