Bishop Dominic writes…
We often say that ‘time flies when you are having fun’ and the five years since we signed the agreement with our companion Diocese of the Highveld has certainly flown by - and I think it has been fun. We are due to consider renewing the companion link for a further five years at our Diocesan Conference this year.
'The companion link is rooted in prayer'
Before signing the link agreement, the two bishops spent time praying together in the chapel of Tymawr Convent.
The companion link is rooted in prayer and in love for one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. There is a great deal that we have in common as Anglicans and also a great deal that makes us different. Many of our parishes have linked with parishes in the Highveld and many of our parishioners have spent hours in knitting blankets, baby clothes and jumpers for babies and toddlers, and in collecting teddy bears and other items for children. I have witnessed a consignment arriving and the sheer joy that it gave to the people. We also helped to rebuild a settlement destroyed by fire. One of our parishes supports a food station, and our Lent Appeal last year raised a magnificent sum to extend feeding programmes for children living on informal settlements and to create a fund to continue that work.
In January, I hope to visit the Highveld again to open the Monmouth Room next door to the Cathedral in Benoni where people will receive training for ministry and mission. This has been paid for by this year’s Lent Appeal (which raised over £18000) but there is nothing that can be compared to a personal visit and I know that many of our clergy and lay people have visited link parishes and also welcomed visitors to our diocese. Recently, Canon Andrew and Mrs Val Willie stayed on a black township to gain a real experience of parish life in South Africa. I hope that more visits will follow.
Our link is by no means one-way. We have also received tokens of love including an embroidered picture made by women with HIV/AIDS and a beautiful banner. We have also been inspired by the faith and joy of people who have so little in material terms but who are spiritually rich. They have very large congregations and devoted clergy and they live with the ever present reality of HIV/AIDS which claims the lives of young people and leaves children as orphans. The church is deeply committed to serving the poor and the sick and seeking justice for them.
The Diocese of the Highveld is greatly blessed by having such an able bishop. Bishop David Beetge and his wife Carol have visited us a number of times and they were here in July. Bishop David was recently diagnosed with Non Hodgkinsons Lymphoma and is undergoing regular chemotherapy, so please remember him in your prayers.
It was nearly five years ago that Bishop David Beetge and I signed the link agreement in St Woolos Cathedral in Newport and we shall hope to renew that agreement in St Dunstan’s Cathedral in Benoni when I visit in the New Year.
Bishop David and Carol Beetge travelled with me to Canterbury for the Lambeth Conference and I wrote a daily diary during the Conference. During the Conference I spoke with Archbishop Rowan and Jane who send their fondest love to you all.
It is probably no secret that I was not particularly looking forward to the Lambeth Conference. When I was asked on radio what I hoped it would achieve, I said I hoped that the bishops attending would honour one another’s integrity, recognise that we honour the same scriptures (even if our interpretations might differ) and that we would want to stay together as members of the Anglican Communion. I believe that for the vast majority of those who attended, the Conference achieved all that and much is owed to the way it was organised.
Many of the bishops had received warm hospitality from British dioceses (including our own). The days in retreat together and the daily bible studies ensured that hospitality, prayer and scripture bound us together in the love of God and opened our hearts towards one another and allowed us to listen and understand. Bishops came from such different backgrounds and cultures and it took some of us Westerners time to learn about the Indaba process – the way in which Zulus settle disputes not by denouncing one another but by listening attentively so that everyone can be heard.
The Anglican Communion still faces a number of potentially divisive issues and like any other family we have to face the experience of hurt and pain, division and unity, healing and reconciliation. For us, one very practical way of doing that is to continue to develop our love and friendship with the Diocese of the Highveld as we pray for one another, bear one another’s burdens and rejoice together in the generosity, forgiveness and mercy of the crucified, risen and ascended Christ.
+ Dominic