Anglican Head Reinforces Partnership with South Africa
The long-standing relationship between South Africa and the Anglican Communion was reinforced Friday to address new challenges in the African country.
"That the Archbishop is in the country and that we're able to meet helps us to reinforce the message that the common work is not yet done," said South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki at a press briefing.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, head of the Communion, visited the president in the middle of a week-long international conference - Towards Effective Anglican Mission (TEAM) - which commenced in Boksburg, South Africa on Wednesday. The conference convened more than 400 people from the Anglican Communion to review the global body's response to the Millennium Development Goals and how the church can do more.
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At the Friday meeting with Mbeki, Williams discussed the role of the church in South Africa and how it is contributing to meet the MDGs and how "more effective partnership between the churches and government here could help take forward those crucial goals for the good, not only of this country, but of the whole continent," he said.
The Anglican Communion has played a crucial role in social issues on the African continent, particularly on the struggle against apartheid. Anglicans worldwide were mobilized against apartheid policies of South Africa and have continued to work closely with the South African officials ever since.
"I think everybody knows the role of the Anglican Church, both domestically and in the rest of the world in terms of the struggle against apartheid," said Mbeki. "So that relationship, we will continue to maintain it to address the new challenges of the day."
Challenges in the country include that of peace, development, poverty as well as the soul, Mbeki listed, noting that the government continues to work with the Archbishop of Cape Town, who is currently Njongonkulu Ndungane.
"It is important for the world leadership to meet and to partner with one another, particularly as the eighth Millennium Development Goal talks about creating a global partnership," Ndungane told Episcopal News Service.
The Archbishop of Cape Town stressed the need to meet both spiritual and physical needs at the TEAM conference on Thursday.
"We hear and we respond because we serve a God who hears the cries of the oppressed," he told conference attendants. Cries come from the disease-inflicted, including the 25 million people infected with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa as well as the projected one million people who will die of malaria, and the more than 48 million sub-Saharan orphans.
At this hour, he said, the church can become a significant partner in the global development agenda.
The TEAM conference, which is in part a follow-up to the first ever pan-Anglican conference on HIV/AIDS in 2001, continues through March 14. Williams is scheduled to leave South Africa on Friday for Angola, the newest diocese in the Anglican Communion and part of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa.
