Thursday 17 April 2014

Standing for the Truth campaign 20 years later

When I worked as a voluntary youth worker in Cape Town in 1981-1982 I took part in an interfaith dialogue involving Muslims, Jews and Christians. I remember that I was impressed by the open atmosphere. I also remember that we prayed together.

It makes me happy that the Anglican Archbishop, Thabo Makgoba, takes an initiative to gather religious leaders from these three religions. This coming Saturday, they will march from the museum of Disctrict Six to the Parliament in support of Good Governance. The Archbishop writes:

This led to the call that I and other Christian, Jewish and Muslim religious leaders issued yesterday (Tuesday) to the public of Cape Town to join us in a Procession of Witness at 10 am on Saturday, April 19, walking from District Six to Parliament, to call our leaders to account and to appeal them to live up to the national values established by the Constitution. The call was supported by the full spectrum of the inter-faith community, from the Muslim Judicial Council and the Union of Orthodox Synagogues to the Methodist Church, the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk, the Uniting Reformed Church and the Uniting Presbyterian Church.

It is interesting to be in South Africa 20 years after the dawn of democracy. I am only sad that the SACC does not seem to be involved. When I google ‘SACC’, ‘march’ and ‘Cape Town’ I end up on a similar, interfaith march in 2005. It was again the Anglican Archbishop who led the march. That year his name was Njongonkulu Ndungane.

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