…for the Global South, the saying is true, “once bitten, twice shy.” It must therefore not be a surprise to see the strong reactions from Global South Christians to Western revisionism. There is no doubt the church in the Global South can benefit from Western church aid. But issuance and receipt of such aid must be preceded by lives transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. In the absence of this transformation, such aid amounts to the social gospel of salvation by works.
This is what most of the Global South leadership is opposed to. For them, the Bible is either the true and liberating word of God or it is not. For Christians in the Global South, it is déjà vu. It is betrayal all over again. The fact is that once the word of God has been shown, the show-er no longer has control over it. As the prophet Isaiah puts it:
“For as rain and snow come down from heaven, and return not thither, but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth, it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purposed, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:10-11).
History informs this issue. The Jewish religious leaders tried in vain to control and contain converts to Christianity. They couldn’t do it. Neither will the Western world. The tide has changed. The Global South has become the focus of Christianity just as it found focus with the gentiles in the Pauline era. Consecrations of bishops by Global South provinces and the planting of new Anglican congregations in America is just the beginning of things to come.
Ah, real history, as it happened. An excellent and provocativeely thoughtful essay.
By much cajoling, Rowan Williams got the Global South leaders to sit with Katherine Jefferts-Schori at DeS. KJS and all the others verbally consented to the communique.
Later she states that she was only assenting to be a messenger but that “nobody signed nothing.” (Something that Archbishop Gomez explicitly contradicted.)
What an incredible lack of integrity. What a slap in the face to Rowan Williams and the rest of the primates. Never again will they sit with KJS. How ludicrous to suggest it.
The ABC probably will.
Perhaps. Except that the author’s Global South now appears to be the cat’s paw of former colonialists:
http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/anglican_communion/who_speaks_for_africa.html
Thanks be to God for Fr. Gitau. I know him personally, and he is such a spiritual man! It’s so nice to have the truth spelled out in plain language. God Bless you Samson!
CStan: You are correct in stating that Fr. Gitau is in charge of campus ministry (Barth House) on the Univ. of Memphis campus. It is a very vital and important ministry. However, there are those in this diocese that don’t agree with that. There have been and still are attempts to shut it down. Pray that doesn’t happen!!
I think he paints the missionaries with an awfully broad brush that isn’t quite fair. Yes, there were individual missionaries whose manner of life left something to be desired, and yes, there was a rather shameful hostility between protestant and RC missionaries, but their overall record would, I think, reflect greatly to their credit.
While we should all be grateful to our global south allies in these difficult times, we shouldn’t make the mistake of idolizing all things African.