Emma's last blog had me ailing with a fever and horrible sickness. I am glad to say that this was a 24 hour affair and by Monday morning I was fit enough for us to re-engage our plan to go to Graaff- Reinet for a short overnight stay. But on the way we called in at Richmond, one of the towns of our outstation churches, hoping to catch up with an American called Joel Tjornehoj (pronounced “Churnahoy”). Let me tell you about Joel. He is an Anglican lay man (actually he was brought up Lutheran – his name and ancestry is Danish – but married an Anglican) who is a member of St. Peter's Anglican Church, Poolesville, Maryland, USA. A few years ago a fellow worshipper at St. Peter's called Jonathan Warner (we have mentioned him before hving met him a few months ago) started a link between St. Peter' Poolsville and St. Matthew's Anglican church in Richmond. This has grown into a partnership with all the people of Richmond, not just the church community, to improve the quality of life there. Jonathan being a good Rotarian has involved some Rotary Clubs in USA and elsewhere in this project which has now grown so much that instead of calling it “Hope in Richmond” they call it Hope in South Africa. You may wish to look it up on the internet (Hopeinsouthafrica.com).
Joel and Barbara who runs the community centre (HISA) at Richmond
Having been given the wrong mobile phone number for Joel , we had to track him down in Richmond but that was not too difficult. An American in a remote Karoon town is easily known.
We had a fascinating couple of hours seeing what has been achieved and hearing of the hopes Joel has for the future. Their website shows what can be done and by re-naming it “Hope in Sotuh Africa” (HISA) they hope to expand from Richmond into other areas including De Aar. Some of their work has already reached us here as they have been very supportive of the Foetal Alcohol Syndrome House and Grassroots Soccer initiative which uses soccer as a vehicle whereby you can teach the young people about HIV/Aids.
We discussed at leangth the problem that Joel has with the relationship with St. Matthew's. The link of course was naturally seen by the people of St. Matthew's as a way of getting financial help with their run-down building and facilities and purchasing prayer books etc. But the church community has not been supportive of the other initiatives taken by HISA and has rather kept aloof from them.
There are cultural reasons for this. The divisions that still exist in even the smallest towns of South Africa mean that if you help one group, the other will dis-associate themselves from it. This is compounded by the fact that the theological concept that social action is part of the mission of the church is alien to many Anglican churches here. To them mission is something that is done to them by priests and missionaries from outside. It is not seen as something that is central to the life of the church community. Most people in our Anglican churches here will not know what you are talking about if you speak to them of mission as we see it. Perhaps we have the old missionaries to blame for that; or perhaps our continued patronising way of trying to help.
The other difficulty for HISA working with the church in Richmond is that because of the link with a rich parish in USA, the other churches in the whole parish of De Aar are naturally jealous. One of the mistakes of the Richmond/Poolesville link is that it seems that consultation with the rest of the parish has been minimal which has caused resentment. It is something that perhaps our influence might help to overcome. Joel's rector in USA has a tentative plan in which one or two seminarians from a theological college in USA might do a placement in Richmond. He seems to have a good relationship with a college principal who is keen on the idea. We advised that this should be seen as something for all the parish and not just for Richmond and that consultation with the Dean/Archdeacon was very necessary, along with the church council here who have overall responsibility for the parish as a whole. We are staying with the Dean in Kimberley after easter so we will talk with him about it.
So having had interesting and we hope fruitful talks with Joel, we continued on our way to Graaf-Reinet which is delightful Karoon town some 250 kilometres to the south-east. We stopped there breifly on our return from holidaying in the south and promised ourselves a longer visit. It is a very historic town having been one time second only to Cape Town in importance. It was for a time at the end of the 18th century, the town that “governed” a vast area of the interior of South Africa. So there is much more history and culture there than in De Aar. It has a number of museums and art galleries, some good restaurants and colourful shops. We had a very pleasant time there before rushing back for a church council meeting.
The church council meetings are very different from when we first came. They are much more relaxed and informative and we even use the new data projector we have installed in church for studying the accounts. The data projector is also a great new aid to worship. Many of the congregation do not have hymn books or prayers books themselves and the church does not supply them. So any newcomer or young person had no way of participating in the worship. But now it is up on a screen in front of everyone – oh the joys of modern technology!
Finally a few short items. Lindsey, our delightful American young lady, moved out to stay with another family but is returning here tonight for her last few days. We have been greatly blessed by all the people who have come and stayed with us, all so different but making ourlives so much more colourful. Emma has finally succumbed to her gardening passion now that the temperatures are cooler and has bought some shrubs and plants to enhance the rectory/church yard. We have spent some time weeding and digging which has perplexed some of the locals. White people do not do that type of thing and get others to do it for them. They do not seem to realise we enjoy it! And so to today, Palm Sunday, where we processed around the local ward which is far from salubrious! As we trudged through some rather smelly and rubbish strewn roads and pathways, I could not help but realise that Jesus' entry into Jerusalem must have been through similar rather disgusting routes. Perhaps that is why cloaks and palm branches were used to make the journey less grim. How we have sanitised these events in Jesus' life! Fresh palm branches from the churchyard were used to decorate the church and made into green palm crosses by a couple of nimble-fingered men.
So on to Holy Week and really the last full week in the parish. We hope it will be a fitting climax to the time we have spent here.
