Wilhelm's space

Thank God for this good news early in the morning and every day anew: Das Volk, das im Finstern wandelt, sieht ein großes Licht, und über denen, die da wohnen im finstern Lande, scheint es hell. Jesaja 9,1

Ihr wart früher Finsternis; nun aber seid ihr Licht in dem Herrn. Lebt als Kinder des Lichts. Epheser 5,8

(ENInews)–The World Council of Churches’ (WCC) Central Committee on 30 August approved the first ecumenical affirmation of mission since 1982, invoking a new understanding of mission and evangelism in a changing world and ecclesial landscape. The statement draws on insights from Protestant, Evangelical, Orthodox and Roman Catholic mission theologies, and will be presented at the WCC 10th Assembly in Busan, South Korea in 2013, according to a WCC news release. [ENI-12-0513, 464 words]

Here is the latest rector’s report as compiled for the Open Day of our Seminary coming Saturday: RR Open day 2012

Ach HERR, strafe mich nicht in deinem Zorn und züchtige mich nicht in deinem Grimm! Psalm 6,2
Christus ist darum für alle gestorben, damit, die da leben, hinfort nicht sich selbst leben, sondern dem, der für sie gestorben und auferstanden ist. 2.Korinther 5,15

The old seminary for mission studies in Hermannsburg, (Lower Saxony, Germany) has been closed down and with that an era ends. New ideas have come up which are to invigorate the old structures and make them more relevant. May the triune God, who is the origin of Christian missions, the driving force behind them even today and finally also the goal of all missions bless these new beginnings and grant renewed impulses for the revitalization of Christian missions throughout the world.

In the posting  by friends of Hermannsburg you will again see the picture of the 2nd course that completed its mission studies in Hermannsburg in 1860 – amongst them also the great-grandfather of my father: Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Weber.

Read more about this issue in this post: Hermannsburg Update

In a country where nearly half of the population lives off grants and governmental help, basic foodstuffs are vital and determine their general well-being. The rapid rise in food-prices is a reason for serious concern, because it has the very real potential for unrest and destabilization.

Obviously the lack of support for farmers and the uncertainty about land ownership paired with the resulting jeopardy of future and long-term investments has to carry its fair share of the blame for this trouble. There are no short-term fixes for the locals woes in agriculture and the farming sector – and that does not fit in well with the haphazard and populistic politics of the day which are concerned mostly about re-election and not serious nation-building and general prosperity and flourishing of all the countries people.

This is aggravated by the unsatisfactory services and lacking implementation of good governance in general as becomes clear from the strikes on the mines right now. In my view troublesome times are lying ahead for most of us here!

Read more about the growing shortage of food supply here: Global demand for local grain to put consumers under stress – Business News | IOL Business | IOL.co.za.

FW DE KLERK ADDRESSES THE INSTITUTE OF ECONOMIC AFFAIRS IN ACCRA ON THE CHALLENGES OF CHANGE IN AFRICA

By the FW de Klerk Foundation

In a speech to the Institute of Economic Affairs in Accra, Ghana, on 27 August 2012, FW de Klerk warned that global strategic attention would be increasingly focussed on Africa – and that it would not necessarily be benign. This would require African countries to meet the challenges that a rapidly changing global environment would inevitably pose.

De Klerk praised Ghana for being at the forefront of change in Africa. “Ghana has traditionally set the pace for change in Africa. Your country was the first Sub-Saharan country to gain independence. You opened the way to the rest of the continent and espoused the ideal of African unity. Under your late President, John Atta Mills, Ghana once again assumed a leadership position at the forefront of a new wave of freedom and development in our continent.”

After sharing South Africa’s experience of change management, De Klerk referred to the challenges confronting Africa. He also referred to Paul Collier’s book, “The Bottom Billion” that identified the reasons why a billion people living in some 60 developing countries had failed to break free of the poverty trap. Collier had pointed out that other developing regions had made significantly more progress than Sub-Saharan Africa. “Between 1980 and 2011 South Asia’s Human Development Index improved by 54% – twice as fast as Sub-Saharan Africa’s 27% improvement.”

Sub-Saharan Africa had had a mixed record in dealing with its major challenges:

• It had made significant progress in putting an end to conflict and, according to the Global Peace Index, was no longer the world’s most violent region.
• Improvement in democratic governance had slowed down during the past 10 years. According to Freedom House in New York, there were eight ‘free’ countries in Sub-Saharan Africa; 20 that were ‘partly free’, and 19 that were ‘not free’ at all. 2011 had witnessed a continued pattern of democratic decline in the region – with sharp deterioration in five countries.
• Africa also continued to struggle with human development. The highest ranked Sub-Saharan African country on the UNDP’s 2011 Human Development Index was Gabon at 106th position – while 19 of the bottom ranked 20 countries were all from Sub-Saharan Africa. Only 35% of Africa’s children went to high school and only 6% went on to tertiary education – compared with 43% in Latin America and 25% in East Asia who went to university.
• African countries had also experienced problems in diversifying and freeing their economies. The highest ranked African country in the latest World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report was South Africa – which was positioned 50th out of 142 countries. Botswana had the freest economy in Africa – but ranked only 54th in the world. Also, Africa was still too dependent on external trade, with intra-African trade representing only 13% of the continent’s total trade. Africa’s overall share of world trade had declined from 5.5% in 1970 to little more than 3% now.

However, impressive progress was being made in other areas. According to an article in The Economist last year, “over the ten years to 2010, six of the world`s ten fastest-growing economies were in sub-Saharan Africa” and, more remarkable still, The Economist forecast that “Over the next five years, the average African economy will outpace its Asian counterpart”.

According to De Klerk, Sub-Saharan Africa constituted one of the largest areas of prime real estate in the world. “There are about the same number of people in its 24 million square kilometres as there are in the 3.3 million square kilometres of India. The continent is endowed with enormous mineral resources in a commodity hungry world.”

The Food and Agricultural Organisation estimated that the land area for rain-fed crops could be increased by up to 700% per region – with a potential for the whole continent of 300 million hectares.

Africa’s agricultural potential was attracting enormous foreign interest. “The British newspaper, The Observer, estimates that up to 50 million hectares of African farmland has been acquired by foreign investors or is in the process of being negotiated. This area is more than double the size of the United Kingdom.”

De Klerk said that all this was also changing international perceptions of Africa’s strategic importance. For most of the period after World War II, Africa had been of interest to the great powers primarily to the extent that its newly independent nations were viewed as areas of contestation between the United States and the Soviet Union. With the end of the Cold War, Africa subsided into the global strategic background.

A decade later, Africa was rapidly re-emerging from the periphery of global strategic interest:

• Access to its mineral and agricultural resources was becoming increasingly essential for Europe, North America and Asia.
• As a result, the continent was once again becoming a contested area as emerging economic powers – led by China – scrambled for a share of its enormous mineral and agricultural resources.
• Africa was also playing a central role in the expansion of Islam. Half of the countries of Africa – some 27 nations – were members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. They also comprised half of the 54 Islamic states. It was estimated that 45% of the continent’s population were Muslims, compared with 40% who were Christians.

De Klerk concluded that in a world that would be increasingly hungry for natural resources and for food, more attention would inevitably be focused on Africa. It was not by any means certain that such attention would always be benign or that it would be concerned with the best interests of Africa and its people.

“Whatever happens, one truth remains. Global strategic attention will be increasingly focussed on the continent – because of its enormous mineral resources; because of its untapped agricultural potential in an increasingly hungry world; and because of the potential of its people.”

This presented Africa with a special challenge: it would have to continue to meet the challenge of change to ensure that it would be able to protect its turf from outsiders, wherever they might come from.

Ich pries und ehrte den, der ewig lebt, dessen Gewalt ewig ist und dessen Reich für und für währt, gegen den alle, die auf Erden wohnen, für nichts zu rechnen sind. Daniel 4,31-32
Wir predigen Christus als Gottes Kraft und Gottes Weisheit. Denn die Schwachheit Gottes ist stärker, als die Menschen sind. 1.Korinther 1,24.25

Attached find a text containing relevant questions and answers concerning the issue of “proper call” – “rite vocatus” from the United evangelical lutheran church in Germany (VELKD) posted recently. The download is available here:
http://www.velkd.de/downloads/Texte_164_Beiheft_zu_Ordnungsgemaess_berufen_Download.pdf

Read here, what ENInews reports: Washington National Cathedral gets boost for repair effort!

(ENInews)–One year after an earthquake caused extensive damage to the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., church officials received a large gift to help restore the structure, reports Religion News Service. The $5 million grant comes from the Lilly Endowment Inc., a philanthropic organization. [ENI-12-0505, 525 words]