Wilhelm's space

Dear friends of the Lutheran Church and its mission in Southern Africa: Thanks to Michael and Danielle Grosse from Gunnison, Colorado you can get a first-hand feel for their perspectives on missions in South Africa in their latest newsletter: 2012 Grosse Mission Letter

May the good Lord of Church and Mission bless you and all of Africa +

Thanks to the Grosses in Gunnison, Colorado you can read about the orphanage project in Ntshongweni (Thekweni in KZN): African Orphans project.

Thank you for your support and ongoing intercession for the Lutheran Church in Southern Africa – especially where it is suffering and in dire straits. God bless you and Africa +++

FREEDOM DAY

Statement by the F W de Klerk Foundation

The 18th anniversary of our first universal democratic election on 27 April 1994 should be occasion for celebration. This year, the appropriate response should be introspection. At no time since 1994 has there been more reason for concern regarding the future of our constitutional democracy.

On 5 March the ANC announced its intention of dispensing with some of the elements of the historic constitutional accord on which our nonracial democracy was founded – and upon which our future national unity depends. It said that the historic constitutional agreements that we reached during the negotiations between 1990 and 1994 were no more than a  ‘first transition’.  It said that this first transition embodied a framework and a national consensus that may have been appropriate for political emancipation, a political transition, but has proven inadequate and inappropriate for our social and economic transformation phase.”

Evidently, former President Nelson Mandela did not regard our 1996 Constitution as a transitory document. On 8 May 1996, after the adoption of the new constitution, he said that its founding principles were “immutable”.  He described the Constitution as “our national soul, our compact with one another as citizens, underpinned by our highest aspirations and our deepest apprehensions”. He also pledged “Never and never again shall the laws of our land rend our people apart or legalise their oppression and repression.”

There are also disturbing indications that the government is thinking about limiting the powers of the courts to review the constitutionality of legislation and executive conduct. On 8 July, 2011 President Zuma warned, “the powers conferred on the courts cannot be superior to the powers resulting from the political and consequently administrative mandate resulting from popular democratic elections”.
He added that the government’s political opponents should not be able to subvert the popularly elected government by using the courts to “co-govern the country”.   He later stated baldly that the government wanted to review the powers of the Constitutional Court.

The clear intention is to limit or remove the power of the courts to review legislation and executive conduct.  In an article on 16 April Adv Ramathlodi, the Deputy Minister of Correctional Services and member of the Judicial Service Commission, wrote that “judicial incursion into other spheres (of government) should happen only in exceptional and limited cases – if at all.”

The simple reality is that if the courts lose their power of review, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights will be reduced to impotent pieces of paper with no role in limiting the power of the executive and of the majority in Parliament. We will no longer be a constitutional democracy subject to the rule of law.

We should also be deeply concerned about the erosion of the role and independence of key institutions, such as the National Prosecuting Authority and the Judicial Service Commission.

Government has consistently interfered with the independence of the NPA. It dismissed Adv Vusi Pikoli because he disobeyed presidential orders to drop charges against former police commissioner Jackie Selebi. The Constitutional Court subsequently set Adv Menzi Simelane’s appointment as the head of the NPA aside because he was not a fit and proper person. More recently, there have been persistent and apparently well-founded allegations of high-level political interference in the NPA’s decision to drop fraud and murder charges against General Richard Mdluli, the Head of the Police’s Crime Intelligence Division.

There is growing concern over the poliiticisation of the Judicial Service Commission. Critics charge that the JSC concentrates excessively on the race and political orientation of judicial candidates – and not enough on whether they are fit and proper people with sufficient experience and unquestionable integrity.

The media, civil society and COSATU are worried that the Protection of State Information Bill will drastically limit public access to government information on mismanagement and corruption.  They fear that it could have a chilling effect on the freedom of expression and investigative journalism.

There are other reasons for introspection.

•We have failed to make progress in promoting equality in our society.
•We have failed to provide the vast majority of our children with decent education.
•More than 35% of our people are unemployed – including more than 70% of our youth.

However, our failure to make progress in these critical areas is not the fault of our Constitution. There is nothing in the Constitution that stands in the way of achieving success  with social and economic transformation. The problem lies in inappropriate policies and ineffective delivery – and not in any basic defect in the Constitution

Faced with these looming challenges, our reaction should not be one of despondency or despair. During the last 25 years we South Africans have been in far worse situations and have shown our ability to find solutions to the most serious challenges.

Our reaction should instead be to recommit ourselves to the values and the vision in our excellent Constitution.  We should redouble our efforts to build a society based on human dignity, the achievement of equality and the enjoyment of human rights and freedoms. We should insist on non-racialism and non-sexism. We should do everything we can to preserve our multiparty system of government based on accountability, responsiveness and openness.

And most importantly, we should ensure that the Constitution will remain supreme and that everyone in our society – including government – will continue to be subject to the rule of law.

Cape Town
26 April 2012

The Evangelical Lutheran Mission (ELM/Hermannsburg) wrote the following about Bishop Rapoo’s death this month: 
“Am 11. April ist der frühere leitende Bischof der 1975 gegründeten Evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche im Südlichen Afrika (ELCSA), Daniel Porogo Rapoo, im Alter von 93 Jahren in Tlhabane/Rustenburg (Südafrika) gestorben.

Im Namen des Ev.-luth. Missionswerks in Niedersachsen (ELM) und den Bischöfen Ralf Meister, Prof. Dr. Friedrich Weber, Dr. Karl-Hinrich Manzke seiner drei lutherischen Trägerkirchen Hannovers, Braunschweig und Schaumburg-Lippe, übermittelte ELM-Direktorin Martina Helmer-Pham Xuan seiner Familie und der ELCSA deren Mitgefühl. Darin würdigte sie das Leben und Wirken Rapoos als „ein besonderes Geschenk für unsere christliche Gemeinschaft“. „Dafür sind wir dankbar, für all den Segen, den wir durch Bischof Rapoos Wirken erfahren konnten“, so Helmer-Pham Xuan.

„In seinem Wirken und in seinem Leben erinnerte Bischof Rapoo uns daran, dass wir im Leben und im Tod zu Gott gehören, dessen Liebe stärker ist als der Tod. Im Verbund mit Bischof Rapoo haben wir verstanden, dass unsere christliche Hoffnung ein rastloser Protest gegen den Tod ist“, schreibt die ELM-Direktorin. Dies sei nicht nur persönliche   Überzeugung Bischof Rapoos gewesen, sondern habe auch konkret Gestalt gefunden durch ein vorbildliches Leben in der Gemeinschaft, die durch seine Verkündigung und sein gelebtes Evangelium während seiner langen Jahre im Dienste der Kirche geprägt gewesen sei. „In der Zeit der Trauer wissen wir, dass wahre menschliche Erfüllung nur jenseits dieses Lebens geschieht“, so Martina Helmer-Pham Xuan. Sie grüßte die Trauergemeinde mit den Worten des Apostels Paulus aus Römer 14, 7-9:„Keiner von uns lebt sich selber, und keiner stirbt sich selber: Leben wir, so leben wir dem Herrn. Ob wir leben oder ob wir sterben, wir gehören dem Herrn. Denn Christus ist gestorben und lebendig geworden, um Herr zu sein über Tote und Lebende.“

Geboren am 14. März 1919, begann er seine berufliche Laufbahn als Privatlehrer, folgte später aber dem inneren Ruf Pastor zu werden. Nach seinem Theologiestudium an der Hochschule Bethel wurde er 1949 zum Pastor ordiniert.

Es folgte sein erster Pfarrdienst in der Gemeinde Borobalong (Wolmaransstad). 1959 wurde Rapoo zum Präsident der ELCSA (Tswana Region) gewählt (später zum Bischof der aus ihr entstandenen Westdiözese der ELCSA) – einer der vier lutherischen Regionalkirchen, die zu den Gründungskirchen der ELCSA gehörte, der er von 1980 bis zu seinem Ruhestand 1986 als leitender Bischof vorstand. Bischof Rapoo gehörte zu den regionalen Kirchenführern, die sich für die Vereinigung der lutherischen Kirchen im südlichen Afrika eingesetzt hatten.

Im Jahr seines Dienstendes erkrankte Rapoo schwer und war zunehmend auf die Hilfe seiner Frau Johanna Augustina Motshelanoka angewiesen war, bis auch sie schwer erkrankte und 2003 nach fast 55-jähriger Ehe starb. Seitdem wurde er von seinem jüngsten Sohn Daniel Happy Ralentswe betreut.

Bischof Daniel Porogo Rapoo hinterlässt drei noch lebende von fünf Kindern, neun Enkel und fünf Urenkel.”

Well, whether you’re in Ghana, Botswana or in Tanzania, in Germany or even in Brazil – you’ll be able to find the Lutheran Church – and brass bands too. Read more about this history in an overview by Reinhard Lassek readable in “Zeitzeichen” 2 (2012) ???: Zeitzeichen – Posaunenchöre

Im Bachhaus in Eisenach gibt es z.Z. eine Ausstellung zum Thema. Hier gibts noch mehr zu lesen: Zeitzeichen – Bach und Luther und hier noch ein Link zu der Ausstellung.

With a focus on the new creation, which was brought about by Jesus Christ’s victorious resurrection from the dead and the grave at Easter, the Church celebrates, rejoices and sings: Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah +

Besides the creation narrative from the Old Testament in Genesis 1,1-4a.26-31a and 2,1-4a, the Epistle reading is from the first letter of St. John 5,1-4, where the question is answered: “Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

From the evangelist St. John the gospel is read in chapter 15,1-8, where Jesus declares:  “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”  

As usual the Lutheran order of service in both Zulu and Tswana is made available with the courtesy of the Lutheran Heritage Foundation (LHF) and contains a sermon on the prescribed passage from God’s word in St.Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians 4,16-18.

This time the seTswana sermon (Lutheran Order of Service in Tswana for Jubilate was written by Rev. M.N.Mntambo and translated as usual into isiZulu by my dear father Rev. E.A.W.Weber, whereas the sermon in isiZulu was written by Rev. T. Ratshefola: Lutheran Order of service for Jubilate and also translated by my dear father Rev. E.A.W.Weber DD.

I am looking forward to celebrating this Sunday together with the Lutheran Congregation in Wittenberg, where my brother Peter is going to preach on 2.Cor.4,16-18 in German, Pastor loci Helmut Paul will conduct the liturgy and I am to lead the 2nd service, where I plan to preach on this Sunday’s gospel: John 15,1-8. It’s a special occasion for me, because it’s now 20 years ago that I was ordained in that Church! So dear friends: Praise and thank God for this with me +

It was high-time: Dr. Carl Rockrohr has thankfully taken over the publication of the LTS News – and it’s got a new look. Convince yourself here: LTS News April 2012

Friends have responded positively and appreciative of the new style, more postings by various writers and not such a “stiff german way”. Well, I can assure you there are Germans, who really aren’t stiff. That’s just me!

Thank God – the Seminary has moved on and you’ll be getting better, fresher and more positive news in the future!