Our Last Friday in Cape Town

We spent our last Friday in Cape Town at the Mount Nelson for High Tea and then moved on to the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. These things are all must do's if you ever visit this beautiful city

 Here we are at the Mount Nelson Flower Fountain

 Then it was off to the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront

 Sunset from the Cape Town Wheel

 This man is made out of coca cola boxes.

Things to do in Cape Town before we leave Part 4

In yesterday's post regarding things to do before we leave Cape Town in 6 days I posted a pic of Table Mountain taken from Big Bay. One of the things on our to-do list is to climb that mountain one more time, which we did today. Here is another view of Cape Town's Table Mountain:

We started our ascent from the lower cable station at 5am

Watched the city lights fade as the dawn lit the sky

Enjoyed this view of the small Robben Island to the right of Lion's Head

Once on the Contour Path we chose Platteklip Gorge as our path of final ascent

The rising sun catches the upper cable station

At the summit 3 hours later we were rewarded with this beautiful fluffy bed of cloud below us covering the city

Their is of course a much easier way of getting to the top of Table Mountain, and that is to take the aerial cableway which opens at 8am and takes all of about 4 minutes to do what took us 3 hours.

Things to do in Cape Town before we leave

 

In my previous post I mentioned 10 things we would really like to do one more time before leaving Cape Town. Well, Big Bay Brekko is done. The majority of readers of my blog are from the northern hemisphere. Let me tell you that if you ever come to my country, South Africa, a visit to Milnerton/Blaauwberg/Big Bay is essential for the best views of Cape Town's Table Mountain.

PS I have also and am still reflecting on the readings I mention in that post and have also made a start with regard to packing. 6 days left.

The pic below was taken from Big Bay just after sunset sometime last month

Things to do in Cape Town before we leave in 10 days time

In my previous post I commented on the joy of encountering new ridiculously colourful bishops as one of the positives of the itinerant ministry. Read that post here. Now the time to itinerate (read about that here) is close and it's time for final lists of things to do before leaving Cape Town, surely one of the more beautiful places to live.

1. Reflect on Matthew, Mark and Luke's accounts of the sending out of the 12 and the 72 and ask myself: Can I say as we leave here that "the Kingdom of God has come near you"?
Can I say that where my wife Chris and I have been, the Kingdom of God has been?

2. Pack.

3. Have High Tea at the Nellie (The Mount Nelson Hotel)

4. See Table Mountain all lit up on a clear summer evening.

5. Do the Cape Town Eye at sunset

6. Have one last breakfast at Blaauwberg looking over Table Bay.

7. Have fish and chips at the harbour at Hout Bay as the fishing boats return in the evening.

8. Climb up Table Mountain one last time

9. Reflect on whether wherever I've been, the Kingdom of God has been.

10. Pack and leave behind Africa's most beautiful city.

Ministers: Some of us move too often, others not often enough.

Well, time to think more seriously about this whole itinerating thing (see my earlier post on the subject)seeing as we have now received a tentative date for our move from Joint Methodist Removals. Probably time to try and get hold of some boxes so that when they arrive on Monday 6 December, they can actually move us.

As I reflect on my whole life in the Methodist Church, it occurs to me that some ministers move too often, while others don't move often enough. Some don't stay long enough and others stay too long. I'm not sure we get it right as often as we should, which is quite strange, bearing in mind that we are a people primarily(hopefully) under the guidance of God. I'm not sure our training even tries to equip us to set objectives for our ministry in a particular place, let alone measure/assess our progress towards achieving those objectives. [The North Alabama Conference in the US seems to have something in place to measure efficacy of ministers and suitability in appointments, but I'll blog on that at a later stage].

John Wesley had some firm views on itinerancy, but they were obviously in a quite different context and need to be read accordingly:

"Were I myself to preach one whole year in one place, I should preach both myself and most of my congregation to sleep."(1)

"The preachers must change regularly; it would never do to let one man(sic) sit down for six months with a small society."(2)

Well, it's time to seriously consider acquiring some boxes.

References
1.The Works of John Wesley, Bicentennial Edition, Volume 1, page 16 note 11
2.The Works of John Wesley, Bicentennial Edition, Volume 1, page 16 note 12

Southern African Bishops in all their Glory

 

 

Please see (1) in this post for the source of these pics

Methodist Itinerant Ministry and Ridiculously Colourful Bishops

[This is the second post in my series on the Itinerant Ministry which I will be blogging on during our move.Visit here for the first, Methodist Itinerant Ministry, Monthly Shopping and Schnorrers]

One of the many advantages of the itinerant ministry is that one gets to encounter different types of bishops in different parts of our connexion. The one thing they have in common is their propensity to be ridiculously brightly coloured at times, while at other times, they are plain and undifferentiated and cannot really be told apart. This need that they have in certain seasons to be seen as different, to stand out boldly, almost as if they are saying: “Look at me” or “Take notice of me” is one which (although in a different context) intrigued Charles Darwin. He was fascinated by the peacock, whose huge and colourful plumage Darwin thought should have been a hindrance to its long-term evolutionary survival because of the hindrance it was when needing to escape predators. And yet it was clear that the survival of ridiculously colourful and overdressed peacocks had somehow been achieved. Southern African bishops have been known to survive as long as 10 years (1). Evolutionarily speaking (whether or not you agree with it) ‘stand out’, ‘notice me’ and ‘look at me’ type individuals should not survive for long, let alone return year after year after year to strut their stuff.

How can a peacock, whose brightly coloured and flowing plumage is a hindrance when trying to escape a predator, survive and in fact flourish? How can a bishop in full ‘look at me’ plumage survive in the wild where they stand out to predators who are lurking everywhere, waiting to rip them to shreds? But survive and prosper they do!

Darwin's realisation was that it is not survival of the fittest but rather reproductive success which is the determinant of long-term survival. How many little me’s I can successfully produce is more important than whether I am the fittest, best qualified, best suited, little sparrow/bishop/peacock in this particular field of lilies, where God has called me into being. (Wow, talk about mixing metaphors!)

The itinerant ministry introduces one to different bishops in different places. Southern Africa has three distinct species of bishop: Red, Golden and Fire-crowned (2). According to distribution maps, the Reds are all over the connexion, Golden's are mainly in the interior parts of our connexion, northern Botswana and Namibia, and the Fire-crowned almost exclusively in parts of the Mozambique District north of the Save River. Wherever I've seen them, bishops have brought me much joy, although in my current district the bishop has been a very elusive creature. Bishops were the first beautiful birds that I ever identified in the wild and in the Free State they were almost two for a penny along the river banks and roadsides of the town where I grew up, lighting up an otherwise drab Free State landscape. Bishops of course cannot be Christians because they are not human and God has in fact given us, ordinary humans, dominion over them (Genesis 1:28), but what joy, beauty and proof of God’s presence in our midst they can be, and have been in my life.

I thank God for ridiculously bright coloured bishops, my favourite small Southern African bird. (My favourite large Southern African bird is the Fish Eagle) The itinerant Methodist ministry has taken me to three distinct bird habitats, the Free State, the KwaZulu Natal Coast and the Western Cape. The Western Cape has by far been the least exciting birding experience, although having the most beautiful places in the country to actually go and look for birds makes up for the lack of birds. Now we prepare to itinerate to Gauteng, the Place of Gold, and a chance to see more of the beautiful, ridiculously bright coloured bishops which have been so elusive here in the Cape.

In season they shout out “Look at me” and look at them I will, and when I do I will most definitely thank God for them as well!



1. A.J.F.K. Craig in The Complete Book of Southern African Birds, 1991 page 669. Published by Struik Winchester.

2. G.L. Maclean in Robert’s Birds of Southern Africa, 1985 page 733-736. Published by the John Voelker Bird Book Fund.

Methodist Itinerant Ministry, Monthly Shopping and Schnorrers

Chris, my wife, went monthly shopping today while I attended my Young Women's Auxiliary allocations meeting. We met at one of our favourite Cape Town coffee shops on completion of our respective tasks and reflected on the itinerant ministry.

Why? Because this will be our last monthly shopping Cape Town. Why? Because we are moving to Johannesburg. Why? Because we are (and have been for 17 years) itinerants.

Looking up itinerant on dictionary.com and Wikipedia.com yields the following results:

"itinerant
 –adjective
1. traveling from place to place, esp. on a circuit, as a minister, judge, or sales representative; itinerating; journeying.
2. characterized by such traveling: itinerant preaching.
3. working in one place for a comparatively short time and then moving on to work in another place, usually as a physical or outdoor laborer; characterized by alternating periods of working and wandering: an itinerant farm hand.
–noun
4. a person who alternates between working and wandering.
5. a person who travels from place to place, esp. for duty or business.

—Synonyms
wandering, nomadic, migratory, unsettled, roving, roaming; peripatetic.
—Antonyms
settled.

An itinerant is a person who travels from place to place with no fixed home.
Types of itinerants: Drifters (wanderers with no residence, no common means of support, and no obvious goal), Hunter-gatherers, Nomads, including gypsies, Perpetual travelers, including illegal aliens, Rogues, Vagabonds, Vagrants, Bums, Derelicts, Hobos, Squatters, Tramps, Displaced persons and refugees, Street people (street children, paupers, waifs, schnorrers, gutter punks)."

When, after 10 years of private dental practice, we entered full-time ministry in the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, our category of ministry was that of itinerant, meaning……. well, you get the picture from the above! We move around. The discipline we submit to is that we, as itinerant Methodist ministers, will go where we are sent by the Conference. The MCSA combines a measure of call into the stationing of its ministers in that we can, hopefully under God's guidance, respond to invitations which in turn ask the Conference to send. Ultimately, the Conference decides. We have never been let down by this system, but have been blessed in that this coming move will be only our third. After three years in Welkom (central South Africa) our first move was to Ballito (east coast of South Africa) and after 10 years there, our second move was to Cape Town (almost southern tip of South Africa and African continent). Now, after four years, we prepare for our third move, to Johannesburg to the Alberton Methodist Church. [http://www.amc.org.za/ and http://www.amcare.org.za/]

Wherever we have been, our Lord has blessed us ‘out of our socks’! Our move to Johannesburg is in fact a return to Johannesburg, where Chris and I met as students (dental and nursing) in 1980, fell in love, married (Civic Centre Methodist Church) in 1981 and started our family in 1983.

Whether there is a more beautiful place in South Africa than Cape Town to minister, I doubt. From our home we look at Table Mountain, Cape Town harbour and the city bowl. We see and feel the weather and the seasons arriving on the African continent.

Now we prepare to move, with summer, to the hinterland, hence our last monthly shop and our reflection on itinerancy.

The call and subsequent sending to Alberton Methodist Church excites us. We are going to be stretched as never before but also sense that our whole life up to now has been to prepare and equip us for God's mission in place. And so we prepare to itinerate and I will be blogging over the next few months on what that means in our lives, in our ministry, in the life of our societies (Parow Wesley Methodist Church and Alberton Methodist Church) and so on. My next post will be ‘Itinerant Ministry and Ridiculously Colourful Bishops’.

The Lord has given us a theme song for this season-“Where You Go I Go”-by Brian and Jenn Johnson [ Integrity's Hosanna! Music 2008 CCLI#4562670]. I'll post the full lyrics later, but here is the chorus:
Where You go I go
What You say I say
And what You pray I pray
And what You pray I pray.

PS What on earth is a schnorrer

President Nelson Mandela at my Ordination Conference

Cedric and Chris at Mandela Square, Johannesburg.

I was ordained on Sunday, 19 July, 1998. Two days before that our Conference was addressed by President Nelson Mandela. It was the eve of his 80th birthday, but unbeknownst to us all, except our Presiding Bishop Mvume Dandala, this day was also the eve of Madiba's marriage to Graca Machel. Our Presiding Bishop would excuse himself from the chair of Conference to officiate at the marriage on Saturday, and return for our ordination service on Sunday.

Address by President Nelson Mandela at the first Triennial Conference of the Methodist church of South Africa   Durban, 17 July 1998

Presiding Bishop Mvume Dandala;
Delegates;
Distinguished Guests;

When I met with you at your annual conference in Umtata in 1994, we were all
still celebrating the fresh victory of democracy. At that meeting we took stock
of the challenges ahead that we would face together. Our main priorities then
revolved around writing a constitution to protect the social, economic and
political rights of all South Africa's people.
As a nation we had survived an unfortunate period in the life of our country,
where the most terrible oppression was justified by some people on the basis of
their Christian faith. Other living faiths were denied an opportunity to
contribute on an equal footing to the life of our people.
Our new constitution has laid the foundations for a healthy inter-religious
relationship by guaranteeing the right to freedom of religion, in a society
where the oppression of one by another must forever be a thing of the past.
What South Africa needs now is not only good government and good laws. We
need people who are committed to making this the country of our dreams. And we
need religious people who live their faith.
Today I am 79 years and 364 days old. My live has been a long journey. I am
grateful for the learning during my early years which laid the foundations for
my life. I thank my mother and uncles who sent me to Sunday School and to the
Mission Schools where I was nurtured. Although youth is supposed to rebel
against a strict church, I look back fondly on the instruction I received at
Clarkebury and Healdtown. The values I was taught at these institutions have
served me well throughout my life.
These values were strengthened during our years of incarceration when this
church, along with other religious communities, cared for us. Not only did you
send chaplains to encourage us, but you also assisted us materially within your
means. You helped our families at a time when we could not help them ourselves.
Religious organisations also played a key role in exposing apartheid for what
it was - a fraud and a heresy. It was encouraging to hear of the God who did not
tolerate oppression, but who stood with the oppressed.
We will always salute the resolve of those who stood firm for justice and
righteousness. Many a religious community suffered because they stood for truth.
We must never let this happen to our nation again. Our task must be to
constantly remind ourselves of our history and of our vision for the future: to
build a democratic culture in which all have the freedom and opportunities to
improve our lives.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has played a crucial role in exposing
the evil that bedevilled our land for so long. Many our people are still bitter
and find it difficult to forgive. Just laws are not enough to lead our people to
new life. True reconciliation will come about when those who were divided
confront their past, join hands and overcome the legacy of poverty. In the same
way our freedom will only gain real meaning if it brings real improvements in
the lives of people.
As the government of a young democracy we have made considerable progress in
bringing basic facilities within reach of all people and we are proud of that
achievement. But we know it will take a long time to reverse the destructive
legacy of over three hundred years.
It will also require the combined efforts of all our people, some who must
share their knowledge and skills; some who must contribute by building schools
and hospitals and others who must be creative and participate in their own
upliftment. We need a culture of hard work, of learning, and of innovation.
People must become job creators rather than only job seekers. Our children must
be helped to make the best of their opportunities, even where facilities are not
ideal.
Religious communities have a vital role to play in this regard. Just as you
took leading roles in the struggle against apartheid, so too you should be at
the forefront of helping to deliver a better life to all our people. Amongst
other things you are well placed to assist in building capacity within
communities for effective delivery of a better life.
This better life is not only about delivering jobs, houses, education and
health services. It is also about eliminating anything which threatens our
hard-won gains.
It is about making South Africa a safe place to live in. Crime is a menace
that disturbs any country. It hampers our efforts to build a society in which
everyone's rights are respected. While even one person feels insecure in our
land, we will not rest. Government is doing its best but we face huge obstacles
even from within our ranks. When we speak of crime we are also referring to the
corruption which is undermining our efforts to build a better life. What is most
distressing is that of those who plunder public resources for their own benefit
include former fighters for freedom as well as those from the former apartheid
machinery.
Overcoming crime and corruption and our other problems in the field of
education, unemployment and poverty, requires every person to become part of the
solution instead of simply being a spectator. In our schools and our places of
worship, people should be encouraged to share in creating the atmosphere our
land needs. As religious leaders you are responsible for creating a climate of
honesty, responsibility and discipline. As a society we should all reject those
who steal bread from the mouths of little children or from the elderly or the
poor.
We count on the religious fraternity to help us restore the moral values and
the respect for each other that were destroyed by the inhumanity of apartheid.
Finally, please allow me to congratulate you on the mission stalls you are
displaying here. It is heart-warming to see the efforts my church is making to
touch the lives of our people, particularly the poor. This already is for us a
sign of what must be: all our people rolling up their sleeves so that all may
reap the fruits of their freedom.
I thank you!

Issued by: Office of The President      

Sourced from  SA  Government Information