Abstract
In September 2018 John de Gruchy presented a paper at the Volmoed Colloquium entitled “Revisiting the Message to the people of South Africa,” in which he asks, “what is the significance of the document for our time?” In this expanded version of the author’s response to de Gruchy, two further questions are pursued: First: how can the churches today meet the challenge of today’s global system of economically and politically-driven inequality driven by a constellation of individuals, corporations, and governments? Second: in his review of church history, de Gruchy focused on the issue of church theology described in the 1985 Kairos South Africa document, in which churches use words that purport to support justice but actually serve to shore up the status quo of discrimination, inequality and racism. How does church theology manifest in the contemporary global context, and what is the remedy? The author proposes that ecumenism can serve as a mobilizing and organizing model for church action, and that active engagement in the issue of Palestine is an entry point for church renewal and for a necessary and fruitful exploration of critical issues in theology and ecclesiology.
Highlights
In my response I proposed two further questions to follow de Gruchy’s primary question of what the meaning of the Message for our time is
Keywords Palestine; Apartheid; Barmen Declaration; Liberation Theology; ecumenical movement In September 2018, on the 50th anniversary of its publication, John de Gruchy presented a paper at the Volmoed Colloquium entitled “Revisiting the Message to the people of South Africa.”1 Identifying the Message as “the
How can the churches today meet this global challenge? Second: in his review of church history, de Gruchy focused on the issue of church theology first described in the 1985 Kairos South Africa document, in which churches serve the interests of tyranny and inequality by using words that purport to support justice but that serve to shore up the status quo of discrimination and racism
Summary
De Gruchy has been addressing this topic for over five decades. In 1984 Eerdmans published a compilation of de Gruchy’s papers and lectures dating from the mid-1970s entitled Bonhoeffer and South Africa. The unifying theme for this collection was historical turning points – events and conditions in human affairs that challenged the churches to respond in word and action. Reflecting on the history of church struggle in his homeland at a time of mounting tension and increasing government domination, de Gruchy poses this question: “When it had seemed to us that the work and witness of prophetic leaders like Beyers Naudé could usher in a new era of justice, but that it seems that events are beyond such influence, how if at all, do we discern God at work in our situation?”7 It is the question that Bonhoeffer was asking, and which in his Ethics he answers: “It is in times which are out of joint, where wickedness and lawlessness triumph, it is in these times that the gospel makes itself known.” He returns to it in “After Ten Years,” where he famously asks, “Are we still of any use?”9 De Gruchy has observed that it is when issues of human rights and dignity become inescapably apparent that the church is summoned to act. It is of of “fundamental importance,” de Gruchy submits, “to develop an ecumenical prophetic ecclesiology and consciousness that enables the church to recognise the kairos when it occurs.”
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