The recent news of the end of the Lonmin strike and the settling of the current wage dispute is very good. We give thanks for wise counsel, and note with gratitude the involvement of Bishop Jo Seoka, representing the South African Council of Churches, in bringing calm and order to this volatile situation.
The recent news of the end of the Lonmin strike and the settling of the current wage dispute is very good. We give thanks for wise counsel, and note with gratitude the involvement of Bishop Jo Seoka, representing the South African Council of Churches, in bringing calm and order to this volatile situation.
Christians are called to be salt and light wherever they are, and at a time like this we look to our church leaders to provide moral direction in a fragile world, to be the prophetic voice, the voice of God, that our country needs.
One of the gifts that we as Christians have, is hope – not a vague feeling that things will turn out all right, but a sure and certain hope because of the presence of God in us and among us, and because we know that Christ has won the victory over sin and evil and death.
In one of the Gospels, we find the account of how Jesus met a burial party outside a village called Nain. There, a widow was burying her only son. Jesus raised him from the dead (Luke 7:11-17).
It’s a picture of hope: life restored, the potential for a new beginning, possibilities of something new, a future that begins to open up as we open ourselves to God. It speaks of the “God-factor”, divine intervention, hope in the midst of despair.
It is also the story of a mother, Monica, who pursued her son Augustine with her prayers, until his conversion and his journey to become one of the greatest theologians that the Church has known.
The raising of the widow’s son at Nain is used on her feast-day, and as an encouragement for all parents. Let us be people of hope in the midst of darkness, as we place our trust in God, and become agents of transformation and renewal in our land.
The Very Reverend Andrew Hunter
Dean of Grahamstown
Cathedral of St Michael and St George
