The Dome, Randburg, 14 September 2004
Chairpersons, Victor Masondo and Shanty Heyns,
Dr. Thomas E. Trask, Chairman of the Pentecostal World Fellowship Advisory Committee,
Dr. Comelio M. Castelo, Vice-Chairman,
Dr. Prince Guneratnam - Secretary,
Reverends Isak Burger and Colin LaFoy, Co-Chairs of the South African Host Committee,
Distinguished Delegates and Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to be with you today. I would like to say a special word of welcome to all the foreign delegates - you are most welcome to South Africa, and I hope you will have the time, not only to be better acquainted with your fellow delegates, but also to know our country and people better.
I am happy that you have decided to come to South Africa, because the Christian community in this country represents the largest sector of our religious community, within which the Pentecostal movement has a long and rich tradition as well as a large following.
Indeed, although given the demographics of our country, the Pentecostal movement has a very big following among the black people, at the same time, it represents the rich tapestry of cultural diversity that defines our nation.
The South African government regards the church as one of its principal partners as we strive to improve the lives of all our people, especially the poor. Accordingly, I hope that as a people we will continue to count on the church to continue to use its capacity and infrastructure positively to impact on the process of transformation and change.
In this regard, I would again like to express our sincere appreciation for the cooperation and regular interaction between our Government and the religious communities, represented by the Forum of Religious Leaders.
Engagement in action for change is not something foreign to the millions of Christians in South Africa. South Africa is free today because of the invaluable contribution made by the church in the struggle against the system of apartheid, which was itself an antithesis of the teachings of Christ.
The struggle against apartheid produced many courageous Christian leaders and activists who were at the forefront of our liberation movement. They resisted the system and ideology of apartheid, whose theological justification was declared a heresy.
Many Christians, leaders and ordinary people, made enormous sacrifices and paid with their lives so that this country could be free. All of us will forever be indebted to these and many other heroes and heroines of the struggle for the freedom, democracy and justice we enjoy today.
Our gratitude also goes to Christians throughout the world, who did not stand by in the face of the racial oppression of the majority in our country, but joined the mighty global struggle against apartheid.
In this context, I am honoured to take advantage of this important World Conference to salute and pay tribute to an eminent son of our people, a true Christian, the late Rev Beyers Naude, to whom we will convey our last farewells on Saturday. His courage and transparent integrity not only affirmed the integrity of the Christian faith, but also gave all of us the inspiration never to give up until freedom had been achieved.
Thanks to what he and many others did, today we are free. Yet, we are faced with many challenges, including the urgent need to improve the standard of living of all our people, eradicate poverty, close the gap between the rich and the poor, and renew the moral fibre of our society.
In this regard, the church, which is one of the central custodians of the nation's morality, faces the challenge to continue to participate in the important work of rebuilding our family and community ethos and values.
Clearly, one of the biggest threats to these values is the unacceptably high levels of poverty and inequality, which occasion the fragmentation of families and communities, contribution to the weakening of our social cohesion and the fulfilment of the individual.
Those who belong to the Pentecostal movement attest to the fact that they find a sense of warmth, family and community in their congregations. As God's children, they find within the Church a pervasive, caring and loving environment that is attractive to both young and old.
Every South African will agree with me that this is the community spirit of unity and togetherness that the rest of our society needs. It is clearly the caring and loving environment that will ensure that the Christian teachings flourish. At the same time, it is the kind of setting that would produce the high calibre young men and women that a transforming society such as South Africa needs.
Undoubtedly, in the age of great affluence and large concentration of resources in one part of the world and abject poverty and lack of resources even for basic essentials, in another part of the same world, we obviously need the solidarity, empathy and mutual assistance that are characteristic of members of the Pentecostal movement.
I am told that the hosting denominations of this conference have a direct influence on the lives of over 4 million people, united in 10 000 congregations. This, indeed, is a great army of God - an army, part of whose mission would surely be to work towards an enduring moral rectitude, as we engage in programmes that must push back the frontiers of poverty.
As we know, and even through the representation at this conference, it is self-evident that this is a global movement. Accordingly, the many and varied challenges facing all of humanity in the age of globalisation also have a bearing on the Pentecostal movement. Because this movement attracts especially the poor of the world, it is possible to unite and collaborate with many others everywhere who are working for a better and more humane global community.
Writing in the book, "Between Babel and Pentecost", Andre Corten, says that:
"The global expansion of the Pentecostal movement can be compared to other contemporary processes of acceleration, most of them recent or reactivated in the context of globalisation and its by-products (consumerism, regionalisation, global economy, world culture, etc.). The complex world of international relationships, dependant on systems and subsystems of mass-production by large transnational corporations, has substantially reduced the sovereignty of Third World states. Although religious organisations are not beyond the influence of the dominant economic and ideological powers, their diversity and growing numbers may perform an 'integrative function in the social system', by reducing the complexity of the context in which modern social structures operate. In a world of crises and growing uncertainty, both personal and collective, local and global, we cannot ignore the power of a movement which encourages a radical faith, hope and mutual responsibility, proposing new life-styles and enabling the elaboration, especially among the poor and downtrodden, of modes of survival which recover moral and ethical values in the midst of indifference and the chaos in modern society. In this sense, Pentecostalism, together with the charismatic movement, attains a trans-denominational and transnational dimension comparable to the unprecedented growth which took place in the time of the early church."
I believe we should agree with Andre Corten that we need to examine the role that the Pentecostal movement should play 'in the integrative function in the social system, by reducing the complexity of the context in which modern social structures operate'. This is important because this complexity of modern social structures results in the social alienation of individuals and the weakening of the cohesion of human society.
It is within this complexity that billions experience the pain of the poor becoming poorer, unable to pull themselves out of the social crises that breed deprivation, dehumanisation and moral degradation.
It is good and proper that members of the churches under this Christian Pentecostal movement are able to focus on the individual circumstances of fellow members. Yet, we should also work together to ensure that all members of this movement, as well as those of other denominations and faiths, have the possibility to lead a better life.
As part of our ecumenical work, we should use the energy, verve, drive and compassion that characterise members of the Pentecostal Churches to bring about the meaningful transformation of the lives of billions of poor people in the world.
I am certain that all of us should take to heart what the Lord Jesus Christ said to the rich man - "sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven".
In the quotation we cited earlier, Andre Corten said:
"In a world of crises and growing uncertainty, both personal and collective, local and global, we cannot ignore the power of a movement which encourages a radical faith, hope and mutual responsibility, proposing new life-styles and enabling the elaboration, especially among the poor and downtrodden, of modes of survival which recover moral and ethical values in the midst of indifference and the chaos of modern society."
What this says is that none of us should be indifferent to the fate of our neighbour. We should not stand by and watch as many suffer from the buffeting caused by the chaos of modern society.
Our friends who come from other countries know that they have come to a country that has known the terrible pain caused by selfishness and indifference towards the fate of another human being.
As the guests of all our people, you have come to a country that is hard at work trying to bridge the divides that separated our people into mutually antagonistic compartments, that is trying to replace hatred with reconciliation, that is working to build a society in which race, colour and gender are no longer used to deny the reality that all of us are God's children.
This 20th Pentecostal World Conference is meeting in a Continent that continues to experience violence, war with the attendant human suffering, and intolerable hunger. It is however also a Continent that is striving very hard to heal the wounds and correct the mistakes of the past, that deeply understands the important message of this Conference and the Pentecostal movement - come Holy Spirit: transform our world!
As South Africans and as Africans, we thank you for your presence in our midst. We believe that you have brought the Pentecostal Conference to us to communicate the message that you bring us "a radical faith, hope and mutual responsibility.and new life-styles.especially among the poor and downtrodden.(that will help us to).recover moral and ethical values in the midst of indifference and the chaos of modern society."
You have come to us as bearers of the important message of hope especially for the poor and downtrodden, without which it might prove impossible for many, to carry the daily burdens we continue to carry because of our past.
Because of all this, I am privileged and honoured to convey the sincere thanks of our Government and people to the Pentecostal movement, as well as our best wishes for the success of the 20th Pentecostal World Conference.
I thank you for your attention.