Episcopal News Service March 7, 2007
Williams tells opening TEAM Eucharist follow martyrs' example, break down barriers between people
By Matthew Davies and Mary Frances Schonberg
[ESN] Saying that the "Holy Spirit looks like the person next to you," Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams told the nearly 1,000 people attending the opening Eucharist of the Towards Effective Anglican Mission (TEAM) conference that the Holy Spirit is revealed in the faces of those who are "trying to do the work of Jesus Christ."
All are called, Williams said, "to tell the world that every voice matters."
Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane of Cape Town was the presider at the Eucharist and Diocese of the Highveld Bishop David Beetge and the Rev. Canon Nangula Kathindi, provincial executive officer of the Anglican Church of South Africa, were the concelebrants. The liturgy was planned by the Rev. Diana Nkesiga from the Anglican Church of Uganda.
Ndungane gives the TEAM conference's opening address on March 8. Williams will also speak that morning about the biblical principles and gospel imperatives on the mission of the church in society.
The congregation swelled out of the close to 600 seats crowded into All Souls Anglican Church in Tsakane, South Africa, which is about 50 minutes by bus from the conference site, the Birchwood Executive Hotel and Conference Centre in Boksburg. Worshipers participated in the service, some by listening at the open windows, others via closed-circuit television outside the church and across the street. (On-demand viewing of the service will be available March 8 at http://www.team2007.org).
The buses arriving from Boksburg were greeted by men, women and children waving small TEAM paper flags as they stood along the unpaved streets of Tsakane. A brass band played as the conference participants and members of area congregations walked to the church. A large contingent of members of the Mothers' Union dressed in black skirts, white blouses, black rope belts and black shoes and hats, were in the congregation. Sitting right in front of them were a number of ambassadors.
The two-and-a-half-hour service was said in many of the languages common to the Diocese of the Highveld, ranging from English and Portuguese to Xhosa and Afrikaans. Alternately loud and mellow voices from a men's and women's choir punctuated the worship, backed by a piano jazz band inside the church and, from outside, a brass band and the voices of children playing. Later, as communion was being distributed, crickets chirped loudly. All Souls Church prepared a dinner for the entire congregation after the service.
"This is the way we worship every Sunday," said Mamaroala Moretlo from St. Peter's Church in Kathlehong, about 20 kilometers from Tsakane. "The difference with this is that we have the bishop and the archbishop."
Full story and photos:
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_83193_ENG_HTM.htm
-- Matthew Davies is international correspondent for the Episcopal News Service. The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is national correspondent for the Episcopal News Service.
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