wfn.org | SOUTHERN AFRICA: PILGRIMAGE FOR THE MILLENNIUM

[Audrey Whitefield <a.whitefield@quest.org.uk>]

Sept. 23, 1997
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE
Canon Jim Rosenthal, Director of Communications
Anglican Communion Office
London, England

[97.9.3.6]

SOUTHERN AFRICA: PILGRIMAGE FOR THE MILLENNIUM

(CPSA) The Anglican Church in Southern Africa is to commemorate the
coming of the new Millennium with a number of pilgrimages.

A decision to do this was taken by the Provincial Standing Committee of
the Church at its meeting being held in Modderpoort in the Free State.

Moving a resolution calling for the pilgrimages, the Rt Revd Peter Lee,
Bishop of the Diocese of Christ the King, recalled that the pilgrimage
of reconciliation and hope to Robben Island undertaken by the Church in
March this year had enabled it to rediscover the value of public acts of
witness, prayer and proclamation.

Pilgrimages will be held at Provincial (national), diocesan and parish
level.

The Church will celebrate the arrival of the first Bishop of Cape Town,
the Rt Revd Robert Gray, and his wife, Sophy, 150 years ago, during 1998
with a pilgrimage in Cape Town.  This will be the first of a series of
pilgrimages, culminating in the Jubilee 2000 Provincial Synod in 2000.

Next year's pilgrimage will be the launching pad for other pilgrimages
throughout Southern Africa.  The pilgrimages will include visits to
places of pain  --  such as District Six, Sharpeville, the room in which
Steve Biko was tortured  --  where prayer for healing and reconciliation
is needed, and celebrations where churches are dedicated or
thanksgivings are planned.

Amongst the pilgrimages planned will be one by the Anglican bishops to
Angola for the founding of the Church's 24th diocese.