wfn.org | Church has 'critical role' in new South Africa, says Bishop

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Dandala

April 3, 1998	CONTACT: 	Linda Bloom, (212) 870-3803, New York
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NOTE:  Sidebar story #211 available for use with this story.

NEW YORK (UMNS) - The church has a "critical role" to play in mobilizing
the citizens of the new South Africa, according to the Methodist bishop
there.

Part of that role is to work with the government - both critically and
supportively - in a way that is unfamiliar to those who lived under the
apartheid system.

"The biggest challenge is for the church to learn to work with a
government that is legitimate," said Bishop H. Mvume Dandala during an
April 2 interview with United Methodist News Service here.

For the past 14 months, he has led the Methodist Church of Southern
Africa, which has a confirmed membership of 600,000 and a constituency
of about two million.

Before Nelson Mandela was elected president, he explained, the church
had dealt with a government "that was condemned. In a sense, there was
nothing for us to affirm in that government."

Since church leaders had mastered the art of "dismissing both the acts
and the actor," they must now learn to listen to government plans and
proposals and respond either positively or negatively without
undermining the government's legitimacy, Dandala added.

The reluctance to criticize also must be addressed. "The euphoria of
having our own government is still with us and it still is not easy to
draw attention to what might be wrong," the bishop said.

Dandala believes that the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission
- which has revealed the depths of the apartheid legacy through
testimonies from victims and admissions of guilt from perpetrators - has
helped South Africa come to grips with its history.

"Bringing it out the way they did is a very significant step toward the
healing of our land," he said.

But, he added, as the commission itself has observed, "they are nowhere
near seeing the process of reconciliation through."

Churches and other institutions must continue the process by surrounding
those still grieving with loving communities, providing counseling
programs and training pastors and lay people to become "healing agents."

According to Dandala, the church also has a responsibility to "help
families who lost their breadwinners" during the apartheid years,
especially since it is clear that whatever reparation money the
government sets aside "will never be enough."

Since the end of apartheid, significant integration has occurred in the
schools and where blacks have moved into formerly all-white
neighborhoods, the bishop said.

"But we have not seen any movement of white people into black areas," he
noted, adding that those areas tend to be less desirable, both
economically and geographically.

The Methodist church membership itself is about 70 percent black and 30
percent white, a ratio that has not changed recently, according to the
bishop.

The next step, Dandala said, will be to shift business more toward the
townships in a way that will not destroy the small established
businesses there run by black entrepreneurs.

United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
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