wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Praying for God's grace - and transformation - for

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #9078 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

06036
Jan. 27, 2006

Praying for God's grace -
and transformation - for Africa

On the upcoming Assembly of the World Council of Churches

by Mercy Amba Oduyoye

Editor's note: This is the seventh in a series of background articles leading
up to the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC), which starts
on Feb. 14 in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Two PC(USA) journalists will help cover
the Assembly: Eva Stimson, editor of Presbyterians Today, will serve on the
WCC staff as co-editor of the daily Assembly newspaper, and Jerry L. Van
Marter, coordinator of the Presbyterian News Service, will serve as a
reporter for Ecumenical News International, a Geneva-based religious news
agency.

LEGON, Ghana - Transformation has become almost a cliché. Everything needs to
be transformed: individual lives, cultures, economies, societies ... 

	But it is not often that God or grace are named in this context. We
simply state the need for transformation, as if we hoped to lift ourselves up
by our boot straps - that is, for those of us who have any footwear at all.

	It is, therefore, the prayer for God's grace that attracts attention
in the theme of the upcoming World Council of Churches 9th Assembly: "God, in
your grace, transform the world." 

	"God, in your grace," "There, but for the grace of God," "God be
gracious to us" - these and similar phrases are common in the language of
Christian spirituality. We pray for grace. Now we ask God to be gracious and
bring transformation to the world.

	What in the world would Africans want to see transformed?

	A recent BBC program featured a book in which the author likens
genocide to bullying, and points out that both come out of treating the other
with contempt, or as though they were not human.

	The program was being aired as I read sister Thandeki Umlilo's Little
Girl, Arise! In her book, Umlilo deals with the abuse and incest she suffered
from the male members of her household - her father, uncle and two brothers -
and the silence of her mother in her days of torment. She felt that her
humanity had been violated and her person held in contempt. 

	Laments on the situation of Africa have become regular fare when we
Africans meet.

	The impunity covering those who wield power in Africa and how they
deal with citizens is proverbial. The impunity of people paid to serve the
public -  at frontiers, on the roads, in offices, even at the markets - has
to be experienced to be believed. Bribes of different kinds, tardiness in
delivering services, are not punished, while victims have no recourse to
justice. TV programs continuously decry these practices, but nothing changes.

	All one can do is to cry out : "God, in your grace, transform this
situation, grant us respect for the humanity of the other." Yet our
lamentations are also a protest that says that we do not accept the status
quo, and an expression of our hope that things will mend.

Imploring God's grace

	The question I keep asking myself is: What makes us think that God
will undertake the transformation of the world? We have been created with
free will and taught how to live as beings in the image of God. What more do
we expect of God?

	Human beings have a way of testing God until "holiness" consumes all
that is unworthy of the presence of God. Wheat and tares are left to grow
together until the harvest. But ultimately, the harvest comes, and the wheat
and tares are separated for different destinations. We know all this, and yet
we cry: "God, in your grace, transform the world."

	I often wonder whether we do so because we know that our sinfulness
cannot overshadow the image of God in us. Maybe we do so because we affirm
that our creator and judge is also our redeemer. My experience is that where
the fire of faith smolders in the ashes of wrong, we affirm that the grace of
God will fan the dying embers into active flames.

	Often faith lies dormant, allowing unbelief and skepticism to direct
our responses to the changes around us. If the wrong is environmental
degradation, we respond by pretending that it cannot be corrected. For how
can we maximize economic gains if we keep trying to curb our emissions of
harmful gases?

	If it is unfair trade practices, we argue that only free trade will
boost the economy - overlooking the fact that free trade hurts those whose
home markets are captured by subsidized exports. We laud globalization when
it benefits us, and overlook how it excludes free movement of people around
the globe, especially of those who are judged to be a liability to
profit-making.

	When we do all this, all that is left for those who hurt is to
implore the grace that guards the vulnerable and the helpless.

		We certainly do not deserve to be saved
		We made the beds in which we lie
		But we know that by the grace of God
		We shall wake up and get up and move out.

	When our minds are transformed, our priorities will change, and then
we shall begin to see the world as God sees it. By God's grace, we shall not
remain as we are. We shall be clothed with compassion, respect for the other
and joy in doing what is right before God.

	God, in your grace, transform the world. Begin with me, so that I can
become an instrument for the transformation for which we pray.

Mercy Amba Oduyoye is the director of the Institute of Women in Religion and
Culture at Trinity Theological Seminary in Legon, Ghana. She is a former WCC
deputy general secretary and a member of the Methodist Church of Ghana.

To subscribe or unsubscribe, please send an email to
pcusanews-subscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org or
pcusanews-unsubscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org

To contact the owner of the list, please send an email to
pcusanews-request@halak.pcusa.org