THE BISHOP’S CHARGE

TO THE

FORTY-NINETH SESSION OF THE

SYNOD OF THE DIOCESE OF

MTHATHA

AT THE

CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST JOHN THE EVANGELIST

BY

THE RT REVD DR SITEMBELE TOBELA

MZAMANE Ph.D

ANGLICAN BISHOP OF MTHATHA

THE BISHOP’S CHARGE TO THE FORTY-NINTH SESSION OF SYNOD OF THE DIOCESE OF MTHATHA.

THEME : DEDICATED PEOPLE OF GOD

We greet each and everyone of you in that blessed name that is above every name, even the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

We bid you welcome to this special Session of Forty-Ninth Synod of the Diocese of Mthatha. We welcome particularly those who attend Synod for the first time. This is your Diocese. This is your Church. Please do not feel intimidated.

“We welcome you into our fellowship.

We are members of the Body of Christ;

We are children of the same heavenly Father;

We are inheritors together of the Kingdom of God.

We welcome you”.

Synod is a time to meet as an assembled Church to take counsel together. It is a time to reflect on our pilgrimage and take stock of our gains and challenges. We have a strong cause to celebrate and sing litanies of jubilee as a Diocese.

OUR STRENGTH as a Diocese, lies in the fact that we are here to do God’s business. We are here to fulfil a mandate of our mission, and our mission is to please and serve God.

The secret of our strength is in our confession that “Jesus is Lord” and we do everything under His Supreme command. The strength and the rapid growth of this Diocese is in the fact that Jesus is the Lord of our lives and as such we are ever conscious of His Lordship. We are His domain and His spirit lives in us.

OUR CLERGY do all in their power to bring Good News of our salvation nearer where our people are. We have a band of dedicated and faithful Clergy. We are proud to have a calibre of Priests and Deacons such as we have in this great Diocese.

We therefore charge the Diocese not to give up on praying, without ceasing for them. Most of them have given up everything including their very selves to this one thing of staying and remaining at the feet of Jesus and His sanctuary. Please pray for our Clergy as they seek, under trying and evil times, to live all the demands of the Gospel.

CLERGY SPOUSES continue to be a pillar of strength to our Clergy. They give all they can in order to keep our Clergy happy, even though sometimes they are bruised and bleeding for the only name of Jesus. Sometimes they lose to the Gospel what could have been their privilege according to the world’s standards. They quietly pray for our Priests. When their spouses are injured, they are injured with them too. They do all this for Christ, the Lord of the Church. The Clergy spouses have, too, answered a call to minister : love and support to our Clergy.

When no one cares they do. When no one loves them anymore; they do because they know them as children of God also. Let us give thanks to God for our spouses and learn to appreciate their sacrifices.

THE OFTEN FORGOTTEN ONES are the children of our Clergy. When we feel pain as Clergy, they quietly feel it too because they know what we are to them. We are their parents. They love us. We should assure them of our love. Sometimes they do injure us, perhaps out of desperation because we often forget them. We often do not give them enough attention. We give more attention to other children whose parents have given them to us to mould. Why should we, forget our own children.?

We charge, the Diocesan Clergy families to do more than lip service to minister to our own children. They need our ministry. They need our love. They need our assurance that we do love and care for them. Sometimes they meet with unsurmountable problems. They need our guidance. They need some answers to their difficult questions; above all they need our honesty as their parents.

THE DIOCESE OF MBHASHE is a reality. We have been found to have done more than expected, beyond the call of duty. We praise God for you. Indeed this initiative is of God, nothing will stop it. It is coming sooner than we expected. Thank you Lord, thank you Jesus, thank you Holy Spirit. Thank you all.

The task that is set before us is to pray so that God may give us a Pastor for our Clergy and Shepherd of the flock. Pray that we may have our apostolic Father in God; and Bishop of our souls. Please pray. God is good: all the time.

THE LAOS of the diocese include all those old women and men whom we would like to call unsung heroines and heroes, whose offerings remain the wonder of our Diocese, by whose prayers we are sustained and by whose devotion we are redeemed from the forces of darkness. We thank God for the Faithful. May his holy name be praised.

THE DIOCESAN ORGANISATIONS continue to inspire us. Their conferences always change our lives for the better because we get renewed and rejuvenated. We think of your resounding contributions to the cause of our Diocese particularly in the areas of :

  • Pledges
  • Family Day Offering
  • Endowment Fund
  • Christmas Hampers for our Clergy and so on.

This is unique in the Diocese of Mthatha. Keep up the good work. We thank you and praise God for who you are.

THE LEGAL TEAM is a gift from God to make us good. Their ministry to me in particular is a source of inspiration for what we are doing: This is so because they first gave themselves to God and to us so that we may service the affairs of this Diocese with prudence, integrity and meticulous care. We love them. We respect their wise counsel. We affirm their ministry that is freely given to us and to this Church . Thank you good Friends. Thank you. Your stirling work is not unnoticed by the God whom you love and serve.

THERE IS A QUIET FRIEND AND A LOVE OF MY LIFE, my wife who takes over what you left undone. If I am bruised and buttered: she is the first person to take care of my inner me. She is my greatest friend, my confidante “impelesi”. She is doing a lot for you. I thank God for giving me a person of her calibre. She is the one who understands me better and knows me most. The greatest misunderstanding in any establishment is to find people who do not understand and know each other as they should. How we pray, as an episcopal couple, to understand and know the essence of who we are and our ambitions for our beloved Diocese. We love you. We respect you. We honour you. We have come in humility like yourselves to extend the campus of the kingdom of God in this Diocese.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST we thank, on your behalf the Bishop’s Secretary, Ms Nocawe Maqolo for keeping the confidential matters of our office with integrity. This woman served me from 1990 to date. We have never quarrelled, neither did we ever think of firing her for anything. She has maintained who she is with humility. We thank you, Mandlovu.

CANON BAM AND THE DIOCESAN STAFF are an exceptional team. The atmosphere in that office is just conducive for a plant of this nature. Your loyal support Canon Siphiwo is a bequest to any Bishop and would be a Bishop. Keep the faith you have. Keep the love you have for God, it will sustain you.

May this Synod be an opportunity of hearing from God: where from here?

May we enjoy one another’s company with love. May we thank God for each other, thank the ministry of Canon Tumeka Msengi in this Cathedral Church as we still have no Dean.

May we thank Archdeacon Bekizitha Nombekela who has done so well as our Senior Priest in the place of a Dean. He does not like a quarrel-some situation. It makes him sick. He continues to give us his unequivocal support in season and out of season. Thank you Mkhondwane, thank you Sukude, Sinjengenxa yenu.

INCLUSION St Paul in Colossians 1 : 9-14 writes : “ For this reason, since the day we heard about you we have not stopped praying for and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the Kingdom of light.

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the Kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins”.

To Him be Glory , might and power, now and always. Amen.

May the church say : “Amen”.

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