Sunday, January 28, 2007

reflections on the year past

My sermon, which is in essence my report to the Annual Vestry (the Anglican version of an Annual General Meeting) of the Parish I serve, is available. I lead in with a focus on the Old Testament reading for the day from Jeremiah (his call) and the "reminder ... that God is a creative God, and that “destruction” as much as “building” is part of the creative process." The full text is also available.

Rennie D
28 January 2007

Sunday, January 14, 2007

god delights in us

My sermon for the 2nd Sunday of the Year is available. I have focused on the fact that God delights in us, resources us with only the best, and seeks to be part of the various "pictures" we carry (of God, of ourselves, of others). All this needs to deeply inform us as we respond in mission and ministry.

Rennie D
14 January 2007

Sunday, January 07, 2007

epiphany

My sermon for Epiphany is now availalble. The focus is on belonging and identity.

Rennie D
7 January 2007

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

i am home

I have just completed Max du Preez' book, Pale Native: Memories of a Renegade Reporter, Zebra Press, 2003. As an Afrikaner Max touches on the complexity of being African and pale (page 5):

I am a native of this land, but unlike most other natives, I am pale.

This statement launches Max du Preez' narrative, one that touches regularly – and disturbingly – on events that have been as formative on my existence as on his. I, too, am a pale native (born in Johannesburg), though I lack the roots in Afrikaner identity that plays backdrop to Max’s story. I am a product of the British Empire, but no less connected to the African soil. Like many of my composite tribe, my heritage is a patchwork of belonging: my maternal line bequeaths me a third generation African heritage (and a second generation Scottish!). My adopted paternal line allows me second generation African status, and my biological paternal line a second generation English heritage. All this taken into account, I am more African than English; not Afrikaner, but African none-the-less.

My siblings, perhaps more African than I by birth, have abandoned the African soil, preferring the nourishment of England. They are not alone, a part of the “pale native” Diaspora of this generation who find nourishment on other continents, but whose souls never quite settle, never quite inhabit their adopted cultures. There is a thirst for home, for the African soil – sometimes acknowledged. Unlike them, I remain. What keeps me rooted?

There is much in the New South Africa that makes me feel uncomfortable in a pale skin, even unwelcome. A greater part of that discomfort lies in history, an awareness that we have contributed to the oppression and rape of Africa, the heritage of our Colonial past and the more recent evil: Apartheid. It is an ancestral guilt, not always personal but collective.

Pale Native addresses much of this discomfort, and in so doing creates a new space for belonging. Max du Preez, as he shares his own struggles as an Afrikaner who seeks to break with the traditions of his tribe, brings me to a new place of certainty, a renewed assuredness that I, too, belong. The African soil is my home. With Max I am able to proclaim – proudly – that,

My soul is not the soul of a bywoner … I call myself a native of Africa: pale, but no less native. (pages 5 and 274)

I feel the passion as I read,

The energy that I feel gushing from the soil, my African soil, through my foot soles and into my spirit tells me who I am. The ancient mountains and valleys around me whisper to me that I am where I belong. Forces much greater than loud-mouthed politicians and my own fears and insecurities have placed me exactly here at this time. I am who I should be and where I should be (page 5).

I am home.

Rennie D
2 January 2007

Monday, January 01, 2007

new year - the opportunities

A new day dawn's the beginning of a New Year, a day for hope and dreams in the midst of many challenges for the world and for Africa. Let us renew our commitment to life, to community, to relationship, to peace. Let us be responsible in conversation and in action. Let us serve God with confidence as we meet and recognise the Creator's image in our shared humanity. As people of Africa let us celebrate, and in so doing, resource the Nation that has resourced us! Viva, Africa!

Rennie D
1 January 2007