Inyoni

In memory of my sister, Deanne Seneschal Raszat, née Lewald, born 31 Jan. 1940 in Durban, South Africa; died 26 Sept. 1996 in Leimen-Gauangelloch, Germany

By Roon Lewald

Deanne

After cancer won a five-year battle for my elder sister’s life, my brother-in-law sent me a parcel of old studio recordings of Deanne’s singing recitals made by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC/SAUK) between 1953 and 1958. Apart from a pile of yellowed newspaper clips and eistedfodd certificates, they were all that remained of the years when my mother’s coaching of Deanne’s voice propelled her into brief local prominence as a promising young singer. My dutiful elder sister had already been slaving away at her piano lessons for nearly five years when, at the age of 10, our Ma yoked her girlish lyrical soprano too into the musical harness of our parents, both of them singing teachers. At the age of 13, she piped German Lieder and Afrikaans liedjies into an SABC mike for the first time and was introduced on the nationwide “Young South Africa” programme as a young singer with a great future.

“Baptismal Covenant” in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer

Evan Daniel, in his classic 1892 historical commentary on the Book of Common Prayer, argues that a Prayer Book is not only a liturgical manual, but the “. . . fullest statement of the teaching of the Church . . . [bringing] before us the . . . great articles of the Christian faith.”   In this post I explore the liturgical Rite that best exemplifies one of the major theological emphases of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer (BCP): Holy Baptism as “. . . full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into Christ’s Body the Church”  comparing the 1979 BCP with its 1928 predecessor, and identifying continuities and discontinuities between these two Prayer Books.  In doing so I demonstrate how the theologies of the 1928 and 1979 Prayer Books concerning Baptism stand in stark contrast to each other, and how the tensions created by liturgical and theological innovations in the 1979 BCP continue to inform the debate around what happens at Baptism, and whether or not Baptism is a preparatory Rite for Confirmation and reception at the Eucharist, or the sole Rite for full membership in the Church.

Obama’s Inaugural Address: reading Zimbabwe between the lines

President Obama, Inaugural Address: January 20th 2009

Robert Mugabe

“To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist . . .

“To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds.”

Full text of Pres. Obama’s Address here.

Prayers for Barack Obama: Lowery, Warren and Robinson

For an archive of Inaugural prayers since 1937 (when the practice began) click here.

By Rev. Joseph Echols Lowery,  Benediction at  President Barack Obama’s inauguration, January 20th 2009.

Rev. Joseph Echols Lowery

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, thou who has brought us thus far along the way, thou who has by thy might led us into the light, keep us forever in the path, we pray, lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee, lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee. Shadowed beneath thy hand may we forever stand — true to thee, O God, and true to our native land.

We truly give thanks for the glorious experience we’ve shared this day. We pray now, O Lord, for your blessing upon thy servant, Barack Obama, the 44th president of these United States, his family and his administration. He has come to this high office at a low moment in the national and, indeed, the global fiscal climate. But because we know you got the whole world in your hand, we pray for not only our nation, but for the community of nations. Our faith does not shrink, though pressed by the flood of mortal ills.

For we know that, Lord, you’re able and you’re willing to work through faithful leadership to restore stability, mend our brokenness, heal our wounds and deliver us from the exploitation of the poor or the least of these and from favoritism toward the rich, the elite of these.

We thank you for the empowering of thy servant, our 44th president, to inspire our nation to believe that, yes, we can work together to achieve a more perfect union. And while we have sown the seeds of greed — the wind of greed and corruption, and even as we reap the whirlwind of social and economic disruption, we seek forgiveness and we come in a spirit of unity and solidarity to commit our support to our president by our willingness to make sacrifices, to respect your creation, to turn to each other and not on each other.

And now, Lord, in the complex arena of human relations, help us to make choices on the side of love, not hate; on the side of inclusion, not exclusion; tolerance, not intolerance.

And as we leave this mountaintop, help us to hold on to the spirit of fellowship and the oneness of our family. Let us take that power back to our homes, our workplaces, our churches, our temples, our mosques, or wherever we seek your will.

Bless President Barack, First Lady Michelle. Look over our little, angelic Sasha and Malia.

We go now to walk together, children, pledging that we won’t get weary in the difficult days ahead. We know you will not leave us alone, with your hands of power and your heart of love.

Help us then, now, Lord, to work for that day when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid; when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.

Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around — (laughter) — when yellow will be mellow — (laughter) — when the red man can get ahead, man — (laughter) — and when white will embrace what is right.

Let all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen.

By Rev. Rick Warren, invocation at  President Barack Obama’s inauguration, January 20th 2009.

Pastor Rick Warren

Let us pray.

Almighty God, our father, everything we see and everything we can’t see exists because of you alone. It all comes from you; it all belongs to you. It all exists for your glory. History is your story.

The Scripture tells us “Hear, Oh Israel, the Lord is our God; the Lord is one.” And you are the compassionate and merciful one. And you are loving to everyone you have made.

Now today we rejoice not only in America’s peaceful transfer of power for the 44th time, we celebrate a hinge-point of history with the inauguration of our first African-American president of the United States.

We are so grateful to live in this land, a land of unequaled possibility, where the son of an African immigrant can rise to the highest level of our leadership.

And we know today that Dr. King and a great cloud of witnesses are shouting in Heaven.

Give to our new president, Barack Obama, the wisdom to lead us with humility, the courage to lead us with integrity, the compassion to lead us with generosity. Bless and protect him, his family, Vice President Biden, the Cabinet, and every one of our freely elected leaders.

Help us, Oh God, to remember that we are Americans, united not by race or religion or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all.

When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when we forget you, forgive us. When we presume that our greatness and our prosperity is ours alone, forgive us. When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the Earth with the respect that they deserve, forgive us.

And as we face these difficult days ahead, may we have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches, and civility in our attitudes, even when we differ.

Help us to share, to serve and to seek the common good of all.

May all people of good will today join together to work for a more just, a more healthy and a more prosperous nation and a peaceful planet. And may we never forget that one day all nations and all people will stand accountable before you.

We now commit our new president and his wife, Michelle, and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, into your loving care.

I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life, Yeshua, Isa, Jesus, Jesus (hay-SOOS), who taught us to pray:

Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Amen.

By The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire

Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC
January 18, 2009

Bishop Gene Robinson

“O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will:

Bless us with tears for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless us with anger at discrimination at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people.

Bless us with discomfort at the easy, simplistic answers we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth about ourselves and the world which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be fixed anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity we are stronger.

Bless us with compassion and generosity remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.

And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack as he assumes the office of President of the United States:

Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for all the people.

Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.

Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.

Make him colour-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.

Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.

And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking far too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.

Amen.

Martin Luther King of Georgia

January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968

We have flown the air like birds,
השכלנו לטוס באוויר כמו ציפורים
حلّقنا في الهواء كالعصافير

We have swum the sea like fishes
השכלנו לשחות בים כמו דגים
سبحنا في البحر كالأسماك

But have yet to learn the simple act
אך עדיין לא למדנו את המעשה הפשוט….
لكننا لم نتقن بعد، تلك المهارة البسيطة ….

Of walking the earth like brothers
של ללכת על האדמה כמו אחים
أن نمشي على الأرض كالأخوة

Words by: Martin Luther King Jr.
מילים: מרטין לוטר קינג הבן
من أقوال:مارتن لوثر كينج

Afro-pessimism: Robert Mugabe

By David Mpanga

“I will never, never, never, never surrender. Zimbabwe is mine, I am a Zimbabwean. Zimbabwe for Zimbabweans.”  Robert Mugabe, December 2008.

If a white fiction writer had dreamt up the Zimbabwe-under-Mugabe plot, he would have been roundly condemned as an Afro-pessimist and a racist. But we have all seen that after ruining the Zimbabwean economy with misplaced policies, purportedly intended to emancipate the downtrodden black man, Mugabe “secured” an 85.51% “landslide victory” by beating his opponents into submission.

Having failed to declare official results for over a month when it looked like the great hero of the revolution was losing, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission reclaimed its reputation for efficiency by counting all of the ballots and verifying the results of the presidential run-off election in one day. So it is back to business-as-usual in Zimbabwe.

Time for Sowing

By Roon Lewald

Funeral Dirt

It’s the first of the four Advent Sundays, when folks here in Germany light the first of four candles on their Advent fir-branch wreaths and get into the pre-Christmas spirit. Even agnostics can’t help reflecting on the meaning of it all on a quiet Sunday evening when Christmas-minded people take a short break from their gift-shopping labours before plunging back into the seasonal shopping rush again on Monday (illuminations are already up and Christmas markets are booming in the city centers, and reports say Germans are spending this year as if we weren’t heading for a long recession). With the terror bombings in Moombai vying with the global economic crisis for attention, the news is so depressing nowadays it’s hard to believe that there’s any room left in the world for the human love, friendship and compassion we hear so much about at Christmastime. I can only draw comfort from the knowledge that many people like myself are at least linked to other individuals by such bonds.

In this mood, I was reminded of a short story by a South African author named Charles Bosman.

Die Van Pletsen Saga

In English

Klik vir genealogie

Hier volg nou die “Van Pletsen” saga wat ek belowe het om neer to skrywe voordat ek tjêns word en niks meer kan onthou nie. Ek kan nie waarborg dat al die féite, datums, ens., juis is nie, want wat ek hier skryf is gebaseer op hoorsê – op wat pa en ma, oupa en ouma en ou tantes en ooms vertel het! Volgens my oom Jan Sauer van Pletsen (wat joernalistiese neigings gehad het en ʼn paar boeke die lig laat sien het) het ene Carl Johannes von Plessen, gebore 1795 in Oos Pruise, daar moelikheid gehad het met die owerhede en toe die land verlaat en hom gevestig in Brabant, België.

(Oupa se suster, Tant Mart Vorster, het graag gespog met die feit dat ons Van Pletsens oorspronklik Von Plessens was en dus tot die aristokrasie behoort het en dan het my pa se broer, die stuitlike oom Kootjie, haar altyd gedemp met die woorde: “Ag, wat, Ta’ Mart, die ou swernoter was seker ʼn ou perdedief. Dis die dat hy daar out Oos Pruise moes padgee het!”) In Brabant het hy huursoldaat geword en as sulks onder Napoleon gaan veg.

Na die slag van Waterloo het hy en ʼn Havenga (seker ʼn voorstaat van Klasie Havenga) as verstekelinge op ʼn skip hier aangekom in 1820. Dit blyk dat hy in Graaf Reinet te lande gekom het waar hy getroud is met ʼn Anna Sauer (gebore 1805) wie se vader, Johan Nicholas Sauer, uit Keulen in Duitsland gekom het en onderwyser in Graaf Reinet geword het.

The Nicene Creed: how it became the way it is in the 1979 Prayer Book

For a discussion of Rublev’s icon, click here. The Nicene Creed, our catholic confession of faith, appears as a unified document that carefully outlines our faith in a Triune God: One God in three persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Like most doctrinal statements, however, the Nicene Creed was not written in one sitting, nor was it written in a vacuum. This essay will describe the doctrine of God as three persons in Trinity using the framework of the historical contexts of the Ecumenical Councils of Nicea (325), Constantinople (381), Ephesus (431) and Chalcedon (451), explaining the reasons for convoking each Council and the basic theological decisions of these Councils. In short, we will explore how the Nicene Creed got to be the way it is today in the 1979 Prayer Book.

Arguing With God at Coffs Harbour

By Roon Lewald

A few years ago, I had one of those near-death experiences you keep reading about. In Australia of all places, with Eva. Eva, my blunt-speaking, pig-headed, lovely-ugly partner of many years whose strength, warm-heartedness and abundant physicality put me on the road to recovery when I stumbled out of the emotional ground-zero of my divorce into her arms. We were very close at times and poles apart at others. Her relatively limited education and lack of intellectual curiosity locked her out of interests which loomed large in my mind. Besides limiting our conversational range, this exposed me to frequently voiced, unfounded suspicions that I was looking down on her.