Our dear Sisters & Brothers in Christ,

As on the Day of Pentecost when the disciples "were all together in one place" (Acts 2:1), so we have all been together in one place in these few amazing days at this second South African Christian Leadership Assembly (SACLA). As the SACLA Council, we hope and trust that all have felt some fresh renewing touch of the Spirit in consequence of our encounters with the Lord, with His word, and with each other as we have journeyed together.

The rightness of God's timing for this assembly has become abundantly clear as the events of 7–11 July 2003 have unfolded. From addresses by leaders of local and national government, and especially out of the significant speeches of President Thabo Mbeki and Mrs Janet Museveni, First Lady of Uganda, we realised with new appreciation that God has prepared many leaders of civil society, not only here but across Africa, to receive as well as seek the contributions of the Christian Church in tackling the "giants" which we have felt called to address (i.e., HIV/Aids, Violence, Crime, Racism, Poverty and Unemployment, Sexism and the Family in Crisis). These giants are also present in many countries across Africa; the SACLA Council has accordingly sent a message of concern and assurance of prayer to the leaders of the African Union as they meet in Mozambique. Special and prayerful concern was expressed particularly regarding the current situation in Zimbabwe. This message of prayer and encouragement has also been sent to Church leaders in that country.

In a variety of ways, God has been working deeply among the nearly 4 000 of us present. It became clear, in our fresh, struggling but sincere attempts at repentance and reconciliation, that God has brought us to a place of sufficient trust among Church groups, races and other previous divisions to be able to join in planning united and practical actions. It will still take years for all the wounds of the past to heal, but clearly we have been eager in the spirit of forgiveness to embrace the way ahead so that we may indeed be real Christians in the real South Africa.

Out of our collective experience together as a Council, and listening to report-backs from the Track Leaders, we feel there are a number of words from the Lord to which we should pay special attention and on which we should report back to the constituencies from which we come:

1. All Christian leaders, and indeed all Christian believers everywhere, need to catch a fresh vision of God (see Isaiah 6:1-8), and come humbly and repentantly before Him to face the sinful giants within our own hearts before we can effectively go out to tackle the societal giants out there. Leaders especially must aim, as Paul says to Timothy, to lead lives of integrity, godliness and sexual purity that are "above reproach" (1 Tim 3:2). All must likewise aim, where married, to have homes and families that are as far as possible exemplary. We call on all to labour with all diligence for the building up of South African homes and the strengthening of family life in our nation.

2. Falling far short of these biblical requirements, and being guilty not just of sins of commission, but of omission, we all need, like Peter (Mark 14:72; John 21:15-19), to come to a "Second-Time-Round Repentance", not for conversion but for our many current denials and betrayals. Then we will move in the power of the Spirit to our divinely mandated tasks of mission and evangelism.

3. We have also been reminded by our President, perhaps in implicit rebuke for our silences these last years, that government needs to hear the prophetic voice of the Church again on issues of ethics, morality and social concern. Christians at local levels also should engage political and civic authorities to cooperate in nation-building and to encourage integrity in public life.

4. We need especially to heed the voices of numerous SACLA speakers – local, Pan African and overseas – that God has a great heart for the destinies and lives of nations and cultures. Christians should accordingly be salt and light in all sectors of societal life, bringing a spiritual witness for Christ and His Kingdom, along with practical, positive and compassionate contributions to national life and individual needs.

5. In this regard, we have grasped afresh in these days that the Christian Church is challenged to engage the African cultural contexts in more meaningful ways. The giants we have identified which threaten Africa so profoundly require that the Church develop more innovative means and support structures that will affirm our belonging to each other and deepen our sense of collective accountability to each other. Africa, in its rich culture and diversity, has structures which, if affirmed, will help the Gospel take root more deeply in African soil.

6. Beyond that, if we would bring a true future and hope in Christ to our nation and continent (cf Jeremiah 29:1-14), we must take seriously the revelation of God as found in both Natural Law written into the fabric of the universe, and in the Scriptures. Here is where sure and certain truth is found relating to human life and destiny, including the sanctity of life for all, especially the infant in the womb and the elderly.

7. We were challenged to reflect again on the example and precedent of the early Church where the Person and work of the Holy Spirit was profoundly operative to thrust believers out in mission to the world and into the marketplace (Acts 1:8). This precedent should alert us to the danger of either failing to appropriate the Spirit's power and gifts, or domesticating and confining the Spirit's work within local congregations.

8. Christians are a people of hope who bring hope to the world around them. This is initiated, in Peter's words, as people are "born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3). This being so, we urge all believing Christians and congregations into fresh, vigorous and ongoing initiatives of evangelism and mission to a world that is not only lost spiritually and morally, but socially, economically and politically (cf Luke 19:10).

9. We are deeply thankful to God that in SACLA we believe that Christians from across the theological, ecclesiastical and generational spectrum have moved to a new place of reconciliation, unity and understanding, though we acknowledge that we still have a long way to go, and many rivers to cross, especially in the arenas of race, gender and the generation gap. But we invite all believers in our land not only to join us more resolutely in this reconciling process at local levels, but to register deeply that God has uniquely "committed to us," not to government, the military or to business, "the ministry of reconciliation" (2 Cor 5:18-19).

10. SACLA has also wonderfully highlighted for us the vibrant and vital role of Christian young people in South Africa, with their enthusiasm, zeal, fresh insights, energy and creative challenges to more senior Christian leadership. The Assembly was deeply moved and inspired when several representative young people led us in identifying those among us who had been affected by any individual giant. As we stood together, we sought to identify with and pray for one another in our shared pain and need. We were then led sensitively in prayers of confession and commitment. We urge all Churches across our nation to release in new ways the vast potential for Christ which resides in the younger generation.

11. The final day of SACLA, in its calling for commitment to action, challenged the Church in South Africa, local congregations and individuals to work out what it means to be effective witnesses to Christ. Vibrant, caring local Churches, functioning as salt which arrests societal decay and light which dispels spiritual darkness, still constitute one of the most powerful agents of change in our world today. We urge all pastors and lay people to evaluate the health of their congregational fellowships in the light of Scripture and then press forward in the power of the Spirit to new effectiveness by being both visible and active in our communities.

12. The conference was divided into 12 Tracks which spent most of each day grappling with the issues brought to us by the Lord through the plenary sessions, special speakers and hundreds of small groups. The atmosphere in each track ranged from brokenness and tears, to creative activities, to deep and even heated discussion, combined with the joy of making new friends. These Tracks included two for young people, seven for various vocational groups, one for Church leaders and one each for community transformation plus family and children's ministries. Attached separately is a brief summary of some of the significant action plans agreed to in each of these tracks. These will be pursued in the coming months and years.

13. Not only were the Tracks places for participants to engage in significant dialogue around the themes and giants addressed, but they also became places of confrontation and renewal that promise to lay a foundation for new and ongoing action plans. Several issues were especially highlighted:

The first and primary one was HIV/Aids, about which we were convicted and became repentant of our inadequate comprehension, our facile stigmatising and our failures in compassionate response.
HIV/Aids is a critical issue requiring ongoing senior dialogue between Church leadership and government to strengthen commitment and action. The secular and Church consensus is that moral and behavioural change and a supportive social environment are critical factors to combat the pandemic and care for people living with Aids. The Body of the Church is living with Aids and needs to respond in a joint and coherent way, avoiding the fragmentation of present methodologies. SACLA follow-through should seek to ensure this.

Poverty, unemployment and issues flowing from our diversity must be addressed within the Church in deeply compassionate and supportive ways if we are to be effective witnesses in the wider society. We realised that we have been guilty of an unhealthy degree of silence on issues raised by all the giants and need to engage and cooperate with other concerned people and organisations in addressing these.

There is a sense that God is raising up His people to build new networks and working relationships across historic divides. In this, the participants are looking for leaders empowered and inspired by God's Spirit in fresh, new ways to unite the people of South Africa in their common nationhood.

14. With the Assembly's renewed appreciation of the youth of our land, it was also registered that we have met at a time when the government's draft policy on Religion and Education is receiving considerable attention. On the counsel of those in the Education Track, we wish to say with some urgency that:

We affirm the need to demonstrate Christian tolerance for other faiths, and respect in handling this matter with government.We nevertheless see the current debate on Religious Education policy as a wonderful opportunity for the Church to demonstrate unity and to make a contribution to renewing the moral fibre of our society through making Christian religious instruction available in our schools to those wanting it.

We see the need for government at this moment to allow additional time for the public to make submissions on this matter. All our constituencies should note and take advantage of this opportunity. Such submissions should make clear that the Christian Church wishes to make positive contributions as appropriate, within the education and training processes of our land.

In conclusion, we share with you all that as the SACLA Council we desire to see the SACLA process and its related follow-up initiatives continue through our developing fellowship as concerned believers. We are not forming any new organisation to displace or replace current ecumenical structures, but we are calling on all to stay in spiritual relatedness and to link hands in practical cooperation and fellowship, particularly in mission and evangelism and in together tackling and felling the giants which currently stalk our land.

God bless you all! Please share these concerns with your congregations, fellowships and organisations back home and may we hold on to one another and keep on another in prayer before God.

Yours sincerely in the love of Christ,

Bishop Mvume Dandala, Michael Cassidy and Members of the SACLA Council

"They continued in the Apostles' doctrine, in fellowship, in the breaking of bread and prayer"
(Acts 2:42).