Special Hearings — Faith Community Hearings — 1997-11-17

UNKNOWN: Mr Chairperson, I wanted to start in English but only to say   thank you for the invitation and that we can take part in this hearings of the   faith communities and we truly believe that this will strengthen the essential   process of reconciliation between faith communities and I believe thereafter   also in a broader community.
But then Mr Chairperson it is written in Psalm 45 that the tongue can run smoothly   and so thank you for the opportunity that I can do it in the language in which   my tongue runs the most smoothly, in Afrikaans.
Mr Chairman, we as members of the Dutch Reformed Church form part of the people   of South Africa. We were born here and we wish to stay here to participate in   this wonderful beloved country of ours.
We have been here for more than three and a half centuries, we are part of   this history. We are regarded as the greater portion of the negative of this   history, but on this day we wish to come and to commit ourselves on this day   to playing a positive role in reconciliation in this country.
I believe we can say that our people have positively assimilated the change   in government in South Africa and that we are set to contribute constructively   in this country to a place to create a place of freedom, justice and human dignity   for everybody.
We also wish to come here before you and say that we think differently about   ourselves, that we wish to play our role in the shape of a servant according   to the example set by our Lord.
We also wish particularly to strive more than ever before to comply with and   obey the commandment of neighbourly love towards all our peoples. We say today   that we have a calling to promote redemption and that it means that we wish   to continue to listen to the stories of other people, that we really wish to   go to great lengths to see their pain and need and that we wish to cooperate   in the healing of the community and the solution of problems.
Therefore we are called on this day to say that we admit to our own weaknesses,   but to also say that we have been called unconditionally to accept and forgive   other people.
And now we know that we as a church wish to cooperate meaningfully towards   reconciliation in this country, we have to start with ourselves. Therefore we   have to do everything in our power, to have the process of church unification   progress in our own midst. You heard that the previous group said they wished   that we were a united church and we wish to state from our side, the same today.
We are also wishing that we have progressed further along this road. The actions   of our church are determined to a great extend by Synod decisions and we have   to say that very clearly stated decisions have been taken by our Synod, but   we know that these words have to be translated into actions increasingly today.
A question which will definitely be asked today is whether I am speaking, I   am able to speak on behalf of the whole Dutch Reformed Church. No, I cannot,   just like other people, I have to admit that there are two groups in our church.
I believe that if I speak about reconciliation here today, with regard to the   wrong which we committed, I am speaking on behalf of the greater portion of   this church. A group which is increasing daily.
I would like to summarise our role in reconciliation in two words, reformation.   We are a reformed church which means that we wish to be open to the Lord to   change us through His Word. We also wish to be so in these times but there is   also a new word, that is currently enjoying status and that is transformation,   something which we also wish to implement in our structure so that we can become   increasingly a reformed church.
The second matter we will refer to is that we wish to do this together with   other churches. It is not something that we can do alone. It is only recently   that we started thinking together and planning together with other churches   and we wish to state our need here today that we are here to learn from other   churches to hear what they are saying, to take the hands that have been reached   us to assist us as well.
We also with to recognise today and admit that there are other faiths in this   country, and although it is difficult for us as a church to worship with other   faiths, we would like to admit that on the basis of common goals for reconciliation,   we wish to cooperate and are prepared to cooperate without coming to the point   of comparing spiritual points of view or saying who is wrong and who is right.
Mr Chairman, if I refer to the practical implications of reconciliation, I   would like to start with the building of people.
Reconciliation is always a personal thing and here the gospel has to enjoy   precedence. There is a need of spiritual equipment among our people and also   certainly among other people.
With regard to human dignity, fellow humanity, common humanity and neighbourly   love, we wish to assist our people and also other people where necessary to   learn values such as acceptance, patience, respect, honesty, diligence, etc.
We wish to afford every person an equal opportunity to take a place in this   society of ours and therefore in addition to literacy programmes, we also wish   to implement programmes which are already in place, to teach people skills.
During the Synod of 1994, we gave recognition to the RDP programme and we stated   that the church wished to link up with that as far as possible and practical.   We recognise the large extent and scope of poverty. We are also concerned about   that portion of our society whose situation has not shown any marked change.   The church knows that it cannot just preach reconciliation, but that here it   also has to go into action so that basic requirements for life are provided   for everybody.
From the norms of our church, we wish to continue to contribute our share through   equal payment for equal work and to strive for just wages. Without expanding   too much on what is being done, we wish to say that we are thankful that our   social services in this respect, have been expanded into the other communities.
I wish to continue with my fourth point and state that without contact among   persons, there cannot be reconciliation. Therefore these programmes will also   have to enjoy precedence on the road ahead, so that there will be spiritual   contact between people so that they will be able to hear each other and thus   also to establish and strengthen the essential mutual trust amongst people.
Our daily management has also been discussing a day of reconciliation which   we would like to discuss with other groupings as well. I would like to refer   to the future and the past as well.
It is impossible to build a solid future without having honestly dispenses   with the past. Similarly the unique problems of the present times, such as violence,   corruption, lawlessness and meaningless murders of innocents, cannot be overcome   if the past and the future is not fairly judged.
It can therefore be expected and must be expected of the DRC to speak honestly   about the past if its inputs are to be acceptable. It should also open the door   to us for forgiveness and mutual acceptance.
I therefore wish to testify to the struggle that the DRC had to wage within   itself in order to reject apartheid and to do away with apartheid in its decisions.   In 1982 the Synod rejected apartheid as sin, to reject racism as sin.
The Dutch Reformed Church stands by its admission in 1986 that the church had   erred seriously with the Biblical foundation of the forced segregation of people.   In 1990 it confessed that the DRC should have rejected this point of view much   sooner than it actually had n the occasion of the Rustenburg conference of churches   where Willie Jonker declared our personal guilt and responsibility for the political,   social, economic and structural injustices in this country.
Here in this meeting today I can also just say that we wish to support these   decisions and prove that they are true by our attitude of working at reconciliation   and also by listening to what other churches tell us regarding the past.
In 1994 the General Synod gave credit to members, officials and church gatherings   who have voiced a clear descent against apartheid in the past. You would have   read about our fellow brothers, like Dr Beyers Naude who had been accepted among   us.
The church also admitted that in this struggle of its doing away with apartheid   and rejecting apartheid, it also entered into discussions and meetings with   brothers and sisters of the Dutch Reformed Church family as a broader family.	
Then just to complete the picture, we also would like to refer to the persistent   statement of this point of view which from time to time gave rise to a loss   of members and officials from our church. We experienced that people left us   because of this.
I can also testify to a spirit of reconciliation which has developed in many   of our congregations in these days and which is still ongoing. Honest efforts   have been made through confession to close the past and to step into a new future.
The most poignant of these took place at the GCOWE consultation in Pretoria   where 180 ministers and members of the Dutch Reformed Church at the end of the   meeting, made a written public confession. In this confession statement was   made with regard to wrongful attitudes and deeds of the past and they also committed   themselves to working with other churches towards redemption, unity and justice.
The movement for reconciliation is growing in our church on ground level. The   church also continually and with empathy focused on the large numbers of people   who were unjustly disadvantaged during the times of apartheid and to assist   them in their poverty and suffering.
A lack of understanding, unwillingness and disobedience among members and officials   with regard to the need in the community, were also admitted and confessed to   before God.
The Dutch Reformed Church apologises to these people and admits that its voice   of protest had not been loud enough and to prove and admit that what had been   done was not adequate.
It is said that one must have a dream. One of our members, Johan Heyns' dream   was that the church should use less water during christenings, and rather used   the water to build homes. Therefore this church also has a dream. It is a dream   of a country where people will accept each other and where every human being   will also make a contribution to peaceful co-existence.
As a church we wish to be guided in this regard by the Word of God which says   try to be at peace with everyone. Thank you.