Amptelike Nuusblad : NG
Kerk in Oos-Kaapland
OosKaap eNuus
Visie: Een, heilige, algemene Christelike kerk, die
gemeenskap van die heiliges
Jaargang 6 - Nommer 25 - 14 Augustus
2008 - www.ngkok.co.za/enuus
Die
Golgota-produksie met Danie Matthee op Despatch aangebied
Respons
van Gemeentes: Sentralisering van Gemeenteregisters
Massa
Manne Lofprysing op Jeffreysbaai
Pos vir Direkteur : Shepherdsentrum, Universiteit van die
Vrystaat
Stephan het intussen begin met ‘n druk program om die werk aktief aan gemeentes bekend te
stel. Hy is DV (voorlopig) van 14-27 Oktober in PE en omliggende omgewing vir bekendstellingswerk
in Oos-Kaap…o.m. by eredienste, getuienis-kommissies, leraarskringe, individue
ens. met die doel om volhoubare ondersteuning te werf vir Missie Japan.
Middel-einde Sept sal hy DV dieselfde in die
Suid-Kaap omgewing doen.
Die Van der Watt’s
het ‘n fassinerende getuienis hoedat die Here hulle
oor jare heen voorberei het vir hierdie
roeping.
Die Golgota-produksie met Danie Matthee
op Despatch aangebied
Ds Marius Lourens, bekende skilder-dominee van Port
Elizabeth, en uitvoerende regisseur van die Golgota-produksie laat weet:
Golgota-Produksie deur die Hoërskool Framesby en Ikoon word op Saterdagaand, 24 Augustus om 18:30 in die Despatch-Hoërskoolsaal aangebied.
Die produksie is vanjaar vir die 4de keer op die planke, en ongeveer 2 500 mense het dit alreeds bygewoon. Die produksie is ook vir 9 Showtime Toekennings vir 2008 benoem. Hierdie is die laaste aanbieding vir vanjaar. Marius Lourens is die uitvoerende regisseur en Danie Matthee speel die rol van Jesus.
Die Despatch- gemeentes beplan om hulle aand-eredienste af te stel vir die geleentheid.
Kaartjies beskikbaar teen R10 per persoon. Ikoon se nuwe CD sal ook beskikbaar wees.
Navrae : Marius Lourens 041 -775 1459 / 072 202 7652
Respons van Gemeentes: Sentralisering
van Gemeenteregisters
Die Dagbestuur van die Sinodale Kommissie het hierdie
verslag op 14 Augustus in behandeling geneem en die aanbevelings goedgekeur:
Agtergrond
Die SK het op 18
April 2008 (Notule pt 12.1.3) besluit dat gemeentes
gekonsulteer word oor die koste van die voorgenome sentralisering van
gemeente-registers, alvorens ‘n finale besluit oor
die saak geneem word.
‘n Skrywe is aan alle gemeentes gerig. Dit is
beskikbaar by:
http://www.ngkok.co.za/admin/Konsultasie_Gemeentes_Sentralisering_Gemeente-registers.pdf
Respons
Reaksie is vanaf 53
gemeentes ontvang. Dit kan as volg getabuleer word:
|
|
JA |
Meer inligting benodig |
Nie nou nie |
NEE |
|
Aantal |
23 |
3 |
2 |
25 |
|
Persentasie |
43% |
5% |
3% |
49% |
Die opmerkingskolom
op die terugvoerblad kan as volg opgesom word:
* Klein gemeentes ontsien die koste en meen dat
hul lidmaatwisseling so laag is, dat die stelsel nie vir hulle voordele sal
inhou nie.
* Daar is nie ‘n
gerekenariseerde stelsel in die gemeente nie, en die moeite om dit op dreef te
kry, tesame met die werk daaraan verbonde om ID-nommers in te samel, is te
veel.
* Die skribaat word deur vrywilligers hanteer,
en die werklas kan nie vergroot word nie.
* Dit word voorsien dat lidmate onwillig sal
wees om hulle ID-nommers te verskaf.
* Gemeentes beskik nie oor die nodige finansies
nie, en is onseker oor die koste-struktuur oor die lang termyn. ‘n Gemeente noem dat hulle moontlik van mening sal verander
indien hulle ‘n gedetailleerde koste-ontleding kan
sien.
* Enkele kerkrade vra wie gefinansier word - Winkerk of Abid? Daar is nie ‘n deursigtige ontleding beskikbaar waarom Winkerk gekies is nie.
* “Ons het nie eers ‘n
telefoon in die kerkkantoor nie”.
* Verskeie gemeentes sien ‘n
voordeel in die voorgenome stelsel, maar meen dat die koste-voordeel balans die
stelsel nie die moeite werd maak nie.
* “Sou graag wou weet hoeveel amptenare hulle
werk of van hul inkomste kan verloor. In ‘n tyd waar
die ekonomie swak is, word daar darem maklik ‘n
opmerking gemaak dat amptenare se salarisse verminder kan word” (na aanleiding
van die ABID-verslag wat voor Sinode 2007 gedien het).
* Die fooie is te hoog.
* Gemeentes wat JA antwoord, meld oor die
algemeen bloot dat die stelsel hulle kan help.
‘n beduidende aantal is opgewonde oor die nuwe
moontlikhede. Hulle meen dit kan gemeentes baie help om lidmate op te spoor.
Aanbeveling
* Die SK besluit om by gemeentes aan te beveel
dat hulle vrywillig inskakel by die sentralisering van gemeente-registers.
* Die finansiële verantwoordelikheid word per
direkte kontrak tussen gemeentes en ABID gereël. Die Sinode aanvaar nie
verantwoordelikheid vir die hantering van fondse of die administrasie van
hierdie kostes nie.
Dr Dirk Viljoen skryf:
"In opdrag van die Algemene Argief van die
Ned. Geref. Kerk, is ek alreeds sedert 1997 besig met die opbou van
'n Databasis van al
die gelegitimeerde predikante (wat hulle status behou het) in
die NG Kerk.
Hierdie inligting sleutel ek eers in my rekenaar op
'n spesiale program in en stuur dit dan oor na die rekenaar van die Argief in
Stellenbosch. So het ek nou al 2,230
inskrywings deurgestuur. Dit word dan
gebruik vir die IN MEMORIAM-berigte in die Jaarboek en ander geskrifte van
historiese aard of feesvierings. U sal
saamstem dat dit baie belangrik is ! Ons
Maar nou blyk dit tog dat ek baie van ons leraars
se gegewens nog nie het nie. Daar is 'n
BIOGRAFIESE VORM wat moet ingevul word waarop al die dinge wat benodig word,
gevra word. Ek vra nou dringend dat al
die leraars en emeriti van Oos-Kaapland wat dalk nog nie hierdie vorm ingevul
het en aan my besorg het, om dit asb.
onverwyld te doen.
U
1. Klik hier om dit van die web af te laai
2. per e-pos: dirjoen@mweb.co.za
3. Faks aan my by 08 6670 6671 of 012/333-2942
4. Bel my by 012/333-2942 of 082 573 2708
5. Of per pos aan: Huis Herfsblaar Meenthuis 42, Webbweg 1244, Queenswood, Pretoria, 0186.
Baie dankie vir u gewaardeerde reaksie en
samewerking."
Massa Manne Lofprysing op Jeffreysbaai
Manne word deur ‘n geesdriftige Jeffreysbaai-gemeente genooi na ‘n lofprysingsgeleentheid. Hierdie geleentheid vind Saterdag 23 Augustus
2008 by die NG Kerk Kompleks te Jeffreysbaai plaas, om 18:00.
Kassie de Jongh,
organiseerder, skryf:
Ons is in die pylvak
vir die groot geleentheid. Alles is in plek, dis net die massas wat kort. Graag
nooi ons Oupas, Pa’s en seuns uit na die geleentheid. Bring u vriendekring
saam. Dit is die geleentheid om weer verhoudings te bou.
Daar sal `ʼn
kollekte by die deure opgeneem word
Prof Johan Smith is
die spreker.
Tema: Godsman : wees
`n man en pa van formaat!
Kom loof en prys die
Here !
DIE TYD IS MIN: Dis
Hierdie Saterdag –aand by die kompleks – net na die Rugby!
Groete
Kassie de Jongh
0824247491
Healthcare
Christian Fellowship Networking Conference
23-27 September 2008
Drakensville
Shane Claiborne is one of the founding members of a New
Monastic community called The Simple Way in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. This organization was featured on the cover of Christianity Today. Claiborne is also
a prominent activist for nonviolence and the redistribution of resources to the
poor.
A graduate of Eastern University, where he studied sociology and youth
ministry, Claiborne did his final academic work for Eastern University at Wheaton
College in Illinois. While at Wheaton, Shane did an internship at Willow Creek
Community Church. He has done some graduate work at Princeton Theological
Seminary, but took a leave of absence, and now is a part of The Alternative
Seminary in Philadelphia.
Claiborne's outlook on ministry to the poor is often compared to Mother
Teresa, whom he worked alongside with during a 10-week term in Calcutta. He
spent 3 weeks in Baghdad
with the Iraq Peace Team (a project of
Voices in the Wilderness and Christian Peacemaker Teams). He was witness to the
military bombardment of Baghdad as well as the militarized areas between
Baghdad and Amman. As a member of IPT, Claiborne took daily trips to sites
where there had been bombings, visited hospitals and families, and attended
worship services during the war. He also continues to serve as a board member
for the nation-wide Christian Community Development Association which was
founded by the authors and community developers, John Perkins and Wayne Gordon.
Shane is onder andere
‘n student van die bekende sosioloog, Tony Campolo.
Reg teen die einde
van hierdie eNuus plaas ek ‘n
artikel van Shane. Google sy name en kyk
wat jy kry!
Dankie aan Rethie van Niekerk vir hierdie praktiese
wenk:
Vir mense wat
moedeloos is met prente soek vir Sondag se Powerpoint:
www.scripturepics.org het elke
week gratis foto’s wat betrekking het op die Sondag se Leesrooster teks.
Pos vir Direkteur :
Shepherdsentrum, Universiteit van die Vrystaat
Die volgende advertensie word deur die
UV onder ons aandag gebring:
Fakulteit
Teologie: Shepherd: Sentrum vir die Begeleiding van Geestelike Leiers Senior
Lektor/Medeprofessor - Direkteur: Shepherdsentrum (Vyfjaar-kontrakaanstelling)
Van die suksesvolle kandidaat sal verwag word om die
Sentrum, wat tot dusver op 'n deeltydse basis bestuur is, verder uit te bou, te
bestuur en te ontwikkel. Dit behels, onder meer, strategiese leierskap,
koördinering, interne en eksterne skakeling, wat skakeling met soortgelyke
sentrums asook die breë kerklike publiek insluit.
Die salarisskaal en volledige posbeskrywing is op
aanvraag beskikbaar. Skakel gerus (051) 401-2868/49.
Sluitingsdatum: 5 September 2008.
Die Universiteit van die Vrystaat is 'n multikulturele
universiteit met 'n parallel-mediumtaalbeleid (Afrikaans en Engels). Die
Universiteit staan in 'n innoverende en entrepreneuriese fase van sy bestaan en
bied opwindende moontlikhede vir leierskap en bestuur. Op fakulteitsvlak is
innoverende leierskap ten opsigte van onderrigprogramme, navorsingsverdieping,
samelewingsdiens, gehalte, billikheid, billike indiensneming en finansiële
volhoubaarheid 'n belangrike element hiervan.
The vision of Jesus is not spread through
organizational structures, but through touch, breath, shared life. It is spread
through people who have discovered love.
Not long ago, I sat and talked with some
very wealthy Christians about what it means to be the church and to follow
Jesus. One businessman confided, "I, too, have been thinking about
following Christ and what that means … so I had this made." He pulled up
his shirt-sleeve to reveal a bracelet, engraved with W.W.J.D (What Would Jesus
Do?). It was custom-made of twenty-four karat gold.
Maybe each of us
can relate to this man — both his earnest desire to follow Jesus and his
distorted execution of that desire, so bound up in the materialism of our
culture. It is difficult to learn to live the downward mobility of the gospel
in this age of wealth. For the most part, those of us who are rich never meet
those of us who are poor. Instead, nonprofit
organizations serve as brokers between the two in a booming business of poverty
management.
I believe that the
great tragedy of the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the
poor, but that they do not know the poor. Yet if we are called to live the new
community for which Christ was crucified, we cannot remain strangers to one
another. Jesus demands that we live in a very different way.
I recently
surveyed people who said they were "strong followers of Jesus." Over
80 percent agreed with the statement, "Jesus spent much time with the
poor." Yet only 1 percent said that they themselves spent time with the
poor. We believe we are following the God of the poor — yet we never truly
encounter the poor.
About five years
ago, I became part of a community called the simple way, a group of Christians
literally born out of the wreckage of the church. Dozens of homeless families
and children had moved into St. Edward's, a cavernous, abandoned Catholic
church in one of the most struggling neighborhoods of
Philadelphia. A small group of us who were students at Eastern College, a
suburban Christian school, decided to move in with them as a gesture of
solidarity. From that initial step, one miracle followed another as those families
mentored us in community, worship, and love.
Eventually, we
settled in a rowhouse in Kensington, a few blocks
from St. Edward's. It is the poorest (but most beautiful!) district in
Pennsylvania. There is no place we'd rather call home. Here, we play and dance.
We plant gardens. We feed people. We cry. We have a community store. We help
kids with homework. We live, and we spend our lives joining folks in poverty as
they struggle to end it. Because we know that we cannot end poverty without
ending wealth, we also spend time talking with Christian communities about our
work and hosting visitors.
Before moving to
St. Edward's and then Kensington, I had worked in Calcutta, India, first at
Mother Teresa's home for the destitute dying and then in a leper colony. A week
after returning to the United States, I began a year at Willow Creek Community
Church, one of the largest, wealthiest congregations in the world — where a
food court graces their worship center. Talk about
culture shock!
This contrast brought
me face to face with Christ's radical love, a love strong enough to bring us
together across chasms of difference. I longed for the two worlds to meet, for
the lepers to know the landowners. I committed my life to trying to make that a
reality.
Over the years I
have come to see how charity fits into — and legitimizes — our system of wealth
and poverty. Charity assures that the rich will feel good while the poor will
remain with us. It is important that the poor remain with us, because our
capitalist system hinges on it. Without someone on the bottom, there is no
American dream and no hope for upward mobility.
Charity also
functions to keep the wealthy sane. Tithes, tax-exempt donations, and
short-term mission trips, while they accomplish some good, also function as
outlets that allow wealthy Christians to pay off their consciences while
avoiding a revolution of lifestyle. People do their time in a social program or
distribute food and clothes through organizations which take their excess. That
way, they never actually have to face the poor and give their clothes, their
food, their beds. Wealthy Christians never actually
have to be with poor people, with Christ in disguise.
If charity did not
provide these carefully sanctioned outlets, Christians might be forced to live
the reckless Gospel of Jesus by abandoning the stuff of earth. Instead, thanks
to charity, we can live out a comfortable, privatized discipleship.
But when we get to
heaven and are separated into sheep and goats (Matt. 25), I don't believe Jesus
is going to say, "When I was hungry, you gave a check to the United Way
and they fed me" or "When I was naked, you donated to the Salvation
Army and they clothed me." Jesus is not seeking distant acts of charity.
He is seeking concrete actions: "You fed me, …
you visited me, … you welcomed me in, ... you clothed me.…"
If we are to truly
be the church, poverty must become a face we recognize as our own kin.
Several years ago,
I attended a protest against sweatshops where the organizers had not invited
the typical rally speakers — lawyers, activists, advocates.
Instead, they brought kids from the sweatshops. A child from Indonesia pointed
to his face. "I got this scar when my master lashed me for not working
hard enough. When it bled, he did not want me to stop working or to ruin the
cloth, so he took a lighter and burned it shut. I got this scar making stuff
for you."
I was suddenly
consumed with the overwhelming reality of the suffering body of Christ. Jesus
now bore not just nail marks and scars from thorns, but a gash down his face.
How could I possibly follow Jesus and buy anything from that master?
If we are content
with discipleship that ends merely with generosity, we still serve money.
Generosity is a beautiful response, but we should not confuse it with love.
Generosity is merely what is expected; what is required is to return that which
has been stolen. God did not create some of us rich and others of us poor.
Basil the Great,
writing in the fourth century, put it this way: "When someone strips a man
of his clothes, we call him a thief. And one who might clothe the naked and
does not — should not he be given the same name? The
bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry; the coat in your wardrobe belongs
to the naked; the shoes you let rot belong to the barefoot; the money in your
vaults belongs to the destitute." Or, in the words of Dorothy Day,
"If you have two coats, one of them belongs to the poor." Should we
not, then, return our stolen goods with humility, like a child returning a
stolen candy bar to the grocery store clerk? Should we not cry out, in the
words of St. Vincent de Paul: "May the poor man forgive me the bread I
give him"?
Often wealthy
folks ask me what they can do for the simple way. I could ask them for a few
thousand dollars, but that would be too easy for both of us. Instead, I ask
them to come visit. Writing a check makes us feel good
and can fool us into thinking that we have loved the poor. But seeing the squat
houses and tent cities and hungry children will wreck our lives. We will never
again be the same.
As we have done
this work and have accompanied others new to it, we've come to see a pattern.
People join us with the idea of "saving the poor." Later, they say
instead that "the poor saved me." But both comments have one thing in
common. They revolve around me — what I have to give poor people and what they
can give me. God wants us to move beyond ourselves to join all of creation in
groaning for liberation. There we face, perhaps for the first time, the reality
that we, too, are poor.
I believe the
church has forgotten its identity. The church is not an institution, a meeting,
or a building. It is not something we go to. The church is something we are —
an organism, not an organization.
Instead of living
out this alternative vision, the church has been content to be a broker between
the rich and the poor. Both those trapped in poverty and those trapped in
riches view the church as a distribution center, a
place where the poor come to get stuff and the rich come to dump stuff. No
radical new community is formed.
In this model,
both go away satisfied (the rich feel good, the poor get fed) — but neither
goes away transformed. They do not join together to discover a new way of
living.
In ministering in
this way, the church has adopted the model of many of our nonprofit
organizations. Functionally, many nonprofits act as brokers between the rich
and the poor. They facilitate the exchange of goods and services, putting
plenty of professionals in the middle to guarantee that the rich do not have to
face the poor and that power does not shift. Rich and poor are kept in separate
worlds. Charity does not feed fundamental change.
Brokering poverty
also seduces Christians into being gatekeepers to power. Our progressive
movements are haunted by the temptation to facilitate power. If anything, the
recent dismantling of the welfare system and the corresponding public praise of
small attempts by churches, nonprofits, and other faith-based institutions to
take up the slack has increased this pressure. Policies like charitable choice
(where churches compete for federal funding to run social programs) allow our
government to pat churches on the back: "You do a better job at managing
poverty than we do, so we'll just discontinue our social supports and let you
do the job!" And our churches, flattered and uncritical, scramble for the
new state money like a prize.
In that model, the
power structure has not budged. The power has merely changed hands. But power
does not trickle down. Just as trickle-down economics has failed, trickle-down
politics does not bring change.
Many beautiful
Christians working for social change in a range of movements believe we can
bring about fundamental change by using power benevolently rather than
reworking the power equation. We see ourselves as the good guys who will use
our influence for justice — and perhaps, in these terms, we succeed in getting
our candidate on the ballot or elected. But the Christ we follow has a
different, harder path--one of downward mobility, of struggling to become the
least, of joining those at the bottom.
Several years ago,
I was at a meeting where a new movement to end poverty was announced. I looked
around. The only poor people in sight were the handful of people I had come
with. Launching a movement to end poverty without poor people in critical roles
is like launching a civil rights movement without Black people, or a feminist
movement without women. As long as the poor are not present and intricately involved
in the process, ending poverty will remain an intellectual, political concept.
It will not convert us.
The church needs
to stop talking about ending the pain of the poor and instead join the poor.
All around us, the poor are crying out. They can no longer be silenced.
Wherever that outcry is heard, the church must be present.
All this does not
mean that social-service organizations do not do a great deal of good. I am not
calling for all these organizations to be dismantled. But I am calling Christians
to ask critical questions about their relationship to God's poor people.
I believe all our
"programs" should have their genesis in true relationship. At our
house, we tutor — but we did not start by deciding to do a tutoring program. We
simply fell in love with kids who needed help with their homework. We feed
people — but we did not begin with a decision to start a feeding program. We
simply fell in love with our neighbors, and they were
hungry.
We have now
established a nonprofit organization ourselves, but
we did this in order for the organization to serve us. We are not committed to
the organization, but rather to our fellowship together.
I see many
communities doing amazing things through established organizations. God can —
and does — work through these organizations. But the reign of God dwells in
people.
Those of us who
yearn for the kingdom of God must follow in the steps of Jesus. Jesus was not
"in charge" of the poor. He was poor. The message of Christ from the
manger to the cross is that the world is conquered through weakness, through leastness, through struggle--not from the top, but from the
bottom.
The people wanted
a mighty Messiah. They got a baby refugee. They wanted a powerful king to take
over Rome. They got a wandering homeless man. He could have saved the world
with his mighty power, but he did it through his ridiculous love. The power of
God lies in the brokenness of Jesus: naked, cursed, spit upon, with birds
picking at his flesh as he died the rotten death of a criminal.
The great
temptation of the church, and of every believer, is the offer Satan made to
Jesus in the desert: to win the world with power. But power will not end
poverty. We must discover another way of living.
Jesus did not set
up a program, but rather modeled a way of living that
incarnated the reign of God. That reign did not spread through organizational
establishments or structural systems. It spread through touch, through breath,
through life. It spread through people who discovered love.
I am haunted by
the command of Jesus to love our neighbor as
ourselves. I struggle because I sleep in a house while my neighbor
sleeps in a cardboard box; I eat twice a day while my neighbor
hasn't eaten once. I draw strength from following Jesus in community. I live
with people who, if they pass someone with a worse pair of shoes, have taken
their shoes off and switched; people who have quietly handed over winter
jackets to someone they met on the street without a coat.
This is the
reckless love of Jesus, which teaches us to see the connections between our
wealth and our neighbor's poverty. The love of Jesus
will teach us another way of doing life, a way that will bring God's reign to
earth as it is in heaven. The reign of God is not for the future. It is something
we live today.
Jesus reminds us
that it is easy to love people who are just like us: "Even idolators do that" (Matt. 5:47). We are called to love
those who hate us. Love those who create poverty, and love those who are
trapped in it. See in each of them yourself — the same blood and tears We are all capable of the same evil, and we have potential
for the same good. As one believer said, "In the oppressed I recognize my
own face, and in the hands of the oppressor I recognize my own hands."
From addicts I learn of my addiction, and from the saints I learn of my
holiness.
The God of love
and the love of God know no bounds. The unending love of Jesus teaches
revolutionaries to love police officers, anarchists to love politicians,
vegetarians to love meat eaters, peacemakers to love soldiers. This is the love
that makes us the church.
Ultimately, only
this radical love of Jesus can end the poverty-wealth dichotomy. When the rich
meet the poor, together they will end wealth. When the poor meet the rich,
together they will end poverty.
People do not get
crucified for charity. People are crucified for living out a love that disrupts
the social order, that calls forth a new world. People
are not crucified for helping poor people. People are crucified for joining
them.
Recommended
Few pastoral and
practical guides help conscientized Christians to
move beyond guilt, charity fatigue, or paralysis when they finally confront
privilege that insulates. In Beyond Guilt (Adventure Publications,
2000), George Johnson addresses the struggles common to Christians as their
social consciousness changes, moving through the natural emotional cycles of
reflection, denial, and feelings of frustration and disempowerment to develop a
commitment to justice that can be sustained. Though it sometimes diverts from
its focus (moving privileged people into liberated, constructive engagement) to
talk about the issues themselves, this is a good resource for individuals and
groups who wish to make their privilege a tool of empowerment for themselves
and others.
Kliek op http://www.actrix.co.nz/special/cyberclean.html - dis gratis, en dit WERK!
Sinodale Kommunikasie