Jenny, had recently returned from the United States where they had lived for five years, during which time Alex did his doctorate at Drew University. We were kindred spirits. For two years Alex and I gave extra-mural evening lectures in Theology and on the Bible. These lectures took place on the university campus and were attended by over a hundred people, twice a week during term time. In addition, Isobel and I joined the Boraines in developing a multi-volume Sunday school curriculum project called Breakthrough. This was an ambitious venture, partly inspired by Ross Snyder, who visited Durban with his wife, Martha, at the invitation of the Methodist Youth Department.
An important ecumenical initiative among the churches during this period was the Christian Education and Leadership Training programme (CELT). CELT used insights gathered from sensitivity training to change perspectives and leadership styles in working for social transformation. I went to an early CELT course and suddenly realised that I was participating in something that I had experienced earlier at the University of Chicago. I kept this knowledge to myself, but evidently acted and spoke as someone who had good insight into what was going on. When it was later learnt by my group that I had “insider knowledge” I was shunned for the rest of my time there. Isobel, who was much more committed to CELT, still thinks I deserved what I got for not being upfront about my previous experience.
This was also the age of newfound sexual freedom, as the birth-control pill became readily available, and couples living together before marriage became widespread. Playboy magazine, which was banned in South Africa, and the British movie Alfie starring Michael Caine, which we saw in 1966, were chauvinistic trendsetters. In developing my understanding and critique of what was happening in secular culture, I read Harvey Cox’s The Secular City, published in 1965, in which he argued that the process of secularisation was partly a result of the biblical tradition, but he was critical of the values of secularism. The Secular City is undoubtedly dated now, but it still has something important to say in today’s world of religious fundamentalism.
Early on in my ministry, I had become friendly with several American Congregational missionaries, Lawrence and Carol Gilley among them. In turn, they introduced me to ministers in what was then known as the Bantu Congregational Church (BCC). Congregationalism, as I mentioned earlier, had been planted in South Africa by the LMS. In Natal and Zululand, however, it was established by missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions. The first mission station was established in Umlazi (now a township south of Durban) in 1836. Others soon followed and some fine schools, such as Adams College and Inanda Girls Seminary, were founded. John Dube, one of the first leaders of the ANC, was a Congregational minister, and, as already mentioned, Albert Luthuli was a deacon at the Groutville Congregational Church where I preached on one occasion. Both had attended Adams.
In April 1966 I was invited to a pastors’ conference in Mfanefile College, a small village deep in the heart of Zululand, to give a series of Bible studies on Law and Grace. This was a difficult assignment, because the theme challenged the legalism that had characterised Mission Churches ever since the early missionaries had formulated rules governing their life. I am not sure what the pastors made of my talks. Most of them were older than me and they all had more experience. In any case, the life and culture of their congregations were very different from that with which I was familiar. But it was a good experience for me, and my lectures were all translated and printed in Zulu.
A few months later, I was invited to give another series of Bible studies at the Annual General Conference of the African Independent Churches Association (AICA) held in Umlazi. This was even more challenging, because I had very little knowledge of what was then referred to as the AICs. However, the CI had begun a programme to help them improve their theological education, and a good friend from my Rhodes days, Danie van Zyl, was the programme’s director. During the conference, Danie asked me whether I would consider joining the staff of the CI to help him in his work. There had already been some tentative enquiries from Beyers Naudé about my availability to join the CI staff, but now I had the chance to discuss the possibility with one of my peers who had already done so. It was an opportune moment, because I was feeling that my years at Sea View were drawing to a close, and there was no indication that I would soon receive a call to another congregation. But I was not ready to make any decisions.
With the ANC and PAC banned, the anti-apartheid ecumenical churches had to take on some of the responsibility of leading the above-ground struggle against apartheid. Some churches and church leaders rose to the challenge, which was increasingly coordinated by the CI and the SACC. Since 1967, the latter was led by a new general secretary, Anglican Bishop Bill Burnett.
Burnett and Naudé attended the Church and Society Conference in Geneva in 1966, sponsored by the WCC. Upon their return to South Africa, they convened a number of conferences around the country to discuss the Church’s role in the struggle, in the light of what had transpired in Geneva. They also established a working group to draft what became the Message to the People of South Africa. I participated in one of the conferences in Johannesburg and another at the Catholic monastery in Mariannhill, and once again felt attracted to joining the staff of the CI or maybe the SACC. Soon afterwards, I met Bishop Burnett in Durban and discussed the latter possibility with him.
At the beginning of 1967, Steve started his first year at the Sea View Primary School, virtually opposite our garden gate. On the day, Isobel and I, with two-year-old Jeanelle, gathered in our driveway to wave him goodbye as he set off across the narrow road, carrying his small brown school case and proudly wearing a school uniform for the first time. Isobel was heavily pregnant, as photographs of that auspicious day remind us. In due course, Anton was born on 5 March, and a few weeks later he was baptised by Alex Boraine in our church. Isobel and I agreed that our family was now complete. From birth, all three children were different in character, but they were all born in Sea View and baptised in the church there, so for that reason alone it has always had a special place in our hearts.
In October 1967, CUSA united with the churches established by the LMS in Botswana, as well as with the Bantu Congregational Church, to become the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa (UCCSA) – a denomination that extended into Namibia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The new church elected Joseph Wing as its general secretary, and it was largely due to his selfless devotion that the UCCSA began to play a more important role in the ecumenical and social witness of the Church in South Africa.
Joe Wing was one of the last of a great line of life-long LMS missionaries who had come to southern Africa from Britain. He arrived in 1951 and spent his whole life completely dedicated to the sub-continent, its peoples, the UCCSA and their wider ecumenical family. He was one of the unsung heroes of the church struggle, and was widely and highly respected. I had the privilege of working closely with him, and he had a great influence on Steve. After Joe’s untimely death in 1992, Steve wrote a fine and extensive biographical essay in his memory.12
Early in 1968, I received a phone call from Beyers Naudé formally inviting me to join the CI staff in Johannesburg. I was honoured and keen to accept, but at the same time Bishop Burnett asked me to join the staff of the SACC as director of Communication and Studies. I agonised over this dilemma for several weeks and had several more phone conversations with Naudé and Burnett. But then, after consultation with Joe Wing, who was both a CI member and an executive member of the SACC, I accepted Burnett’s invitation. The position at the SACC provided an opportunity to work more directly with the churches, and it was combined with the role of secretary of the recently formed Church Unity Commission (CUC). I had already become involved in the work of the CUC, which was tasked with seeking the union of the Anglican, Congregational, Methodist and Presbyterian Churches, and I was excited about serving it in this way. I was about to become a full-time ecumenical activist, and to be thrown in at the deep end.
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