CAPE TOWN - 8 DECEMBER 1999
Archbishop Buti Tlhagale
All Religious Leaders present today
Ladies & Gentlemen
First let me begin by saying how pleased I am that you chose our country as the venue for your parliament. I am hopeful that you have had a successful conference and a wonderful stay in our beautiful country.
It is significant that you have chosen South Africa as your venue at a time when some nations in various parts of the world are embroiled in conflicts. I believe therefore that your having met here is in a sense an acknowledgement of our achievements in resolving the problems that we faced as a nation, particularly the fight against oppression.
It is an affirmation also of the important role that religions has and can play in the resolution of these problems.
I truly believe that religion can play an important role in many aspects of our lives in any situation that presents itself, as it can now in our present situation, where humanity is faced with challenges whose magnitude and the speed with which they come has never before been experienced. This is a time when developments within individual countries no longer confine themselves to those countries but tend to have a global impact. Similarly the activities of the intergovernmental organisations and institutions of the world have, now the possibility to influence the world in a manner greater and speedier than at any time before.
It is a fact that in our struggle against colonialism and apartheid, religious leaders together with African intellectuals, and traditional leaders were those who came together to form our movement against oppression. It was like a parliament of the people, accommodating everyone.
Incidentally, even these African intellectuals were among those who had achieved higher education through the initiatives of missionaries - so even then those from the religious community played a big role in the reshaping of our country.
It is often overlooked that a sizeable proportion of these intellectuals - these thinkers, were people of religious communities and that they were at the forefront of our struggle.
When it later years in this long struggle, apartheid was declared a heresy, it was thanks largely to them and the international religious community. This was a declaration that took our struggle so much further towards our liberation.
We are mindful of the contributions that religious institutions have made over the years in the struggle for justice and democracy in our country and the world. Perhaps it is only fitting that the principled partnerships that have been forged over the last few days should be translated now into a concrete agenda of world transformation; translated into an agenda for the fight against the scourge of disease, the constant threat of wars and the obliteration of poverty and hunger.
By this transformation agenda, we mean not only the transformation of institutions and structures of society, but also, and most importantly, the fundamental need for the transformation of the self.
The challenge to those in the religious institutions is how to help to achieve this transformation. You as members of these institutions are perfectly placed to play a leading role in this regard. You can work on the Reconstruction and Development (RDP) of the souls that we South Africans talk so much about.
Your challenge is beyond that of simply providing leadership to your followers, it must be concerned with the education of humanity as a whole and to give leadership in this way. How do we educate young people about the scourge of AIDS, how do we teach them to take responsibility for their lives?
How do we ensure that the worlds guiding institutions that you talk about in your preamble realise the responsibility that they each have to 'reassess and redefine their role for a new century toward the realisation of a just, peaceful and sustainable future. These are some of the challenges that we believe need to be addressed as indeed you lead all the various sectors of society in one way or the other.
I believe that when we speak about the need to revitalise human kind, we must be clear that we are not only focusing on rekindling `lost' values from our past, but that we are also, and perhaps most importantly, seeking new ways to meet new times. Thus the revitalisation of human kind requires not only recovery or resuscitation, but also a renewal.
This renewal is dependent on our recognition of the important of this moment in our history and our collective willingness - as leaders, civil society (young an old alike), government and the religious institutions - in reaching out to our common humanness and transforming and renewing this collective into something more than itself, transfiguring it into something great, which will take possession of the next century.
You will agree with me that we are experiencing a serious moral vacuum in all our societies. The loss of respect for human life and dignity has reached endemic proportions today. All our endeavours therefore should aim at achieving a recovery of our common humanity and affirmation of the other.
This understanding is based on the common religious principle that all human beings are made to God's image.
I believe that this is an understanding that is common to all human nature in most of the religions that humans subscribe to. Respecting the other are values that are common to all our religions and are essential to our common future. I believe that an authentic vision of a better world must find its existence in ourselves and that it must be derived from our particular historical experience as nations of the world.
Unless we are able to discern and face up to, the underlying problems in our societies today, solutions and prescriptions that we may offer, are likely to fail.
I believe that the four commitments that you also affirm in your preamble of a culture of non-violence and respect for live, of solidarity and a Just Economic Order, of Tolerance and a Life of Truthfulness and of Equal Rights and Partnership between Men and Women are a true embodiment of this.
If humanity is central to our thoughts and actions, if to be fully human and true to ourselves are our starting points, then we cannot go wrong in creating a better life for all people.
You are therefore called upon as religious communities to liberate the principle of morality and religion from being a private matter to being a community affair. In this way we shall have succeeded in transforming it into a common good.
The values of sharing, of common understanding - values not of self-enrichment, but for the benefit of an entire people - values of respect and dignity, values of reconciliation not only with others but with one's self - self-commitment, discipline and responsibility for the greater good - these are the values that should form the basis of our self and thus influence and shape our greater world.
John S.Mbiti, an African writer in his work African Religions and Philosophy made the important point that:
"Man cannot live by the bread of science and politics alone; he also needs the vitamins of ethics and morals, faith and hope, love and security, comfort and attention in the face of death or misfortune, a feeling and experience that as a person he matters infinitely, and an assurance that he is not immediately `forgotten' or even annihilated when he dies. These are the elements that religion tries to offer."
In our own struggle as Africans to better the lives of our people we dearly need the leadership of men and women like yourselves to participate in defining the path that we must all take.
We need your contribution so that we may be able to recapture the spirit of humanness that we once held so dear as Africans. In closing I would like to say how glad we are that so many have come here to share with us their own spiritual experience, their vision, and their Ethic, an Earth Charter, and to finding and following ways of peace. We wish you all God speed as you go home.
We dare to hope that from our vision of an African Renaissance you may be encouraged to work and hope for a global renaissance. I wish you success in your endeavours in your respective countries to bring about a better and peaceful work for all people.
I thank You.