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Introduction
History
records the 31st of October as a day of commemorating Church Reformation,
a Protestant Christian religious holiday in some parts of the world (mainly
Europe), in remembrance of the onset of the Reformation. This history is commonly
attributed to Luther, it is recorded that 31 October 1517 was the day Martin
Luther nailed his Ninety-five theses/grievances on the door of the All Saints'
Church in Wittenberg, Electorate of Saxony, in the Holy Roman Empire,
influencing what was to become an exodus of church leaders and congregants from
the Roman Catholic fold, giving birth to the continuing growth of protestants
across the globe, the Church of England being one of them.
Justification
It so
happens that this day is celebrated a day after publicly sharing my meditations
around my beloved church guild, the Anglican Mens Fellowship and Evangelism. A
mens organization within the protestant Anglican Church of Southern Africa
(ACSA), established in 1967 in the North West province of South Africa. These
meditations innocently focused on my personal contribution and commitment
towards this organization, particularly questioning the long overdue
recognition of this guild by the broader church body, ACSA. It remains a rather
disheartening reality for many of its members, passed and alive, that this
organization has lived well over fifty years but to this day it remains a guild
with no recognition by the province. Considering that this disheartening
reality is a product of a number of challenges that not only the guild is faced
with but also the church in general, some of which are religious and
theological, economical, societal and others. With Luther in mind, I was
particularly wondering in my meditation as to whether ‘will my participation
and commitment be enough to influence the necessary change in the overall life
of the guild, given that the founding fathers of the guild were called home
before this major change could take effect, the last of them being its lifetime
President Reverend Canon Joe Maboe of the diocese of Johannesburg, who died in
April 2021.
The problem
It is no
doubt that Luther also posed such questions to himself before taking the bold
step of penning down the Ninety-five grievances that led to the protestant landscape
we are seeing today. Some in the contemporary may argue that Luther’s questions
may have been restricted to theological problems of the Catholic Church,
therefore making this comparison irrelevant. However, the reality is that some
kind of reference out of history is needed in order to draw some lessons that
will help pave a way towards the intended solutions to the contemporary problems,
but again the reformatory agenda is found all over the canon of scripture, the
books of Kings, Chronicles, Samuel, Ezra, Nehemiah to name a few. And so we
have every reason to attend to the problems of this guild without any form of
doubt or fear.
So what are
the problems, one may wonder? It would appear that there are a number of
problems which are naturally interwoven, though it must be admitted that they
may also be independent from each other. However, here we may deal with only
two major categories in an attempt to provide solutions to the two and others
that are somewhat minor in nature. The first of the two being ‘the recognition
of the guild by the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA)’, and the second
being ‘the guild’s inability to grow outside its existing four Dioceses,
Matlosane, Johannesburg, Highveld and Kimberley and Kuruman’, with the diocese
of Mpumalanga being in question we are unable to count it as a duly constituted
diocese, even though there was a significant attempt made.
Recognition and its three in one indicators
On the
weekend of the 28th of November to the 1st of December,
the year of our Lord 2024, the guild will descend on to the city of
Potchefstroom, located in its birth province, the North West, to convene its 15th
provincial conference, an elective gathering that will surely discuss among
other things the question of recognition and growth. I am mentioning the fact
that it is an elective conference because the seating provincial leadership,
like all the other executives since inception, were tasked with the
responsibility of ensuring that the guild is recognized by the Anglican Church
of Southern Africa (ACSA) some five years ago in Barkley West in Kimberley
during the 13th Provincial Conference in 2019. Therefore, it would
follow that members are indeed looking forward to receiving a progress report
on the matter, even though recognition doesn’t seem to be in sight. To simplify
the meaning of recognition in case one was wondering why this question is such cause
for concern, one needs to refer to three simple indicators that tells you that the Anglican Mens Fellowship and Evangelism
(AMF & E) guild has existed in oblivion in the Anglican Church of Southern
Africa (ACSA) for the past fifty-seven (57) years. These indicators, at the
very least should be considered to be a three in one informal recognition or
acknowledgement of the existence of the guild. The first is to look at the list
of invited guests at ACSA Provincial Synods at least in the past twenty years,
it is only the AMF & E among all the guilds of the church that is never
represented at these highest decision making gatherings of the church, at the
least as an observer or non-voting participant. It would also follow that the
second indicator would be the guild’s absence of representation at the second
highest decision making body of the church, the Provincial Standing Committee
(PSC). Then the last, though simple but very significant, is the absence of the
AMF & E logo among all other guilds and organisations on the ACSA website, especially
since there is no provision in any church law or canon that prohibits the
presence of a guild logo on this platform, needless to say the guild has
recently launched its website, an important growth tool that would help greatly
in promoting itself.
But why is
it so important for the guild to promote itself, one may ask?. It is alleged that
the criteria for a formal recognition has two basic requirements, funds in
excess of about a million rand in the guild’s bank account and a minimum number
of eight dioceses. The first alleged requirement to me is neither here nor
there, particularly because for any guild in the church to have in excess of a
million rand in its bank account is a mountain to climb, so I’m almost certain
that guilds that do not meet this requirement can be accommodated. My real
issue is with the second requirement, particularly because it speaks directly
to the issue of the guild’s inability to grow. Almost sixty (60) years later
the guild has not grown beyond its four existing dioceses, out of a total
number of twenty-six (26) ACSA dioceses. This simply translates to one reality
“that the guild has failed to promote itself beyond the four dioceses it
currently enjoys some presence in”, is it in anyway ACSA’s fault one may ask?, and
my unreserved answer is a big “NO”, the blame lies squarely on the door-step of
the guild and its leadership, past and present, among other reasons why we find
ourselves in this embarrassing situation is because of the lack of visionary
leadership, creativity, consistency, decisiveness and follow through. It is precisely
for this reason that the diocese of Johannesburg will submit a much more
concise motion to this effect, at the up-coming provincial conference, to call
for a more decisive and visionary plan towards recognition.
The problem of growth
One would wonder
why is it so important for the guild to be recognized, at least at an informal
level. The existence of two mens guilds in the Anglican Church remains to this
day an interesting conundrum, AMF & E and the Bernard Mizeki Mens Guild
(BMMG). However, this reality gives rise to the question of promotion,
visibility and growth, in that the AMF & E is limited in its growth as a
result of the existence of BMMG. Geographically, Bernard Mizeki has covered the
vast majority of the province, primarily (but not entirely) because they are a
recognized guild, meaning they enjoy all the benefits of the three in one
indicators mentioned above. But that doesn’t mean that they are not faced with
the same challenge of growth. A basic desktop research will tell you that “the
presence of men in the church is generally a challenge, the number of men in
the church continues to decline” and the world is becoming more secular by day,
as a result BMMG is also struggling to grow. It must be noted that growth in
this instance refers to ‘an increase in male membership’, because the two
guilds are experiencing a common challenge of ‘extreme growth in female
membership’, a subject which I shall discuss as the second biggest problem
faced by the AMF & E guild. However, the difference between AMF and BMMG,
especially if one was to consider the fact that they took a bold decision to
put a moratorium on the acceptance of female members, is precisely the reasons
mentioned above “AMF’s lack of vision, creativity, consistency, decisiveness,
boldness and follow through in its leadership”, it is therefore my considered conviction
that my beloved AMF & E is responsible for its continued demise of existing
in oblivion.
The problem of female membership
It was on
the 1st of November, the year of our Lord 2023 when I penned a
letter to the male membership of the AMF & E guild in the diocese of
Johannesburg (scan below QR Code to read the letter), in this piece I share
with them a moment of embarrassment which I faced at the Diocesan Synod of the
same year where I had to share with the house a rather strikingly contradictory
picture of the guild’s membership demographics, at that time the numbers were
277 to 79 in favour of FEMALE members, needless to say, the numbers that will
be reported to the 15th conference for the year 2024 stands at 298
to 74, again in favour of female members. Depending on the side of the fence
you are on, some may argue that the guild has grown slightly by a percentage or
two, but others (myself included) would argue that it is not growing, primarily
because one of the most burning issues but yet ignored reality in the guild, is
the question of ‘the influx of female members in the guild’, not that
membership of women is taken for granted but in reality, by comparison in a
mens guild it becomes a rather insignificant growth. The diocese of Johannesburg
alone has recently admitted a total of thirty-five (35) females against only
five (5) males for the 2024 admission season. The question that arose at the
Johannesburg Synod was “why should men in the church bother in joining a mens
guild that is predominantly female”, leaving me gobsmacked, without an answer,
mind you this question is posed by men in particular. It is to be noted that
this is not a challenge that is unique to the diocese of Johannesburg, as
things stands ‘AMF & E demographics across the province are sitting at 470
to 1186 in favour of female members’ (See graph below), a trajectory that has been consistently upward
for a while.
Given these
numbers, of cause one cannot help but be curious, could this be the reason
behind the reluctance of men in joining this ministry?. It certainly does
appear that indeed a considerable amount of the few men that are found in
church use this very reason to justify their reluctance. Perhaps it is for the
same reason that the Bernard Mizeki Mens Guild took the decision to put on hold
the admission of female members, a decision to which, to put it bluntly “AMF
& E continues to kick the can down the road”. I have not been a member of
the guild for as long as many have been, but I can tell with certainty that
there are two categories of views on the matter, first there are those who
choose to stay away as a result of this reality, second are those who advance
an argument that says “God sees no gender, therefore this reality should not be
an issue”. The latter are my bone of contention in this case, in that their argument
seems to be saying, let the guild continue to exist in contradiction, confusion
and therefore continued oblivion.
Contradiction
It was at
the June 2024 Provincial Council Meeting in Katlehong when the latter cohort
(those arguing that the gender imbalance does not matter) posed a question “but
what contradiction”?. It is for this reason why I am at pains to sponsor a
response to this unanswered question. Contradiction arises from two issues, the
Constitution of the guild as it stands and the decision of the 1992 conference to
admit female members, but more importantly “to incorporate the word ‘Evangelism’
into AMF, as a symbol representing the female gender”. First, the constitution is
rather quiet on the roles of female members including the occupation of the
guild’s presidency, however, unwritten rules dictate that ‘no female member can
ever occupy the office of the president’, contradicted by the fact that there
are pockets of female chairpersons at branch level, but more than that and more
importantly “the numbers are not numbering on the male side, and the constitution
is clearly open for interpretation, making it highly possible for a legally
constituted conference to vote in a woman president, should the female members
decide otherwise”. Second, with all due respect to the founders and the elders
of the guild, but the 1992 conference decision to add the word ‘Evangelism’ as
a symbol of femininity is somewhat bizarre to say the least, the word
Evangelism has its own dictionary meaning, at the least “to spread the
Christian gospel by public preaching or personal witness” (Oxford dictionary of
English 1998), in this case a general responsibility of all guild members, so this
symbol comes nowhere near femininity or advancing a feminist theology or agenda.
Therefore, it is these two contradictions that makes the overall contradiction
of ‘a male guild that is predominantly female’, that justifies the call for a more
Lutheran shift of the guild. Whether a shift in constitutional reformation or bold
approach in turning the membership demographics around, it does not matter
much, the fact is that the guild can no longer afford to exist in oblivion, and
the only way towards its recognition by ACSA and being taken seriously by the
church in general, is if it reforms itself by addressing its imbalances and
contradictions, to position itself properly in the Anglican Communion, at least
on the Southern tip of Africa for now.
The overall problem
It may be
easy to link the above problems to the general make up of the contemporary
church, that the church demographics are predominantly female, that the church
has generally declined in recent times, granted. However, the question of
‘ACSA’s recognition as a direct result of the increase of dioceses cannot be
escaped’, in other words ‘if the basic criterion for recognition is based
solely on a particular number of dioceses (above four), then AMF & E needs
to grow beyond the four dioceses that it currently exists in. It is for this
very reason that the diocese of Johannesburg will sponsor a motion that speaks
to this very question of growth, that “at its first provincial council meeting
of the year of our Lord 2025, the newly elected leaders shall present a
detailed five-year growth plan which among other things, shall issue out a 2025
rooster where AMF & E shall visit parishes within all 26 ACSA diocese, in
an effort to establish itself in those dioceses”.
It is
therefore my considered view that the guild can no longer afford to exist in
such oblivion. First, the 15th provincial conference that will be
held in the diocese of Matlosane from the 28th of November to the 1st
of December, the year of our Lord 2024, must be intentional about discussing
the issue of female membership, with the view of taking a bold decision “to put a moratorium on further admissions
of female members, at least for 5 years”. I am convinced that female
members of the guild are in full agreement with this view, it is only that male
members fear being seen as anti-feminists, sexists, misogynists and patriarchal,
but a very common phrase that is always bantered about by female members should
be an indication that they are not in anyway seen in such light, female members
often make a point that “mokgatlo ke wa bo ntate or umkhandlo owa bo baba”,
loosely translated “this guild is a mens guild”, indicating their acceptance of
the reality and that they have no ambition whatsoever to take over the guild.
Therefore, there is absolutely no reason why anyone should have a problem with
such a developmental and progressive decision, that is in clearly in the best
interest of the guild.
Secondly, the
15th conference has to recognize the importance of ensuring that the
motion sponsored by the diocese of Johannesburg is carried successfully, if
anything ‘with clear targets and deadlines’ for the incoming provincial
executive, and that they are alive to the reality of the mammoth task ahead.
Reforms are
a necessity for the growth of the kingdom of God, the Anglican Mens Fellowship
and Evangelism guild is an important ministry in the life of the Anglican Communion,
its evangelical responsibility, especially within the African spirituality
cohort of the church is of paramount importance, its fifty-seven (57) years of existence
cannot be allowed to be erased through such a painfully slow death. Like the
great apostle Paul of Tarsus equated the flock of God with the church in Acts
20:28 when he said, “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among
which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers” (Acts 20:28 NIV), we too are
responsible for our beloved guild, the Anglican Mens Fellowship &
Evangelism, its preservation, growth and effective participation in the Mission
of God.
Kgosiemang Phejane
Writing in
his personal capacity as a member of the AMF & E Guild
Diocese of
Johannesburg
