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Just under
a week or two before the Anglican Mens Fellowship and Evangelism Guild’s 15th
Provincial Conference, I wrote a piece which focused primarily on the guild’s
growth (read piece here: https://shorturl.at/CxYTo). Now with a few days into the new
year, the year of our Lord 2025 as I reflect on the year that has gone by, I
thought it prudent to do this post conference review, with the focus on three
key areas, the overall event cosmetics, the business of conference and the way
forward.
The cosmetics
The overall
organization of the conference was seamless, credit to both the hosting diocese
of Matlosane under the leadership of its diocesan president Revd. Molosiwa and
the Provincial Executive Committee of the guild under the leadership of
President Zakhele Mbatha. Upon arrival on Wednesday night, delegates converged
at the Cathedral of the Resurrection which was the central venue where the
business of conference was to take place, and by business of conference I mean
the deliberations and resolutions of conference that took place between day one
and two of the four-day conference, which I will deal with later. But on this
evening, a day before conference, the seamless nature of the event began to
show when diocesan secretaries and treasurers received conference packs for
their delegates, some of whom had already arrived and some still on route. The
idea behind this was to ensure that conference kick-starts without delay the
next morning, so each diocese had to receive these packs on behalf of their
members and distribute them accordingly. The said conference pack consisted of
a beautiful AMF & E branded black leather Bible bag, in it was an equally
branded hand towel, pen, diary, calendar and a fully information packed
conference booklet. But before I address the question of branding, let me first
highlight the fact that seamlessness was the hallmark of the entire conference,
from arrival to the very last luncheon on day four of the event.
Before I
move to the next element of this review which is the branding element, I’d be
the biggest sinner before God if I didn’t mention the spirit lead evening song
on this very Wednesday night of the arrival of delegates. The prayer was
preceded by a warm, spirit led praise and worship that laid the spiritual
foundation of the entire four-day conference, this evening song was led by the
president of the diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman Reverend Mandla Khubeka, with
the two scripture readings read by myself and the ever eloquent reader and
speaker Reverend T.R. Hololo of the diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman,
respectively. I must admit that I was intrigued on this occasion by Reverend
Hololo’s reading skills, the man has the ability to capture the attention of
his audience through his reading of the scripture, taking them on a
roller-coaster experience of the story from the era of the writer into the
contemporary environment, after experiencing his eloquence in his delivery of
speeches during meetings over the past few years of my experience of him, this
night simply led me to the conclusions that “in the absence of any other
evidence available, I declare Reverend Hololo the guild’s master of rhetoric”, it
for this very reason that I cannot wait to cast my eyes and attention on any of
his written work, given that I have already had the opportunity to engage his
thought leadership and theology on a number of issues pertaining to the church,
the guild and society in general.
Now back to
the branding part, brand experts Allie Decker makes a point that “branding
shapes how people perceive a product, service or organization, that a strong
brand image can create positive associations with quality, value, or a
particular lifestyle, influencing decisions, submitting that in fact, research
shows that ‘71% of consumers (particularly Gen Z) say they're more likely to buy
into brands they trust’” (Hubstpo.com: June 2024: https://shorturl.at/AJO51). This is one of the reasons why the AMF & E across all its diocese
and province has improved drastically in the year 2024, and all of this could
be seen throughout the conference. To start with, two out of the four dioceses did
not have their wall banners at the conference, to add to the provincial wall
banner, tear-drops and gazebo, but their pull-up banners took to the stage and
showed up to complete the look. However, it is to be noted that ‘through its
communication strategy, conference resolved that the two diocese must attend to
the matter and produce their wall banners as a matter of urgency. The
communication strategy that was presented and adopted by conference put a lot
of emphasis on the question of brand presence as part of the guild’s growth
strategy, unveiling among others its website that was also developed in the
year 2024, after several years of struggle in this area, the document also
spoke about the improvement of the guild’s social and digital media strategy
and the guidelines thereof, including the use of modern communication tools
such as QR-Codes, WhatsApp, Bulk-SMS systems and others. In addition, the
permanent feature that is ‘selfie-frames’ at our events cannot be ignored,
members and guests have become accustomed to this standard feature at our
event, this time around the guild took it a notch-up and created two different
types of selfie frames, a round and a square one, adding a bit of a twist to
the fun and look of the conference photos. In a nutshell, AMF & E has the
mammoth task of maintaining the beautiful cosmetic look it presented at this
conference, possibly the most well branded event the Anglican church has ever
seen.
The
business of conference
Earlier I
alluded to reverend R.T Hololo as the master of rhetoric in the guild and how I
cannot wait to read any of his written work, so I must highlight the fact that
the communication strategy that was presented and adopted, also put emphasis on
the need to position the guild as a theological depository of the church,
through a thought leadership approach, encouraging its leaders and more
especially its priests to begin to put pen to paper and share their theology in
written form (and so we expect to see a lot of these essays on the website and
social media platforms going forward). And so as we moved into the business of
conference, day one of the two day intense debates, presentations and decision
making process of the guild, the think tank of the organization, it became
evident that Reverend Hololo is not the only though leader in the guild, but
the guild is rich with men and women who are full of ideas, dreams and
aspirations of building a much bigger and stronger AMF & E.
However, it
is important to highlight that the day was preceded by yet another spirit led
Eucharist Service which was Live on Facebook as the primary communication tool
of the guild (view service here: https://fb.watch/wA2Yna_Uin/ ), with the President of Mass being
the Dean of the dioceses, the Rector of the Cathedral of the Resurrection,
Reverend Christopher Seupe who also delivered an interesting keynote address
later in the day, focusing on key issues that affects society and by extension
the guild, we shall revisit this aspect a little later in this review. So, on
this day a number of presentations were made, among others a brief report by president
Zakhele Mbatha, followed by the provincial secretary and treasurer respectively,
in essence presenting an administrative account of the past five years, to
which the general conference was happy to receive. Next was the key note
address by the dean of the diocese, bringing along with him an interesting
perspective that also sparked interesting debates. Post the Dean’s address five
breakaways were created and each discussed five key areas that also doubled as
pertinent questions to the delegates, and by extension the general membership,
these were:
1. Why am I
here, based on the scriptural reading in 1 Kings 19: 9
2. What are
the main characteristics of the guild, derived out of the scriptural reading in
Romans 10: 14-15?
3. How can
we respond to the call, in line with the gospel of Matthew 28: 16-20
4. How does
the guild, as a branch of the church, respond meaningfully to the human need,
transforming unjust situations of communities it exists in?
5. How does
the guild, as a branch of the Anglican church, ‘safeguard creation, sustain and
renew the life of the Earth, in line with the scriptural reading in Genesis
22:15?
These commissions
came back to report to conference on how the guild must move going forward,
among others the most notable adoptions that came out of these discussions
were:
1. A much more environmental friendly
AMF & E, that shall henceforth put a ban on the use of polystyrene at any
of AMF & E events across the province, this in order to demonstrate our
intentional participation in saving the planet.
2. That the guild must intentionally
participate in addressing societal issues such as GBVF, illegal mining, crime
and all other injustices in South Africa, through active participation in
national discourses and demonstrations.
I must make
mention of another interesting outcome of this exercise that conference
undertook, even though this was not on the agenda of the conference, meaning it
was rather unintentional but most significant, a discussion in one of the
commissions led to a rather deep and frank engagement between two female
delegates, from the diocese of Johannesburg and Highveld, on the question of “the influx of female membership vis-à-vis
the declining male membership and how that has impacted the growth of the
guild”. I must say that I was personally happy that this discussion took
place without any influence of a male member, and certainly not myself, at that
point I extended gratitude to God the almighty for having to have not formed
part of any commission, particularly this one that sparked the debate. The
reason behind my happiness is because I dealt with this very issue in the piece
I wrote a week or so before the conference, calling for ‘a five year moratorium
on the admission of female members as part of the guild’s growth strategy’, I
particularly shared my own observation on how female members view and approach
this important topic, the following is an abstract from the said article “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 any way 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” (Kgosiemang Phejane: 15 November 2024: https://shorturl.at/CxYTo). And so the debate that ensued between these two female members, like
a double-edged sword it is a vindication on two of the pertinent questions I
sought to address, the need to put a moratorium on female admissions for at
least five years and that female members are in full agreement with this
proposal. It is only that conference did not explore the debate further, not
knowing whether this was because the item was not on the agenda nor was it a
conference motion or if the guild simply doesn’t have any appetite for a
conversation of this nature. But it remains my prayer in earnest that this
guild, through a constitutionally convened gathering such as a conference, take
this inevitable leap of faith and actively participate in God’s divine
restoration of the Anglican Mens Fellowship (and Evangelism) guild, as
envisaged and conceptualized by its forebears.
The day was
not yet done as there were still a few more items and work to be done, so after
a much needed lunch break the conference tone changed slightly, a presentation
of the strategy document was made, it is important to note that the said
document was already reviewed by the Provincial Council Meeting (PCM) that was
held in the diocese of Highveld on the 16th of June 2024. Therefore,
given this review, very little came out of the exercise. And so the conference
swiftly moved to discuss the motions submitted to conference.
The diocese
of Johannesburg kick-started this process, setting the tone with a rather
packed background to clarify the motion to conference, given that yours truly
was tasked with the responsibility to present the motion, linking the motion to
the earlier debate of female membership came naturally, but the motion in
essence called for a rather intentional growth strategy of the guild, calling
for “a five-year recruitment plan that
should be presented to the next PCM in March 2025”, the motion was put to
conference, seconded and successfully carried with a resounding support from
all dioceses.
Next was
the motion presented by the diocese of Matlosane, which called for the
re-instatement of the entire provincial executive for another term without an
election process. But conference found this motion rather problematic in that
“it called for conference to short-circuit the democratic processes of electing
leaders, essentially this meant that the constitution must be suspended without
due process”, to this conference felt that the motion could not succeed unless
it called for a constitutional amendment, and so the motion was not carried. It
is however very interesting that the diocese of Matlosane went ahead to submit
this motion to conference when in fact the June 2024 PCM had discussed the
matter and agreed that the proposal would never pass the constitutional master,
especially drawing from the mistakes of the 2019 elective conference that was
held in the dioceses of Kimberley and Kuruman.
The
discussions was taken a notch-up when the last two motions sponsored by the
diocese of Highveld were presented, needless to say that both of them did not
succeed. First it was a proposal for the probators (affectionately known as
Balekwa) period of training to be reduced from one year to six months. After a
rather lengthy discussions and counter proposals, in particular Johannesburg
called for an increase of the probation period and a standardized training
manual that was to be applied across all dioceses, conference then resolved
that there shall be no amendment in this regard, and so the motion was not
carried.
The final
motion was of great interest and intrigue, even though it also failed to carry,
the debate around it was intense, most interestingly was how the male membership
kept mum on the matter that was under discussion, most probably because it was
assumed to be a female problem and had nothing to do with men, I will however
come back to this question as I hold a slightly different view. Anyway, the
motion was about the dress-code of our female membership, particularly the type
of shoes they wear. The diocese of Highveld called for the relaxation of the
standing rules on the type of shoes worn by female members of the guild,
proposing that there be no particular shoe type that women must wear. To this a
fierce debate ensued, but the general view was that the motion called for a
rather chaotic future in the guild, where all sorts of undesirable shoe types
will begin to take center stage, ultimately the proposal received a resounding
NO from female members and the motion failed to carry.
I did
however indicate that I hold a rather different view on the matter, even though
mine is not particularly on the question of shoes, but rather on the general
rules around how female members should present themselves, among others the
issues of artificial nails or rather the length, the use of nail polish and the
application of make-up. First let us address the question of the disinterest of
male members in this debate, it appears as if the patriarchal, misogynistic
nature of our male members kicked in without any hesitation in this instance,
reason why they remained mum. However, it would have been ideal for the male
membership to assume a feminist position and participated meaningfully in the
debate. For example, the question of artificial nails is no brainer from a
professional point of view, many of us in the guild are members of society that
occupies various professional career spaces, whether employed or in business,
therefore it would follow that women in the contemporary world have become
accustomed to long artificial nails and hair as part of their secular
professional expression and expectation. I know that some may argue that guild
events happen mainly on weekends therefore female members have the option to
remove them during weekends, but the argument does not hold water given the
tough economic times that we live in, male members would know that to pay for
their partner’s nails and hair costs an arm and a leg, at a bare minimum R800.
Given that there are also financial guild obligations that they need to meet,
it would be unfair to expect them to service an expense of this nature on such
regular and excessive intervals. In fact, it wouldn’t make sense to expect such
because they are also regular worshipers at their respective parishes,
therefore, restricting them from not wearing their artificial mails is
tantamount to giving them a choice between the guild and their careers. My
personal feminist position in this case would be that women should be allowed
to wear their nails and make-up, under certain regulations, minimum length and
colour or design, and minimum make-up application, surely such can be managed
to ensure that the required decorum is maintained.
Swiftly move to the two days of the masses,
Saturday and Sunday respectively. I’m convinced that this was now a proper
display of what our beloved AMF & E has become, a theatre of Anglican
worship, song and dance. The day started with a gradual arrival of the masses,
many whom had arrived earlier than anticipated, and for this we must commend
the guild as it equally complimented the presence of the diocesan bishop, The
Dean of the Province, the Right Revered Stephen Diseko who presided over
Eucharist. The Eucharist was followed by very insightful presentations by both
the President and the secretary, before Reverend Vusi Ndaba of the diocese of
Johannesburg could take the podium to unpack the conference theme to the
masses, a rather theologically rich and moving sermon, posing very pertinent
questions to the membership of the guild. This powerful sermon couldn’t have
been followed by anything else but another powerful and moving presentation of
the newly elected executive by the bishop of the diocese, one of the most
impressive way of demonstrating the seriousness of the business of leading an organization
of this magnitude. One couldn’t help but admire the personal attention and time
that Bishop Diseko took to institute and pray for every individual, carefully
uttering words that not only gave confidence to the leadership and the power
bestowed upon them by God, but also bringing each member of the guild into this
confidence, knowing that the chosen leaders were God ordained leaders of the
guild and the church. When I say the day was insightful and packed with wisdom
and knowledge, it is not an exaggeration. From this impressive display of
theological prowess by reverend Ndaba and Bishop Diseko, the conference
proceeded to yet another insightful session, maintaining the same level of insightfulness
and engagement, with two information packed addresses by representatives from
the departments of health and corrections respectively, ensuring that delegates
are also given the opportunity to pose questions that relates to the topics.
And so the
day of worship, prayer and learning went on into the evening, through to the
next morning, with dioceses healthily compete. Another important aspect of
Saturday that must be highlighted is the traditional All-Souls service, where
we remember members who have since been called home and those who have lost
their loved ones since the last conference, a rather emotional and moving
service that helps in healing the hearts of our members. Conference proceeded
into day four starting as early as five o’clock with what was supposed to be a
street revival where members had to take the streets of Potchefstroom to
evangelise and bring God’s lost sheep into his fold. However, due to a number
of technical and legal considerations it was agreed that the exercise will be
restricted to the grounds of the Madiba Hall facility. It must be acknowledged
though that our God is a wonderful God who always works wonders, this decision
turned out to be the best decision as the events on the grounds quickly turned
into a completely different praise and worship, a spirit lead gathering indeed.
At the very end the Eucharist service concluded all conference proceedings.
It is my
considered view that the conference was a resounding success and a good display
of the brand, both as a spirit led house of God, a vehicle to build God’s
kingdom and a modern day church organization, the media desk stationed right in
the middle of the conference room is a perfect example of this modernization of
the guild, we had two big TV screens positioned strategical for the purpose of
displaying the proceedings and to share up to the minute information, not forgetting
the display of banners and Gazibos in and around the venue, an impressive branding
force we had displayed.
It is
therefore a clarion call to the members of the guild to unite behind the guild
and the elected leadership, the author of the epistle to the Hebrews submits to
the believers that "they need to obey their leaders and submit to them,
for they are keeping watch over their souls" (Hebrews 13:17), a scriptural
principle that also applies to support and canonical obedience in the contemporary
church.
It is my
prayer that as well look forward to the elective diocesan conference in the
year 2025, the same conference standard and model should prevail across all
dioceses, as a member of the provincial communication team I do know that an agreement
to this effect was reached and we intend to live by it.
God’s grace
and peace be with us, with his help our guild will continue to grow in every
respect.
Kgosiemang
Phejane writes in his personal capacity as a member of the guild in good
standing, a communication office in the diocese of Johannesburg.
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