Harboring of bitter envy and selfish ambition to the detriment of God’s ministry, the Anglican Mens Fellowship & Evangelism Guild: A letter in memory of “Alfred Fana Mtshali”

 

 

I am called home

As the church marked the end of the month of compassion on Sunday the 31^st of August in the year of our Lord 2025, the day turned-out to be a day of devastation for the people of God in this my beloved AMF & E ministry, as the news of my passing began to spread like wild fire. But it was already a little over twelve hours when I heard a voice from heaven saying Alfred Fana ‘ngiyayithanda ke leyo’ Mtshali, “come up here, come and join the rest of your fellow stalwarts, so that I can show you what must happen after this” (Rev 4:1 NIV), it is from the open door of my new home in heaven that I am watching with pain and horror the bitterness and envy that is harbored in the hearts of God’s people in the ministry, to the detriment of the church and of my memory. It is for this reason that I pen down this letter of dissatisfaction and expression of continued love, through the hand of him that equally shares my sentiments, has no claim to any fame in the guild that comes any close to that which I commanded while with you, but boast the amount of love and pride that is equal to the rest of all of us, old and new, young and old, male and female.

 

A chaotic display of Love

I observed with pain and sorrow the level of toxicity that seems to be clouding the guild in recent years, months and days towards my departure. Bitterness and envy became clear as daylight on the day when the message of my recall back to the Father in heaven began to fragment across the length and breadth of the diocese of Johannesburg. It would appear that people panicked, entered into a race of wanting to be the first to pronounce and share the news, to the detriment of our guild rules and protocols, but for this I consoled myself in the knowledge that such is a general church and human phenomenon, more especially when a tree of such gigantic magnitude in the church has fallen.

 

But I began to see what God had promised to show me from the heavenly realm, when the fragmentation of information regarding both the repatriation of my mortal remains back to my place of birth in Kwazulu Natal and the subsequent travel arrangements of our general members began to show. I asked myself if it was because I have left a vacuum as a chairperson of the guild at the parish of St Hildas (Senaoane) or if my diocesan leadership (cabinet) had seemingly dropped the ball, as I would often pose my signature questions to members at every opportunity “are you winning, tell me the latest good news”?, often coming from a very deep place of wisdom and love for everyone in the guild. But it seemed like they were not winning, one minute there was a bus organized by my home parish, the next minute there were several taxis organized by individual groupings, a sign of total disunity on display.  

 

In his general epistle to the people of God in the church, James the brother of our Lord Jesus deals with many issues that we in the contemporary are also faced with, among others he addresses questions of “favoritism, the danger of the tongue, oppression of one by the other and patience in suffering”, but most interesting in all of these is the question of wisdom, a trait which I carried with me to the very last day of my ministry and life, making all the efforts in the world to impart as much of it as I possibly could to many of you in the guild, men and women alike. But it has since become very evident in the course of my departure, my arrival at my heavenly home and the planting of my mortal remains back into the ground, that “it is in fact the lack of this very wisdom that these fragmentations exist in our beloved movement, leading to among others the chaotic events since the fateful Saturday of my departure and the days after”. To this I am at pains to remind you that ‘at the service of the renewal of our vows on the 8^th day of June, the year of our Lord 2025, at the parish of St Mary Magdalene (Protea South), the sitting president of this diocese Reverend Tshepo Hope Maloka preached about these matters’, specifically asking a question “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?” (James 4:1 NIV). I am convinced that ‘it is the lack of wisdom that causes such chaos, lack of love for one another, lack of understanding and a discerning voice of reason’.

 

The Big-Man Syndrome

 It is rather ironic that we all boast about our unconditional love for the guild and the church of God, but the very love can easily be seen with a naked eye that ‘it is at the center of the demise of the guild’, men and women are at war with each other over the control of the guild. Some claim to know it better than others, others claim to love it better than others, while others boast about their ability to render the ministry dead by virtue of their non-participation. I must be bold in revealing that many of these issues are primarily prevalent in the ministry of Men in the guild, we must be honest enough and acknowledge that “the biggest enemy of the AMF & E Men's Lekgotla is the Big-Man syndrome” that ravages its corridors, where men in the guild are at loggerheads with each other and hell-bent in proving to each other as to the individual influence that they yield in the guild. In simple secular terms this phenomenon speaks to “autocracy, patronage and personal loyalty, violation and subversion of good governance and formal procedures, the guild being treated as personal property, and loyalty to individuals dictating access to the various groupings”, all of these can be seen especially when giants such as myself are called home, people fight over the control of the proceedings, when and how the guild tradition of hanging the jacket of a fallen member must be administered, when and how should transport be organized, how should the programme of my memorial service must be structured, who is eligible to travel and in what kind of transport, with whom and by whom, leaders at loggerheads with each other about money and how and who should fund travel, the less we talk about the lack of communication the better, all of this chaos can be attributed to one thing “the egoistic approach of members who claim to love the guild and the church of God”. Observing all of this reminded me of the conflict between prophet Elija and his king Ahab in the Old testament books of 1^st and 2^nd Kings. The theological understanding of the set-up of this guild can be likened to that of ancient Israel, the traditional functions of the covenant leader-mediator in ancient Israel were split between the king and Yahweh’s spokespersons, the prophets”. The story of the conflict between prophet Elijah and King Ahab demonstrates this perfectly, the story outlines the exact nature of the cultural and religious conflict which occurred during Ahab’s reign, essentially demonstrating Elijah’s vehement defense of Israel’s nationhood, deeply rooted in covenantal loyalty and culture, and we are seeing exactly that in our guild today. Seemingly therefore, all this chaos is not new, nor unique. Hence in the contemporary, particularly in our beloved AMF & E, we see it in display, especially during funerals. These are the exact chaos that President Tshepo Maloka preached about on the day of Pentecost of the year 2025, a sermon that was preceded and informed by the chaotic events displayed at the Diocesan Council Meeting held at the parish of St Bartholomew in Kagiso the previous day, the question I ask is “will the disunity of the guild ever come to an end, especially among its men”?

Men's Lekgotla

I am specifically worried about the unity of the men of this guild because the reality is that:

• Our numbers are continuing to decline

Our guild membership is currently seventy (70%) female, apart from natural reasons that includes the fact that women in the church are naturally more than men, our male membership does not at all reflect a picture of a male inspired/instituted guild, especially in comparison to our counterparts across the faith.

• We know of many (including our Clergy) that are not participating, let alone affiliating

The disunity among our male members is a glaring reality that nobody wants to address formally, the public view with pride and joy the display of a united front during funerals and memorial services of stalwarts such as myself Alfred Fana Mtshali, but the real picture of our division can be seen when the visitors and the outsiders are not looking, when Men's Lekgotla is supposed to exercise its ministry of evangelism through street revivals, hospital visits, provincial and diocesan conferences etc. We watch with painful and teary eyes, the efforts of the Men's Lekgotla coordinator when they yield nothing but a non-responsive body of Christ.

• Some choose to run parallel structures outside the guild

It is through events such as the passing of stalwarts that we observe with great pain ‘the egos of our male members being displayed in full view of the rest of the church’, when parallel arrangements and activities are at play, the question I wish to pose to the men in the guild is “why and how did it happen that only a handful of you came to Osizweni to lay my mortal body to rest, in different transports, leaving behind those who are heavily depending on one common transport, among others Reverend David Mapheng whom we all know that he is always willing and was more than eager to travel to Kwazulu Natal with the rest of the membership, but because of the disunity of the guild, yet another stalwart remained behind with a heavy heart?”.

 

It is pointless to claim our love for the guild and our stalwarts when we are unable to honour them with the simplest of the most basic requirement of being called followers of Jesus Christ “Unity and Love for one another”, as opposed to allowing our egos to take precedence over what is best for the Anglican Mens Fellowship and Evangelism ministry.  

• We know that there are many priests who love this guild with all their hearts, but choose to sit back and watch the guild diminish into thin air

Upon my arrival up here when the choir of AMF & E priesthood welcomed me into paradise, the likes of Father Maboe, Ncumeya, Manentsa, Tsubella, Rakale and others, they posed to me a pertinent yet difficult question which I should direct to our beloved clergy that are still enjoying the gift of life and energy to participate meaningfully in the growth of the kingdom of God through the ministry of AMF & E, they said “while God’s ministry diminished before your eyes, what answers do you have for us, explain your stone cold response to the unfolding demise of our beloved AMF & E?”.

 

Earthly and Heavenly Wisdom

I am convinced that the egoistic nature of our men in the guild is as a result of the love they have for God and his kingdom, owing to the wisdom and knowledge of the church and in particular the guild, the wisdom that we as the dearly departed stalwarts imparted onto them. But perhaps they have misunderstood and misinterpreted our wisdom. Once again James the brother of Jesus Christ our Lord writes to the people of God about these matters, in his epistle he makes a distinction between ‘earthly and heavenly wisdom’, he clarifies that “wisdom that is clothed in envy, hatred, boastfulness, revenge, lack of love, pragmatism, patience and perhaps most importantly in our context ‘egoism that is pregnant with historical memory’, is not from heaven but of earthly nature” (James 3:13-18 NIV).

 

As these angels of hope are sent down to you to protect especially those who are traveling back to Johannesburg after laying my mortal body to rest, I call upon every member of this our beloved movement to ponder around these matters, reflect truthfully about the week that was, from the moment you heard about my passing to this very moment when you are reading this letter.

 

What have you learned from my heavenly wisdom, are you willing to turn your back on your earthly wisdom and begin to work towards the growth of the Kingdom of God and not your personal glory, are you willing to set aside your ego and make peace with your beloved brother in Christ, to love them in their inequities so that they can reciprocate the same love?

 

Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior was very clear “leave your gifts by the alter, go back and make peace with your brother, and only then can you come back to offer that which belongs to God”.

 

In addition to my famous statement "tell me the latest good news", I will add "are you a united guild of God?”, I will be very happy if you would unite in my memory and the memory of the rest of our stalwarts.

 

Prepare for me the good new, unite and build God's ministry so that when you arrive, we may welcome you in song.

Kgosi writes in his personal capacity as a member of the AMF & E ministry.