Dear Friends,
On Tuesday
evening the Presbytery
of Egoli received
a report from
the Commission it had
appointed to investigate
all of the
alleged charges of
heresy against Hansie.
The Commission found
that under the
most recent Confession of
Faith adopted by
the UPCSA, there were
no bases for
the allegations. They further found
that the complainant had taken Hansie’s academic paper out of its
original context, and thus
caused much of
the confusion which emanated in
the Denomination.
The Commission also found that the Confession of Faith to
which the complainant alluded allowed for different approaches to the
interpretation of Scripture, as
long as the
hermeneutic was sound.
We at St. Columba’s are delighted with this outcome having
believed all along
that our Denomination was broad enough in its
thinking and belief to hold
different interpretations of scripture in tension,
as long as
the historical context of
the original passage
was respected. In fact
this places us
firmly in the
tradition of the Reformed
Group of Churches
to which we belong.
The Presbytery has forwarded this finding to us at St
Columba’s, the Court of Assembly and the Presbytery of eThekwini and the Rev
Smith and his Session who were the complainants. As
I believe communication, and
accurate communication is important
I have asked Pauline to attach the report of our
Presbytery to this week’s weekly, so that the congregation may read the report
for themselves.
This means that as far as we are concerned it is only the
charges of misconduct
which remain, those are against
Hansie and me for the use of a Civil Union licence which Hansie had previously obtained
and for
our willingness to
bless Civil Unions.
At its meeting on Tuesday, our Presbytery went one step further
and appointed a committee to come with proposals to the next Assembly with regard
to Civil Unions and same sex marriages. I
have been asked to serve on that committee which is being chaired by Prof
Gonnie Leures, a former member of St. Columba’s.
Let me thank you all once again for your wonderful support
during these very
difficult times, and please let me say again, that if any of these issues are of
concern to you
please come and
talk to Hansie or me.
I am delighted to tell you that there is also a great
deal of other
news that is
also good. Messy Church, one of our
newest innovations to keep
a relationship with young
families in our
congregation, is going
from strength to
strength. We had 70 young people
in church last Sunday who then stayed on for a “bring and share” braai.
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| Messy church ...... the concept works |
Mr Simone Eccles who has recently joined our congregation from
Linden Church has completed his B.Th. and put
his name forward for the Fellowship of Vocation. That means he would love to explore an opportunity
to be called full time into the Christian
ministry.
During this
year Simone needs
to work within a
congregation and he
has committed himself
to try and
build up a
ministry to the twenty something age
group. I am
really excited about this
and hope that
it will extend our
ministry to younger
people within our community.
Your friend and minster,
CHUNKY
