My topic is ‘The Anglican Way in Higher Education’, which is, of course, intimately related to the Conference theme of Excellence, Character and Service

Let me begin with a quote from the actor Michael J Fox: 
‘I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection.  Excellence I can reach for, perfection is God’s business.’

Well, as Anglicans, and Anglican educators, we are certainly about God’s business, or so we should be!  And, whatever Michael J Fox says, excellence is also God’s business, and the business of God’s people – and so are character and service.

Let me quote three Scripture passages:

‘Whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable – if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things’ – or, as another translation puts it, ‘let your mind dwell on these things’.  (Phil 4:8)

‘We boast in our suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.’ (Rom 5:4,5)

‘It was he, Jesus Christ, who gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ might be built up, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God, and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the stature of Christ.’  (Eph 4:11-13)

These passages make it fully clear that those who desire maturity within the Christian life will find themselves challenged by excellence, character and service. 

These are not optional.  If we are to be true disciples, living faithfully in accordance with the teachings of Jesus Christ, able to deal constructively and hopefully with all that life throws at us, and as people who help make the Church, the world, a better place – then the life of excellence, character and service are for us.

And this is the life into which we seek to induct our young people.

We are very much challenged by such a vision in South Africa – which has led to the establishment of the Historic Schools’ Restoration Project, of which, since my retirement, I have been the Executive Director.

Let me tell you a little about it.

The Historic Schools Restoration Project

Historically, a high proportion of South Africa’s schools and colleges for black young people were established first by missionaries and later by the churches.

By the 1950s, there were close to 5,000 [five thousand] of these schools and colleges, serving around 700,000 [seven hundred thousand] young people.  They were in strategically important areas, wherever there were large black communities.  They filled the vacuum left by governments who chose to ignore the educational needs of the whole population. 

Most of today’s generation of black leaders – from Presidents Mandela and Mbeki down, and myself included – were products of those schools.

However, in 1954, the introduction of Bantu education halted formal church involvement in these schools and colleges.  They were taken over by the apartheid government, and deliberately run down.  Many have buildings in terrible need of repair, and some have closed altogether.

Others have struggled on, and still produce learners who achieve good results, and go on to become successful and productive members of society.

The aim of the Historic Schools Restoration Project is to strengthen such schools, and return an increasing number of others to the highest possible standards, so they may be centres of cultural and educational excellence, beacons of light and hope in their communities, and produce potential leaders of calibre and integrity.

In aiming for this, we underline that a leader, a leader of character, is anyone who gives a lead to others – at every level of society and community.  This includes good teachers, good business-people and entrepreneurs, good local councillors are leaders, and, by no means least, good parents of future generations. 

Good leaders understand the meaning of true service.  For example, the prime responsibility of politicians and civil servants is to work for the common good, and not for personal gain at the expense of others;  similarly, politics and business alike need to be honest, transparent and open, within a society where people recognise that everyone must respect and uphold the rule of law – so everyone can live in safety and security.

Though in South Africa we have particular historic burdens to overcome, we are not alone in our need to build a harmonious society, where difference is seen as enriching, not threatening.

We want to balance individualism with a strong commitment to our life with one another.  In Africa, we have a lovely word for this: ubuntu.  Its main philosophy is captured in the phrase ‘I am, because we belong together.’ Ubuntu is sharing what it means to live and care for others; to act kindly to one another; to be kind, just, fair, compassionate, trustworthy, honest; to assist those in need; and to uphold good morals. 

For me the ubuntu ethic is supremely gospel-shaped, body-of-Christ-shaped.  It also reflects excellence, character and service in our human relationships.

In promoting ubuntu, our Project wants to celebrate and support schools and colleges that address the whole of life, and prepare our young people to address the whole of life.

The Historic Schools Restoration Project is not specifically Christian, but I hope you can see how Christian values and aspirations are mirrored within it. 

And that is not surprising, because we know that whatever is true and good and commendable reflects something of our Lord and his Kingdom.

Anglicanism – Christian Resourcing for the Whole of Life

Let me turn now to more explicitly Christian, and Anglican, ways of fostering excellence, character, and service. 

This too is about learning to address the whole of life.

I remain convinced that Anglicanism allows us to do this more richly, more comprehensively, more fruitfully, and with far greater integrity, than any other way of being Christian.

Being Anglican gives us tools for being the people Jesus Christ calls us to be, in every walk of life, in every dimension of what it is to be human, as an individual, and as a member of wider society.

And this is good and right – because there is no aspect of human life, individual or corporate, which is beyond God’s concern, and beyond God’s desire to bring redemption and transfiguration wherever it is required.  And, of course, he shares with us the immense privilege of being his workers in this vineyard of his.

Much of what follows arises from consideration of the nature of Anglican Identity.  Though we are driven to ask such questions by the tragic divisions among us, I hope that the treasures we have unearthed will prove more lasting than the pains we suffer now.

Strife within Anglicanism is of course nothing new. In 1832 [eighteen-thirty-two] Thomas Arnold, then head of Rugby School said ‘The Church of England as it now stands, no human power can save.’ 

Over a hundred and seventy-five years later, the Church of England, and the Anglican Communion, are still standing, knowing that, once more, no human power can save us. Yet it is not by human power that we stand or fall – it is by God’s grace.  This is God’s church, and we are in his hands.  Therefore I am optimistic about our future.

Anglicanism has had a tumultuous history.  There have times when we have been deserving of refining by fire.  But through it all, God has preserved us.  And he has preserved us in ways that have maintained what is recognisably a distinct Anglican character.

The essence of Anglican character is summed up in two ‘Triads’.

First are Scripture, Tradition and Reason, enunciated by the Anglican divines of the seventeenth and eighteenth century.

Second are the threads that run through all of these – the fullness of Anglican life expressed in our being Catholic, and Reformed, and Culturally Engaged with the context and circumstances (often varying and diverse) of the world in which we live.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has described this second triad as entailing:
· ‘reformed commitment to the absolute priority of the Bible for deciding doctrine,
· a catholic loyalty to the sacraments and the threefold ministry of bishops, priests and deacons,
· and a habit of cultural sensitivity and intellectual flexibility that does not seek to close down unexpected questions too quickly.’ 

We need to be Catholic, Reformed and Culturally Engaged, through Scripture, Reason and Tradition. Combining both these three-fold approaches allows us to describe an area, a matrix, within which there is space for us to live and grow and mature, and to handle all that life can throw at us. 

These elements inform and shape our theology, our ecclesiology, our relationships within the Church, and our life within the world at large. 

This is so because they address not only the content of our faith, but also the best of the Anglican style of living - characterised by God-given, God-graced virtues of trust, tolerance and charity across the variety we encompass.

Living the Anglican Life

Though Anglican theologians may delve deep into all these areas, in fact they are also what guides the life of every maturing Christian, though we may not immediately recognise this.  This is why it is relevant for me to speak of such things at a conference on education. 

Let me describe their interplay in my own life.

When confronted with such narrowly drawn choices as ‘Are you liberal, or conservative?’ – as is sadly too often the case these days – my response is that these are not the categories through which I live as a child of God, and a member of the body of Christ. 

I can say that I recognise both conservative convictions and liberal instincts within myself, as I do also catholic commitment, not least to the Divine Office and the Eucharist. 

But I know that I must engage with the Lord more broadly, in every dimension of my humanity – with all my heart, mind, soul and strength – and in every way that he reaches out to meet me, if I am really to mature in faith. 

I need the full breadth of all three strands – catholic, reformed and culturally engaged; and all three dimensions of scripture, tradition and reason; if I am to make sense of my faith and my life. 

I need the vibrancy of a living relationship with my God and Saviour, which comes cloaked in mystery beyond my comprehension, and is fed through the sacraments and the ordered life and worship of the Church, as well as through private prayer and contemplation – in this respect, I am an Anglo-Catholic. 

I need the inspired written word of Scripture – with its unique authority, to ‘teach, reprove, correct and train in righteousness’, all of which I require, if I am to become in any way ‘proficient, equipped for every good work’ (2 Tim 3:16) – in this respect, I am Reformed. 

And I need to be engaged with the circumstances and culture in which I find myself – to discern what reflects God’s kingdom, to discern where the gospel good news is required to bring sight to the blind and freedom to the oppressed, and so to be fully part of God’s mission to his world.

Nor of these are independent of the other two.  Let me illustrate how:

Scripture helps me understand and enunciate my relationship with God.  His Spirit mysteriously at work in me turns Bible study from dry intellectualism to living encounter.  The sacrament of his Body and Blood nourishes me, and gives me strength for life’s journey and the challenges of life in the world.  The institutional life and structures of the Church anchor me and provide a framework for active faith.  The challenges of the world drive me to my knees, and more deeply into the pages of Scripture, which then together fuel and give shape to my intellectual wrestling. 

You see, whether I am writing a sermon or considering how to lobby on debt cancellation, all of these elements are woven inseparably together! 

The ability to bring together the best of everything should not be some secret knowledge for trained church leaders alone.  It should be for everyone – because, in many ways, it is nothing more than Holy Common Sense.

Of course, in different times and places, the emphasis may lie more with one thread than with another – there is a creative and dynamic diversity even at the heart of my own faith – just as there is the creative and dynamic diversity within the unity of the God-head who is also distinctly Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

Here I should like wholeheartedly to endorse Archbishop Rowan’s understanding of the interrelationship of unity and truth.  Jesus is the Truth, and our unity is in him.  Both start and end with him – they are both gifts, and both ‘prior’ to us and our choices. To a very great degree, unity is, as the Archbishop of Canterbury says, ‘generally a way of coming closer to revealed truth.’  If the body is not whole, the whole body suffers, including our understanding of the truth.  Both unity and truth must be pursued, together, to the best of our God-graced ability – neither is optional within our Christian vocation.   And both lead to Jesus.

I find this endless returning to Christ, to the centre, to the middle ground, a continuing dominant reality not just in my personal faith.  I also find it in my own experience and understanding of the Anglican Church, in all its diversity, at every level, from Communion, and Primates meetings and Lambeth conferences, through to Provinces, Dioceses, parishes.  We grow best when we have that level of complimentary difference which can indeed ‘provoke one another to love and to good deeds’ (Heb 10:24). 

Exploring Legitimate Diversity

It is not easy to live with a spectrum of perspectives – it is challenging even when we are fully confident we are all firmly within the heart of Anglicanism.  But this wrestling together offers us the possibility of treasures that cannot be found in more monochrome approaches to faith.

We need people, parishes and Provinces, who are deeply immersed in each of these streams – catholic, reformed and intellectual/cultural – so we can together forge a fuller and more comprehensive understanding of how to live faithfully in our current times. Such breadth will then help each one of us, whether we are called to be archbishops or architects, priests or postmen, deacons or doctors – and whether it is in Europe, America, Africa, or Asia – and whether it is in poverty or prosperity. 

Anglicanism is not ‘one size fits all’.  It provides God’s tailor made coat of many colours for every one of us!

One of the strengths of the Anglican way of being Christian is precisely this enrichment that comes from legitimate diversity, and of the resources it gives us to deal with diversity – whether we face it within Anglicanism, within the ecumenical life of the difference Christian churches, or within the widely varying cultures of our world, into which we, and our young people, are called to be salt and light.

It is very important here to note that I am talking about legitimate diversity.  Because the faith I am describing is certainly not ‘anything goes’. 

We are all permanently under the three-fold testing and purifying scrutiny of the refining fire of God’s holiness (Zech 13:9), of the two-edged sword of Scripture (Heb 4:12), of minds transformed by the renewing Spirit (Rom 12:2) – constantly challenged by truth and invited by love to ‘hate what is evil and cling to what is good’ (Rom 12:9) and so to move towards greater Christ-likeness. 

This applies in our use of Scripture, Tradition and Reason. 

First, Scripture.  There is good scriptural exegesis, and there is bad exegesis.  We must draw, critically, on the best of contemporary scholarship.

I was intrigued to read in the English Church Times newspaper how, two-hundred years ago, those within the Church who opposed slavery were criticised for being cultural liberals, going against the plain meaning of scripture, which clearly endorsed slavery! 

This illustrates what a difficult job it is to understand what is appropriate enculturation of the gospel, and what is inappropriate syncretism. 

But we cannot shirk this task – nor can we leave our people, young and old, ordained and lay, bereft of the tools they need to know how best to read Scripture and apply it in the circumstances they face.

So we must read Scripture – read it deeply – but read it in the light of Tradition and Reason, and read it through the lenses of our Catholic, Reformed, and Culturally Engaged perspectives. 

Taken together they help us avoid becoming imbalanced in any one area of faith, and continually draw us back towards the heart of what we believe – to the one in whom we believe, Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. 

Then tradition. Tradition is not a dispassionate history of institutional life, the dry and dusty account of some external observer.  Tradition is holy remembering – remembering as Scripture teaches us to remember.  ‘Do this in remembrance of me’ are Jesus’ words to us.

Holy remembering is both to recall and to participate.  It is to be caught up into the unfolding narrative of God’s involvement with his people in every time and place.  It is to recognise God at work in our church throughout the centuries, and to know ourselves in living continuity with his faithful people in every age.  To remember is to take our place within God’s story of redemption.

Understanding tradition as the invitation to live in continuity with God’s actions in and through his church challenges us to see the fingerprints of God upon unfolding history, even if today we live in different cultures from historic Anglicanism. 

By seeing God at work in historical continuity through changing circumstances, we can be helped to make better sense of what God is doing, and calling us to do, here and now – whether inside the church or outside its walls. 

This true for all the people of God in their different callings, and something we should help our laity to do better. 

Furthermore, when we critique Tradition with Scripture and Reason, and look at it through our three-fold perspective, we are also able to live out our understanding that we are a church semper reformanda; in every age asking ourselves ‘Are we (and how are we) in need of reform?’ As Cyprian of Carthage said, ‘Custom without truth is but the longevity of error.’  This is how we preserve the best of Anglican polity.

Alongside this, we also need the critical best of Reason.

The Enlightenment fallacy, that we can occupy some neutral position, independent of our context, and deliver timeless abstract truths, has collapsed. 

Before Descartes’ misleadingly said ‘I think therefore I am, (‘Cogito ergo sum’), philosophy had understood that being (‘esse’) preceded thinking (’cognoscere’).  It is because we exist that we can think – and of course, we exist because of the prior action of the Creator, who pre-exists all that is, and who holds all that is in being.

The reason which we must employ today stands comfortably within the ancient traditions of ‘faith seeking understanding,’ re-appropriating for our own times the intellectual rigour of Thomas Aquinas and other great Christian thinkers of the past.  We do not need to worry that in place of the Enlightenment the only option is unrestrained post-modernism where all truths are relative. 

We need to give our people confidence that this is so.  Some find the apparent ‘lack of certainty’ of the collapse of much of Enlightenment reasoning very unsettling. But today’s philosophers are increasingly concluding that true human reasoning is best found within communities of tradition – communities such as the Church – and through the sort of dynamic weighing of all possible evidence, all possible interpretations, of which I have been speaking.

Such an approach also assures us that it is not a failure of faith or reason to say that we do not know the total, absolute, objective truth of all that can be said about God and how he calls us to live.  Rather, we have a relationship with our living Lord and Saviour, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  And through this relationship we will come to an ever greater and unfolding understanding of that Truth, as we walk in his Life-giving Way.

Jesus, our Touchstone

This is why, when it comes to finding the essence of Anglican identity and the heart of Christian faith and life, Jesus is always the ultimate touchstone.

He is the solid centre to which the balanced, dynamic, interplay of the elements of our faith continually return us. He is the standard against which we measure the quality of our exegesis; of our understanding of God’s redemptive action in the world throughout history; and of our own engagement with the world.  The question always is, does this conform to what Jesus is asking of us, as we best understand it?  Are we being true to the Jesus of Scripture, of the Creeds, of centuries of Tradition, as demonstrated in lives of the heroes and heroines of the faith?   

Jesus is the yardstick against which we judge the content of our faith, the interweaving of all the strands of belief, and the best of Anglican practice.

Authentic Anglican style, which I mentioned earlier, lies not just in what we say, but also in the way we say it, and the way we live with one another within the Anglican family.  We can see this Anglican character in the God-gifted, God-graced virtues of trust, tolerance and charity across the variety we encompass.  A distinct gracious magnanimity of spirit towards one another has been an explicit part of our self understanding, certainly since the Elizabethan settlement.

It is true that there have often been tensions between various streams of Anglican expression  But at out best, we have been people of generous and open hearts.  As Paul says to the Corinthians, when addressing their internal rivalries ‘Let me show you a more excellent way … if I have not love, I am nothing.’

The fundamental question for us now is this:  Do we recognise one another, for all our differences, as those who bear the marks of Christ?  Do we understand one another as members together of the body if Christ, brothers and sisters in the family of Christ?  Do we accept that those with whom we disagree are nonetheless also acting in good faith, dedicated to pursuing the truth as best they can? 

The Future of Anglicanism

Let me say a little about the future of Anglicanism.  Of course, I do so as a retired Archbishop, free of Primates meetings and Lambeth Conferences, and able to step back and speculate!

If we are serious that the essence of Anglicanism is worth preserving, we must work within Anglicanism to find Anglican solutions. 

This does not mean that there can be no change in the way we structure Provinces and Communion.  Indeed, our whole history is of the gradual evolution of our polity to allow us better to meet God’s calling. 

But it does mean that we cannot throw baby out with bath-water, by ignoring, sidelining and generally disregarding our current polity and structures and style of being; and then expect to call ourselves authentic, orthodox, Anglicans at the end of it all.

If I had to choose one single aspect of Anglicanism to highlight, it would be this:  how seriously do we take our self-understanding as a church that is both episcopally led and synodically governed?

God is at work, through his Spirit, in all the baptised.  As Paul reminded the Corinthians, every member of the body of Christ is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good (1 Cor 12:7).  We best pursue that common good, when we pursue it all together. 

We commit ourselves to this when we pursue the comprehensive education of all our young people, to play their part, whether lay or ordained, within the future of our Church and our world.

In contrast, the whole debate since the election of Bishop Gene Robinson, has been far too much driven by Bishops, and, what is worse, particularly by Archbishops!  

The task of the Church is not self-preservation.  If that were the case, well then, let the hierarchy get on with debating their narrow concerns, and good luck to them!

The task of the Church is to build up God’s people for God’s mission and ministry, a life of service, within God’s world.  We desire to be a Church in which abundant, God-given, Christ-shaped, life can flourish, and this life can be shared with the world for the building of God’s kingdom, and for his glory. 

The pursuit of such a way of being Church is a task of the whole Church together.

So, if the Communion must pursue a Covenant – and I remain to be convinced – let it be one in which the Anglican Consultative Council, as the most representative Instrument of Unity, with its lay and clerical members alongside bishops, be at the heart of it.

The Lambeth Conference remains in my prayers.  I hope they will be able to concentrate on the twin themes of Anglican Identity and equipping Bishops as leaders in mission.  I fear that they will once again be hijacked by unedifying obsession with a single issue which is not the touchstone of salvation. 

And most of all I regret that there is no parallel Anglican Gathering, far larger than the Anglican Consultative Council, with a good balance between Bishops, Clergy and Laity; in which participants can freely speak their own minds. With a very flexible and open agenda, concentrating on informal encounter and the sharing of faith, there might have been the necessary space to get to know one another, our contexts, our cultures, our challenges.  For it is through listening to one another and our faith journeys, that we can best recognise the marks of Christ in one another. 

Perhaps we had received such opportunities to reach a better understanding of the lives of Christians in other Provinces, we would not have come to the situation we now face. Perhaps then, as brothers and sisters of Christ in all our diversity, we would be able explore together the questions of how we understand ourselves as Anglicans, and how God want to leads us forward in our common life. 

There is no doubt that we must find such ways to together listen to what the Spirit is saying to the Church.  

And this returns me to the theme of education – for it is through fully rounded Christian, Anglican, education, that the whole people of God will best be equipped for such participation within the body of Christ, and our mission to God’s world.

Conclusions

We live at a time of great change.  This is certainly true in South Africa as we consolidate democracy.  But more generally, change is here to stay in a world of continuing technological advance.

The shape of the future is very much in our own hands – and especially in the hands of the young. 

This reminds me of words the poet Wordsworth wrote:
“Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive, but to be young was very heaven!”

The challenge to us is to help the next generation of Christians, of Anglicans, to rise to this challenge – the challenge of excellence lived through character in a life of service.

Let me offer you another quote.  The American football coach, Vince Lombardi, said this: 
“Perfection is not attainable.  But if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.” 

So let us offer our young people the opportunity to chase perfection, and take hold of excellence. 

It was my grandfather who gave me my name, Njongonkulu.  ‘Njongo’ means ‘aim’ and ‘nkulu’ means big.  My grandfather wanted me to be inspired – inspired to ‘aim high’, inspired to ‘think big’. 

Today I am an Archbishop, so I guess that my grandfather’s hopes came true!  It was Christian, Anglican, education that made it possible for my grandfather’s dream to become a reality.

Let us strive for the sort of education that lets every young Christian to be a confident Njongonkulu in God’s world.

Amen.