" ... it may now be necessary for you to be sad ... because of the many kinds of trials you suffer." (1st Peter 1:6)

In February 1978, immediately prior to Bishop Tutu taking up his position as General Secretary of the SACC, he was verbally attacked by a priest of the Anglican Church, Fr Roy Snyman.

"One wonders why the Bishop of Lesotho accepted that See in the first place", Fr Snyman commented, "if he could be tempted to abandon his responsibility so speedily for an office job of a Churchy nature." He went on to write that the Church needs "godly, prayerful, Gospel centred, prophetic, disciplined, seasoned, catholic-minded, sacrificial ministers ... not clever dick, worldly, socio-political manipulators."

Fr Snyman obviously did not know the Bishop of Lesotho he so casually castigated for in his description of the kind of person the Church needs he was describing Bishop Tutu through and through. Many tried the same kind of worldly, communist at heart, political power seeking sort of description through the years. All came to naught for none held an ounce of truth.

When asked about his priorities for the Council when he became General Secretary, the Archbishop, as he now is, says "First I wanted to ensure that the spiritual was absolutely central to our life, so I put emphasis on the daily worship, regular eucharists and occasional retreats."

Daily worship had been a hit and miss feature of SACC life in Diakonia House for some time. David Thomas and Bishop Mokoena, with encouragement and support from General Secretary John Rees, had put much energy and effort into attempts to start regular morning devotions.

Bishop Tutu brought an element of centrality to these events. He ensured that all members of staff took part regularly in leading the devotional period. He also used the occasion each day to make announcements about the Council, comment on national or international events, remember someone's birthday or return to work after a period of leave. They became a sharing, caring, strengthening, motivating power house for the work not only of the SACC but many of the other Church and para-Church organisations of Diakonia and, later, Khotso House. Whenever he returned from a time away the morning devotion buzzed with new life and his return was acclaimed by renewed gusto added to the already lively hymn singing.

There were times when much was said at morning prayers as aspects of the national experience were put under the light of God's word. There were times when the worship would go beyond words into gathered prayer and hymn singing as news of more suffering and death filtered to the building. One such occasion was when news was received during morning prayers of killings in Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape. Those present, already standing to finish the morning prayers with the benediction, remained still with tears running down many cheeks, until slowly one voice after another began a hymn of courage and strength in the Lord and finally a prayer was uttered bringing together the needs of the nation, the people of Uitenhage and those who stood with one another in that place at that time.

The monthly eucharist added a new dimension of sharing to the community. It would be conducted by ministers of different denominations and became a time of deeply moving ecumenical community as the bread and wine was taken and, especially, when the peace was shared by everyone with hugs and kisses as a sign of the strength each gave to the other in the special family of God's people.

Bible Study

The occasional retreats were a very new experience for many staff members. Bishop Tutu's tradition was toward silent retreat broken only for short periods of led devotion or Bible study. It took time for those whose tradition was for talking retreats filled with debates and decision making to move from enduring to enjoying the quiet days.

When the move was made from Diakonia to the first Khotso House (The House of Peace) in November 1980 space was set aside for a Chapel. Close to the entrance of the building it symbolised the basic foundation of not only the SACC but also of many of the other Church offices and organisations that shared the building.

The move to what the Archbishop calls "the more spacious and imposing Khotso House" is also described by him as "incarnating our concern to be the embodiment of reconciliation with justice, and for peace."

That incarnational theology within the context of the South African situation was to lead the SACC even further into direct confrontation with the State.

At the 1979 National Conference, based on the theme: "The Church and the Alternative Society" the idea of civil disobedience received considerable attention. One of the resolutions of the Division of Justice and Reconciliation stated that "This Conference is aware of many restrictions on inter racial contact ... we find these restrictions morally so objectionable that we can not obey them with a clear conscience." The resolution went on to give support to "conscientious affirmation of inter racial fellowship."

In his Presidential Address, the Rev Sam Buti called attention to the need for action for the sake of the young people whom, he said, were "daily experiencing passing through the valley of death."

"Do we tell them just to be patient," he asked, "to pray, to leave the outcome of the struggle for justice and liberation in God's hands because He will eventually, in some mysterious way, provide the solution? .... Then it would be better to say nothing."

But the idea of active disobedience on a much larger scale followed a speech by the Rev Allan Boesak during which he said that as the Church was now the only available organ for the expression of black aspirations it was necessary to consider initiating and supporting programmes of civil disobedience. This led to a resolution: "This Conference believes that the South African Churches are under an obligation to withdraw ... from co-operation with the State in all those areas in the ordering of our society where the law violates the justice of God."

This was a line of thought that was to hold the centre stage of Council policy for a number of years. No longer did the Council simply make moral statements about particular situations and meet with Government representatives to present a Church point of view. Now it confronted the Government, which claimed to be Christian, on the basis of the Gospel itself.

This was another step forward in the inevitable progress of the Council as it sought to be obedient to the word of God. This step took it into an arena of conscious activity in support of its many prophetic statements. No wonder the Government wished it out of the way. The Council was not only a stumbling block to the fulfilment of the apartheid dream at home but also a voice receiving greater and greater recognition overseas. This was evidenced in the presence and the preaching of the Rev Jesse Jackson at that 1979 National Conference, a symbol of international interest and concord.

Yes, the Government would like the SACC to be quietly placed on one side. It was to use the financial organisation of the Council's affairs as a method to plan its destruction.

Bishop Peter Storey: " I do not think organisationally the SACC ever quite caught up with itself. There were pockets of efficiency and areas of inefficiency but one sensed that the agenda was always outrunning the structure and the structure was always trying to catch up."

During the time of Mr John Rees the Council's financial affairs were placed in the hands of an independent agency, The South African Council of Churches Accounting Services (SACCAS). Bishop Tutu changed that working arrangement and brought the finances into the heart of the Council itself and in so doing appointed a finance expert, Mr Tim Potter, to investigate the finances and assist in the change over.

It became obvious that something was amiss. One member of staff was dismissed for taking money that should have been used for postage and, much more seriously, it appeared that the Chief Accountant of SACCAS, Mr Elphas Mbatha, had embezzled some of the funds. Mr Potter put the matter before the police, Mr Mbatha was charged and then acquitted on the grounds of insufficient evidence. The Magistrate used the occasion to join the chorus of the anti-SACC lobby to suggest that "the charges against the accused were laid in order to ... divert attention from the unsatisfactory state of the SACC's affairs."

Ombudsman

Then another, even more serious, situation was uncovered. The Ombudsman, Eugene Roelofse, was investigating the organisational and financial aspects of the College established for the African Independent Churches (SATCIC) and discovered forged cheques made out to the advantage of Bishop Mokoena. At first Bishop Mokoena admitted the offence to the Presidium, consisting of the officers of the Council, but later when the Ombudsman insisted on handing the matter to the police he denied any mismanagement. Despite the photographic evidence of forged cheques and the testimony of witnesses, Bishop Mokoena was acquitted in two separate trials. Once again the SACC was accused in the court of not having its own house in order.

Bishop Mokoena went on to become a much publicised spokesperson for the Government, eventually being awarded in 1987, along with the wives of the then State President, P W Botha, and the previous Prime Minister, J B Vorster, the Decoration for Meritorious Service. His claims to speak for the majority of black persons and to lead a more than four million strong Independent Church organisation were often disputed, as was his claim when he so often travelled abroad to tell "the real story" about South Africa.

Referring to the ANC as a "minority Xhosa clique", he launched a political party in 1986, the United Christian Conciliation Party (UCCP), and very soon after the launch tried to sell his "moderate" party to the Conservative Party Conference in Britain. Needless to say, nothing came of the UCCP.

But it was his attacks on the SACC in general and Bishop Tutu in particular that brought him most publicity. When Bishop Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the SABC put Mokoena on television to say how disastrous a choice it was and to vilify Bishop Tutu in his usual style. This time, however, a huge number of Independent Church leaders decided enough was enough and issued a strongly worded statement to disassociate themselves from Mokoena and his views.

Little is now heard, if anything, about this self proclaimed leader and his vitriolic tongue.

Another of those who spent large sums of money attacking the Council and the mainline Churches which gave it support was The Christian League. Founded soon after the PCR was established, this conservative ultra evangelical organisation, produced a newsletter from its Cape Town base that implied there was a Christian basis for apartheid and explicitly denounced the SACC and "its allies" as either dupes or conscious participants of a world wide communist plot to hand the world to the devil. South Africa it seemed was the last bastion of decent God fearing society. Toward the end of 1979 the Government admitted, under pressure following the information scandal, that they funded The Christian League.

No one knew better than the Council that there was need to get its administrative affairs into good order. Moves were made to ensure that this happened. The many Divisions were placed into three clusters, Mr Dan Vaughan was moved from Mission and Evangelism to be Planning Officer, and a new system of accountability was introduced. These together with a new sense of "family" through the worship gave the Council a new buoyancy.

Statements and stands continued to be made on many subjects. The Government could not move but that the Council was there to put that movement under the scrutiny of the word of God. The occupation of Namibia, then still known as South West Africa, was branded as unlawful; a South African Defence Force raid into Mocambique was condemned outright; there were stronger words on the right to conscientious objection; there was support for the recently established Free Mandela Campaign; and there were the first moves toward calling for divestment in the South African economy.

Around the time in 1980 when Bishop Mokoena was being acquitted, the SACC arranged a Conference on Racism. Invitations went to non member Churches as well as members in order that the full spectrum of opinions on racism could be heard and the ten year old Programme to Combat Racism could be evaluated. The three major white Afrikaans Churches refused even to send observers. Dr F C O'Brian Geldenhuys of the DRC, and a one time speaker at a National Conference, said that there was no common ground for talks. His role as Ecumenical Officer of the DRC had recently also been exposed as funded from Government sources. Professor Oberholzer of the Hervormde Church said he could not attend as the SACC was "anti South African and undermining white rule."

Bishop Tutu in typical style said of their refusal, "We ask for their forgiveness in that which has hurt them in our attitudes, and we want to stretch out our hands of fellowship to them, and pray that they will grasp them and strengthen us as we work for the coming of God's Kingdom of justice, peace and love, compassion and reconciliation."

The Racism Conference began to establish a pattern that was to show itself during the decade of the eighties. A decade of action and not merely words of opposition to the apartheid regime. It was especially critical of the way in which racism was still showing itself in Church structures through different salary scales and ethnically based ministries. There were calls to Churches to examine themselves carefully in this regard and to be ready to put the many words that had been spoken during the past years into action in the Church and in the nation.

Eloff Commission

The Government in its desire to close the SACC through legal means that would not bring international condemnation, used the cases in which Mr Mbatha and Bishop Mokoena had been acquitted and the "findings" of the magistrates courts as a platform from which to establish the Eloff Commission. The Commission was named and its purpose given in November 1981, began its hearings in March the following year, submitted its report at the end of 1983 to the State President, and the matter ended when the report was tabled in Parliament early in 1984.

Shirley du Boulay in her book "Tutu, Voice of the Voiceless" says, "The uniqueness of the confrontation between Church and State in South Africa, climaxing in the Eloff Commission, lay in the fact that it was not a case of an atheistic regime seeking to suppress Christianity, or even of a Christian Government attacking a particular denomination. Here was a State, declared in its constitution to be Christian, taking on an ecumenical Christian body representing 12 million of its own people."

It sounds a huge battle. And it was. But it was difficult during the Commission to view the quiet courtroom with its piles of papers, legally presented arguments, and usually small group of onlookers as a place of battle. It seemed far removed from the fieldwork, demonstrations, strong emotions and hard hitting statements of the SACC itself. Yet here, of course, the possibility of that work being able to continue hung in the balance.

Under the chairmanship of Justice C F Eloff and an all white male panel the Commission put the SACC under the spotlight. The SACC, through its Executive, agreed to co-operate with the Commission and be ready to answer all questions and make their own submissions.

The attempt, as evidenced by the charges levelled against the Council by Government legal representation and the people it brought to the Commission to support the charges, was to find enough evidence to declare the SACC an affected organisation. This would cut off its international financial support and place Government sponsored persons into the finance department of the Council.

But that was not to be. Mr Dan Vaughan, who had to work full time on getting the papers prepared for the Commission, says "The Eloff Commission was in one sense a crisis but it was also a triumph for Desmond (Tutu) and the Churches, especially when the visitors from overseas showed their support."

The Rev Joseph Wing said, "The Eloff Commission provided the Council with an opportunity to make clear what its theological position was. Bishop Tutu and the Rev Peter Storey, (by now President of the Council) both gave a clear and unequivocal statement of the theological position of the Council to the problems we face in the country. The need for the Church to maintain a prophetic stance and at the same time to take up the cause of the poor and the oppressed.

"This same stand was taken by all the Church leaders who were called by the Commission who were not asked to present papers but who all came out in strong support of the stands taken by Bishop Tutu and the Rev Peter Storey, with the result that the Council emerged from the Eloff Commission strengthened in its intention to stand for the truth of the Gospel in a way that touched the life of the people at every level.

"The Commission also gave the Council an opportunity to upgrade its administration in a manner which enabled its financial affairs to be open to the scrutiny of all. In that sense the Eloff Commission did the Council a service because all its accounts came out into the open and the allegations and innuendos regarding the misappropriation of funds was completely squashed. The things they were looking for in the Commission were not actually there."

In his comments Bishop Tutu mentions the Eloff Commission as a highlight of his time as General Secretary when "our partners from overseas came in Holy Week to support us and the Government was hoisted with its own petard. They ended up with considerable egg on their face!"

The support of the international Christian community was indeed an aspect of the Commission that no one had expected. It came about mainly through an anonymous letter that was sent to Churches overseas from "unhappy staff at the SACC." The letter alleged that funds were used wrongly, that staff were unhappy and that the SACC was falling apart under Bishop Tutu. It will be interesting one day to know who actually wrote the letter. All members of staff at that time denied responsibility.

The effect of the letter, far from leaving the SACC high and dry, as it was no doubt hoped, led to many Church leaders of note coming from overseas to testify to the theological stand of the SACC and of their complete support for its witness.

In June 1984, when the results of the Commission were known, the National Conference passed a resolution of appreciation for the General Secretary, and also to the staff of the SACC for the "loyal support" given "especially during the investigation of the Eloff Commission." The resolution went on to say that the Conference "appreciates the positive attempt by the SACC to make the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ relevant to the oppressive situations under which the majority of South Africans live."

There was one very sad effect of the Commission. During the period of investigation the police picked up signs that there was money not accounted for that had been used by the former General Secretary, John Rees through accounts in his own name. At the 1982 National Conference, no doubt to give greatest dramatic effect, he was arrested and eventually in March 1983 charged with fraud. The long trial ended in John Rees being found guilty, but not for personal gain, and sentenced to suspended imprisonment and a fine of R 30 000.

It was a time of sadness and a time of division. One day, again, the truth will be known, any possible hidden reasons for the case revealed, and minds and hearts settled. Staff and member Church representatives were certainly not of one mind.

For the Rev Peter Storey it was a particularly painful time for Mr Rees was a member of his congregation, as well as a leading Methodist. The different viewpoints of the trial and verdict between himself and Bishop Tutu led eventually, when the Eloff Commission was finished, to the Rev Storey resigning as President of the Council.

Bishop Storey says that there was "the sense that somehow that in all of this there were forces at work that I could not put my finger on and which I did not like. A sense of something malevolent that whenever we came to place where there was peace it would seek to tear us apart again."