The South African Council of Churches (SACC) held its annual Central Committee meeting on 28 to 30 May in Johannesburg in the midst of both great joy and profound pain.

The meeting coincided with the Council's fortieth anniversary, and more than one hundred delegates from the Council's 27 member denominations joined scores of former SACC staff, officers and activists at a gala dinner on 29 May to mark the occasion. The venue was adorned by the historic banner that hung in the lobby of Khotso House in the late 1980s. The banner had not been displayed since 31 August 1988, the night that it survived the bombing of the SACC headquarters at the hands of apartheid security forces. The Council recognised the work of some two dozen ecumenical leaders, including a dozen SACC staff members with a combined total of more than two centuries of service.

The Council's celebration was alloyed with deep pain, however. The gathering took place at a time when shocking displays of intolerance and violence have blighted many communities; when soaring food and fuel costs are stretching the capacity of many families to make ends meet; when millions of people in Zimbabwe face economic and political chaos.

The Central Committee's theme was "Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread" and a series of Bible studies and plenary debates throughout the three-day meeting highlighted our collective need for physical, spiritual and moral sustenance throughout South and Southern Africa. The opening worship service followed a Litany of Reconciliation, Unity and Equality, prepared especially for Central Committee.

Even before the Central Committee convened on Wednesday, church leaders made pastoral visits to police stations in Alexandra and Jeppe to listen to the experiences of people who sought refuge there after being driven from their homes by angry mobs, apparently because of their national origins. "These visits built on work that had already been done by churches in Johannesburg and Pretoria through the SACC Gauteng," said Mr. Eddie Makue, SACC General Secretary.

In a plenary session entitled "Ministry to and of Strangers in Our Midst", delegates discussed ways that the Church can respond to the crisis. The most urgent concern was to protect those who have been victimised and those who remain vulnerable to attack. "We must do more than merely condemn these evil acts," SACC President Prof. Tinyiko Maluleke told the Central Committee. "We must act against them and do so in a systematic and structured way."

Denominations were urged to designate their churches as places of refuge and points of collection and distribution of relief supplies. The Council was also asked to explore the appointment of a disaster coordinator and to consider ways of rebuilding emergency programmes.

The SACC already has developed liturgical materials aimed at confronting prejudice and promoting ministries of presence and hospitality. These will be distributed through the Council's provincial offices, which are also organising special services and working to negotiate the return and reintegration of displaced people. The Council and its member churches will also seek to combat xenophobia and discrimination through public education efforts designed to make congregations and communities more aware of Constitutional and human rights and their implications.

During the Central Committee's deliberations, delegates consistently located the current wave of violence in the context of social and economic deprivation in South Africa and in the region. "Not only are South Africans increasingly unable to afford food," said Rev. Desmond Lesejane, Director of the Ecumenical Service for Socio-Economic Transformation, "but they also do not have the means to produce their own food."

The persistent economic marginalisation of the poor was seen as a consequence both of the South African government's policy choices and of a global economy that serves the interests of the wealthy elite, whilst leaving only crumbs for the poor. "The use of food crops to produce biofuels to feed the voracious energy appetites of the rich, the indiscriminate environmental exploitation that accelerates climate change, global trade policies designed to maximise returns to capital rather than to ensure decent wages and working conditions for labour - all of these continue to concentrate wealth and power in fewer and fewer hands whilst compromising the ability of ordinary people to feed themselves and their families," warned Dr. Puleng LenkaBula, the SACC's Vice President.

The Central Committee further expressed concern about the political and economic upheavals that have also uprooted families in neighbouring nations, particularly Zimbabwe. Delegates mandated the Council to send observers to take part in observing the 27 June presidential run-off elections, including the pre- and post-election periods. The Council's Executive was also asked to develop a long-term programme for the accompaniment and support of the churches and the people of Zimbabwe.

The meeting also received the report of an evaluation of the SACC's work and impact to assist it in repositioning itself to meet future challenges. The assessment, mandated by member churches at last year's National Conference, will inform a period of internal planning and organisational development over the next year. One of the messages that emerged strongly from the Central Committee was that the Council and its members need to find new and creative ways to demonstrate meaningful solidarity with poor communities in South Africa and the region.

For more information, contact: Mr. Eddie Makue, General Secretary (082 853 8781) or Prof Tinyiko Maluleke, SACC President (082 925 5232)