Churches, leaders unite to promote peace, justice
POLITICAL and civil leaders and African foreign nationals took turns to carry a huge cross through the streets of Durban, in silence, to express their Christian beliefs and promote peace.
The annual cross procession followed an early morning Good Friday service at the Durban Exhibition Centre and ended at the city hall.
The inter-denominational event took the theme “Blessed are the Peacemakers”.
In her sermon, Rev Thato Tsautse of the Anglican Church in Pretoria, said the country could never be at peace when the level of poverty was so high; the number of street children and level of women abuse were increasing daily; crime and unemployment levels were astronomical, and the divide between the rich and the poor was so wide.
“Our calling as followers of Christ goes beyond us attending church and engaging in theological discourses but to pro-actively and actively work to eradicate the ills and injustices I have just mentioned,” she said.
“We are called to ensure that we are true peacemakers, who see others from a Godly perspective and seek to reach out and help them become whole.
“In doing so, we are preparing ourselves for the kingdom, when we help those who need to be helped today.”
The service began with the packed Durban Exhibition Centre offering a moment’s silence to religious and human rights leader Paddy Kearney, who died last year.
At the end of the silent march through the storm-rinsed streets in which thousands of people participated – gogos with walking sticks, fathers with their young children and young nuns – Roman Catholic Cardinal Wilfred Napier told the Independent on Saturday it was timely that the election was so soon after Easter Weekend.
“The churches standing for peace… places a tremendous burden on politicians not to be using language and gestures that cause tension,” he said.
Representatives of the Methodist, Lutheran and Dutch Reformed churches also took part in the event, organised by the Diakonia Council of Churches.