All faiths gather to offer prayers of support
MEMBERS and leaders of various faiths came together to pray for ailing former president Nelson Mandela at the Gauteng legislature in Johannesburg yesterday afternoon.
The inter-faith prayer meeting brought together Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, African traditional and Christian faiths. Members of different churches were bussed in from various communities.
The service came about following a meeting of religious leaders, Reverend Frank Chikane and the Mandela family on how to express support for the country’s first democratically elected president.
Among the several members of the family in attendance were Mandela’s ex-wife, Winnie Madikizela Mandela, and his granddaughter Ndileka.
Opening the meeting Reverend Gift Moerane of the South African Council of Churches said this was a reminder of how the country's freedom was achieved.
“Prayer was at the centre of everything. What we didn’t do well was to say thank you to God. What we are observing, with people around the country praying, is, in a way, people saying ‘ thank you God for Madiba’.”
Chikane called Mandela an ‘ extraordinary individual’.
“I've never experienced a person who unites a nation in the way he does. We differ on a hundred and one things, but when it comes to Mandela we all agree,” he said.
Representatives of the various faiths delivered prayers and songs and Madikizela-Mandela was invited on stage to light a candle for Mandela, who remains in hospital five weeks after he was admitted.
Rhema Bible Church pastor Ray McCauley spoke last. “I think if former president Mandela was here he would be up here dancing,” he said, adding that South Africans, and the world, have been given the opportunity to reflect on Mandela’s life and to pick up life lessons from him.
“This legend did not drop from heaven. He belonged to a family. And that is why, as we pray for him this afternoon, we equally lift up his family to God,” McCauley said.