Christmas Letter from Cape Town

Christmas Letter from Cape Town 2008-12-12

Hans:
Three things have struck me this Eve of St Lucia Day, when the late morning heat touches my face and the city begins to gear up for summer holiday and Christmas, two highly compatible entities.

The first thing is that Advent and Christmas this year are coming far too soon. I have not done what I should have done. Is this a lack of planning or the spirit of our time that increases its tempo steadily? This has led me to the second state of affairs, namely the fact that this year the last Sunday of the church year, ‘Judgment Sunday’ to me has played a greater role than the first Sunday in Advent. Perhaps I am reacting against the tendency during Advent to create the right mood and atmosphere, the need to live up to certain traditions without asking what these traditions in fact contain, a kind of romanticism that more seems like escapism. It is perhaps unfair to say something like this, but that is how I perceive it. The Judgment Sunday is the day when I in earnest may see myself as in a mirror. Who am I and do I know what I in fact am busy doing? Am I prepared one day to give account of what I am and have been doing? In addition Judgment Sunday is also the day of Christ the King, because Christ will one day return as the judge.

This might sound troublesome, but this day is also the day of liberation, above all to the oppressed. What we need is liberation and the poor and oppressed may be in the forefront and show the right attitude: looking forward to the return of Christ. The new Swedish prayer book expresses this in a wonderful way (Bönboken, tradition och liv. Stockholm: Verbum, 2007 (2003), p. 405); but as I see it the seed of the Christmas message is already here: to meet with the newborn, where God comes to us, in a spiritual but also in a physical way, if anything that is encountering my judgment; but it is a judgment that liberates. To pay homage to this child is my liberation.

I have just returned from Maputo in Mozambique where the All Africa Conference of Churches has held its General Assembly with 1200 participants from all Africa. Here severe problems were encountered but there were also things filled with promise. Above all it was overwhelming meeting Africa’s Christendom in one place during a few days. The thing is, the heart of the world church today is to be found in Africa south of the Sahara. So with some boldness I am inclined to say, thirdly, that the continent with the future on its side more than the others is the African continent.

It may sound like an astounding claim and experience may point at the other direction, but I like to account for two of the reasons that I have for this claim.
First of all one has to confess that the crises that we know about are for real and Zimbabwe is going through sufferings that are beyond what could be described. But there is a different side to things that seldom comes to the fore. Africa is since long disadvantaged by a compact media ‘blackening’, especially regarding the news that may bring some hope. It is the bad news that has an impact.

Secondly, Africa is at this very moment rising out of the ashes, ashes that could be referred to as the colonial times but also ashes that result from Africa’s own patriarchal elite. Perhaps the best example of this is Liberia and their democratically elected President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

But here I will go further than the mere political situation. What makes me believe in this continent, perhaps against many odds, is the fact that there is still humaneness, humanity that is highly tangible. People are friendly, forthcoming, giving space for encounters, even to the stranger (despite the horrendous xenophobia that erupted earlier this year in South Africa).

No doubt it is a privilege to be able to celebrate Christmas together with a good part of the family and friends here in Cape Town. What more could we ask for?

Barbro:
The Christmas tree in the midst of the luxurious shopping mall in Claremont is shining like silver. This year it is an ordinary tree with thousands of small twinkling lamps and mirrors reflecting the light. It is beautiful to look at and gladdens many. The number of shops in this mall increases each year. Everything imaginable you can buy and despite the economic depression the commerce is in full swing. The contrasts become quite conspicuous in this country where enormous wealth and extreme poverty live side by side. Only a few kilometres away the poor areas are sprawling. From Table Mountain eastward you will first have ‘suburbs’ and thereafter townships, much poorer areas, but often with proper housing, and then ‘squatter camps’ where ‘shacks’ are called houses. In our terminology we grade people’s living and their homes.

Christmas in South Africa coincides with summer vacation and holiday. A big number of people from the cities return to their home areas, from where they originate, in order to see family relations. The distance from Cape Town to Eastern Cape is something like 1000 km. Overloaded cars and minibuses lead to many accidents. People buy and store up goods the whole year for Christmas. But I recently heard that on a long distance bus you may now only bring a certain amount of luggage as on the airlines and pay extra for excess weight.

A request for food and money came the other day in an e-mail at work from two of our teachers doing research in Khayelitsha. In the streets there are organising committees to help and one resident told them that in only one of the streets there were 16 orphans, most of whom were looked after by older children. When so many are leaving the city there is maybe no adult left who could keep an eye on these orphans in order to help if necessary. They had received some assistance from the social service but now they had nothing. This is only one example of the great need right next door. But as Hans writes there are also things that are giving hope in Africa and South Africa at the same time teeming with hope for the future, of joy and hope.

The Christmas tree portrayed in this letter, one of many that are put up all over Cape Flats (the flat land to the east of Table Mountain) can symbolise this hope, but especially Christ, the light of the world. With all the light bulbs in bright colours these trees are so beautiful in the dark night and at the moment Christmas parties and camps are also organised for lots of free-from-school children.

We are not leaving Cape Town but are staying on as we will celebrate Christmas with our son David, Erika and our first grandson, Jakob. The Christmas Day service will this year be in Gugulethu, where Hans will preach. We are looking forward to a church filled to capacity with lots of Christmas music of various kinds accompanied by marimbas.

Wishing you all a Blessed Christmas and New Year 2009

Hans and Barbro Engdahl