Sept. 1, 2022

I just received the latest newsletter from the Denis Hurley center and ai am always inspired by the work that they do and the projects they support, churchy and non-churchy. Here is one example that couod be a challenge to some of you who read this blog. You probably read about the devastating rains that hit our province in South Africa that left already very poor people with literally nothing (some even lost their llves)

 

RE-IMAGINING THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH AFTER THE FLOODS

In early August, we hosted an invigorating discussion looking at issues of ‘spatial justice’. The event – entitled “Homes, buildings, land & space: Re-imagining what churches & Christians have done and can do in the wake of the Easter floods” – was convened by the Diakonia Council of Churches with our own Stuart Talbot leading the discussion alongside Caroline Powell who is based with The Warehouse Trust in Cape Town. (Caroline recently worked with our Director and others on a book called ‘Facing Homelessness’ which you can access here).   The horrific flooding in the KZN Province in April 2022, which left many in the metro and beyond traumatised, was the context for the event. Four months on and we are still living with a massive housing crisis. Too many people are still stuck in community halls or living in unsafe premises after their homes were destroyed. And, as in many instances, it is the poorest and most economically and socially marginalised who were the hardest hit; shacks built on steep hills, settlements with no running water built on riverbanks for ease of access and so on.   We have seen, before our eyes, how poverty, injustice and inequality have led to real disparities in how the floods impacted different people – and in turn whether they have been able to rebuild. And all this when we are already facing challenges of spatial justice: homelessness is a situation faced by more and more people in our city; land (and who does or does not have access to it) is a fraught debate in South Africa; and shack-dwellers are regularly marginalised and victimised through forced removals and harsh treatment by officials. Given this situation, the day was spent considering: “What is the call to the Church in this context? As we partner with God in the work of redemption and ‘making all things new’, how could we reimagine our role? And how could we reimagine what we can do in the wake of the floods and our on-going need for safe and decent housing?”   In the morning session, we took a deep dive into scripture and looked at how it can help to shape, inform and expand our understanding of spatial justice – and in turn how this can inform our action and direction of travel as a church. We did this using the Contextual Bible Study methodology pioneered by the Ujamaa Centre at UKZN (see photo above). For the afternoon session, we held a discussion where we shared stories from around the country around space, housing, homelessness and land. This session was a chance to locate the ideal of spatial justice in the South African story and to look at how the Church is and could be addressing spatial injustice.