A final class at St. Augustine

            I teach my final class at St. Augustine’s Theological School. Next there is a study week, followed by a week in which the ordinands sit for exams.

            The course – one of the three I have been teaching – is sacramental theology. I dash through the remaining sacramental rites, which I never managed to cover in recent weeks, wishing I could have more time. We look at An Anglican Prayer Book (1989), originally adopted in the Church of the Province of Southern Africa but in official use in the Church of the Province of Central Africa as well.

            I have tried to point to that wonderful Anglican maxim, lex orandi, lex credendi – the law of prayer is the law of belief. Ask what it is that Anglicans believe, and we will point to our life of common prayer as our answer.

            This is especially true, I say, as we look at the sacramental rite of Confession and Absolution. The rubrics of our Botswana prayer book have one of the best treatises on the doctrine of sin around, and the words of absolution declare our theology of ministry. Beyond that, I love the simplicity and power of the closing words of this brief liturgy: ‘Go in peace, the Lord has put away your sins. Pray for me, also a sinner.’ I urge these ordinands to approach this sacramental rite with reverence and humility.

            I also point them toward the charge at the sacramental rite of Ordination. These words capture beautifully the ministries of deacons and priests. I ask that as the time approaches for their ordination, they will quietly read this liturgy, for it will help to prepare them for the sacred vows they are undertaking.

            I plan to speak briefly about the sacramental rite of Holy Matrimony, but they become energized about the dual role priests assume, serving both legal and religious purposes (shades of discussions in North Carolina), and they want to talk about what is and is not appropriate. They disagree among themselves. I sit back until the discussion lapses into multiple simultaneous voices in Setswana. Time to move on.

            At the end I decide to say a few words – well, maybe more than a few – about my prayers and hopes for them in their ministry. I have been blessed by spending these months with them, and I tell them so. Then I hand out ‘A General Thanksgiving’ from our American prayer book. It’s the one that my liturgy professor, Charlie Price, wrote, a beautiful prayer by a wonderful man.

            I have always liked the sentence that reads, ‘We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy and delight us.’ I remind them that they really have faced demanding tasks this year, and that they need to appreciate what good things they have accomplished.

            And then there is the next sentence: ‘We thank you also for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.’ I cannot recall any other prayer that gives thanks for disappointments and failures. It is a remarkable message carrying a sound theology that proclaims that which we believe. We repeat it together.

            They take copies of ‘A General Thanksgiving’ away with them. Handout 15.

Bishop-elect Metlhayotlhe Rawlings Ogotseng Beleme

            We have a new bishop. Or at least a bishop-elect. The Very Rev. Metlhayotlhe Rawlings Ogotseng Beleme.

            For those following the Anglican Diocese of Botswana, this is not new news. He was elected a fortnight ago.

            I do not know Fr. Metlhayotlhe, and I doubt if I have ever met him. He has been serving in the Diocese of Matlosane, in South Africa, for some years, and is currently an Archdeacon there. But he is a Motswana, and a citizen of Botswana. His family is from Molepolole nearby, and he has had parish experience in varied places within the Diocese of Botswana. These are qualities many in this Diocese have been clamoring for. In fact, it has been a source of some tension that we have had mainly expatriate bishops, some of whom did not know Setswana. And so, when his election was announced the Sunday following the Saturday election, there were cheers and ululations in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.

            The process for episcopal elections in the Church of the Province of Central Africa is quite different from that in the Episcopal Church in the United States. Nominees are solicited from pretty much anyone – common enough in the Anglican Communion – but then things move into a more restricted, and secret, process. A dozen persons have previously been chosen at diocesan synod to serve as electors, and the names go to them. They short-list the nominees, after which ten from elsewhere in the Province join them for the election. Those ten include the Archbishop, Albert Chama, from Zambia, and three each – bishop, priest and layperson – from one diocese in each of the other three countries that make up the Province: Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi.

            Probably more than you want to know.

            Even today, we do not know who the other nominees were. I innocently ask at a dinner party the other day, and the Vicar General’s reply is that all are sworn to secrecy. There are perhaps good reasons for this, but it’s quite a contrast to the American practice, where I can go on-line and see the names of all nominees and the votes each secure on multiple ballots. There are perhaps good reasons for that too. Just different.

            Now we await consents to the election from other provincial bishops. Presuming that consent comes, Fr. Metlhayotlhe will be consecrated as the fifth Bishop of Botswana, probably in July. I wish I could be here.

            In our classes, our students at the St. Augustine Theological School have been praying for the election for weeks before April 27^th. Sometimes I use the collect from our American prayer book: ‘Almighty God, giver of every good gift: Look graciously on your Church, and so guide the minds of those who shall choose a bishop for this Diocese, that we may receive a faithful pastor, who will care for your people and equip us for our ministries; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.’

            Several of our students and I talk about the last part of that prayer, a faithful pastor who, as part of his pastoring, will equip us for our ministries. They and I both like that.