NG Kerk Wynberg
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Ds. Links is die leraar van die VGKSA St. Helenabaai wat besig is met ’n herenigingsproses met die NGK Laaiplek. Die Moderatuur van die Algemene Sinode van die VGKSA se reaksie op die berig verskyn daarna. Rapport het volgens URCSA News geweier om die moderatuur se persverklaring te publiseer. ‘Hier stehe ich’ oor kerkhereniging Rapport 2010-08-28 17:09, Trevor Links “As hulle stilbly, sal die klippe uitroep!” Dit was Jesus se verweer in Lukas 19:40 aan ’n paar Fariseërs wat wou hê dat hy die skare stilmaak wat hom as die koning eer. Net so is daar talle mense in ons NG Kerkfamilie wat met gemak swyg oor die voeteslepery rondom kerkhereniging. Vuisvoos gedagtes hieroor is juis die produk van predikante wat die gemak van die gemeentelewe en voorskrifte van lidmate koester, eerder as om sigbare eenheid na te streef en hul nekke uit te steek. Hoekom weier ons steeds om die offer van kerkhereniging en versoening te betaal, wyl dit skynbaar maklik was met die prys van geskeidenheid en apartheid?! Ons verloëning van ons legio belydenisskrifte het al talle klippe van moratoriums laat uitroep. Hoe kan ons hiermee gemaklik wees? Onder die talle dinge wat ’n predikant in ’n nuwe gemeente kan kom oorerf, was die kerkherenigingsproses tussen VGK St. Helenbaai in Velddrif en NGK Laaiplek vir my seker dié kosbaarste erfporsie ooit. Vandaar my eerste woorde aan die gemeente so vier maande terug: “’n Pragtige deel is vir my afgemeet, ja, wat ek ontvang het, is vir my mooi” (Ps.16:6). Kerkhereniging was nog nooit ’n maklike weg nie, en moet daarom nie geromantiseer word nie. Hierdie koue feit dra egter nie genoeg gewig om ’n mens van dié weg af te hou nie. Kerkhereniging is ’n pastorale proses van herstel wat juis deur die kerk gevoer en bevorder moet word omdat die einste kerk aandeel het aan die verdeling van ons burgerlike landskap. Hoekom verspeel ons steeds die kanse as kerk om eens en vir altyd ’n impak op ons bloeiende samelewing te maak? Wat het van ons belydenisskrifte geword? Ons verloën by die dag dít wat ons Sondae bely en onderskryf. Die Belydenis van Belhar is vir my steeds ’n goeie basis van die gesindheid waarmee hierdie pad geloop moet word. Dié belydenis vereenselwig hom met die eienskap van Jesus as Herder wat moeite doen om sy verdwaalde en verstrooide skape tuis te bring in een kraal. Wie kan die invocatio van hierdie belydenis reg aan die begin mis-lees? “Ons glo in die drie-enige God, Vader, Seun en Heilige Gees wat deur sy Woord en Gees sy Kerk versamel, beskerm en versorg van die begin van die wêreld af tot die einde toe.” Die Kerk as liggaam van Christus is tog ’n versamel-begrip en dra geen karakter van verstrooidheid nie! ’n Arm, geskei van die liggaam, is tog dood. Ons moet weer versameld raak. Belhar nooi telkens in en staan nie koud teenoor die ander nie, nes Jesus moeite gedoen het om mense nouer en nader aan mekaar te bring. En vir Jesus was dit nie altyd ’n maklike pad nie, maar ’n noodsaaklike een. Teen dieselfde agtergrond word ek dus nie ontmoedig deur die model-gemeentes van Wynberg wat vervreemd van mekaar geraak het nie. Daaruit is eerder ’n les te leer: omdat ons Jesus aangeneem het en dus ook Sy gesindheid, sal ons mekaar nie los totdat ons opdrag van eenheid jeens mekaar afgehandel is nie. In die broosheid van die oomblik durf ons mekaar nie los nie, maar juis aankleef. My gesindheid is en was en sal altyd wees: Ter wille van Christus en sy evangelie kan ons nie anders nie. En die leiers van gemeentes moet hierin voorloop. As daar nie eers met my as leier iets gebeur nie, kan ek nie verwag die kudde sal op hul eie in die kraal kom nie. Wanneer prosesse vir gemeentes wat nader aan mekaar wil beweeg, vasval, dan is dit my pleidooi: Moenie mekaar los nie, want God het nie vir ons gelos toe ons vanweë die sonde vasgeval het nie. Dis juis ’n motivering om op te staan en weer te probeer. Daarmee saam moet ons vir mekaar ook eerlik sê die ongehoorsaamheid aan kerkhereniging is kettery en druis in téén die laaste wense van Jesus in Johannes 17 voor sy tydelike sterfte. Binne die NG Kerkfamilie is daar steeds gemaksugtige proponente vir geestelike eenheid eerder as sigbare eenheid. Huigelaars! Die NG Kerk was nooit geestelik net een kerk nie, maar struktureel een. En ons kerkfamilie het die geleentheid om die pleisters vir ’n gebroke samelewing op te sit – wonde waarvoor ons ook maar verantwoordelik is. Wat is die impak van ons eenheid? Terug by Lukas 19: Daarin bejeën Jesus die stad Jerusalem tydens sy intog met groot hartseer. In vers 40 berispe Hy juis die Fariseërs – die dominees wat veronderstel is om die Skrif te ken. As ons nie weer één kerk word en die geloofwaardigheid van die kerk en haar stem terugkry nie, en ons mond laat snoer deur ons onenigheid:
Voeg enigiets by wat ons gemeenskappe uitmekaar dryf. Enige gemeente of denominasie wat nou nog dink hulle kan enige onreg onder die son op hul eie hanteer, is karikatuur en dwaal in hul verstaan oor die wese van die kerk. Dit gaan ook nie om my of jou gemeente se identiteit of eiesoortige karakter, iets waaragter talle skuil nie. Dis Jesus se kerk en sy karakter en identiteit behoort voorop te staan. Wie dít nie snap nie, is duidelik nie besig met kerkwees of om Christelike godsdiens te beoefen nie. Dis hartseer dat vrágte klippe bó die stem van die kerk moet uitroep, “omdat jy die betekenis van die tyd toe God gekom het om jou te red, nie besef het nie” (v.44). Ons as Kerk sal alleenlik ons geloofwaardigheid terugwin as ons wéér aan mekaar behoort. Dis tyd dat die kerk weer één word, één stem ontwikkel, één staanplek in die samelewing inneem en al haar ander los stalletjies toemaak. As ek dan naïef is in my denke, of dalk my nek te ver uitsteek, was Jesus seker ook naïef met ’n vreeslike lang nek! Nogtans voeg ek my jong stem by dié van Martin Luther: “Hier stehe ich, ich kann nicht anders. So wahr mir Gott helfe.” * Ds. Trevor Links is die leraar van die VGK St. Helenabaai, wat besig is met ’n herenigingsproses met die NGK Laaiplek.
General Synod rejects heresy accusation by Rev Trevor Links URCSA News 1 October 2010 Laaiplek - "There are many people in the DRC family who are silent on the dragging of feet with regards to church reunification," Rev Trevor Links wrote in an article in the Afrikaans newspaper, Rapport. Links made this statement on what he believed to be the basis of what Jesus had said in Luke 19:40 when the disciples had called Jesus the King that came in the Name of the Lord. The Pharisees then called on Jesus to rebuke his disciples. Jesus answered if the disciples kept silent, the stones would call out. Rev Links said that the DRC Family betrayed its confessions. That was the reason why "the many stones of moratoriums" called out. He acknowledged that that re-unification was not an easy path and should not be romanticised, but according to him, these hard facts did not carry enough weight to keep the church from the path of unity. He accused the DRC family of heresy, because of its disobedience to church reunification, as was the last wish of Jesus in John 17. He said that there were too many proponents of spiritual unity instead of visible unity. He called these proponents, hypocrites and equated ministers with Pharisees. The Moderamen of the General Synod of the Uniting Reformed Church responded to his article in a letter and press release to Rapport, which the newspaper ignored and refused to publish. The Moderamen wanted to set the record straight in the same publication in which Rev Links spread his unsubstantiated accusations. The Moderamen in its statement said: "It is important to the Moderamen that debate takes place at all levels in the Uniting Reformed Church. Debates on the issues help the Church to come to greater clarity on the challenges it is facing. "It is especially important with regards to an issue such as church unity. It is, however, of great concern to the Church when debates are being conducted with a lack of good information and insight in the issues. This creates a wrong impression with the public. Such a way of dealing with difficult issues does not contribute onstructively to the subject, but rather causes great damage." The Moderamen emphasised that Rev Links lack of experience with the processes of unification. He had only graduated at Stellenbosch University last year and ordained for the first time four months ago. The General Synod expressed its deep disappointment in Rev Links for the "irresponsible manner" in which he had dealt with an issue about which his experience and information were limited. The moderamen denied any dragging of the feet, as Rev Links accused the Church of doing. It was a process they said in which difficult and important issues on both sides should be attended to and which presented the church with enormous challenges. Against the background of the history of South Africa and church history, this process was difficult and complex. The General Synod placed a moratorium on the unification talks, exactly because certain issues were hampering the process. The moratorium provided a way of dealing with these stumbling blocks, for example mediation under the guidance of the then World Alliance of Reformed Churches and now by it successor, the World Communion of Reformed Churches. Rev Links also accused the Church of heresy. The moderamen took this accusation very seriously. In its reaction it said: "The moderamen rejects Rev Links’s statement that the Church is disobedient to the ideal of Church unity. His statement is not in accordance with the facts of the process. Both the URCSA and the DRC have synod decisions on unification. Those decisions are clear indications of the commitment to the process." The moderamen viewed Rev Links’s accusation of heresy as an academic inability to define the concept within its proper historical and theological setting. They said that one should not easily and lightly use the concept ‘heresy". Rev Links was reminded of the fact that the term heresy had been used in 1982 by the church under special circumstances in the history of South Africa. It was when the church was convinced that the Theology of Apartheid put the truth of the Gospel at stake. The Moderamen rejected Link’s viewpoint, but because it was such a serious accusation directed at the decisions of the General Synod, it called on the necessary church institutions within URCSA Cape Regional Synod to deal with it. The moderamen advised Rev Links to familiarise himself with the documentation on the unification process, to talk to others who knew the process and that he knows the process and be able to make an informed, humble and constructive contribution. Meanwhile a debate ensued on the social page Facebook, where ministers and URCSA theology students at Stellenbosch stated their views on his article. One of them is Rev Danny Bock, minister of Idas Valley congregation. Rev Bock said that he was upset about the article. He expressed his disapproval of Rev Links for using the wrong platform to air his views. Rev Bock asked the question why Rev Links did not use the structures within URCSA, Presbytery, Regional Synod and General Synod. He asked Links, why the word "heresy"? Bock said that he agreed that church unity was important, but not at the cost of internal unity. He regarded the Links’ statements as dangerous and damaging to URCSA’s image. Links did not see it that way. In his response to Rev Bock he defiantly said: "The image of URCSA is not being damaged by me, except by the silence of the Church itself about the things which are important." Many ministers on Facebook agreed with Bock’s position. There were also those who agreed with Rev Links, mostly theology students still in training. "Brothers, Trevor is doing us a favour. It is high time that voices for church unity from URCSA become clear. Church unity cannot happen behind closed doors. It is time to break the locks," theology student Hendry Tromp said. |
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