Every year the Methodist Church of Southern Africa gathers for Conference and this year our leaders are meeting in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape (the Connexional Executive is meeting this week and Conference itself begins next week). It is a very busy time and normally all our Connexional leaders have their heads down focused on a long agenda, but this week our Presiding Bishop, Rev Pumla Nzimande, took the time to write to the church in response to news reports of the violent deaths of at least eight women on the East Rand.
Our PB writes: "These deaths cannot be treated as isolated tragedies. They point to the wider and persistent crisis of gender-based violence and femicide in our society—a crisis sustained by silence, victim-blaming, harmful notions of power and masculinity, and failures to recognise, prevent and respond to danger". Later this week, a spokesperson for the United Nations said that "South Africa’s declaration of gender-based violence and femicide as a national disaster must now be matched by urgent action".
We may feel far from Ekurhuleni, but we cannot just keep shaking our heads and carrying on as if this is not our problem. As we pray together, can we sit with the discomfort of asking ourselves what 'urgent action' we can take here in Westville?