Former South Africa bishop challenges
clerics to remain faithful to Jesus’ call


The Austin District Amos Commission played host to a May 8 event that drew clergy members from Austin to Houston.
The Rev. Peter J. Storey, former Methodist bishop in South Africa and president of the South African Council of Churches during the apartheid era, urged pastors to consider their role in preaching, teaching and shaping prophetic congregations.
Storey challenged 64 clerics during the all-day workshop at First UMC, Austin. His challenge had the ring of integrity and truth as he spoke from his own experience in South Africa as the church struggled with the oppressive system of apartheid. His passion for pastors to be faithful to the call of Jesus to work for justice in society energized the clergy members who attended.
Here are a few of his statements:
Private charity is no substitute for organized justice. South Africa and the American South share a “tragic geography” with an ironic mixture of piety and racial injustice. The primary culprit is a false theology—that loving Jesus and others will assure a good outcome without any particular outward action.
In justice, loving becomes irrelevant. Groups, by their nature, cannot love each other, or “live and relate by agape.” Only individuals can. But groups can do justly. In the terms of Micah 6, we “do justly” as a community. As faithful individuals we “love mercy.” Both individually and corporately we walk humbly with our God.
Justice is not a special calling. It is part of the universal Christian calling.
Justice is love distributed over large groups and cultures.
Toward the end of the day, Storey drew analogies between South Africa and the United States.
We “live in ‘bubbles,’” he said, which float on a sea of poverty and want that serves to feed our hungry lifestyles. We rely on more and more people and resources to feed our system. The only way most Americans learn geography is as our soldiers go overseas in war. We expect the outside world will be organized to serve and preserve the bubble, in our “national interest.”
The most prophetic thing that could happen would be strenuous efforts to reach beyond the bubble, Storey said. Mission trips that United Methodists organize should be about listening and learning from those in other parts of the world who
are poor and vulnerable.
Funds to host the event were received from Methodist Healthcare Ministries, Texas Impact and the Southwest Texas Conference.
The event was recorded, and DVDs and CDs will be available soon through the Austin District Amos Commission.
In 2004 the Austin District established an Amos Commission to provide leadership in matters of public policy. Its mission is to empower and equip members of each United Methodist congregation in the district to influence public policy in the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the United Methodist Social Principles.
Newly elected co-chairs of the Amos Commission are Bill Carter, layperson from The Rock UMC, Cedar Park; and the Rev. Jim McClain, pastor of First UMC, Elgin. Members of the Amos Commission are available to lead workshops and information sessions in local United Methodist churches across the Austin District.