SOUTH AFRICA — In reflecting on the status of chaplaincy ministry in South Africa, Church of God Chaplain Burt noted that 2009 started with a bang; our national chaplaincy hosted the first ever world chaplains general conference in Cape Town the first week of February.
Chaplaincy in South Africa
Shortly after being appointed director of our Chaplains Commission in 1978, I visited South Africa. Following that visit, we hosted the military chief of chaplains at our general assembly, and have benefited by a well-organized chaplaincy ministry through the South African Full Gospel Church over the years. Even through and following South Africa’s revolution and change of government, chaplaincy in South America remained strong; primarily through the efforts of our full-time Church of God chaplains; namely, Police Liaison Chaplain W.C. Maree (Christo) and Chaplain of the Air Command Addie Burt.
In reflecting on the status of chaplaincy ministry in South Africa, Chaplain Burt notes: “2009 will start with a bang; our national chaplaincy will host the first ever world chaplains general conference in Cape Town the first week of February. We will have many representatives from the U.S., Europe and other countries. Bishop Desmond Tutu will be one of our keynote speakers. I am glad to report that our Full-Gospel chaplains are holding the Pentecostal flag high in all of our chaplaincy services, with chaplains in the military, police service and other government and civilian agencies. Our own Chaplain Christo Maree has been serving as the acting chaplain general of the police services until a formal appointment is made.
“I Lost My Cross”
When I was the Airborne Jump School chaplain in the late 1960s, I will never forget, after I landed safely, seeing a young paratrooper crawling around through the tall grass. When I got close to him, I heard the words, “I lost my cross; I lost my cross.” He was a young Catholic soldier, who had misplaced his Catholic cross on that bumpy jump. I got down on my knees, and we searched through the grass until we found his cross. Gleefully smiling, he chained it again around his neck. Could those words, “I lost my cross,” be indicative of something missing that needs to be found? Through the awesome display of “God on the cross,” we have the spiritual substance to understand and process our own personal pain, and especially, the pain of this broken world. chaplains, chaplain’s families, and all of us, who declare ourselves to be the extension of that cross experience, must not lose our cross, but embrace it as God’s eternal truth that will finally get us through this world into His world to come.
Robert D. Crick, Director, Chaplains Commission