By Rev. Sekoboto Joseph Tau, 15th Episcopal District
The 51st Session of the General Conference of the AME Church, with a unique hybrid – seating model where oversees districts that could travel to Orlando, FL – was physically present but spread in different meeting rooms and all other districts in Africa attending the session, virtually through Zoom webinar connectivity, happened and concluded its business yesterday. Who said this was impossible to do?
I can only lift my hands and praise God for the goodness we have seen, and emotions we felt as the GC got started with an opening Worship Service and the first Business Session chaired by the senior Bishop, Adam J Richardson, Jr. At some point the struggles of sound and connectivity appeared to be insurmountable – until Bishop AJ, reminded everyone that he overhead someone telling him “they packed a lot of patience” in their suitcase, and he pleaded with all of us the delegates – to start pulling that patience off our bags – we need it more this time, as the AME church was doing something that was never done before, traveling on unchartered territory! For a moment, I stood in awe and adjusted my lenses and expectations…. for it is true…we were trying a new thing! Then a text from the Old Testament book of Isaiah flashed in my heart…. reminding me what God was busy with!
“Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it?
I will even make a road in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:19
God was doing a new thing, in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and God chose the 51st Session of the General Conference and all those who were present to be witnesses that roads can be built in the wilderness and rivers can sprout in the desert. This only depends on whether you believe it or not.
Was your cup half-full or half-empty? Or were you just pleased there was a cup, meaning the GC finally came to pass, so you can put your past behind and get on in life with the hope of a new order of things? A delay of a year was never a denial of seating of the 51st Session of the General Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church – I strongly believe God was preparing us and showing us the true art of what is possible if we are willing to take the first steps and trust God.
My first experience of the General Conference was in the year 2000 – the 46th Session of the GC held in Cincinnati, Ohio, when I was delegated as a layperson, it is now 21 years later and the emotions I carried this week, attending the conference virtually in the comfort of my home were not so far different from then. The fatigue and some frustrations with sounds, connectivity and were not un-manageable, I guess because I had a big bag full of patience. For me, this cup was just more than half full! A lot of things ran smooth, despite a few challenges – the chairpersons did their best to manage business sessions, it was challenging with connecting virtual district, to an extent that some nearly saw a “cup half empty” and cried foul on the exclusion of Africa districts as tactics to deny Africa the voice. Well let us be honest and truth be told, my experience was that all Bishops who chaired sessions were empathetic to the Africa delegation and became more understanding and accommodative given the poor quality of connectivity and sound…. this part of my General conference experience was called satisfaction, simply because I could see the willingness to adjust and accommodate. The technical support was really trying to meet us all at a point of happiness…. they had their own challenges; again…..they may have not done this before in the magnitude of the complexity of execution and thoroughness it deserved. Once again, I ask – would you still say your cup was half empty?
I am more inclined to thank God for exposure and covering us through this Covid 19 pandemic, what we know today, what we have seen this recently past week, and what we have experienced and felt due to His grace, would never have come, had it not been of God on our side? Praise is to God.
The only downer, a not-so-good moment for all of us, as a church was the trial outcome, the report of the Episcopal Committee on Bishop Wilfred Messiah, and the reasons for his location. This was a true half-empty cup for me! Maybe because I worked closely with Bishop Messiah, my first assignment to a pastoral was to a church he was overseeing in Soweto Kliptown, Maxeke Memorial, since then we have been like family! Be as it may, it hurts, and it hurts the church and mostly the people of the 17th Episcopal District, and but worse his family. I don’t know if you heard the opening statement of Bishop-elect then, Rev. Dr. Sylvester Scott Beaman, when he said “ I was hurt. But now I am healed” for some moment I reflected on their longstanding close relationship, then God’s spirit inspired me to look at a half-full cup one more time. Bishop Messiah’s location will effectively be for 3yrs (to 2024) instead of the normal 4yrs; Bishop Silvester Beaman is now assigned to the 15th Episcopal District, where he will continue the nonagonal odyssey of Bishop Daniels Jr. It is my firm belief that “with God nothing is impossible”. God can restore, re-build and re-construct and
resurrect, we shall rise from whatever ash, just like a phoenix, we will rise and fly high again! Keep the faith.
A moment of high and history, when a young female attorney from Bloemfontein in the 19th Episcopal District was elected to the Judicial Council of the AME Church, a first of its kind. Oh, by the way don’t forget the current seating Connectional Lay President also comes out of the 19th Episcopal District. These may not be related, but all I am illustrating is that Africa has much more reasons to look at the AME church through different set of lenses, change is gradually happening and taking place…. yes for you it is at a slow pace, but God is still buy – just be patient! Keep confirming that the glass is half full…it will get full one day. I strongly believe that success happens when opportunity meets readiness. If Ms. Thabilie Ngubeni was not ready and well prepared for the role, this opportunity would have come and gone past! It is my humble appeal to all African brothers and sisters, keep getting ready…. a time is coming where these opportunities will open, you better be ready…with a half-full cup, than just an empty cup! Prepare yourself and be the next to make Africa proud, to make “Africa Bounce Back” or to make “Africa be opened for (God’s) business!, as my classmate friend, Victor Kgomoeswana writes in his business books!
The cup is more than half full, with the outcome of the recommended and approved Episcopal assignments, we have not heard an outcry on any appointment, I am also sure that the assigned Bishops are all excited for their challenges coming, the good news is – it’s only for 3yrs before we hit the 4 year reset button!
It is my prayer that at the end of this abnormal quadrennial term of 3yrs! It does not even sound right! Every one of us, members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, will pray a prayer of fulfillment, and ask God to make our half-full cups to run over – as we continue to serve with diligence, commitment, care, and more love. The conditions are ripe, Covid-19 is here. The best we can be is instruments of love and care to the people of God, get the church to be in our homes, while the doors are closed! As we chart our way from Legacy to Mission, a call to prophetic, educational, and social engagement, let us all live, exemplify, and demonstrate in what we do, the values Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, David Payne, Henry McNeal Turner, Charlotte Maxeke and many others not mentioned here, lived and stood for. They got us this beautiful heritage…. the most advanced, ordered, and disciplined denomination the African Methodist Episcopal Church, whose cup, will always run over with blessings from God!
Rev. Sekoboto Joseph Tau is the pastor of Bethel Memorial AME Church, Hazendal Cape Town, South Africa.
