I Am the Church. You Are the Church. We Are the Church

by Daluxolo Moloantoa · November 6, 2023

Photo: Clement Menyuko

This was the motto adopted by attendants during a lecture at the Pretoria archdiocese’s first annual fundraising event held on Saturday.

The event was held at the Church of the Beatitudes in Pretoria’s eastern suburbs and was attended by many people from across the archdiocese.

The event was divided into two parts. Before and after the lecture, attendants bought items at stalls erected by various sodalities of the archdiocese and from parishioners of the Church of the Beatitudes. Stall-holders included the Catholic Men`s Association (CMA), the Daughters of Mary, the Comboni Missionaries, an art seller from the home parish, and many more. Books, food and memorabilia were among the items on sale on the day.

Part of the day included a lecture where the past, present and future of the archdiocese were represented by the three guest speakers. Erstwhile archbishop of the archdiocese Archbishop Emeritus George Daniel represented its past.

Archbishop Daniel was given the first slot in the three speeches to reach back in time and relay the very founding of the archdiocese and its development over the years into what it is today.

Photo: Clement Menyuko

Archbishop Emeritus Daniel gave a timeline from the arrival of Oblate Vicar-Apostolic of Natal Bishop Charles Jolivet in Pretoria in 1877, to the erection of the oldest surviving church in a black area, the Most Holy Redeemer Church in Mmakau Village, the arrival of the Stigmatine Fathers and other milestones.

“I am happy to see amongst others one of the figures who played an instrumental role in the church`s development in education in Pretoria, Sr Majella Quinn RSM,” said the archbishop.

After his speech, the current archbishop of the archdiocese Archbishop Dabula Mpako gave an account of where the Church is in the archdiocese today. He focused on its current financial state of affairs and its bearing on the archdiocese’s well-being.

“We are at a stage where we as a Church are in need of finding ways to become self-sustaining and to depend upon our own resources, be they human capital, financial capital and otherwise. Building upon the foundation that was laid before us, we are indeed on track to build a Church that God would like to see us become, a united community of love and unanimity,” he said.

Photo: Clement Menyuko

“I am the Church. You are the Church. We are the Church,” is how auxillary-bishop of the archdiocese Bishop John Masilo Selemela began his speech. In it, he encouraged attendants to adopt this motto as a new motto for the archdiocese, in order to encourage Catholics at parish level to take responsibility for the Church at all avenues.

“We as an archdiocese need to go beyond looking at ourselves from an individual point of view, and begin to view ourselves from a communal point of view in a mission to build our archdiocese around a common vision,” he said.

He went on to outline examples of how the archdiocese can move towards the future. “armed with a common purpose to build a self-supporting and a strong foundation for future generations,” he said.

Speaking to The Southern Cross after the lecture, Mr Stanley Modise Kekana, MC for the day and a committee member of the archdiocese fundraising steering committee gave his impressions of the day. “We as the fundraising steering committee are happy at how today has transpired. For a first-time event, today has turned into a success that we actually did not envisage. We are happy that the various sodalities within the archdiocese came to the party, even before the event itself with their contributions. We will use this sound foundation to plan around an even better fundraising event for next year and going forward, to fulfil the mission to build a self-supporting Church for our archdiocese,” he said.

Attendants took pictures with the two archbishops and bishop in a photo-booth erected as part of the day`s fundraising efforts. Attendants continued to enjoy their food and sharing the day`s spirit of purpose and camaraderie well into the early evening.