HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST SOUTH AFRICAN BISHOP VISITS DOWN TOWN EAST SIDE
The Rev. Paul Verryn is in Vancouver from April 24th to 28th. The Bishop at Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg, South Africa, Dr. Verryn has been deeply involved in the struggle against Apartheid. He has played significant roles in both the National Peace Accord and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. Dr. Verryn was the first white minister to be placed in a black township by the Methodist Church and has lived in Soweto since the 1980’s. He has had a courageous record, preaching against apartheid and police brutality. He spoke his defiance of apartheid by conducting funerals of blacks and whites who had died at the hands of the police and covert government death squads: it was enough to make him a target of the apartheid government’s licensed killers.
Never far from controversy by ministering to the poorest of the poor, for the past decade he has taken in some 30,000 Zimbabwean refugees into his church, providing them with shelter, safety, employment opportunities, education, training, legal and medical services, and sanctuary. This provision of sanctuary for over 2,000 people at a time has caused the church to be illegally invaded by the police, and legal action against the church taken by local businesses. Dr. Verryn has become one of the most vocal critics in South Africa of the Mugabe regime, which has been long supported by the South African government. He was suspended temporarily by the Presiding Bishop in 2010 for applying for a curatorship for the unaccompanied minors of the church, and for speaking to the process. The Presiding Bishop was ordered by Conference to drop the charges.
During the xenophobic violence in Johannesburg, the Rev Verryn opened the doors of the church to people fleeing their blazing homes and the machetes of their assailants, arguing: “As Christians we pray for the poor. Therefore we cannot chase them away when they need our help. “These people are our brothers and sisters. We can’t leave them on the streets. They also are human and we will help them. ‘I was a stranger and you took me in’.”
Bishop Verryn is in Vancouver visiting with First United Church to discuss lessons that may be learned from the similarities and differences between his community in Johannesburg and the community in the Downtown Eastside. These two churches at opposite ends of the world have much in common. Bishop Verryn will also be discussing the reconciliation work being undertaken by the United Church of Canada regarding its history of residential schools. The reserve system is most often seen as the Canadian equivalent of the Apartheid system. Rev Ric Matthews (Executive Minister at First United) says “Given that 40% of the people in the Downtown Eastside are from the First Nations community and are victims of the abusive policy of assimilation, Paul Verryn has much to offer us from his own experiences of the Truth and Reconciliation process”.
Interested persons are invited to hear Bishop Verryn speaking at First United on Wednesday April 27 at 6pm and/or to a subsequent Q&A session starting at 7.45pm.
For further information and/or to arrange an interview contact Nina Matthews at First United Church – nmatthews@firstunited.ca or 604 619 2495.
First United Church
First United Church, proudly serving the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood.
