Emerging Africa

I'm still trying to catch up with thoughts and recording impressions from the Amahoro Gathering at Hekpoort. So far I've blogged about it here (Kenzo and postcolonialism) and here (Truth & Reconciliation).

It was good to meet people from far away, some of whom I'd met online, but not face to face, including Nic Paton and Andrew Hendrikse. And good to catch up with people I had met before but have moved away, like Roger Saner, who has also been putting the Amahoro papers online here.

Thanks to the provision for allowing day visitors who took their own food to go free of charge, I was able to take a couple of people with me on the two days I attended -- the monk Nektarius, who lives nearby at Leeuwenkloof, and Father Frumentius of Atteridgeville, and both were very glad that they went.

The papers were interesting and stimulating, ranging from the academic (Kenzo on postcolonialism) to the practical (Paul Verryn on xenophobia) to the inspirational (Brian McLaren).

The conversations in groups were also very good, as were those at tea and mealtimes, though then we found we had to spend quite a lot of time explaining to people who we were and what the Orthodox Church is. Someone from Uganda thought we might be Jewish, and yet the Orthodox Church is much bigger in East Africa than in southern Africa.

I'm looking forward to reading other people's blogs about the conference and its themes, and I'm also trying to provoke some discussion on the Amahoro themes in the Christianity and Society discussion forum, which is for discussing most of the themes dealt with at the Amahoro conference.