Church bells should ring beyond 16 Days

Sometimes it takes one decisive leader to make a difference

- SIKI DLANGA

SEATED in front of the Holy Cross Anglican Church Bells in Soweto are: Venerable Fr. Kagiso Molefe, Rev. Storia Seitisho, Siki Dlanga, and MP Nobuntu Hlazo-Webster.

(Supplied)

CHURCH bells rang in unison, at midday on Friday, from Cape Town to George, Bloemfontein to Mdantsane, crescendoing in Soweto at Holy Cross Anglican Church right over the iconic Hector Pieterson Memorial site.

The church and the memorial site are separated only by a small street as a reminder that wherever there is pain, the church is near to bring a balm of healing, to speak hope in times of doom, to reconcile during times of division, to lift up the heads of those who are bowed down, to speak life when death visits, and to hold up the lamp of God's word when the truth eludes us.

Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA) mobilised more than 700 congregations across the country. The URCSA Burgersdorp congregation concluded their bells service by painting their hands on a cloth with the theme "My hand se stop geweld."

Rev. Mark Manasse, of URCSA Uitenhage, preached: "It is time for men to break the silence. Women have been screaming from the rooftops. The people who should remedy the situation should be men."

In a moving sermon, he exhorted the men to take a stand, because the call of the church is to stand for justice. He said the ringing of the bells represented taking a stand with God against a system that says men must oppress women. He said it is sons and brothers who have been abusing their sisters, aunts, and mothers, and therefore it is men who should take a stand.