Cape Town - Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Cape Town has called for a high-level peace initiative in the form of "indaba" to de-escalate the crisis in Ukraine. He has also supported the appeal of Pope Francis for prayer and fasting on Ash Wednesday, March 2.
Makgoba is in New York to attend the Institution of the Reverend Phil Jackson, the new Rector of Trinity Church Wall Street, the original Anglican parish on the island of Manhattan.
In an appeal to Anglicans issued on Saturday, he said:
"Surely we need a high-level peace initiative? A ceasefire? Dialogue? And in the worldwide church we need an indaba theology, an ubuntu ethic, and action based on indaba and ubuntu to inform our interventions to end this sad war and the frightening prospect of nuclear escalation.
“I shiver at the prospects of fighting on the site of the Chernobyl former nuclear plant, where already military hardware is reported to be releasing radioactive dust into the air.”
Makgoba said as the world watches, we too share in the devastation, ultimately helpless to act in the face of more destruction and more death, able to respond only with rhetoric.
He said he is praying for Ukraine and Russia, and in particular all their people.
"I support Pope Francis's call for prayer and fasting on Ash Wednesday, and I call on Anglicans across Southern Africa to pray for Ukraine and Russia, to join others in praying, and to join calls for real indaba for the sake of those who suffer," Makgoba said.
IOL