Archbishop Thabo Makgoba - Women’s Day Service – St George’s Cathedral
“Embracing our Human Dignity”
9 August 2011
1 Corinthians 12: 12-27; John 20: 11-18
May I speak in the name of God, who is more than a Father and Mother to every human child?
Dear Sisters in Christ – dear Sisters and Brothers also – it is a great joy to be with you today as we mark Women’s
Day; and a particular joy to be at this Tri-Diocesan Event and to feel myself part of the wider historic family of the Anglican Church across the Western Cape. On behalf of us all, may I express heartfelt thanks to the
Revd Cheryl Bird, and all of those who have worked with her – across the Dioceses and at the Cathedral – in preparing for today’s service. Thanks also to all who are participating in this service, and to those who have
prepared the refreshments for us afterwards!
The Gospel reading we have just heard is one to which we often turn when we consider the ministry of women in the Church. Here Mary Magdalene is commissioned by the risen Christ to be, as we often put it, ‘the apostle to the apostles’. She underlines for us God’s insistence on using all of his children without distinction. Women as witnesses didn’t count for much in those days. But Jesus called on Mary to be an apostle: a channel of the good news of his resurrection; of his defeat of sin and death; and of his promise of forgiveness and cleansing, healing and wholeness, justice and peace, and new life to all who trust in him.
It was her task to spread the news that he who had come as friend and brother, was also the embodiment of the living God who reaches out in redemptive love to every single human being.
