Address by Thabo Makgoba, Bishop of Grahamstown to the G20 Conference, an international gathering of school principals St Andrews College Chapel, Grahamstown, Freedom Day, 27 April 2007.
The conference focussed on leadership lessons that emerged from a reading of Nelson Mandela’s autobiography.
Let us pray:
Pour your Grace into our hearts, O God, that we who have known the Incarnation of Jesus Christ announced by an Angel to the Virgin Mary, may by his Cross and Passion be brought to the Glory of his resurrection. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Thanks to Mr Wylde for inviting me to lead the meditation this morning, and for the background information of who is here, and the text he has given you. It is appropriate indeed to reflect on Madiba’s Long Walk to Freedom on this Freedom Day, in the Eastern Cape. Madiba is a leader who transcends the bounds of tribe, race, culture and creed. Madiba is human but at the risk of being uncanonical, he is a saint, especially when the Roman Catholic theologian Ronald Rolheiser describes a saint as follows: to be a saint is to be fuelled by gratitude, nothing more and nothing less or as Gustavo Gutierrez says only one kind of person transforms the world spiritually - someone with a grateful heart.
