From Tuesday evening(13th March 2007) busses and mini busses had started arriving outside the Embalenhle stadium which is across from our church and ladies of all ages and sizes but with the same white top and navy blue skirt were alighting from them. On Wednesday the increasing number of busses and white and navy blue clad ladies arriving from all over South Africa and beyond changed the landscape of the once empty and peaceful surroundings and not only a constant stream of ladies started invading the church premises with similar requests: use of toilets, a place to wash themselves, to sleep, to recharge their cell phones... The first to come would kindly ask for permission to use the facilities, but later it became a free for all. Knowing my character decided it was better for me to “disappear” in order to avoid a possible confrontation.
On Thursday morning the thousands of white and navy-blue clad ladies organized themselves in platoons of 3 to 4 hundred ladies each and started marching, military style, in different directions, singing with “gusto” and causing a traffic jam until the police arrived to facilitate the traffic flow. I took some photos and then decided to phone my “good neighbour” from Evander Fr. Gerald inviting him to come and enjoy the unusual spectacle. He could not come immediately because of commitments but came later on. Of course by then the “marching” was over and most of the ladies were in the stadium. Fr. Gerald and I decided then to take a stroll and see what was happening. As we made our way through busses and mini busses wildly parked wherever there was a little space we had to avoid people sleeping, resting or eating under or next to their transport. As we approached the entrance to the stadium the congestion grew worse with a lot of people on both sides of the road doing a roaring business braaing meat, selling pap, bread, tea, coffee, cool drinks, beer, sweets, clothes, bibles... and with many hungry and thirsty people satisfying their hunger and thirst and then dropping paper plates, cups, bottles, rapping paper... on the ground, on the street no dust bin had been provided!
At the entrance to the stadium “the two white ministers” were warmly recei-ved by some black gentlemen controlling the flow of people in and out of the stadium who immediately offered to escort us to the main tent reserved for the authorities and special guests but, of course, we declined. We were not there to join the proceedings or add lustre to the gathering, but just out of curiosity. Some councillors of Govan Mbeki Municipality, who shortly followed us, were dutifully accompanied to the main tent. One of the gentlemen who had welcomed us kindly remained with us and told us that this was a national meeting of the ladies of the Church of the Twelve Apostles whose leader the “Chief Apostle, Dr. C. Mongqunga” is based in East London. He is elected for life and has to choose his successor in order to avoid litigation for the “position” after his death and, may be, a split in the church.
The lofty aim of the Church of The Twelve Apostles, the gentleman who was with us explained, is to unite all Christian churches. The church expects a lot from its members, especially women and youth. The men as in most churches are a small minority. The members of the church on Monday and Wednesday are expected to visit families and recruit new members, on Tuesday and Friday should attend choir practice, on Thursday it is prayer day for the ladies and Saturdays should be dedicated to visit families and remind them that on Sunday they should join the service in church.
Of course as a, church they do not have a place for Mary and even Jesus has a place secondary to the Apostle Peter who is God. The members of the church are not sent by Jesus to do the work of God, but by Peter and the other Apostles. The bible is not the word of God but a collection of truths which do not necessarily still apply to us today but were given to guide the people of those older days...
As Fr. Gerald and I were walking back to the church I was involved in a noisy discussion with a group of women from Witbank about the Resurrection of Jesus that they claim was only a “Spiritual” and not a “bodily” resurrection. When I challenged them to explain how the Apostle Thomas could be invited to put his finger in the place of the nails on Jesus hands and feet if he had no body I was greeted by a strong protest: “Jesus is wrong, Jesus is wrong”. At this point there was no need to further continue the discussion… To make sure that was the belief of the Church of the 12 Apostles, just before entering the church yard I did approach a group of ladies from Mthatha on the same subject and the reply was the sane. Theology aside these thousands of women who had congregated at the stadium really impressed me with their spirit of dedication, their spirit of sacrifice, their spirit of evangelism... Who or what has fired them up? Who is sustaining this dedication of theirs? Their Theology, their beliefs may not be in accordance with Jesus’ teaching, but their commitment cannot be disputed and we can learn something from them too.
