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Trip report – TEAM conference – 7th – 14th March 2007 – Boxburg South Africa.
By Helen Stawski, March 2007
There were over 400 participants from around the Communion, most countries were represented, and such a large and diverse group coming together was a wonderful testament to the rich human resources we have in our Church. TEAM operated on a truly ambitious scale as the conference covered the Millennium Development Goals, HIV and AIDS, and prophetic witness. The scope for networking and establishing new contacts over the eight days was very high.
The obvious and welcomed enthusiasm for the contribution of the Anglican Church and the TEAM conference to global development was expressed often.
Representing Lambeth Palace
This conference undoubtedly enhanced the work of the International Development team at Lambeth, it exposed the programme officer to Anglican stakeholders from across the globe, allowing her to distribute the new AiD leaflets and to explain the work of Anglicans in Development at Lambeth and the new website to a wider audience, particularly to those outside the African continent, which more reasonably reflects the Archbishop’s global scope. The conference also facilitated the continuation of links between Lambeth and Christian mission and development agencies from around the world. It also provided opportunities to meet with Church of England stakeholders to discuss common objectives.
Content of the conference (See the AID resources page for further content)
Keynote speakers: The quality of the keynote speakers was excellent. Of particular note were Steve de Gruchy [1], and the newly appointed Anglican Observer to the UN Hellen Wangusa, both of who spoke with uncompromising clarity about the global developmental challenges we face and the particular response the gospel calls us to make [2]. All keynote addresses allowed good time for questions from the floor, which promoted lively debates.
Workshops: Helen Stawski facilitated 3 workshops:
- The Church and service provision,
- The Church and education
- The Church and food security [3].
The first was a great opportunity to build on the AiD partnership with Tearfund, who co-presented. Tearfund outlined the church’s role in health provision and Helen presented on education. The workshop also included guest speakers from Sudan and Burundi, as an expression of current activities by the team at Lambeth in these countries.
The second workshop was attended by Archbishop Ndungane and allowed a more detailed discussion on challenges and strengths and diverse experiences of educational provision from around the Communion.
Helen’s involvement with the workshop on food security was an impromptu replacement, arranged at short notice in conjunction with the TEAM organisers. Those present were very knowledgeable on the subject, and this led to an informed and informative discussion.
In general there was a huge levels of skills and experience represented by the participants at TEAM.
Lambeth Palace and the focus on education
Education is a focus for the international development team at Lambeth, as we recognise church schools to be one of the best platforms for engaging communities on other issues such as HIV and AIDS, conflict resolution, food security, the environment and livelihood skills.
The Workshop on Education
Some issues raised by this discussion were –
- Anglican schools are respected and attended by people of other denominations and faiths around the world and provide a particularly strong witness in non-Christian countries. Many people of other faiths choose to send their children to Anglican schools as they anticipate a higher quality of education.
- Engagement with government is often problematic, as they are continually shifting the goal posts, despite the fact they play a key role in assisting government to do its job. Little recognition and no support is offered by the international community on this.
- Many churches with a history of founding national education systems for all have now been forced out of public provision.
- Building schools is not a strategic priority for most Christian development agencies although it remains so for a huge proportion of churches.
Recommendations:
- Contexts are so different no single approach can be developed.
- We must think collectively about core values of Anglican schools and keeping education as a priority of the Anglican Communion.
- Service provision must run alongside a rights-based approach that attempts to hold governments to account for education provision, so the church does not end up absolving governments of their responsibilities. International advocacy is key here.
1. Head of the research project into religious health assets for KwaZulu Natal University
2. Copies of all speeches are available at request
3. Verbatim from workshops should be available on the TEAM disk on request.
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