I Have Come a Long Way. John W. de Gruchy
Soon afterwards, I met Bishop Burnett in Durban and discussed the latter possibility with him.
At the beginning of 1967, Steve started his first year at the Sea View Primary School, virtually opposite our garden gate. On the day, Isobel and I, with two-year-old Jeanelle, gathered in our driveway to wave him goodbye as he set off across the narrow road, carrying his small brown school case and proudly wearing a school uniform for the first time. Isobel was heavily pregnant, as photographs of that auspicious day remind us. In due course, Anton was born on 5 March, and a few weeks later he was baptised by Alex Boraine in our church. Isobel and I agreed that our family was now complete. From birth, all three children were different in character, but they were all born in Sea View and baptised in the church there, so for that reason alone it has always had a special place in our hearts.
In October 1967, CUSA united with the churches established by the LMS in Botswana, as well as with the Bantu Congregational Church, to become the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa (UCCSA) – a denomination that extended into Namibia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The new church elected Joseph Wing as its general secretary, and it was largely due to his selfless devotion that the UCCSA began to play a more important role in the ecumenical and social witness of the Church in South Africa.
Joe Wing was one of the last of a great line of life-long LMS missionaries who had come to southern Africa from Britain. He arrived in 1951 and spent his whole life completely dedicated to the sub-continent, its peoples, the UCCSA and their wider ecumenical family. He was one of the unsung heroes of the church struggle, and was widely and highly respected. I had the privilege of working closely with him, and he had a great influence on Steve. After Joe’s untimely death in 1992, Steve wrote a fine and extensive biographical essay in his memory.12
Early in 1968, I received a phone call from Beyers Naudé formally inviting me to join the CI staff in Johannesburg. I was honoured and keen to accept, but at the same time Bishop Burnett asked me to join the staff of the SACC as director of Communication and Studies. I agonised over this dilemma for several weeks and had several more phone conversations with Naudé and Burnett. But then, after consultation with Joe Wing, who was both a CI member and an executive member of the SACC, I accepted Burnett’s invitation. The position at the SACC provided an opportunity to work more directly with the churches, and it was combined with the role of secretary of the recently formed Church Unity Commission (CUC). I had already become involved in the work of the CUC, which was tasked with seeking the union of the Anglican, Congregational, Methodist and Presbyterian Churches, and I was excited about serving it in this way. I was about to become a full-time ecumenical activist, and to be thrown in at the deep end.
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