By Linda Bloom
NEW YORK -- Bishop Ivan Abrahams knows what it means to be denied full rights in the society where you live.
Born in 1956 under South Africa’s apartheid system, he was seven years old when his family was forced to move from a section of Cape Town which was suddenly declared a whites-only area. His classification by the government as a “coloured” person both stereotyped him and limited his choices.
Those early experiences spurred his involvement in justice ministries, and the “black and white blood coursing through my veins,” has made him a reconciler, he said.
He succeeded the Rev Dr George Freeman as General Secretary of the World Methodist Council at the 20th World Methodist Conference held in Durban, South Africa, from Aug 1 to 8, 2011. Bishop Abrahams is the first top executive of the council from outside the United States.
When elected in 2003 as the Presiding Bishop of The Methodist Church of Southern Africa, he set an agenda for social outreach that included ending violence and abuse against children, dealing effectively with the HIV/Aids pandemic and addressing the social and economic disparities that exist even in the new South Africa, where the “gap between rich and poor is still unacceptably high”.
His religious identity is another powerful motivator. Every Methodist, he believes, is called “to be an agent of transformation” and to speak for those who cannot.
“We have a louder voice than we think we have,” he said during a recent interview at the New York headquarters of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. But, he added: “Our pronouncements need to be grounded in our belief system, in Scriptures.”
Bishop Abrahams is indebted to “the whole Methodist family” for its participation in the global crusade to end apartheid in South Africa and inspired to think such a show of unity can work again. “Unless we act together for change globally, it won’t happen,” he said. “South Africa is a very good example of that.”
– A UMNS photo by John C. Goodwin.
He and his wife, Esmё, who have three adult children and three grandchildren, live in Johannesburg. He is in a transition period between his leadership role in the South African church and a move to Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, for his new duties with the council.
Bishop Abrahams is so steeped in the Methodist tradition that he likes to joke about hearing “the Wesleyan hymns while I was in my mother’s womb”.
But he also has experience with and ties to other faiths. He now serves as a member of the World Council of Churches’ Executive Committee and as Co-chairman of the South African National Religious Leaders Forum.
He noted that several issues needed attention, including migration and its effect on national churches and local congregations. “This is just part of a globalised world,” he explained. “But, there has been very little theological wrestling around the issue.”
Like migration, he said, inter-faith relations – with which the council has long been involved – is “an issue that needs to be taken much more seriously if we want to build a just and free society”. – United Methodist News Service.
Linda Bloom is a United Methodist News Service multimedia reporter based in New York.