Ubuntu

From Heidi Frantz-Dale, rector of St. Andrew's-in-the-Valley, Tamworth, and clergy deputy to General Convention, to her parish

Dear Friends in Christ,

Have you ever heard the word ubuntu? If it is unfamiliar, you are not alone. Ubuntu is an African concept of personhood in which the identity of the self is understood to be formed inter-dependently through community. It recognizes that for each of us to be seen as who we really are, we need to be part of something larger than ourselves – part of community. It says that who I am as an individual is shaped by the communities in which I live and function and that those communities and the individuals that comprise them are shaped in part by me, and that that is true for all of us.

In the US, we have a strong tendency to think that our self-identity is determined individually and competitively. We think of ourselves as being attractive because we “learned” that someone else was less attractive, or “less bright” because someone else was a wiz-kid. Our worldview makes us think that the only way we can know ourselves is in comparison to others.

Ubuntu calls us to something else. It reminds us that we are inextricably linked. It says, “love your neighbor as your self,” because living that way shapes who you will become just as it shapes who your neighbor will become. It resonates with John’s Gospel understanding of “I in you and you in me.” Archbishop Desmond Tutu puts it this way, “A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs to a greater whole and is diminished when others are diminished, humiliated, or oppressed.”

I find it exciting to think that ubuntu will be the theme of the Episcopal Church’s upcoming General Convention because ubuntu appropriately reflects Christian living in the best sense of the word.

We have all glimpsed ubuntu in our parish life together, and I believe it has sparkled in some of our recent parish celebration gatherings. Look for it. Live it. Delight in it. It is truly a gift of the Holy Spirit!

Blessings, Heidi+