Interview with Bishop Sitembele
Q1. Do you feel you have changed in the fourteen years since your consecration, and if so how?Not basically, but of course a leader is always shaped by the situation in which he finds himself. I came initially with trepidation and uncertainty, but time has developed my confidence in what I believe I am called to do. Situations impact either negatively or positively on one's leadership. My personality has not changed but my style has changed. I had to make some adjustments. I am a person who has a child-like faith; I believe in people and trust them, and sometimes this has been a weakness on my part. It has dictated some changes.
Q2. There are many spiritual, political and administrative demands on you as bishop. What do you do to relax?There are lots of things that call on my attention, most of them spiritual matters. There are also things happening around the church that demand attention. I put aside time to relax in the company of my wife, all the time. I also love sport, especially rugby, and of course soccer. I relax when one of my children calls me, and also when the Dean calls me to ask how I am.
Q3. Has it been an objective of yours to achieve gender equality among the priesthood? What steps have you taken to ensure you ordain women of the right calibre?Yes. When the thought of ordaining women came up in the eighties and nineties, initially I was one of many who were opposed; at that time we could not trust that they could offer leadership. With time I had to redefine who I am in relation to women in the church. I realised that as we are all made in the image of God, we all have souls and we all have our worth. That defined for me the quality of leadership we can derive from women. Women always have the compassionate heart which to me represents the compassionate nature of God. Now that we have women in the ordained ministry it has spelled out what the church ought to be. It can never be holistic without women, or address the issues we need to address. An example is the voice of Ven. Xintolo in chapter; she represents the part of women in community. Most of the women are doing sterling work in the parishes.
One should not ordain women as a token or just to get equal numbers. To get the right women, we seek the mind of God in deciding who should be ordained. So far we have been very lucky. We do not rush any ordination especially the women.
Q4. Music is clearly very important to you. Are you happy with the standard of music within the diocese? What developments would you like to see? I am very happy with the standard of music in the diocese; it has improved year by year. The annual diocesan choir competition has given a new impetus to the ministry of music as something we offer to God as a way of saying we love Him, we praise Him. As I go round the diocese everyone is keen to sing, and sing to the glory of God. The invitation to the diocesan choir to sing in the international competition in Israel was an endorsement. The improvement we want to see in the diocese is an attempt to get more indigenous composers to draw on their own experience of the love of God, and also more translations of hymns into Xhosa. I would love to see more parishes recoding CDs of choruses and the music they sing. They could listen to themselves and improve.
Q5. What do you think are or will be the consequences of the Elective Assembly's inability to elect a Bishop Suffragan?The failure of the diocese to elect a suffragan bishop is a recipe for the diocese failing to elect my successor, but if the failure was coupled with my own leadership of the diocese, that they thought I had my own person in mind, then they missed the point. I may have had a preference and believe that a particular person would be easily teachable, but all I want to see is progress, peace, and prosperity. I don't want to be duplicated or to have my own person. I just want to bring the diocese together and to have worthy leadership over the years. The failure to elect has added more to my pressure of work, both from Mzimvubu and my own diocese. I had hoped the diocese would get me an able assistant, but it was not to be.
Q6. What can be done to help the members of the diocese better understand and achieve the vision and mission of the diocese?The vision of the diocese is spelled out and has been re-echoed through my first ten years as bishop. Then the diocese was multiplied and hence the birth of the diocese of Mbashe. This reflected the key elements of vibrancy and viability. Most of my sermons are to make people strong in their faith, and surrender their lives to the Lord of this church. They cannot give to the cause of the church without giving themselves to Christ. The vision was given to me in my first sermon as bishop-elect, and I said we need a vibrant and viable diocese.
Q7. Do you think the Anglican church is sufficiently outspoken about the political and social issues of South Africa?I don't believe so. We are not as vociferous as we used to be before the dawn of the new democracy. I point fingers even to myself. When I was Dean of the cathedral I was very outspoken. Now that we have what we wanted we've slowed down, which is very unfortunate. I was disappointed last year when I gave my charge to the diocese in 2012; some of the key issues were addressed there, but it was not given to the media. It ranged over many areas including some of things which need to be addressed by government, municipality, social services and others.
Q8. What do you plan to do when you retire?When that time comes (I don't know when) I am planning to do things dear to my heart. I'm planning to do some writing. I was also hoping to do some teaching, maybe do some seminars at CoTT. I want to be more with my children, as I'm missing them a lot. I want to do a lot of traveling in the country and overseas. I want to relax and enjoy my retirement, which will come after over 40 years in the Episcopal Church. I don't plan to spend most of my time in the diocese. I will move out to give space to my successor. I will not interfere with anything in the diocese; I will know I have served as the tenth bishop of St John and the first bishop of Mthatha. There will I hope be time for reflection on things achieved and things not achieved.
