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The Methodist Bishop of Johannesburg has found some peace, though no
calm, in his busy life. He is a grass roots activist who needs little
sleep, packing as much work into his day tending to his flock as he can.
Paul Verryn, Methodist bishop of Johannesburg
METHODIST Bishop of Johannesburg Paul Verryn is a churchman through and
through - he takes his Christian values seriously, often working a
21-hour day, helping the city's poor, sick, hungry and homeless.
But he wouldn't change it, describing his life as full and varied, a life he "really enjoys".
The bishop, who has held the position since 1997, is a difficult
man to get hold of. He is very much in demand, his phone never stops
ringing and his diary is chock-a-block with appointments around his
vast parish. In fact, he spends a great deal of his time in his car,
travelling from meeting to meeting.
Verryn works at this pace seven days a week, and not
surprisingly, this "gives me a good, tired feeling" at the end of each
day. Though he says, "I need very little sleep", and he packs as much
variety into his day as possible: meetings, teaching (which he
describes as recreation), bishop duties, including looking after the
spiritual needs of about 60 000 people in his broader jurisdiction. It
stretches from Vryberg in the North West through Midrand to Ennerdale,
in south Johannesburg.
For starters, he is involved with a programme called Paballo ya
Batho, which means "caring for the people". It is an outreach
initiative for the inner city homeless. Then there is the Tuesday
support group, at which grievances are heard and communicated via the
church to the City authorities; the Wednesday night feeding scheme, in
which a team of volunteers, including medical students, go out on to
the streets, offering food and medical care; and the Thursday help
group, where sickly street people are picked up and taken to hospital.
Dr Peter Storey, the former Methodist Bishop of Johannesburg
and now a professor at Duke University's school of divinity, worked
closely with Verryn in the 1980s and 1990s and describes him as "a
grass roots activist" who works "most effectively with individuals in
local situations, rather than dealing in generalities or broad
principles".
Quietly spoken and informally dressed in charcoal trousers and
a pale blue shirt, Verryn describes himself as an energetic,
inquisitive, compassionate person who likes "chaos but also likes
things to be right".
His office bears testament to his unstoppable work pace. There is one
free easy chair for visitors. A couch is piled with papers, another one
is almost full (with just enough space for him to sit), two office
chairs are equally loaded, and his desk contains neat piles of papers,
and several stacks of bibles in one corner.
He smiles wryly, "This is tidy, you should have seen it at
Christmas." But, when tested, he is able to say exactly what document
is at the bottom of a pile of papers.
The bishop does admit that he "sometimes overdoes it in terms
of work". Indeed, not many would match his regimen - 21 hours a day,
seven days a week. It takes an enormous amount of energy and motivation
to keep that up day after day.
Storey attests to his work ethic, describing Verryn as a
workaholic who is "sometimes quite frustrating to work with because he
doesn't always take the lives and routines of others into account".
"His failures in punctuality are legendary, usually because he has
taken on much too much and is running between conflicting meetings
while people wait for him."
But, adds Storey, "his people tend to forgive him these lapses
because they know he is usually dealing with a multitude of truly
worthwhile needs".
As bishop, Verryn has tried to do "creative stuff" in an
attempt to transform society, starting with encouraging his congregants
to transform themselves by imagining alternatives. It sounds tricky,
but it simply entails getting people to see their religious beliefs as
something beyond just going to church on Sundays. For example, it could
mean becoming involved in a community in which creative things like
music, art and poetry happen, or getting women's groups or Aids
projects off the ground.
Verryn knew at the age of five that he wanted to devote his
life to the church. "It attracted me naturally. I had a wonderful
Sunday school teacher and used to get up early on Sundays. This is my
natural home, this is where I belong."
Storey says Verryn's ability "to interpret the Scriptures in
timely and relevant ways is well-known and admired, making him an
excellent preacher".
"Paul's gift is an acute ability to identify the heart of an
issue and expose it to the light, ensuring that it is discussed and not
dodged," says Storey.
Family is also important, though, and a highlight in his life was the
birth of his nieces. He was very close to his sister, now deceased, who
was 16 years older than him. There is a history to it: she had
struggled for nine years after a miscarriage to have a baby; Verryn's
mother struggled to have him too.
His nieces have been like his own children, he says, adding
that one of his regrets is that he has not married and had children of
his own. Yet he feels it would not have been fair to impose the long
hours and busyness of his life on a family. Verryn describes his mother
(also deceased) and his sister as "amazing women" and it is one of his
great sorrows to have lost them both.
Born in Pretoria 52 years ago, the bishop completed high school
at St Stithians in Johannesburg, then went on to study at Unisa while
completing his one-year army stint, which he says he hated with a
passion. He went on to work as a store man at a panel-beating shop
while studying but at 20 made the shift to the church, which he had
tried to postpone for as long as possible, to get "life experience".
He moved to Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape to begin his probation, and
moved around from there: Butterworth for two years; Grahamstown for
three years; Port Elizabeth for five years; East London, where he was
ordained in 1978 at the age of 26, which he describes as a highlight of
his life ("I had a sense of this piece of the journey being
accomplished"); and then on to the West Rand.
From there it was to Soweto, where he was one of the few whites
living in the township. It was in Soweto that Verryn faced the toughest
challenge of his life - with the political turmoil and confusion of the
time taking a personal toll.
It was during this time, says Storey, that "Paul won the hearts
of the Soweto community through his identification with their struggle
during the worst years of apartheid".
More than most white people Verryn has, says Storey, an
appreciation of what is important in the black community and has
committed himself to struggling alongside blacks, offering a ministry
of empowerment and encouragement.
It was from his Orlando West manse in 1988 that a young
activist, Stompie Seipei, was abducted along with four other boys, by a
group known as the "Winnie Mandela Football Team" on the instructions
of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela - allegedly for their own protection. A
few days later Seipei, who had been accused of being an informer, was
killed.
Madikizela-Mandela later accused Verryn of sodomising the boys
in his care - allegations that were rejected by a Supreme Court judge
during her trial and, later, by the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission.
A decade later, in 1997, Verryn appeared at the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission hearing and asked Seipei's mother for
forgiveness, saying, "I should have taken far, far more seriously the
danger he was in." He then broke down in grief.
"During the abduction drama," says Storey, "it became clear to
me just how profoundly he was trusted by the people of Soweto.
Nevertheless, that episode cost him dearly and has left deep scars."
But he survived the crucible and still lives in Soweto today, alongside the Jabavu Community Centre.
The tragedy of Seipei has not stopped his humanitarian work: he
still offers shelter to orphans and refugees. Some are working, others
he feeds, while encouraging them to develop a vegetable garden. "The
poor are quite robust despite the dissolving of their sense of worth,"
he says.
Verryn would like to be remembered as a kind person, as someone
who has given people a "sense of the value of themselves", but also as
someone who "changed the economic paradigm". By that he means that the
sharing of resources is not right yet, that there should be a stronger
focus on the poorest of the poor. "We need to begin to start making the
shift, and have an emphasis on what Christ did.
"We need to see God in a different way - not as an old, grumpy,
sour judge waiting to catch people out. God would surprise most of us -
the sweep of his grace is much bigger than this."
Although still far from retirement, he says once he gets there
he would like to give more time to his friends, read more, see more
movies. It is hard, however, to imagine such a driven man chilling out
to this degree.
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