Ambrose Reeves

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Ambrose Reeves (1961)

Richard Ambrose Reeves (born December 6, 1899 in Norwich , England, † December 23, 1980 in Shoreham-by-Sea , West Sussex ) was a British Anglican clergyman, canon lawyer and bishop of the Diocese of Johannesburg in the Church of the Province of Southern Africa . His fearless commitment to equality and justice in office as bishop made him a leading anti-apartheid activist with an international sphere of influence.

Life

Youth, training and first jobs

Ambrose Reeves was born to Richard Reeves and Clarissa Lydamore. In his teenage years he attended Yarmouth Grammar School and in Cambridge the Sidney Sussex College at the University of Cambridge . At this university he received a bachelor's degree in history and social sciences in 1924 . It was not until 1943 that Reeves received a master's degree from this college as a second degree .

Between 1924 and 1926, operating Reeves at the English College of the Resurrection in Mirfield and the New York Seminary General Theological Seminary theological studies, which enabled him after their completion to the priesthood. His first professional steps in this field began in 1926 as a deacon and a year later as a priest in the Diocese of London . In 1931 he went to the Scottish Parish of St Margaret in Leven as Rector .

Between 1935 and 1937, the Diocese of London commissioned him with tasks in Northern and Central Europe. He was also granted a licentiate to work as an official in the Anglican diocese of Gibraltar . During this time he was also employed as a secretary at the Geneva- based World Student Christian Federation . In 1937 Reeves returned to the Anglican church service. First he worked as vicar in the parish of St James of Haydock in the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens and from 1942 to 1949 as pastor of the parish of St Nicholas of Liverpool , where he also served as a canon at Liverpool Cathedral from 1944 . In 1945 there was an appointment with consultative status to the Convocation of the English Clergy , a synodal body.

Bishop in Johannesburg

On June 12, 1949 Reeves received the episcopal ordination at St George's Cathedral in Cape Town, South Africa , in order to subsequently lead the diocese of Johannesburg. His most important tasks were first to activate the Anglican congregations on the Witwatersrand and to strengthen the church work on the campus of the Witwatersrand University , especially without differentiating the ethnic origin of all those involved. The focus of his efforts was to found new congregations and train “black” believers to become priests. The politically controversial premises of education for blacks and other groups of non-European origin, which were politically controversial in the apartheid state and officially shaped by racist aspects, consequently inevitably led him into a conflict situation with the government policy of the time. Together with Trevor Huddleston , he had mission schools closed after the Bantu Education Act came into force in 1953 in order not to have to expose them to the state control that came into effect with this law.

With his criticism of official government policy, Reeves entered a sustained counter-position, which became apparent early on in the example of the 1951 decision to withdraw the right to vote for colored people in the Cape Province on the basis of the Separate Representation of Voters Act . His attitude in this regard intensified when the residents of Sophiatown were forced to move to the Meadowlands Township in 1955 . According to a SPIEGEL report , he described this process as “one of the most flagrant examples of injustice in recent times”.

Reeve's efforts for the prospects of a South African society free of discrimination are multifaceted, characterized by unusual organizational skills and legal expertise. After the Congress of People in Kliptown in 1955 , he was a leader in the Congress Alliance by opposing domestic passport laws and restrictive labor migration regulations. In support of the defendants in the Treason Trial , Reeves took on the task of creating a defense and relief fund that was needed to finance litigation costs. The British Defense and Aid Fund Southern Africa (BDAF), which later became known around the world as the International Defense and Aid Fund for Southern Africa , was formed under his significant participation . He was also the chairman of a committee for civil rights and organized a bishops' conference in 1959 to coordinate the activities of anti-government movements.

In connection with the long over a period of South African history as unjust perceived and repeatedly criticized pass laws ( pass laws ) it came 1959/1960 to a nationwide escalation of the situation. Reeves had drawn up a negative position paper on this in February 1960 together with a consultative committee made up of representatives from 14 organizations. Its text was widely distributed. On February 22nd, ANC members held a silent demonstration with representatives from this Consultative Committee on the entrance stairs of Johannesburg City Hall . A delegation from this group presented the city council with a memorandum . With this paper, the representatives of Johannesburg were asked to inform the government of the country about the tyrannical character of the previous labor control system ( influx control system ) on the basis of the generally criticized personal documents and to ask them to abolish it. Furthermore, according to this paper, the practice of compulsory employment agencies with compulsory assignments of jobs for blacks should be replaced by optionally instructed employment agencies. On the same day, the pass law system was debated in a meeting of the Johannesburg city council.

After the Sharpeville massacre , he and lawyers investigated several clues that were supposed to prove the actions of the police in the course of these demonstrations in order to be able to start a trial against the then Justice Minister. He accused the police of shooting numerous people in the back and using dum-dum ammunition in their deployment . The repressive apparatus of the apartheid regime turned against him as a result. Concerned about a possible arrest and because of the threatened destruction of his options for action, Reeves fled South Africa via Swaziland to England .

On September 10, 1960, Ambrose Reeves returned with a delegation from the Anglican Church to South Africa to take part in the Cottesloe deliberations of the World Council of Churches , which dealt with the equal treatment of all South Africans. The state of emergency that had recently existed in South Africa had already been lifted. However, Reeves was released two days after his arrival by order of the South African government under Proclamation No. 90 of March 30, 1960 to declare a state of emergency under the Public Safety Act ( Act No. 3/1953 ) arrested and deported on a plane to London. The Cape Town Archbishop Joost de Blank and some institutions raised public objections to this deportation . There were also international reactions. The South African Institute of Race Relations in Johannesburg, of which he was Vice President, criticized his expulsion. In March 1961, from exile in England, he resigned his office as Bishop of Johannesburg.

In October 1963 Reeves reported to the UN General Assembly on the effects of the South African apartheid system.

Working in England

After his expulsion from South Africa Reeves served from 1962 to 1966 as assistant bishop ( assistant bishop , auxiliary bishop ) of London and from 1966 in the same function in the diocese of Chichester in West Sussex . At the same time he was entrusted with a priesthood. Reeves was Rector of the Parish of St Michael in Lewes between 1968 and 1974 . In retirement he retired to Shoreham-by-Sea and died there on December 23, 1980.

After the death of Ambrose Reeves, Trevor Huddleston took over the chairmanship of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement ( Boycott Movement ) in April 1981 , which he held until 1994.

Honors

  • 1960 Fellow of Sidney Sussex College
  • 1980 Isitwalandwe award of the ANC by Govan Mbeki awarded
  • 1980 or 1981 renaming of the South Africa Racial Amity Trust to Bishop Ambrose Reeves Trust (BART) after the death of Ambrose Reeves.

Fonts (selection)

  • Justice in South Africa . Africa Bureau, London 1955
  • Shooting at Sharpeville: the agony of South Africa . Gollancz , London 1960
  • South Africa, yesterday and tomorrow: a challenge to Christians . Gollancz, London 1962
  • The Sharpeville Incident and its international significance . United Nations , New York 1968

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Consolidation Fr Richard Ambrose Reeves 1937-1942. at www.stjamesthegreat.org.uk
  2. ^ Website of the parish of the Scottish Episcopal Churches in Fife. on www.centralfife-episcopalchurches.co.uk ( Memento of May 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ The way to Bantustan. Church and capital protest. The mirror 10/1955
  4. ↑ Brief description on the Michigan State University website
  5. ^ SAIRR : A Survey of Race Relations of South Africa 1959-1960 . Johannesburg 1961, pp. 54-55
  6. ^ South Africa: Out Goes the Bishop . In: Time Magazine, Sept. 26, 1960, Vol.LXXVI No. 13 at www.time.com
  7. ↑ Cottesloe Consultation - The Report of the Consultation among South Africa Member Churches of the World Council of Churches 7-14 December 1960 at Cottesloe, Johannesburg
  8. ^ Bishop Ambrose Reeves resigns. on www.sahistory.org.za
  9. ^ The Anglican Bishop of Johannesburg, Rev. Ambrose Reeves is secretly deported. at www.anc.org.za
  10. ^ SAIRR : A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1959-1960 . Johannesburg 1961, pp. 74, 79, 98
  11. ^ Statement of Reverend Ambrose Reeves at the meeting of the Special Political Committee of the United Nations General Assembly. United Nations, Document A / SPC / 83, spoken October 18, 1963. on www.anc.org.za ( Memento of May 5, 2013 on the Internet Archive )
  12. ↑ on the function of a rector in the Anglican Church see also en: Rector (ecclesiastical)
  13. ↑ Bodleian Library, Commonwealth and African Studies: Cataloging of the papers funded by the Friends of Trevor Huddleston and the Rhodes Trust . Entry: Pratt-Reeves, 1968-77 on www.bodley.ox.ac.uk (English)
  14. ↑ Entry Shelfmark: MSS Huddleston 40 . Marion Lowman: Catalog of the correspondence and papers, 1837-1999, of Archbishop Trevor Huddleston (1913-98) , Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
  15. ↑ Timeline: Father Trevor Huddleston. on www.sahistory.org.za
  16. ↑ ANC award Isithwalandwe to Govan Mbeki and Bishop Ambrose Reeves. on www.sahistory.org.za
  17. ^ Bishop Ambrose Reeves Trust. at www.africanactivist.msu.edu
  18. ↑ Orbituary Bishop Ambrose Reeves. In: Dawn, Volume 5 No. 1, January 1, 1981 pp. 35-37, 47. at www.disa.ukzn.ac.za
personal data
SURNAME Reeves, Ambrose
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Reeves, Richard Ambrose (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British theologian, bishop in South Africa
DATE OF BIRTH December 6, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Norwich , England
DATE OF DEATH December 23, 1980
Place of death Shoreham-by-Sea , West Sussex