Why church bells should ring beyond 16 Days campaign

CHURCH bells rang in unison, at midday on Friday, from Cape Town to George, Bloemfontein to Mdantsane, crescendoing in Soweto at Holy Cross Anglican Church right over the iconic Hector Peterson Memorial site. 

The church and the memorial site are separated only by a small street as a reminder that wherever there is pain, the church is near to bring a balm of healing, to speak hope in times of doom,  to reconcile during times of division, to lift up the heads of those who are bowed down, to speak life when death visits and to hold up the lamp of God’s word when the truth eludes us.  

The United Reformed Church in South-ern Africa (URCSA) mobilised more than 700 congregations across the country. The URCSA Burgersdorp congregation concluded their bells service by painting their hands on a cloth with the theme “My hand se stop geweld.”

Rev. Mark Manasse, of URCSA Uitenhage, preached: “It is time for men to break the silence. Women have been screaming from the rooftops. The people who should remedy the situation should be men.”

In a moving sermon, he exhorted the men to take a stand, because the call of the church is to stand for jus-tice. He said the ringing of the bells represented taking a stand with God against a system that says men must oppress women. He said it is sons and brothers who have been abusing their sisters, aunts, and mothers, and therefore it is men who should take a stand.

At St Peter’s in Mowbray, Cape Town, Craig Stewart has been participating in the ringing of the church bells to end GBVF since the campaign started in 2022. Last Friday was no different. Last year, Western Cape churches participated in numbers led by Rev Can Andrian Gordon. This year, he was on Sabbatical which impacted the reach of the bells campaign in the Western Cape.

This time the reverends rang church bells to stand with victims of Gender-Based Violence, to repent on behalf of broken masculinity, to say we can no longer continue as normal while GBVF continues to end lives too short. 

These were the prayers and words of Venerable Fr. Kagiso Molefe of the Holy Cross and Reverend Storia Seitisho of the Methodist church. In a commendable show of unity of spirit which should spread across the nation, the Anglicans and Methodist churches united rather than competed. 

Rev Seitisho lamented painful incidents of young people committing suicide, mental health and GBVF that are affecting their own communities in Soweto. She said, even in Vilakazi Street, the only street in the world with two Nobel Peace Prize winners, there is pain.

In Mdantsane, the church bells gathering was held at Holy Cross Anglican Church, as it has been since 2023.

What was different this year was that the Ringing of the Church bells became a part of the Beyond 16 Days coalition in partnership with South African Women In Dialogue (SAWID). The Beyond 16 Days campaign seeks to make every day a safe day, not just the 16 days marked on the United Nations calendar. Beyond 16 Days campaign includes the private sector as one of the key players. The 365-day campaign is designed for the next 5 years rather than the UN global 16 days.

This will address the culture of GBVF in the country. Focusing on prevention can reduce GBVF within the next 5 years as all stakeholders and activists work in a coordinated fashion for effective impact rather than working in silos.

The Ringing of Church bells draws attention to the role of spiritual leaders and the healing that can be accomplished at church through prayer and acts of social justice.

 This time, churches drew significant leaders and activists who honoured the ringing of Church Bells across the country. Groups such as Thursdays in Black who include women, youth and men against GBVF,  Ambassador Bardill, founder of Beyond 16 Days Coalition and Member of Parliament, Nobuntu Hlazo-Webster attended.

Hlazo-Webster of BOSA recently proposed the Fair Pay Bill in parliament that pushes for closing the gender pay gap. Women earn 30% less than men in the same jobs. This speaks to a society that undervalues women which is not unrelated to other manifestations of devaluing women which can result in acts of GBVF. 

Hlazo-Webster participated because she values the spiritual work of the church in the country because everything begins in the spirit before it becomes material.

 In Bloemfontein, significant leaders from St Peter Anglican Church, Department of Social Development, Department of Education, Bramfischer Community Services Center all gathered at St Peter’s Methodist Church with Rev. Thulo and Thoko Nogabi who lead Basadi Buang.

The growing participation of leaders around the nation from parliament to ambassadors and provincial departments who are joining in for a ringing of the church bells service is a positive sign that Gender Based Violence and Femicide will come to an end.

If leaders do not care then nothing will change but when they respond, there is hope for material change in the lives of people. It means that the sound of the bells is being heard. The cries of victims are not being ignored. The ringing of church bells takes place yearly at midday, 12 o’clock,every 12 December. 

There are various campaigns such as the red chair campaign that are used by churches to speak about GBVF. We must campaign and pray for the end of GBVF in a thousand ways until there is change. Sometimes it takes one decisive leader to make a difference to their community. My grandfather, AK Boyce, was such a man in the village of Dutyini. Any woman who was abused brought their case to him and the incident would never repeat itself again.

The reading and singing of the 1927 prayer of Enoch Sontonga and S.E.K. Mqhayi was the highlight of many who attended the ringing of the bells last Friday. It was a revelation. Some lamented how such a powerful national prayer could be erased from memory. Well, the Church Bells have brought those words back to the nation’s memory. We will pray them and sing them again.

 Dlanga has been campaigning for churches to ring bells to raise the alarm and call for the end of GBVF since 2022. She is also a writer.