A Life Lived on the Front Lines
He was there: on the front lines with Bishop Desmond Tutu, standing beside the oppressed and helping to lead the church against the injustice of apartheid. He was there: serving as chaplain to Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners on Robben Island, carrying prayers and presence into cells designed to break hope. He was there: in Cape Town’s District Six, when the government declared the community a “white area” and tried to drive families from their homes just after he was installed as a young Methodist minister of a church that is now a museum.
Just yesterday, I had the privilege of sitting with Bishop Peter Storey in his home in a Cape Town retirement community. Now in his mid-80s, Storey speaks with the calm gravity and honest emotions of someone who has given his life to Christ’s costly call -- and has seen some of the worst of humanity.
A Methodist minister for more than 40 years, Storey served as President of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa and of the South African Council of Churches (the SACC proved to be a particularly powerful ecumenical voice as churches of varying denominations joined to seek justice). After apartheid ended, President Mandela appointed Storey to the committee that selected the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Later he taught at Duke Divinity School and helped establish Seth Mokitimi Methodist Seminary in Pietermaritzburg.
As several of us talked in his living room over cups of Rooibos tea on Tuesday afternoon, Storey told of the time he and Desmond Tutu were driven into the bush and ordered to be executed. For reasons he still cannot explain, the guards suddenly stopped the execution and instead stuffed the two bishops into a car and drove them to the border. Once they were back in their own car and on the road to Cape Town, Tutu insisted that they pray and began offering his emotional thanks to the Lord for their survival -- a fervent prayer with his eyes closed as he drove 85-kilometers-per-hour. As Storey recalled, "the Methodist minister in the car" (Storey himself) calmly held the wheel to keep the car on the road as Tutu continued his ardent prayer.
As Storey pondered what the church needs most today, particularly in our alarmingly tumultuous times in the United States, Storey offered four ways to ensure that we are living God's call on our lives:
Tell the truth – speak clearly and courageously, even when it is costly.
Seek the poor – be present in solidarity with those who are pushed aside, even if it means driving to where they are and seeking them out.
Choose suffering – understand that following Jesus is never pain-free, but suffering refines and deepens our witness.
Live simply – resist the consumerism of the world so that our lives remain uncluttered and available for God’s purposes.
Bishop Tutu spent countless hours in prayer, Storey remembered, and each time he emerged after hours or sometimes days of private prayer, Tutu's resolve was firm. Prayer gave Tutu a backbone of steel, Storey said; prayer made him a dangerous man.
I am in Cape Town through October 4, guiding my doctoral students alongside our Portland Seminary faculty. The history here is raw and recent, and conversations like this one remind us that discipleship is never an abstraction; it is lived out in the grit of history, often at great cost.
Storey’s four imperatives are not only for South Africa; they are for us, right here in our community. Where do you need to speak truth? How can you move closer to those who suffer or struggle? What might it mean to accept hardship as part of your faith journey? And how can you simplify your life so that Christ is at the center?
Storey expressed deep concern for the direction our country is moving, and he warned that the echoes are all-too familiar of his lifelong battle against apartheid. Faithful witness in a broken world is costly -- and it is not optional. I pray that we, like Storey, take our place on the front lines, trusting Christ every step.