trial period, and committed themselves to a rule of
prayer, Bible reading, communion and so on.
I had learnt about the AYPA and its principles about 15
years earlier, as a 17-year-old school leaver in a
Johannesburg parish, where I was introduced to other
members and invited to join.In those days of apartheid,
it was one of the few means for black and white youth
to meet and get to know each other.
At the same time I was studying at the University of the
Witwatersrand (Wits), and at the university there was
an Anglican Society (Ansoc) that functioned along
similar lines. It was one of many student societies,
some religious, some sporting, some cultural. There
was a Jewish Society, a Muslim Society, a Catholic
Society, and an ecumenical Protestant one called the
Students Christian Association. The Anglican Society did
have a full-time chaplain, at that time the Revd. Tom
Comber (though he was also chaplain to a girls school),
but the society was essentially run by its elected
committee.
The Catholic Society was affiliated to the National
Catholic Federation of Students (NCFS) and some
members of the Anglican Society thought it would be
good to have an Anglican Students Federation too.
They wrote to Anglican Societies at other universities,
teacher training colleges, theological seminaries and
the like and invited them to attend a conference, held
in July 1960 at Modderpoort in the Free State, which
was more or less central to the whole country.
It was the inaugural conference of the Anglican
Students Federation, meeting at Modderpoort in the
Free State in July 1960, the coldest time of the year, and
the coldest place in the country.
shooting. For most of the students, aged 17-25, it was
the first time in their lives that they had spe nt a week
eating, sleeping, praying, singing, worshipping,
discussing and arguing with people of different races,
and seeing that what held them together, when the
world outside would drive them apart at gunpoint, was
Jesus.
About 60 students from various parts of the country
attended the week-long conference, and every day
there were a couple of
speakers. The speakers had
“The Anglican
been invited by the Wits Ansoc
Students’ Federation committee, and each read a
was youth ministry, paper, which was followed by
done by the youth, for small group discussion, usually
the youth.”
on questions formulated by
the speaker. It opened with Bill
Burnett (then known as
Bendyshe), the Anglican Bishop of Bloemfontein,
speaking on “The theological roots of Anglicanism”. Fr
Victor Ranford, SSM, spoke on “Empirical knowledge
and revealed truth”. Brother Roger, CR, spoke on
“Pilgrims of the Absolute”. Alan Paton spoke twice, on
“Christianity and communism” and “Ourselves and the
African continent”.
On the last day a business meeting was held, at which it
was decided to form an Anglican Students Federation
and a provisional committee was elected to draft a
constitution and organise another conference the
following year. Like the AYPA, the university Anglican
Societies were student bodies run by their members,
and the Anglican Students Federation was run by a
committee elected at the annual conference, which
met once or twice a year, and arranged the conference.
The annual conference also elected an ASF chaplain
from among the chaplains present. Most, with the
exception of Wits university and the theological
colleges, were part-time chaplains. Thus there was no
central organisation, no bureaucracy. The Anglican
Students Federation was youth ministry, done by the
youth, for the youth.
The conference was taking place under the State of
Emergency declared after the Sharpeville massacre.
Two of the students were from Sharpeville, and knew
people who had been killed or wounded in the
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