R 071524Z NOV 08
FM AMEMBASSY PRETORIA
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 6381
INFO AMCONSUL CAPE TOWN

UNCLAS PRETORIA 002474 
 
 
FOR S/ES-CR (NATALIE CHAGNON), S/ES-O, AND AF/S 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPDC PREL OVIP SF
SUBJECT: CONGRATULATORY MESSAGE FROM ANGLICAN ARCHBISHOP OF 
CAPE TOWN, THABO MAKGOBA 
 
REF: STATE 118192 
 
As requested in reftel, Post passes the following letter of 
congratulation to President-elect Barack Obama from the 
Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Cecil Makgoba. A 
scanned copy of the original letter will be forwarded via 
email; no original has been provided. 
 
Begin text: 
 
Dear President-Elect Obama 
 
On behalf of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, I offer 
my warmest congratulations on your election as President of 
the United States of America, and assure you of our prayers 
as you take up office. 
 
As South, and Southern, Africans, we are more than conscious 
of what it means to strive to overcome historic divisions 
based on no more than the colour of one's skin - a matter 
over which one has no choice. Yet our contemporary world is 
still plagued by far too many unjust divisions, not least of 
poverty, that are too often encountered as accidents of 
birth, yet still perpetrated and maintained by the continuing 
choices of those with power and influence. 
 
Therefore, as we rejoice with you, we also offer you the 
challenge to build the 'bonds of affection' across division, 
to which you referred in your acceptance speech, not only 
within America, but across the world, and in ways that bear 
tangible fruit. There is no doubt that God has given you 
gifts of inspirational leadership, so we ask you to dare to 
use them to lead the world into a new economic era of justice 
for all, especially those in greatest need, those with least 
power and influence; and to call the whole world into 
covenanting together, for the well-being of the environment, 
the integrity of creation, and the flourishing of every human 
being. 
 
On a personal note, I assure you of my particular prayers for 
you, your wife and your children, being myself also a 47-year 
old married father of two, who earlier this year became the 
youngest occupant of the official residence of generations of 
Archbishops of Cape Town, under the shadow of such 
illustrious predecessors as Desmond Tutu - and so I too know 
a little, albeit on a far smaller scale, of what it is to 
find oneself called to fill shoes that at first seem very 
large indeed, and what this can mean for family life. May 
you, and your family, know God's protection, his love and his 
care, as you make this transition. May he direct you, and 
equip you for all that lies ahead. And may he bless you, and 
make you a blessing not only to your nation, but to our world. 
 
Yours in the service of Christ 
 
Thabo 
 
End text. 
 
BOST