Did we really say sorry?

I would highly recommend Alexander Venter and Trevor Ntlhola’s book “doing Reconciliation” on this topic. In Chapter 4 they discuss “Facing our Apartheid history.”

They note the following on “saying sorry”,

“How did the churches respond to the TRC? In June 1997 a handful ecumenical and evangelical leaders, including a few respected Afrikaners, sent an Open Letter to 12 000 pastors and leaders of Christian organizations in SA. It was a general letter of confession for pastors and churches to acknowledge their failure during the apartheid era. Only 610 signed and returned it, and this was submitted to the TRC on 15 November 1997. This poor response must be put into context. Thirty four official submissions were made to the TRC by denominations and Christian organizations, many obviously speaking for thousands of individual pastors and congregations. This must in turn be seen against the backdrop of the 1800 church denominations in SA, excluding Christian organisations. The church’s response was disappointing.p.119