Brotherly Love in the Church

Father Clive McBride is coloured and was, when I met him in Capetown five years ago, an Anglican priest.

He is "coloured" because he is not white, not black, and not Asian - he is a highly educated, fluent man who would fit smoothly and easily into New Zealand society.

But, he is coloured. No chance, therefore, he told me, of enrolling his six-year old son at the premier Capetown Church School for boys, Diocesan College (Bishops).

Why, he asked, in the Anglican church with its ratio of black to white members of 74 to 26, are blacks never asked to write official church publications.

"At Church House in Capetown, there is not one black clerical worker, never has been. In most diocesan administrations only the sweepers and tea-boys are black."

Father McBride told me of the multi-racial ceremonial service held by the church of the province at Hartleyvale Soccer Ground two months before I met him

"We were patronised by being allowed to sit where we liked and enter through any gate we chose for one day only, so that we could pray together where we are never permitted under any circumstances to play together"

As a coloured priest. Father McBride earned less than an Asian or white priest, but more than a black priest in the pecking-order of South Africa, he ranked as better than a black but not as good as an Asian.