“Ubuntu […] speaks of the very essence of being human. [We] say […] “Hey, so-and-so has ubuntu.” Then you are generous, you are hospitable, you are friendly and caring and compassionate. You share what you have. It is to say, “My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours.” We belong in a bundle of life. We say, “A person is a person through other persons.”
[…] A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed, or treated as if they were less than who they are.”
Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
For our upcoming worship year at Epworth (September 7, 2025 – August 30, 2026), our theme is Ubuntu (all of the U’s are long, so it’s pronounced, oo-BOON-too), a South African word that recognizes the interdependance on human community of individuals within the community. The phrase, “I am because we are,” gets close. Munhu munhu nevanhu “We are because of all our relations” is another way of putting it. In the Christian faith, we express this truth of our humanity primarily in the symbol (and experience in) the Body of Christ, in which we are members of each other as we experience life in Christ together.
I love the way the New Living Translation renders Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus: “As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love” (Ephesians 4:16).
