The First Plenary Assembly was held in 1984 in Zimbabwe. See the stories on our website about that plenary.
The Second Plenary Assembly with the theme, If you want Peace, work for Justice, also took place in Zimbabwe, this time at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare, from 2-10 September.
The Assembly ended with a meeting with the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, who made a pastoral visit to Zimbabwe, celebrating Mass with the Bishops of IMBISA and the people of the region in Harare. This fulfilled the longstanding wish of the bishops of IMBISA to have the Holy Father grace and bless their regional organisation.
It is a source of great joy for me to meet once more the bishops of the Church in Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, São Tomé e Príncipe, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. It was not possible to include all your countries in this visit. Therefore, I ask you, the bishops from Angola and São Tomé e Príncipe, from South Africa and Namibia, to convey my greetings and blessing to your priests, religious and laity, and to assure them that I look forward to being able to visit each of your countries on some future occasion. I ask you all to pray that the Lord will give me this consolation without too much delay. (Pope John Paul II at the closing ceremony of the 2nd Plenary Assembly of IMBISA at the Dominican Sisters’ Mother House in Harare on 10 September 1988)
The bishops issued a pastoral letter in that assembly, as they did in 1984. In the 1988 pastoral letter the bishops resolved that the Church will work more actively to bring about justice and peace in Southern Africa.
By the time of the second plenary assembly, the IMBISA secretariat was set up in Harare at Bayswater Road. It had only two departments, namely the Department for Social Communications and the Department for Refugees.
Fr. John Coleman, SDB, the first General Secretary of IMBISA and first Director of the Secretariat
In the report to the bishops at the second plenary, the general secretary, Fr. John Coleman, SDB made it clear that the aim of the two departments was to help in animating all the member conferences of IMBISA. Fr. Coleman was closely involved with IMBISA from its start in 1975 and served as general secretary for eight years up to 1988.
His successor Fr. E. Rogers, SJ, started his work with new title, Executive Secretary, because ‘General Secretary’ was, according to the constitution approved at this assembly, reserved to a Bishop of IMBISA. ‘Director of the Secretariat’ was also a title held by Fr. Coleman that remains to this day.
Sources
IMBISA. 1988. Minutes of the Second Plenary Assembly of the Inter-Regional Meeting of Bishops of Southern Africa: Friday Sept. 2nd to Saturday Sept. 10th, 1988 at the University of Zimbabwe. Harare: IMBISA.
Marizane, Antonio Santos. 2001. A history of the Inter-regional Meeting of Bishop of Southern Africa: from 1974-2001. Harare: IMBISA, pp. 33, 37.
On synodal journey for 50 years
In celebration of the golden jubilee of IMBISA, formed in 1975, we publish snippets of history once a week.