August 2016

WE ARE KILLING GOD’S CREATION, WE ARE KILLING OURSELVES   The Dioceses of Lebombos (Mozambique), Swaziland, St Mark the Evangelist and Mpumalanga gathered together for  a Green Anglicans Cluster meeting to discuss strategies, successes and challenges, and to plan the way forward for their Dioceses. Sheena Pereira from the Diocese of St Marks (Limpopo) shares her experiences: As a first time attendant of the Green Anglican meeting, I realized just how much harm we are doing to this environment and the earth. Travelling to Mpumalanga from Limpopo I saw just how beautiful the scenery in the world and in our country is and I thought to myself – What will be left to view if we do not look after the earth – what will my kids and generations thereafter view if I don’t look after the environment I live in. I met up with amazing Green Anglicans from within the cluster (Diocese of St Mark the Evangelist, Lebombos,  Mpumalanga and Swaziland) who shared their experiences, challenges, achievements and future plans. We discussed ways to involve clergy and youth, how to do income generation through environmental projects,  how to get our government involved and what are our plans when we return to our diocese amongst other topics.  I was very encouraged and motivated by the Diocese of Lebombos and Swaziland as they have so many challenges in their surrounding areas and yet they are making a change. The highlight for me was the Saturday morning doing Morning Prayer on top of the mountain. The serenity and peace was so overwhelming and beautiful on the one side, but turning to the other side you see so much of air pollution.  I was deeply hurt to see that we as human are not only killing God’s creation (meaning animals and plants) but we are also killing ourselves. I hope to continue learning more from others in the Diocese, Cluster and the Province and to start working with the Diocesan Environmental  team, especially the youth from the Diocese of St Mark the Evangelist, to run all sorts of campaigns from animal poaching, to planting trees, to having a cleanup day. Christ Church Cathedral, where I worship, will be using the seasons of Creation in their Sunday School curriculum this year and I  hope this continues in years to come. This is one way in which we can teach children from a young age about the importance of the environment. I am very thankful, honored and blessed to now be part of the Green Anglican community and look forward to share my knowledge and ideas with others in my church and community.

  The Diocese of Free State celebrated their annual family weekend from the 26th to 28th of August 2016. With various environmental challenges facing province, including water shortages, the weekend was themed to raise awareness across the diocese about care for creation.  As a most attended event in the diocese, the family weekend was a perfect space for the Bishop to share with his diocese about earth keeping. The Green Environmental Weekend was organised by a diocesan task team, one of them being Thapelo Mabule, who saw  the success of the event throughout the weekend, working tirelessly to achieve the goal of earth keeping. And this is his reflection: We were at the priory from Friday till Sunday with a passion and well organised environmental program for the weekend. We planted 153 trees around the farm commemorating the 153 years of the existence of our Diocese. Provincial Green Anglicans  and its ambassadors in Diocese of Pretoria graced the event to motivate help and congratulate the diocese of Free State for making the environmental issues their issues as well. Among others we had a river clean up session as well as the heritage walk around the farm reflecting on our history Saturday commenced with a clean-up in area and clearing of the river which homes Mantsopa well, finishing the day with a very big tree planting ceremony, where different parishes and guilds planted trees and vowed to look after them.   The Sunday service took place outside, next to the well-known Mantsopa Cave, Bishop Steve Dintoe preached about our role in taking care of God’s earth, dismissed the congregation on top of the cave and closed the ceremony by planting and blessing a tree.

The worlds largest antelope have been gone for two centuries but they are back in Cape Town at Rondevlei Nature Reserve. Five young Eland have been reintroduced to the Cape Flats, all in a bid to manage vegetation in local nature reserves. It’s an area they roamed 200 years ago, and can now make the scenic Rondevlei Nature Reserve their new home. The initiative  rests with the Cape Town Environmental Education Trust and the City of Cape Town. Dalton Gibbs a member at Christ Church Kenilworth had a dream to reintroduce the Eland and has worked tirelessly to make this dream a reality. They are being reintroduced to combat the bush encroachment that happens when there are no large herbivores. What a beautiful church in creation we experienced at Rondevlei, as the rainbow came forth in between the rain showers. In this wetland, life flourishes in the heart of the city, from fish to birds to hippos. And now the mighty Eland are making this wetland their home. The wetland is truly a source of life. God said, “Let there be a huge space between the waters. Let it separate water from water.”  And that’s exactly what happened. God made the huge space between the waters. He separated the water that was under the space from the water that was above it.  God called the huge space “sky.” There was evening, and there was morning. It was day two.” Gen 1:6-8 Water is like the womb of life. The waters of Gen 1 are interpreted as the dark mystery of God that enfolds all things. Just as in human birth the waters break so that life can come forth, in God’s water all that is to be created will appear. St Paul speaks of the one “in whom, we live and move and have our being.” Creation is planted in the waters of God’s life.  The wetland cleanses water and provides a home for new life. What a beautiful symbol of Gods creative water. “May the  water of the wetland remind us of the vitality and vibrancy of the Divine Presence in us – in whom we live and move and have our being”

As a young person of faith , what does nuclear energy mean to me? Understanding Nuclear is not only about understanding these big scientific terms, but it needs to be understood in terms of its effects on communities. The countries has turned a blind eye to the fact that Nuclear energy is not “clean  energy” due to its hazardous form. Once fuel has been used-it cannot just be disposed of since it is radioactive and dangerous. All the focus is based on profits; governments paint this most beautiful picture of profits that will be gained, and yet if things go wrong either financially or environmentally, then  it becomes the public’s loss. Think about this: for this country to build nuclear plants it is estimated that it will cost  one trillion rand, this equates to 4 000 times the costs to upgrade President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla residence or  400 times the shortfall the tertiary education sector will experience in 2016 because of the freeze in university fee increases. Wouldn’t it be great if more focus could be placed on sustainable methods of energy? To date 72 renewable energy programmes have been started, they have been built on time, within budget and with no backhanded “brown envelopes” being handed over. They also create many more jobs than nuclear power stations. Let us also think of  health risks and contamination  that are as a result of nuclear, the habitants and inhabitants that are lost in the process. As a young person of faith  I care for the future of God’s Earth  and the future of my children and I say #Nuclear must fall, #renewables must rise. Mollie Jankie  

The Anglican Students of  Namibia Clean up a  Hospital The Anglican Students’ Federation in Namibia (ASFN) hosted their Regional Conference from the 07th-10th July 2016, at Windhoek Multipurpose Youth Center in Katutura Windhoek Namibia. The Conference was under the Theme: Be Strong in Faith, Fight the devil. (1 Peter 5:9). As one of the aims and objectives of the federation, and as per one of its mission statement; which is to serve the needs of students and communities, ASFN visited  Katutura State Hospital to do their outreach activities on the 08th July 2016 during their Regional Conference. Most delegates to the conference took part in this outreach where they went to do Evangelism and Voluntary Cleaning. After some students and the Chaplain ministered to some of the hospital staffs and prayed for all patients and all members of the Hospital, and indeed for good health for our nation at large; students went around the hospital yard singing praise songs and picking up rubbish in the hospital yard, the aim was to keep our environment clean. Glory be to God for all what we have done at this hospital; special thanks to the hospital management for accepting us and for allowing the federation to do their outreach at their premises, and thanks to all ASFers who gave a wonderful picture of the Anglican Students Federation  at this Hospital through their presence, as we look forward to keep our environment clean, building peace and democracy at Southern Africa. Victor H Shikongeni ASFN 4th Chairman

The office of the Green Anglicans facilitated a training for Maitland archdeaconry Sunday school Superintendents on Saturday 30th July 2016 at St Chads, Table View. Children learn better at a very young age, and they do not forget their learnings- so the aim of the workshop was to assist the superintendents on ways to teach the children how to care for creation. 36 participants were present, with representatives from 10 parishes; Good Shepherd(Kensinton), St Oswald(Milnerton), St Anne(Maitland), St Michaels and All Angels(Edgemead), Holy Trinity(Bothasig), St Lawrence(Du Noon), St Stephens(Pinelands), All Saints(Atlantis), St Chad’s(Table View), St Timothy(Facreton). Rev Rachel Mash and Mollie Jankie, the facilitators of the training used Ryan the Rhino as a guideline for the training. This was by far the most interesting group, it was so diverse- from the youngest participant to the oldest and yet their learning was so fun. They made it so easy for the facilitators, their participation and creativity was out of this world. They also got to realize how harmful their daily behaviors can be to the planet At the end of the presentation, participants were given different tasks according to different days of creation; the aim was to test their creativity skills and their level of understanding. Most groups did very well, they owned the activities given to them and it was amazing.