October 2023

The Anglican Diocese of Wangaratta in Australia launched the Communion forest with a wonderful Season of Creation service held in the beautiful gardens  at Bishop’s Lodge.  Bishop Clarence Bester gave every parish and Anglican school an orange tree as a symbol of their commitment to care for creation. A beautiful Season of Creation liturgy was prepared.  Rev Dr Rachel Mash was the preacher and here is her sermon for the day: (Photo credit MIchelle Bester and David Lewis) WANGARATTA SEASON OF CREATION Gen 2: 5-15: Psalm 24: John 3: 16-21: Rev 22: 1-3 Our Scriptures today begin in the garden and what a joy it is to worship God in this beautiful place. This is the hard work and vision of Michelle, Bishop Clarence, Rev Scott and so many that have worked so hard to turn what was a run down garden into this beautiful space   We do not just worship here because it is beautiful. We are choosing to worship outdoors because we believe that God is present in all of creation, not just inside the church building. Today we have chosen to worship in the Cathedral of Creation But Creation is under threat. A few days ago the newspapers told us that  2023 likely to be the hottest year in 100,000 years… The head of the UN tells us that we have moved from the era of global warming to the era of global boiling   In a parish I visited recently  there is a parishioner  who  lost her children and sister and nieces in bushfires. Many people are nervous as  we are entering a bush fire season with undergrowth dry  and now with  el nino we face a hot summer. Not only here, but Canada is burning , the Amazon is burning. If we love our global neighbour, and we care for our children and grandchildren, then God is calling us to act but it seems so very daunting! “I used to think that top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change. I thought that thirty years of good science could address these problems. I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed, and apathy, and to deal with these we need a cultural and spiritual transformation. And we scientists don’t know how to do that ”. Gus speth We need a change of world view – from the current western extractive view of the world “the Earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it.”  Psalm 24 There are two statements of faith at the heart of this psalm. All that is in it is the Lord’s . The first is that every creature belongs to the Earth community. The second is that the entire community belongs to the Creator. Our common home, the Earth belongs to God, and each beloved creature belongs to this common home. We are one of those creatures, we are part of the web of life, and not separate. Genesis 1 tells us that God created us on the sixth day – the wild, animals, the tame animals, the reptiles, the humans and the seed bearing plants.  We don’t even get our own day! It is this wonderful web of life that is being called so very good. The first commandment we are given (Gen 2:15) work the land and look after it. Yes drink the water, eat the fruit, warm yourselves, make your shelter – but look after it!  We have misunderstood God’s commandment to be earth keepers, and become destroyer of the earth The earth is the Lords. This challenges every political leader ., every farmer who puts pesticides on his crops and grows mono crops.. Every multi-national corporation. Every builder who builds houses without even space for a tree- for profit – they add house to house till no space is left and you live alone in the land (Is 5:8)   “we have not inherited this earth from our forefathers, we have borrowed it from our children” in fact we have stolen it from our grandchildren. Whether we bought our land, or our ancestors took the land – our western way is to say – the land is mine The land belongs to me – but the Biblical and Indigenous view is that the land does not belong to us, we belong to the land , the land belongs to God. Rather than being keepers of the Earth – made in the image of God and so co-creators, restorers and renewers, we have taken control of the Earth – and seen it as a resource to be used and discarded, rather than seeing the inter- connectedness that we are a part of the web of life on which we depend. What must we learn? It is not only humans that praise God – it is the whole web of life – Choir of all creation Ps 148 Praise the Lord from the earth,     you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, 9 you mountains and all hills,     fruit trees and all cedars, 10 wild animals and all cattle,     small creatures and flying birds, 11 kings of the earth and all nations,     you princes and all rulers on earth, 12 young men and women,     old men and children. All those voices join us to praise God – and the sadness is that this great choir of Creation that we worship with is being silenced. A priest in Melbourne told me he used to camp in the Grampians and they would hear the koalas at night. And when he takes his kids now they no longer hear them..   We need to recognise that Creation is sacred – The early church taught that there are two books of God – the first “book” of Creation and the second written book, the Bible.  . in Romans 1:20-21 for since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what

The Diocese of Free State GBFS held their annual conference from the 6th – 8th of October at the Anglican Church of Grace in Welkom They invited the Green Anglicans champion  Oratile Mochochoko to give a presentation on Championing Sustainable Environmental Practices and the importance of Tree planting Present were Chaplain: Fr Koma.Archdeacon: Fr Albert Lekama.Eco-Champion: Oratile Mochochoko.GBFS: President,Mrs N Tlali. At the end of the Conference a tree was planted as part of the Communion Forest #Communionforest #treeplanting  

Anglicans Ablaze 2023 was eagerly awaited as it was the first time to be held face to face since COVID.  People arrived in their numbers from across Southern Africa, SA, Lesotho, Eswatini, Namibia and also from Botswana and a large delegation from Zambia! Green Anglicans were full of fire, as many young people had been together for two days of Climate justice bootcamp run by Climate Yes!(youth ecumenical summit) just before Anglicans Ablaze. We ran two plenaries one for youth and one for adults on the topic of Women and the Environment. Both sessions began with a moving tribute to the work of the late  Bishop Ellinah Wamukoya for her passion and leadership in this area. The tribute was read by Lulama Ntuta with images beautifully prepared by JP Roberts Then Nonku Mudau led an intergenerational panel of Rev Dr Rachel Mash, Dr Lisa Adjei (Christian Aid) and Mvumikazi from the Diocese of Mzimvubu. They talked about the impact of climate change on women( they must walk further for water, are more at risk of domestic violence when food prices rise, and are more vulnerable to disaster – because of social norms women wear longer clothes and are not used to climbing trees, they also are more likely to be looking after children or the elderly, so cannot flee). But women are also the solution – for instance in the area of deforestation – women are more likely to value the biodiversity of a forest – for food, healing, fuel, clean water and shade, whereas men might see it more for short term commercial gain. Young women prophetic voices are also rising in Africa such as Uganda Vanessa Nakate and Kenyan Liz Wathuti who addressed the bishops at Lambeth Dr Lisa talked about the actions of advocacy that are needed – we have to change our personal lifestyle as well as challenge corporates and politicians. Then Mvumi shared about community actions that young people can take – showcasing a beautiful bag she had made from recycling plastic bags! Across Anglicans Ablaze many people were modelling the brand new Green Anglicans tshirts with bible messages ” God so loved the cosmos” “The Earth is the Lord’s” and “The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations” designed by JP Roberts Several break out sessions were run: Dr Lisa addressed the issue of Climate justice advocacy – chaired by Bino Makhalanyane and JP . Rev Rachel Mash was joined by Rev Thokozani Heathway  and Rev Ngube (video from Namibia) to discuss the impacts of climate change  – the devastating floods in Durban and the drought in Namibia, she shared practical ways that Anglicans can care for creation and preach the good news to all of Creation! The session was MCed by Bino Makhalanyane. Photos by Mandisa Gumada and Mel Awu (both Green Anglicans!)

Climate Yes! Bootcamp – Johannesburg. Forty young people from South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Botswana and even as far as Zambia met together for two days of non stop bootcamp on Climate Justice We first considered the impacts of Climate change on our own selves. Dr Lisa Adjei – global chair of Climate yes! asked us to say what are we seeing which is different, what are we hearing which is different – which really brough the reality home Next we did  a community mapping exercise – looking at environmental challenges in our communities, a vibrant session led by Bino Makhalanyane Rev Rachel Mash led a session on what the Bible tells us about the climate, reminding us that Noah was the first ‘climate activist’ telling people the rain was coming – many thought he was crazy and yet he saved humans and all of biodiversity Makhutso from Swaziland explained how to get involved with the Conference of Youth at the different levels from national to continental gatherings. Ashley from ACT Ubumbano shared about  movement building – how we can learn from our mistakes and Nonhlanhla from PACJA shared Adaptation and Mitigation We then looked at the actions and beliefs of different groups of people such as clergy, school kids, business people, politicians and how best we can communicate with them about climate justice. This ended with a hilarious acting out of the different actions! Each day we started with a powerful contextual Bible Study led by Dr Lisa using the principle of See, Judge, Act. Firstly to look at the passage – what words or images jump out at you, then ‘judge’ what does this passage teach us in terms of climate justice, and thirdly ‘Act’ what actions can we take. We then moved into more action planning, starting with the Problem tree – looking at the issues such as waste or air pollution and identifying the root causes of the problem as well and the results  this helped us to the then identify the actions that we could take in our own communities to combat these issues. We learned about the Biblical basis of advocacy and then did a very powerful exercise called the ‘Goldfish bowl” where church leaders, politicians and community leaders held a noisy town hall regarding an environmental challenge – lots of shouting and nobody listening to each other made us realise how hard it is to speak up! An exciting session was led by JP Roberts on using social media – where we learned to make small videos and also posters. We had an important visit from the Dep of Environment who shared about the COP process and how young people can have a say in the months leading up the negotiations. Our final night a fun creativity evening was held with an environmental theme where poems and songs on the climate justice theme were presented. The last day it was sad to say goodbye to new friends and Rev Rachel commissioned us to go out into the world and be the change we want to see! The whole bootcamp was interwoven with music, friendship and laughter Amos 5: 23-24 says :  Away with the noise of your songs!   I will not listen to the music of your harps.  But let justice roll on like a river,     righteousness like a never-failing stream! But when songs of worship come together on the theme of climate justice then we can begin to build a river of justice together We are grateful for the support of Climate Yes! Anglican Overseas Aid, Act Ubumbano and PACJASA for this wonderful bootcamp