John-Paul Roberts

On the 22nd April the world celebrated Earth Day an annual event to demonstrate support for environmental protection. The official theme for 2023 is “Invest In Our Planet”, and in response to this the Diocesan Environment Group of the Diocese of Cape Town launched a campaign calling all parishes to plant trees for the special day, either on the day, the Sunday or in the week thereafter. This campaign fell inline with the global Anglican Communion Forest initiative which seeks to significantly increase Anglican tree growing and landscape protection around the world and deepen care for creation within the life of the Church. So, through the Diocesan office a letter and registration pledge were sent out across the Diocese to have parishes sign up to choose a tree that they would like to plant. This initiative was supported by the Department of Environment, Forest and Fisheries who donated the trees for their new homes. There was a great response from churches for trees as 26 trees were ordered for collection while some churches opted to plant their own trees. Starting from the 17 April parishes were able to collect their trees from St Paul’s in Bree Street. There were a few options that churches could choose from White Karee, Cypress, and Spekboom. We are so grateful to Ann House at UCT and the Children’s Library in Philippi who also joined the initiative and planted trees.   A liturgy was also prepared by the Green Anglicans Office compiled by Rev Rachel Mash for clergy to use in the blessing of the tree before/or after planting. This served as a means of connecting the tree planting with our faith. Rev Isais and Rev Abigail could be seen blessing their trees before planting them in the week. We also saw the young people getting involved on the day with the children of St Michael’s All Angels and St Patrick’s Crawford creating artwork to commemorate the day. The young people of All Saints Lansdowne joined Rev Eugene in planting their spekboom in the rain as they were showered with a little bit of rain which never dampened their spirits.  We again just want to thank the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries for the donation of plants. To the parish of St Paul’s Bree Street which allowed us to use their hall as distribution centre for the tree collection. To all the parishes that pledged to plant a tree for Earth Day. What a blessing it is when we can give back to Mother Nature and take care of the Earth that God has granted us stewardship over. If you would in response to this initiative also still like to plant a tree in your church premises please contact Rev Shaun, the Diocesan Environmental Coordinator. John-Paul Roberts    

On the 19th of March 2023 the Cape Town Diocesan YPM hosted a hike, Table Mountain. Where the motivation was to bring the Young people of the Diocese together. The hike event was attended by organisations with or under the Diocesan YPM structure also including the ANSOC of the 3 Universities in the Western Cape.  We received a homily from our Diocesan YPM Coordinator, Jesse Pastor in the Transfiguration passage, Matthew 17 V1-9, where we were reminded that whenever we face some challenges and tribulations as Young People it is important that we have some time alone.  The perfect place to gather yourself as a person is the mountain as you will get time to retreat and reboots to your full capacity, as Christ has demonstrated in many passages in the Gospels. It is indeed a reality that we as young people are dealing with a lot in our daily lives and being in peace and silence and connecting with nature is very important.  Such gathering are important for the young people so that we are able to distress from situations that we are facing and connect with ourselves. Fun was had, moments of laughter was shared on the journey of going up, for some it was the first time hiking, and it was not an easy journey however the support amongst the group was exceptional and as a result everyone made it without any injuries. Article by Sivenathi Mabena