Ncumisa

On the 6-13 November 2022 I had the privilege of attending my very first Conference of Parties COP27 at Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt, under the Christian Climate Observers Programme ( CCOP). This was a very over whelming experience for me as a first timer being in a space full of thousands of people from around the globe, formally dressed up and many meeting areas, with different topics and ideologies, as I struggled to find myself however one of my fellow member of the CCOP27 group David Storer from Scotland said to me “ Never forget to represent and raise the voices of  your people while you are here” , these words kept me going as I would always think of how climate change continues to affect us back at home . This COP is said to be the “Africa COP” and indeed many Africans were in attendance and more over young African Climate Activist taking the stage and asking the important question on why the global north will hear the cry of the global south. Even though this was the African COP it felt to me like our African leaders were not in charge but kept trying the best to beg the global north to commit to resources towards climate finance and adaptation, (even when they only had an African audience in their space). Loss and damage was on  the mouths of all African activist including that of faith groups and civil society calling for those who have mostly contributed to global warming to honour the $100 billion yearly commitments towards climate vulnerable countries. I had an opportunity of attending a panel discussion led by Leah Namugerwa from Uganda with a group of young people, (this panel had two teenagers who looked under sixteen). When the panellists told their stories on how climate change has caused loss and damage in their lives and why they have decided to rise up to the call of being climate activists, one could not ignore the pain of trauma coming from their voices. You then get to ask yourself where then is human rights when kids who are suppose to be in school and allowed to be children are forced into becoming adults because of their pain caused by others. This continues to haunt me and will always be one of my take home pillars to rise and do my bit in combating climate change,  and grow our communities into resilient climate smart communities. To some people,  stories of loss and damage might just be another story told, nice speech and tune but to most of us it brings back the trauma caused by climate change in our communities. The fact that parents had to bury their kids , others were forced to migrate to other areas and be forced into cheap labour just to survive. These are true stories that people are faced with daily, here is South Africa a community in KwaZulu Natal is still living in a community centre since the July floods, kids are forced to go to school and perform at the same rate as those who are still in their homes. The trauma is real, and the faith community needs to create a platform for healing.    On the 12 of November I had the privilege of being part of faith group delegation which met up with the Deputy executive Secretary of UN framework convention on climate change Mr Ovais Sarmad, to hand over a letter of demand from the faith community to COP27, which covered Climate Finance and Adaptation, Human rights and justice amongst other things. A big thank you to the CCOP27 coordinating team, A Rocha International for allowing me to carry their badge, the local and international Green Anglicans movement and to Climate YES which I trust I represented well.

GREEN ANGLICANS SPREADING THE MESSAGE IN WEST AFRICA A group of Green Anglicans from different parts of Africa attended the All Africa Youth Conference in Kasoa, Ghana from the 31st October to 5th of November There were active Green Anglicans from Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Botswana, Rwanda and Uganda  present Over 900 young people gathered at the historic event from 40 African countries. The Theme: Africa my Home, Africa my Future was meant to awaken us to the beauty of Africa and inspire us youth to be active in our own countries. Some of the themes explored are Public Accountability and Anticorruption; Climate loss and damage; Story of the slave castle; Human Trafficking; Silencing the Guns and Gender Justice to mention a few. There were some key discussions on climate justice, namely: Importance of learning about climate issues and effects in our societies How does climate finance reach societies in need and affected Investing in young people and creating green jobs and innovate forms of climate friendly activities Looked at the impact of climate loss and damage and also shared stories from different countries on this PACJA were very active with the entrance of the Climate Torch to the event, and young people from the Climate yes! Youth Ecumenical Summit also took part in the climate justice side events. Some of the key takeaways from the Congress were We committed to contributing to our continents growth and development Be part of policy making structures and hold the government to account for these policies and strategies Be agents of peace in our countries and be involved in conflict resolution and advocate for justice Campaign against GBV Sensitize the urgency to act in issues of climate justice In terms of growing the movement, there was a wonderful opportunity when the Anglicans gathered and the Green Anglicans in particular Lulama Ntuta (Chair of the Anglican Youth of the  Church of Southern  Africa )  and Michelle Nyanyiba (Green Anglicans of Africa rep for West Africa)  had an opportunity to share about the Movement and there was a lot of interest! Ghana – is planning to launch next year and is doing the ground work now to educate and empower members to know about issues of the in environment.  Other countries such as Nigeria were interested in  implementing GA in their countries and need more information sessions and resources. Lulama Ntuta

As Green Anglicans, in celebration of Season of Creation which we celebrated on the 3rd of September 2022, we had hiking at Khalinyanga Mountain, eNgcobo. We chose to climb the mountain where our help will come from, where we would surrender all and let God to be in control of our predicaments and give us strength to be altruistic when it comes to Mother Earth and nature. In accord with the theme “ listen to the voice of creation”, in the middle of the mountain we assembled and prayed for climate change, our communities, the poor, livelihoods affected by habitat distraction and primarily prayed for Mother Earth. As we all climbed we had our burdens, we also individually prayed for ourselves.     We headed to the top of the Mountain, where we had Eucharist Service executed by AYSA chaplain Rev.Msengana in assistance of Rev. N. Mlunguza. Upon the Anglicans we had in our hike, we had children and youth ministry leaders belonging to Mother’s Union, BMMG and St Mary Magdalene. We also had more clergy and people belonging in other religious structures who are not within the Anglican Church. Mrs. Stemele the ward Councilor was also there to share words of wisdom and encouragement before we departed from the meeting point. Mercifully, we had an Environmental Science graduate from our Diocese, who emboldened us to precisely look out of nature, she shared some significance of doing so, that:  It is where we get our resources  It is our moral of obligation  It is a way to give back, as almost everything we get it from nature.  We have to take care of it for future generations  What we do to nature affects ourselves so we have to look after it.  She also encouraged us to consider going for environmental studies as we will not be doing for only ourselves but also for Mother Earth. by:  Anglican Youth of Southern Africa, Diocese of Mbhashe Balekile Anesipho, Secretary photo credit: khanyiso mkhabile  With Appreciation for the @unitedthankoffering 

THE LEAVES OF THE TREES ARE FOR HEALING The Communion Forest was launched at the Lambeth ConferenceBishop Marajh of the Diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman decided to plant a tree in loving memory of his late father, Daniel Marajh, and his late mother, Caroline Marajh, at St Francis Parish, Kimberley.This was a powerful moment of launching the Communion Forest in the Diocese Rev 22:2 #communionforest #lambethconference#

Lambeth Environment Day “The leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nations” Rev 22:2 The bishops and spouses travelled to Lambeth Palace in London for a day which combined experiencing the beauty of God’s creation with discussing the challenges of climate change On arrival at the beautiful Lambeth gardens they were met with wonderful music from choirs, band and a harp player. They moved through the garden with a series of prayer stations. Over lunch they discussed the environmental challenges being faced, and wrote their commitments and prayers onto leaves, which were then placed on leaves around the garden The Bishops were challenged by three speakers – Archbishop Julio, Bishop Marinez (Amazon) and Liz Wathuti – a powerful young climate activist from Kenya. Her talk can be found here: To launch the Anglican Communion Forest, a beautiful prayer liturgy was held with Archbishop Julio (Panama), Archbishop Thabo(ACSA), Rev Jacynthia Murray (Aotearoa), Bishop Marinez (Amazon) and Mandisa Gumada (ACSA) led us in singing ‘Thuma Mina” – Send me Jesus The team who had worked on the project – Bishop Nick Drayson (N Argentina), Bishop Francisco Duque (colombia),, Bishop Marc Andrus (California), Bishop Graham Usher (UK) Canon Rachel Mash (ACSA) and Elizabeth Perry (UK) joined Archbishop Julio in blessing the symbolic first tree of the Communion Forest Bishops are encouraged to include tree growing in their liturgies of confirmation, baptism, marriage and other events – as well as embarking on reforestation and forest protection projects in partnership with others. More information can be found at https://www.communionforest.org/ Even in the beauty of the gardens we felt the impact of climate change in the burnt grass, the participants were overheating in the sun – many tried to shelter under the trees – which reminded us that we all want to stand in the shade- not everyone wants to plant the trees! May the leaves of the trees be for the healing of the nations! Photo credit – lambeth Conference