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CLERGY WOMEN’S CONFERENCE – TO GROW A MOVEMENT, HEAR THE VOICES OF YOUNG WOMEN For the past few years, the women clergy of the three Dioceses of Saldanha Bay, False Bay and Cape Town have gathered for a yearly conference to be renewed, encouraged and get to know each other. This year Saldanha Bay hosted the Conference on the theme of “take time to be a butterfly” (Gillian Duce) with the support of Green Anglicans After a fun ice-breaker, we divided into small groups for a time of ministry , sharing our dreams for the year ahead. Then Margie Davidson taught us how to make beautiful flowers from recycled pew leaflets. St Stephens had started doing this during the Capetown drought and the flowers are very beautiful and water wise! During a lovely Eucharist service led by the Saldanha Diocese, Rev Rachel Mash shared about the inspiration of St Agnes whom we celebrated during the week. How to grow a social movement – from a mustard seed to a great tree 31 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” St Agnes was a 13 years old martyred in Rome , a church built over her and bones venerated. A beautiful  girl from a wealthy family who  refused to marry so her suitors reported that she was a christian and she was condemned to death. According to legend several men tried to rape her but were struck blind In the story of Agnes the opposition is not between sex and virginity. The conflict is between a young woman’s power in Christ to define her own identity versus a patriarchal culture’s claim to identify her in terms of her sexuality. According to the view shared by her “suitors” and the state, if she would not be one man’s wife, she might as well be every man’s whore. Failing these options, she might as well be dead. Agnes did not choose death. She chose not to worship the gods of her culture. …Espoused to Christ, she was beyond the power of any man to ‘have his way with her’. ‘Virgin’ in this case is another way of saying Free Woman.[9]   What is the power of young women? I want to start with two sisters from Bali. When Melati and Saseh Wijsen two sisters were 10 and 12, they had a lesson at School about significant leaders: Gandhi, Mandela etc. All men. They went home and said we want to do something significant. What can we do? Bali is an Island paradise but clogged with plastic. They decided to get the plastic bag banned. Started Bye Bye Plastic bag campaign in 2013. They decided to get 1 million signatures . after about 1000 they realised we hadn’t quite twigged one million  is 1000 x 1000 that is a lot! So they decided to go to the airport, nagged and  nagged, used cuteness factor and got permission to stand by immigration. They got their 1 million and  sent the petition  to the governor, while they were on holiday in India. He did nothing. Inspired by visiting Gandhi’s house they decided to go on a hunger strike.  You can imagine  the parents response!  So they got them down to fasting every day between sunrise and sunset. Huge social media response On day two the police came to their school they thought they were being arrested. Taken to governor who said I will do something. I will ban the bag in 2018. Lots of other organisations got on board – visual images of sea plastic were going viral. On the 24th of Dec the president announced a ban on single use plastic..   Greta Tunborg 15 year old from Sweden. 1st of September. Last year Sweden had its hottest summer in the last 262 years with heatwaves and widfires. Greta Thunberg 15 year old decided to go on strike from school until the general election on 9th Sep to draw attention to the climate crisis.  A small girl with pigtails , She started to sit alone on the cobblestones outside parliament handing out leaflets saying : “I am doing this because you adults are shitting on my future.” When people tell her she should be at school, she points to the textbooks in her satchel. “I have my books here,” What am I going to learn in school? Facts don’t matter any more, politicians aren’t listening to the scientists, so why should I learn?” Her parents wanted her to give up her protest but she kept on. Slowly people started joining her. Greta has Asperger’s syndrome, which in the past has affected her health, he says. She sees her condition not as a disability but as a gift which has helped open her eyes to the climate crisis. “The best thing about my protest has been to see how more and more people have been coming and getting involved,” Greta says. “I don’t care if I get into trouble at school. I believe that one person can make a difference.” Nov 30 Climate Change strike – thousands of school students strike across Australia Thousands of schoolchildren across Australia walked out of class on Fridayto demand action by the federal government on climate change. The “Strike 4 Climate Action”, inspired by 15-year-old Swedish student Greta Thunberg, brought together children in capital cities and 20 regional centres The prime minister, Scott Morrison, had earlier this week urged students this week not to take part and told them to be “less activist”. The kids responded with powerful posters When kids make a mess, adults tell us to clean it up and that’s fair. But when our leaders make a mess, they’re leaving it to us to clean up.” Schools have to be parliament when parliament is a schoolyard Make

Theological Students from Lebombos Diocese have a quite day on the beach The retreat for Seminarians took place on  Chizavane beach from the 31st of Jan to 1st of Feb. The retreat marked the beginning of the academic year at the Seminary of Saint Cristopher of Chamanculo Retiro dos Seminaristas na Praia de Chizavane que decorreu dos dias 31/01 a 01/2. O Retiro marcou o início do ano académico do Seminário São Cristóvão de Chamanculo. Foi um momento muito ímpar. Rev Aurelio Simao Uqueio

    “We have traditionally regarded sin as being merely what people do to other people. Yet, for human beings to destroy the biological diversity in God’s creation; for human beings to degrade the integrity of the earth by contributing to climate change, by stripping the earth of its natural forests or destroying its wetlands; for human beings to contaminate the earth’s waters, land and air – all of these are sins.” Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Lent is a time when we prepare our hearts and lives before celebrating the wonder of Easter. It is a time to break free from bad habits that are hurting God, our neighbour and God’s Creation. On Ash Wednesday when we are signed with the cross, the priest will say “Turn away from sin and believe the good news” This Lent we are challenged to turn from the sin of damaging God’s planet and hurting our neighbours by our over use of single use (throwaway) plastic. By 2050 there will be more plastic in the oceans than fish. Plastic is already entering into our drinking water. Plastic clogs our rivers, leaches into our soil and is one of the greatest challenges the planet faces. The good news is that there are alternatives. We can break our dependency on throwaway plastic. This Lent, begin a journey to explore other ways of living , to limit your damage to the Earth and to inspire others. Here is the 40 day calender Final Calender

THE DIOCESE OF ST. MARK THE EVANGELIST COMMISSIONS ITS FIRST ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDS! On the 3rd February 2019, the parish of Letaba Tzaneen in Limpopo celebrated its first milestone towards environmental sustainability. Makwetša Ramusi as the diocesan environmental coordinator visited St. Peter’s Letaba Parish in Tzaneen to commission the Men’s fellowship to become environmental stewards. Ven. Gail Blunden led the service (extracted from Season of Creation) and Makwetša was the preacher. The theme for the service was “Environmental Stewardship’’. In Makwetša sermon from Matthew 21:33-45, he highlighted on the need of people (young and old) who can teach people on how to give back to the environment. He later mentioned what an environmental steward is expected to do, which is: Be a change maker: come up with programmes which congregants can be able to learn more about taking care of the environment. Being an example to the society and the communities we live in. Taking care of the environment just as God is taking good care of us. Advocating for environmental sustainability. After the sermon, 7 men were commissioned, which includes 2 priests (Revd. Ron Reiners and Revd. Mike Blunden). As a sign of being commissioned, they were each given a Green Anglicans pin, which represents taking the responsibility of teaching about the love of the environment. The new stewards as a group, they were given a book titled “Environmental Changes in South Africa” in which they will get to learn more about planting. Also it will assist them in expanding and reviving their herb garden which is in the church yard. Some of the steward even took this as stepping stone to introduce “Farming in God’s way” workshops. Makwetša Ramusi

BUILDING MOVEMENTS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILTY On the 28-30 January Tearfund held a three-day Boot camp on ,Training of Trainers on building movements for environmental and economic sustainability, which saw seven of African countries  (Malawi, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia, Kenya) came together to learn more on how to sustain, and build  the current movements they are  involved with , all this took place  at the Riverside Lodge in Lilongwe Malawi. The camp had a great team of Anglicans including two of our Eco- Bishops, Bishop Johnson from Tanzania and Bishop Vicente from Mozambique. Bino Makhalanyane represented the  Green Anglicans of  Southern Africa. Charles Bakolo from Green Anglicans  Malawi and Rev Sam Sifelani of the Green Church movement represented the Province of Central Africa. It was a great  experience of learning and exchanging on Care for Creation. The camp was facilitated by the UK Tearfund team where the participants were trained on how to build a movement, how to mobilise and organise ordinary people to become agents of change in advocacy work. One of the key things we learned was that we always need to package our message well so that those whom we need to rally with us will understand the vision well. Bino Makhalanyane Green Anglicans Youth Coordinator

St Agnes Lesotho – Cleanliness is next to Godliness      The St Agnes guild in the Diocese of Lesotho had their retreat on the 25th to the 27th January 2019. It was themed “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people” Titus 2:11-15   It is in this service that spiritual purity was hard hammered on; from Rev. Fr. Stephen Manyabeane’s sermon through to the Green Anglicans’ coordinators who were present. Young girls were taught and encouraged to maintain purity and cleanliness.   Our Green Movement environmentalists took it further by stating how incomplete it is to keep a pure body when on the other hand the bigger body, planet earth, which God has put us as stewards of is being ripped off its resources.   The Provincial Green Anglicans Youth Coordinator, Bino Makhalanyane, indicated with several references from the bible that the stewardship of taking care and of protecting our environment including resources is not manmade but it is a command from above. Following the Gospel, following in the footsteps of Jesus, living a faith based life, honoring the word of God and living a clean life are all interrelated with the care we give to our surroundings. It is incomplete to carry out one task living out the other. All these aspects must be done and all touched. Furthermore, it was greenlighted that as human beings we’re bound to fall into the trap of sinning, hence God always offers second chances. Multiple second chances. If we repent from our sins and focus on the future we’re given such a chance. That is the similarity in the environmental lifestyle, the damaged we’ve caused so far can be forgiven if we take a pledge to protect, guard, be responsible stewards, effective disciples of mother earth and to act now. Action to PROTECT, action to EDUCATE, action to RAISE AWARENESS and SENSETISE those who are in the dark. It is the ultimate responsibility of the young people in the church because in the next ten years agricultural production will have dropped by up to 70% as stats state now.   With a very vibrant session, the girls and other present members through the simplest yet effective ways on how to reduce the use of plastic and other products that put the earth in danger. E.g. going to a fast food shop with a personal reusable lunchbox, ask the waiter to prepare the order in that so as to reduce plastic. Say no to straws. Say no to plastic bags. Carry your own reusable groceries bag. Most importantly make these criteria trend all over social media platform carrying common hashtags #SayNoToSingleUsePlastic In wrapping; the Diocesan Coordinator Mr. Thupane portrayed that the baton was put in the girls and congregants’ hands to assume responsibility of such. With the already present structures within the church, the task now was put to them to show a buzz of environmentalism within the church and communities they reside in. Guild members, leaderships and all concerned parties have to liaise with one another to make a concrete and sound devotion to the Green Movement in the Church in order to yield more positive outcome.   Green Anglicans Coordinator  Diocese of Lesotho Thupane A. T. Taaso