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Protect, Preserve and Cherish The Youth of the parish off St Luke’s  (Woodlands Pietermaritzburg) celebrated World Environment Day by planting trees, having discussion about environment and playing games of picking up litter on the 9th June 2018. The theme for the day –  Protect, Preserve and Cherish (Romans 1:19-20) is what drove their enthusiasm. They divided the kids into groups of 4 and each group needed to go into the community and pick up litter. A tree was sponsored and Planted, they named it ST LUKE YOUTH TREE OF LIFE 2018 and had a plaque made. Then they had an OBSTACLE TEAM BUILDING COURSE with 12 stages. That was really fun. After was all was said and done a braai was enjoyed. Dr. Eric joined with Fr. Lindo donating ice cream. Then was ttime to cleaned up, RECAPand close in prayer. Mandisa Gumada Diocesan Yo uth coordinator #greenanglicans #anglicans

YOUTH DAY GARDEN OF HEALING A wonderful celebration was held to mark youth Day (June 16th) at Princess Vlei. Bishop Geoff and Kate Davies started the morning with a short ‘Church in Creation ‘ of prayers and meditation with a message from Bishop Geoff Young people joined in for a morning of planting of healing plants with medicinal and spiritual value to the Khoi and other groups.  A spiral  walk is being developed. This was followed by a walk around the vlei and a pick up of litter. An energetic group pulled out the fast growing water hyacinth. May this place truly become a  place of healing in the lives of those who live in the surrounding communities – a place of hope #greenanglicans #safcei #arocha #churchincreation #princessvlei

MOTHERS UNION EQUIPPED ON ENVIRONME NT CARE IN THE DIOCESE OF SWAZILAND The Anglican Diocese of Swaziland Mothers Union held their annual conference, Ndumiso Malindzisa was invited to talk about environmental care. The MU members were taught a lot about faith based environmental care with the incorporation of science, they were taught on how they can do to reduce the damage done to the environment by human beings. Save the environment as God sent His only son to save us (John 3:16) in addition they were reminded about the first commandment that God gave us which was to take care of the environment (Genesis 2:15). Therefore, we can take care of the environment by being creators just like God as we were created in His image (Genesis 1:26), we create a better environment by planting trees, crops, flowers, healing dongas, remove litter and telling friends about the environment. People are encouraged to use organic farming as mitigation strategy of climate change, though the use of poultry manure from non free range chickens is discouraged as it contains heavy metals which may accumulate in a human body and after some time may cause health problems. Trees/plants are very vital in our lives (Revelations 22:2) since they provide us oxygen and in turn we give them carbon dioxide which means we have a symbiosis relationship with plants, the more we destroy plants the more  the earth will accumulate  carbon dioxide which we cannot live with. It is therefore important that each one of us plant as many trees as possible. For us we can at least plant one tree per year just to show our care for the environment, for every tree you cut please do plant a new one. The women showed enthusiasm towards what was presented to them and they asked questions where they did not understand; on top of that they shared their story on how they collect plastic bags and recycle them by making mats which goes with this year world environment day theme which was, “beating plastic pollution”.  They also make wonder cooking bags as an initiative to reduce the use of energy; they display these items during their talent show and competition annually. After the competition a tree was planted to show their pledge to care for the environment. Ndumiso Malindzisa        

Faith Communities have a key role to play in promoting Adaptation Strategies Around the world Scientists are assessing the impact of Climate Change and helping us to understand what we need to do to mitigate (reduce the impact) and to adapt(build up resilience to the impact). Their work is very important an culminates every five years in the IPCC Assessment report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The last report was the AR 5 (Fifth Assessment report). https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/ which was produced in 2014, and was based on the work of over 8000 scientists. They only look at peer reviewed articles (articles published in journals which have been reviewed by other experts in the field. Scientists are now working on the sixth Assessment report (AR6)  which will be published 2023 in time or the first global stocktake  by the UNFCCC under the Paris Agreement. When one looks at the scientific articles being produced , the role of faith is not very often considered, even though faith can play a large role in behaviour change (mitigation) and faith communities are very strong in the countries most vulnerable to climate change , so can play an important role in adaptation. Last week a large international conference on Adaptation – Adaptation Futures 2018 took place in Cape Town, South Africa. The Green Anglicans had a session on “Faith Based Organisations and Adaptation to Climate Change” looking at the role of Faith Communities generally and the work of the Anglican Church in Southern Africa , with a case study in Swaziland. One of the contributions to the debate, was indeed holding the conference on African soil , where faith communities are very strong. Often NPOs are based in Europe where the role of religion is weaker. At the final plenary they presented the innovations from the conference that would be taken forward for further study and one of them was: “Chapter 7- Faith communities can help with promoting adaptation strategies” This means that this very important subject will be studied further and end up in the final IPCC report. The winning poster at the event was granted to  Julia Davies of the Adaptation at Scale in Semi-Arid Regions (ASSAR). Her poster was based on an upcoming publication, which looks at the role played by tradition and religion in the variable levels of uptake of climate smart agricultural practices among some farmers in the semi-arid, north-central region of Namibia. The research argues that, because traditional norms and religious beliefs play such a pivotal role in agricultural decision making for some Namibian farmers, these value systems should be seen as a key platform through which to promote the dissemination and uptake of climate change information in general, and Climate Smart Agriculture  in particular. “Organisations such as the Green Anglicans, which aims to fulfil God’s call to be Earthkeepers and to care for creation, can play a key role in this regard,” explains Davies. Positioning religious and traditional leaders as climate change ‘champions’, changing the framing of climate change to appeal to cultural values and integrating science with traditional knowledge are all ways in which to bring climate change into religious and traditional narratives. The research will be published later this year in a book entitled ‘The CSA Papers: Investigating the Business of a Productive, Resilient and Low Emission Future’ Mncedisi Masuku our Green Anglican Mncedisi Masuku met at the Adaptation Network last year in Cape Town and Julia heard of the Green Anglicans and was inspired of the role of faith community in Climate change Adaptation. Thank you to Julia for such a good research. As Green Anglicans we hoping for more research to harness the role of faith community in Climate change Adaptation #greenanglicans #adaptationfutures #safcei #tearfund #wcc

Here is the high resolution Africa Tree Image Africa Tree T_shirtVEC (1)

Green Anglicans at the Adaptation Futures Conference   Adaptation Futures is the world’s premier conference on climate change adaptation. 1300 scientists, practitioners, business leaders and policymakers from around the world are connecting to learn and inspire. Adaptation Futures 2018 aims to facilitate dialogues for solutions between key actors from diverse perspectives and regions.   This is the first time the conference is held on the African continent. The Goal is to use this setting to foreground developing country adaptation issues and increase developing world and African participation.   Rev Dr Rachel Mash (Provincial Environmental Coordinator) and Mncedisi Masuku (Diocese of Swaziland – Eswatini) presented a session on the Role of Faith Based Organisations in Adaptation.   Rev Rachel presented on the reasons why the faith communities have an important role to play in Adaptation (full text below) and Mncedisi shared about the projects in the Diocese:water harvesting, food gardens, tree planting, rocket stoves, wonder bags etc   The key points of all the sessions are being collated for possible inclusion in the IPCC report on the Africa chapter #greenanglicans #AF2018   FULL TEXT OF SESSION   The role of Faith Based Organisations in Adaptation THE ROLE OF FAITH BASED ORGANISATIONS IN ADAPTATION “I used to think the top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change. I thought that with 30 years of good science we could address those problems. But I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy… …and to deal with those we need a spiritual and sculptural transformation and we scientists don’t know how to do that.” Gus Speth, former advisor to Bill Clinton   Do Faith based organisations have a role to play in adaptation to Climate Change? Everywhere you go in Africa from the smallest village to the largest city there are churches and other faith groups. Can the social and spiritual power of the Churches and other faiths in Africa be harnessed to combat climate change? There is no doubt that faith based organisations have a great potential to have an impact.   Faith based organisations have a high standing in the community and are in touch with the local culture and local leadership. Churches and mosques are able to work effectively in the community, since there are faith communities in each community, with infrastructure, a potential pool of volunteers and an ethic that calls for transformational actions. Programmes can be developed at the local level and according to local culture. Faith communities are accessible. They are to found in the most remote rural village, in the poorest peri-urban community and in the wealthiest suburb. Projects based in faith communities are affordable. Members are often motivated by their faith and willing to volunteer their time and resources. This avoids the set up costs that an external organisation would have to spend. They tend to be pro-poor and will allocate resources towards the marginalized. Faith communities often have access to resources such as a meeting place, kitchen, toilets etc.   Faith communities are acceptable: they are locally based with well understood norms and values; and they have a high level of acceptability, sometimes higher than state or foreign organisations. They are well grounded and deeply conversant with local culture. Religion promotes a culture of respect for the sacredness of life, which is radically undermined by environmental degradation. They inspire levels of trust and confidence unmatched by government or secular organisations, so they have the potential to mobilise communities into action   Faith communities can have a positive role in facilitating behaviour change. They have a large constituency and often a ‘captive audience’ on a weekly basis. This leads to opportunities for information and teaching. The Scriptures of all major religions have key texts on being stewards of the Earth and the moral dangers of greed and abuse of the poor and the earth.   However there are many challenges to getting faith based organisations involved in adaptation programmes.   Churches and religious leaders are very busy with church matters, there is limited time and staff to run projects. Some question whether the environment should be added to the social justice agenda of the church. There seem to be so many “far more urgent” issues such as poverty, unemployment, education, housing, AIDS and crime?   Other challenges are theological; – Many Christians feel that the church should primarily be concerned with the message of individual salvation and evangelism. Our relationship with God is more important than “secular issues” such as the environment. Others believe that the Earth has been given to us by God to use as we desire. A favorite verse is Genesis 1:26, “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over it.”   Some Christians believe that material possessions are a sign of God’s blessing. God wants us to prosper at all costs, even at the cost of the environment. There is a big movement in churches called the Prosperity Gospel that equates prosperity with material consumption.   And finally some Christians are worried about environmentalism being “New Age”. They are afraid of a shift towards pantheism (the belief that nature is divine) or paganism.   So let us turn to examine a case study of one Church which is having an environmental impact.   The Anglican Church of Southern Africa comprises of six countries: South Africa, Swaziland, Angola, Mozambique Lesotho and Namibia. An environmental desk (ACSAEN) was established in and known informally as the Green Anglicans movement. (www.greenanglicans.org). Starting with an environmental spirituality, this has led to practical projects.   What have they done to develop an environmental spirituality – a caring for the whole of Creation? The Anglican Church globally has identified environmental ministry as a core part of its mission. As far back as 1984 the Anglican Church globally identified the Fifth mark of mission “ To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and to sustain and