Ncumisa

The Diocese of Swaziland is putting a twist to this year’s Valentine’s Day. Working with Hlathikhulu Parish located in the far south of the Diocese they have started a vegetable garden put to place. With an environmental spirit shared each time they work in the new garden, they decided to bring the care for creation spirit on Valentine’s Day. Mncedisi Masuku and his team have also agreed to have an Environmental (Green Anglicans) workshop from February 12-14 in the Parish. “We want to equip each other about waste management mainly for the beginning and establish a recycling centre in the church, have a clean-up campaign in the Hlathikhulu town. We will also establish an Eco-Club which will drive the gospel.” On one of their work days at the garden they were joined by the Wilson family who live by care for creation. Mcedisi being on organising team, they are still at a planning phase for the event. Everyone in the diocese is welcome to join this group of young people who are trying to make a difference on environmental issues affecting the diocese. They plan to share ideas, topics that address environmental challenges, theological materials and BIBLE studies to use on the day. Working with young people they will have a number of activities happening on the day including: Drama, poems, and musicals -Mncedisi Masuku

  The young people of the diocese of Pretoria met at St James Soshanguvhe for an environmental day. Starting with a clean-up, the young people went around the local school picking up litter and into the streets surrounding the church. Following that successful exercise, they started a vegetable garden inside the church premises in hope to supply, events and their youth functions with veggies. During lunch time they sat around discussing environmental challenges they are facing in their living areas and what actions could be taken to combat those. They also talked about the obstacles they may face when presenting their ideas in parishes and that’s when the presentation came in handy. The Young Green Anglicans presentation was done and the focus was on theory of change, introducing change of lifestyle and environmental ministry in our churches. We discussed ways of approach and which activities to do when people are starting out. We finished with a plan of action for the youth especially the ones based in Soshanguve. They committed on the following campaigns Clean up Environmental services Vegetable gardens Tree planting Environmental education -Ncumisa Magadla  

A Green Christmas for Gogo Daisy in Swaziland   As the members of Bolomehluko a Social development focussed group, we decided to spend our Christmas day with Gogo Daizy who is now bed ridden and living with her grandson in Manzini  Our aim  focus was to clean her house and yard and share some Christmas time with her and give her a lovely hamper of food..   Since we are a Green Diocese it would not be enough to do social development without  doing something for  the environment when the country is faced with such drought, so this is what we did:   We planted 2 trees (mango and avocado) in her backyard which will later be a source of food and income for the family as well as  reducing their Carbon foot print. While planting the trees we used prayers from Season of Creation on tree planting and a collect on water when watering the tree. Rev. W. Dlamini from Manzini Parish led us in the prayers and blessed the work of our hands. We also prayed for Environmental Justice and those affected by Climate Change using prayers from Season of Creation.   We later presented some food hampers to gogo Daizy and gave her a copy of Season of Creation to cite a prayer and she promised to keep praying Mncedisi Masuku

The Young people of the Diocese of Swaziland held a four day conference as other Dioceses used to do previously. Beginning on the 10th of December 2015 the Diocesan youth gathered at St Michaels Anglican School in Manzini to celebrate their annual conference. Green Anglicans was invited to come and speak to the young people about the importance of environmental ministry in their spiritual life. With more than 450 delegates the conference venue was obviously going to be filled with programs laying on the ground and lots of plastic packets, however with the pre-conference environmental awareness, we had responsible young people that used bins  and other measure that were provided to maintain a clean environment. As the conference progressed we looked at the economy of the country and farming as being a major boost  in Swaziland, the young people vowed to start up food gardens in their homes and parishes as well as educate those who were absent during the conference about being a young Green Anglican .

LESOTHO DIOCESAN YOUTH LAYF GOING GREEEEEEN! The Diocesan Youth of Lesotho gathered in Quting for their annual Youth Conference. A large and very vibrant group of  some three hundred young people gathered to pray, worship, build fellowship and learn together. Some of the visitors to the conference included the Provincial Chair Person Bino Makhalanyane and Provincial Environmental Coordinator – Rev Dr Rachel Mash as well as the Youth Worker from the Diocese of Matlosane,Kgowe Moleme.   Bino challenged the young people to become active citizens by taking part in environmental or social justice projects. The winner of this competition will be presented at provincial Synod next year. More information can be found on xxx Rev Rachel challenged them in three areas : to save water, to reduce, reuse recycle and to plant trees. An exciting competition was held on the theme of “reuse” whereby two teams had to dress up their leader in newspaper and plastic bin bags. The winner was chairperson Simelela  , decided by load clapping!! We were reminded that plastic can stay on this earth for hundreds of year and we do not want the next generation to call us the Plastic People. Rev Mash reminded us that the Earth is the Lord’s and just as we would feel bad if someone threw rubbish in the sanctuary, God feels bad when we throw rubbish in God’s sanctuary  the Earth. To save water, people were grouped into small groups and had to come up with a list of creative ideas on how to save water.  Winners were rewarded with a green Anglicans sticker for their prayer book The chair of the ASF of the Free State explained the importance of tree planting in  Lesotho and how important it is to stop environmental degradation and the formation of more dongas.

MOTHERS UNION –  “WHAT KIND OF WORLD DO WE WANT TO LEAVE FOR OUR GRANDCHILDREN?” A vibrant conference was held of the Provincial Mothers Union of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. Members from each of the six countries represented by  ACSA gathered in Maseru, Lesotho for the 50th Council Meeting. They were blessed to be joined by the World President of the Mothers Union, Lynn Tembey and other representatives from Mary Sumner House (headquarters of MU in London). Rev Dr Rachel Mash brought the environmental challenge to the Mothers Union by explaining the impact of Climate Change on  Southern Africa. The bad news is that Southern Africa is extremely vulnerable to Climate change, and is already experiencing both drought in certain countries and extreme weather events in others. This will only become worse in years to come. The Provincial President Thembsie Mchunu has taken up the challenge by asking all MU members to fast and pray for the drought for a month of Thursdays. The presentation also looked at environmental degradation and how we can leave plastic and pollution for our children and grandchildren through careless catering practices. The challenge for us as Mothers is this “What kind of world do we want to leave for our children”