Rachel Mash

Bright light 🕯️Bright future 🔆 Let go and let God On the 3rd of September the Anglican Youth Fellowship in the Diocese of False Bay held a conference at St Peters church in Khayelitsha. Green Anglicans were invited to present to the conference. John-Paul Roberts from Green Anglicans did a bible study reflection with us on the book of Nehemiah. Touching on the aspect that like Nehemiah, we as young people need to lament the struggles that our fellow young people face because of the destruction of our environment, living in pollution, lack of clean water, air pollution and the like. To understand that in the story of Creation God made all things good, but we have broken it and made it bad.  JP inspired us as young people to see the context that we live in and see where we can act and what needs to be rebuilt so that this generation of young people and those to come may enjoy the beauty of creation, and just like in the story of Nehemiah the wall was not built by one professional builder, but all the communities helped in rebuilding the wall. Likewise, we need to work alongside our communities, and other organizations, civil servants and seek to fix what is broken. Green Anglicans has shown us that the young man and woman of the church are the future of tomorrow and the future of the church. We as the youth and adults of tomorrow hold a big responsibility not only to the church but on how we build a brighter future for our young ones looking up on us, how we treat the creation of our earth is important as we are saving the world for tomorrow. When we let go and let God as the youth, we are saying that we cannot put old wine into new wineskins as we have to have to bring new thoughts to the brighter future of tomorrow and make it bright. We were also empowered by other guests Mrs Bathandwa Dabula (former AYF member and now MU member), Lakhe Booi (Diocesan AYF Chairperson), Mel Awu (UCT Sport Administrator and International Toastmaster & ANSOC Coordinator for CPUT, UWC, UCT). We were blessed as well to have Bishop Margaret come through and say hello. Kagisho Phetlo and John-Paul Roberts #seasonofcreation

St Cyprian’s is going green! On 3rd of September during the Season of Creation St Cyprians Church in Langa launched its Environmental Desk under the leadership of Ms. Nandie Mandongana, an Environmental Councillor, in the Parish Council Committee. This came after 5 Members of Green Anglican teens attended a Workshop at St. Thomas, Rondebosch which was organised by the Province led by Rev. Rachel Mash, Bino – Makalanyane and J.P. Roberts, the Media and Communications Officer. The Green Anglican teens of our Parish could not wait when they were from the camp, they took Rev. Tshatshu, the current Priest in charge at St. Cyprian’s Church, LANGA, into task. He also did not hesitate to sell the idea to the whole congregation after consultation with the Parish Executive Committee. The idea was warmly welcomed by the Congregation. The 3rd of September is one of the remarkable dates at St. Cyprian’s as this is the date when the Environmental Desk was launched!! The activities of the day left almost everyone who attended, so motivated and informed about the environmental issues that are not affecting our Parish Community only, they are the Global issues. The presentations from our Environmental Club were superb!! Mr. Zukile Malusi, educated us on how to start the vegetable gardens, how to maintain them and the health benefits of having such gardens in our communities. This was followed by an Educational Presentation by Kanyisile Vena, a Marine Research Technician” highlighting very useful information on careers that are available in the Department of Environment, with more emphasis on marine environment. “Our marine life is highly threatened by human activities and the situation is expensive and takes long to reverse”, those were Kanyie’ closing remarks. This left our Youth (St. Cyprians., St. Columba and Holy Cross Green Anglican Teens) open-minded about their career choices to save our environment. Langa Community was not left behind as the Church was honoured to have an informative presentation from the City of Cape Town, Mr. Dingaan, on how to save our environment who also left a source document (book) He also promised to assist the Church whenever a need arise as long as it will save our environment. The arrival of Mr. J.P Roberts was a cherry on top as he brought some plants as a gift to St. Cyprian’s Church. Thanks to our Programme Directors Sino Makawula and Sine Ndlwana who, after the speeches, led us to the Vegetable garden, a legacy of the environmental desk, with the aim of improving the health of Langa residents through its organic produce. Rev Tshatshu blessed the garden before planting took place. A proper guidance on the logistics of planting was given by Mr. “Zuks”Malusi to our Elderly women, Mrs Ramatlakane and Mrs.Tena who hope to be the first recipients of the produce (spinach) during harvesting time in November. The ceremony was closed by a delicious meal prepared by Nomonde Toko, one of the Parish chefs. St. Cyprian’s is optimistic that other Parishes will follow suit. Nandie Mandongana #seasonofcreation

At its Provincial Standing Committee, ACSA passed a resolution pledging support for the Anglican Communion Forest RESOLUTION ON THE COMMUNION FOREST Noting that the Communion Forest was launched at the Lambeth Conference The high levels of land degradation in Southern Africa The importance of creating green spaces in order to: Create shade especially as we will  suffer increased temperatures  due to climate change Create green spaces for rest and recreationincrease biodiversity Offset carbon emissions and reduce air pollution This PSC pledges its support to the Communion Forest and requests each Diocese to: Commit to tree growing , not just planting – trees need to be watered and cared for Incorporating tree or plant growing as part of confirmation process Incorporate tree or plant growing  as part of baptisms, marriages, funerals, patronal festivals, conferences and other events Proposer: Bishop Vicentia Kgabe Lesotho Seconder: Rev Nitano Muller False Bay #communionforest Several Dioceses have already launched the Communion Forest, in this picture we see the Diocese of Mthatha Youth Executive planting palm trees at their Diocesan Youth Conference

Climate Yes! The Vision for the Climate Yes! (youth ecumenical summit on the Climate) was born at COP26 when young faith climate activists saw the need to network and strengthen each other. The idea was created to hold an international event with hubs in different places and others coming on board online The African hubs were held at Joburg, Lilongwe (Malawi) and Nairobi, with about 100 young faith activists from 14 different countries attending They travelled for far, some as long as two days by bus in order to be part of the event. The Johannesburg hub, with reps from South Africa, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Mozambique started the event with a Season of Creation Service. The theme was the burning bush which challenges us in three ways: Firstly – where you are standing is holy – we need to fall in love with Creation, you will not protect what you do not love , remember that God speaks through creation, give yourselves time in nature and listen the voice of God Secondly God hears the cry of the oppressed. We will be sharing stories of the impact of Climate change, for those of us who are more protected, living in cities do we hear the cry of those who are losing their homes, their crops, their schools and livelihoods? Thirdly God says I am sending you. You may feel that you are too young, or too shy or don’t have the academic knowledge to talk of climate change But this is God’s mission, not ours, God sends us! This was followed by a bible study from Bishop Zac on the theme of ‘Creation flourishing” The Climate Yes! was launched and blessed by Bishop Vicentia Kgabe of Lesotho Then we heard about reforestation from Malawi and Zimbabwe over to impacts of climate change on Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi and ended the day with a fun Cultural Evening! Day two continued with another Bible study by Bishop Zac on the theme of “Creation Groaning”. We then looked at the  impact of Fossil fuels in Africa: ReconAfrica Namibia, EACOP Uganda and Total in Mozambique. We had a challenging message from Prof Beckford on Environmental racism and a workshop from Christian Aid on Advocacy. Then we shared inspiring Stories of Christian Climate action from the different countries and denominations. These were followed by discussion questions to be included in the Statement and Action plans Thanks to Liko Qokela for the great photos! #climateyes With great appreciation for the support of Anglican Overseas Aid Tearfund Scottish Episcopal Church Marc Andrus Christian Aid #seasonofcreation

ANGLICAN YOUTH GUILD OF MTHATHA GROWING THE LAMBETH COMMUNION FOREST The Anglican Youth Guild of the Diocese of Mthatha held their annual Conference with Youth From False bay, Khahlamba, Mbashe and Mzimvubu present They celebrated Heritage Day with wonderful traditional clothing! Bonginkosi (Bongs ) White from the Diocesan Environmental Desk was invited to talk about the Communion Forest as it was declared in the Lambeth Conference, importance of trees in our environment, Recycling and Water Conservation Here he is pictured with the members of the Diocesan Executive of the Anglican Youth Guild in the Diocese of Mthatha. They planted two Palm Trees to form part of the Communion Forest Photos – Anglican Diocese of Mthatha Official #communionforest

Young people in Cape Town celebrate the Ecumenical Spirit of the #seasonofcreation The season of creation is a yearly celebration which takes place from the 1st of September until St. Francis day on the 4th of October. During this time churches from across the world come together in celebration and appreciation of God’s creation.  Since 2020 the ecumenical group of young believers called Together4Creation have organised a special service on the 1st of September. This year the event was held at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Cape Town. The theme for this years’ service was “Listen to the Voice of Creation” focussing on the Exodus 3 narrative of the burning bush.  The main speaker for the evening was Pastor Sybil Chetty who reflected on the impact of greed and over consumption on the environment. Proceedings also included group discussions and a meet-and-greet afterwards. The event epitomises the spirit of young believers and the steadfast conviction that we can only make a difference if we work together. Dewald Hoffman #seasonofcreation