Rachel Mash

Planting of trees at the Church of the Holy Spirit, Port Elizabeth

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Tree-Planting Ceremony at the Church of the Holy Spirit   The Holy Spirit Parish received a donation of 35 indigenous trees including yellow wood and olive trees. Ten were planted at the parish and the rest were donated to the eco-congregation cluster (churches of other denominations).   Mr. Chris Wild, from Food and Trees for Africa demonstrated how a tree is planted the proper way, turning the tree upside down, removing the black plastic, massaging the soil a bit to loosen the roots, and lastly putting in layers of soil, compost, and small stones to form a porous surface for water to pass through. The last step was to perform a “tree-dance” by trampling around the stem to secure the  stem  firmly to the loose soil. The Bishop was in our midst to grace the occasion. He was the first one to get  his hands dirty, by  planting  the first of the 10 trees. The Zwartkops enviro-club entertained the  audience with nature conservation messages through poetry, drama, singing and traditional dance. Betty Bala (Lay Canon: Environmental Matters and Related Issues) Diocese of Port Elizabeth.

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Blessing of the animals at St George’s Cathedral

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Blessing of the animals at St George’s Cathedral St George’s Cathedral extended its ministry into the  Company’s  gardens with the blessing of  animals on St Francis Day. Rev Margaret blessed our special companion animals. Marie–Anne Wannenberg who came for a blessing for her beloved cat Huey said “Our animals are part of God’s creation and as we are blessed through having them in our lives I think it is important for them to be blessed. They teach us unconditional love.”

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Season of Creativity at St Marks

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Season of Creativity at St Mark’s The Sunday school from St Mark’s developed some beautiful posters for our Season of Creation . In front of the altar we had  a display which reflected the different themes: food, energy, water and land. One  member painted beautiful hangings with fabric paint. We had a challenging sermon from Bishop Geoff Davies on energy and a drama from the Anglican Youth Fellowship reminding us that Climate change is “seriaas”!!  For our theme of  food, we used wine from a local vineyard and remembered the working conditions of farm workers, we also remembered the baker who woke up at four thirty to bake our bread. “Wine and bread – the work of human hands” St Mark’s, District Six

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Ocean Service at St Elizabeth’s Church

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Ocean service at St Elizabeth’s Church We celebrated Ocean Sunday for the first Sunday of Season of Creation. Our suburb is in the sea port of Durban : many homes have distant views of the sea, some people have jobs relating to the harbour and we know the joy of visits to the beach and swimming in the sea. We celebrated the mystery and wonder of oceans in a number of ways in addition to the liturgy. We also considered the very real need to care for and protect our oceans and life in the oceans. At the start of our sermon from Job 38:1-18, we had a recording of seagulls and waves!. In our Prayers of the People, as well as prayers for the oceans and environment, we had prayers for seafarers, important as we live in a sea port. In addition to our worship, we had a beautiful floral arrangement which cleverly made us feel that we were under the water. Our secretary included a sea scene and sea creatures in our Pew Bulletin. A display at the entrance to the Church included sea pictures, posters from the Mission to Seafarers and a beach scene with shells, swimming gear and beach toys. A separate display focussed on the problems relating to litter and pollution. Stella Cottrell, Diocese of Natal

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