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Young people of eThekwini central archdeaconry youth cleaned Blue Lagoon beach in honour of Mandela For the 100 years of Madiba young people gathered to celebrate the legend by contributing towards eliminating plastic pollution and any other form of waste evident in the area surrounding the oceans. The Blue Lagoon beach extends from Suncoast Casino all the way up to Durban North separated by a bridge. On weekends  it is the place to be as it buzzes with cars playing loud music, people dancing, braaing so the level of dirt gets to be overwhelming, this became one of the reasons why young people chose it. What was pleasing to see was that just opposite us across the bridge were another group cleaning up, that motivated young people to join forces and other environmental initiative in the area in order to keep a clean and safe environment for us and all of God’s creation. On arrival we opened in prayer, divided into three teams one  that focuses on plastic (straws, bottle tops etc) the other on paper (serviettes, boxes etc) and the last one on any other form of waste found. Accolades goes up to Revd. Canon Vernon the eThekwini Central youth Chaplain and KZN ASF chaplain,  parents that attended in support together with  Nokwazi from Durban solid waste who assisted with plastic bags, gloves, peak caps and masks, we remain forever grateful for their love and support lastly to Fah from Green-ELCSA . (Lutherans)   Mandisa Gumada, Diocesan Youth Coordinator Diocese of Natal  

The New Season of Creation Materials are available now Season of Creation Six

LISHESHI YOUTH BIGGEST BRAAI The Anglican youth of the Diocese of Swaziland held its biggest braai on the 28th July 2018. The purpose of the braii is to unite the Anglican youth, networking, and enjoying themselves in the presence of God as brothers and sisters in the church. The Anglican Youth of Eswatini is passionate about the environment and God’s creation. This year’s biggest braai was held in in Mlilwane Nature Reserve in the beauty of God’s creation. Interactive games were the order of the day while wild animals were moving up and down some scaring and disturbing the games which was however enjoyed by the youth to be interacting with nature as well. Different categories were made available for awards winning and the youth voted for each category. Among the different categories awarded were the best dressed group. Three colours were dominating in the gathering being Team Pink (representing Anglican Student Federations), Team Black (representing our Green Anglicans) and Team Black and white which were individuals on their own attire but looking uniform without prior arrangement. Team Black and White won the award. Being Green Anglicans is not always about clean-up campaigns or planting trees but it is also about enjoying God’s presence in the beauty of his creation and getting connected to it. #LisheshiBiggestBraai                                                                                                                             #Connecting2Nature                                                                                                                         #YoungGreenAnglicans

THE YOUNG GENERATION IS BEING CALLED TO HEAL THE WORLD The Environmental Network of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa is delighted to appoint a Youth Coordinator who will head up the work of Young Green Anglicans. Tebogo Makhalanyane                          better known as Bino comes to the post with a wealth of experience of youth work, as the chairperson of the Provincial youth, and former Diocesan Youth Worker for the Diocese of Free State. At his commissioning service, led by Diocesan youth chaplain Fr Chesnay Franz, Rev Rachel Mash shared a message from the book of Jeremiah 2. I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce. But you came and defiled my land and made my inheritance detestable. (Jer 2:7) The older generation have failed in our calling to  be good stewards of the earth . We have defiled the inheritance of the younger generation – leaving them with oceans full of plastic, the atmosphere full of carbon dioxide and the rivers full of acid.  The youth must now lead the movement, and we are no longer being called to be stewards, we are being called to be healers. My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. Jer 2:13 and yet the younger generation have also gone astray. Instead of drinking of the living water from the spring that never dries up, they are drinking from cracked and broken jojo tanks. This is seen especially in young peoples desire for ‘recreation” to fill the empty space within them.  Rest should be a time for “re- creation” a time of re-creating relationships, of re-creating health instead of stress. And yet we sit together on our cell phone, eating junk and using products that are killing the earth. The challenge for young green Anglicans is to inspire young people to find “recreation” in things that renew and fill their souls, such as hikes, creative activities and renewing the earth. We were grateful for the presence of Fr Chesnay and Tony Lawrence (former Provincial youth Coordinator) as we welcomed Bino to this new ministry .

The diocese of Khahlamba’s Youth Conference June 16 is a special day for the youth of South Africa the day when young people come together for change commemorating the 1976 uprising.  The theme of this day has continued to live since, Anglican youth members gather on this day to celebrate this important day. However, if one were to ask; what’s is that you would like to change as the youth of 2018 then environmental issues make it to the list.   The diocese of Khahlamba this year prioritised care for creation as something they need to engage and work on. Gathered at the parish of St Andrews’s, KwaMlungisi, Queenstown, the Diocesan Youth Guild sat in a discussion regarding what it means to be an Anglican that is environmentally aware, what environmental elements do we use during our sacraments and services as well as how it would affect the liturgy of the Anglican church and its traditions. We also looked at the role we play in the community, identifying key environmental issues that are common in Queenstown, which include; Water shortage Waste /Litter Load shedding (energy insufficiency) It was noted that, sometimes people don’t act in an environmentally friendly way because of the cost implications – so  discussions continued; how these issues could be solved at an easy and accessible way for anyone in the church and the community. Some of these solutions turned out to be ideas around income generating  for the youth guild. These would include selling recycling to respective waste companies, banning single use plastic and getting the Mother’s Union to make re-usable bags, that would be branded with whatever organisations request . Ncumisa Magadla #greenanglicans

AN AMAZING BEACH CLEAN UP RACE Youth of the EThekwini North Archdeaconry Cares for the environment : As part of the Diocesan (Natal) youth’s initiative to make June an environment month, young people of eThekwini North archdeaconry celebrated theirs by cleaning up Beechwood beach in Durban North. The Orange team of enthusiastic young people together with a few elders gathered to pick up litter. They were divided into teams and played what one would call “an AMAZING beach clean up RACE” its goal was to see which team gathers a lot of dirt within a specified time. This year’s theme focuses on beating plastic pollution and indeed young people contributed positively in eliminating plastics and other dirt polluting Beechwood beach. Fun and games were the order of the day, later on a braai was enjoyed Indeed the 5th mark of mission of the Anglican communion “to safeguard the environment…’ was lived out by these young energetic individuals #greenanglicans #beatplasticpollution #anglicans Mandisa Gumada Diocesan Youth Coordinator :Natal