News

We are delighted to share with you the Carbon Fast for Lent for 2018. During the  40 days of lent we have the opportunity to reflect on our lives and the impact on God’s Earth and God’s people. We commit to making small changes that then can become part of our daily lives. You can find a one pager with the carbon fast here Lent-Calendar-Doc-EN v4 There is also a daily post from 40 different people around the world who share their experience of Climate Change Lent calendar

The Diocese of Swaziland through assistance from its companions has embarked on rain water harvesting in two rural communities vulnerable to drought due to climate change. The project is a people cantered adaptation whereby the community is leading the project under the technical assistance of the Diocese of Swaziland. The Lubombo Parish in Maphungwane and Nhlangano Parish in Mbava are the benefited communities. Noting the shortage and scarcity of water in these communities, 30 000L storing capacity (Jojo tanks; 10 000Leach) and conveyance system has been installed in this communities. The Diocese of Swaziland has involved the community to benefit (not only Anglicans) to install the system after provision of material and take ownership of the project. Both projects are within Anglican Church premises but they will benefit the surrounding communities. The community will come and fetch water in the church during raining season as harvested from rooftop rain water. The community of Mbava has planned to have a scheme where they will raise funds to hire a tanker to refill their tanks in dry seasons. The Mbava community has planned to expand the project by starting a vegetable production project in the back yard of the church. We hope the rainwater harvesting   will be of help to the parishes and can be duplicated in other parishes. -Mncedisi Masuku  

It was a joyous occasion on the 18 th November, Bishop Raphael of Saldanha Bay Diocese sealed our confirmation candidates with an indelible mark of confirmation. Sixteen young people in total were confirmed. Preaching on Mathew 25: 14-29, the parable of the talents, the Bishop urged the confirmation candidates not to bury their talents like the person in the text who preferred to bury his talent instead of multiplying it. He said to them, the man who buried his talent, represented no change. He counselled the candidates not to be like the man in the text who presented no change, but to be agents of change and to continue growing in faith and spirituality. Moreover, as a sign of their attachment to the Church and to Christ, the Bishop led all the newly confirmed to a place within the Church premises where every one of them planted a tree. The tree will always remind the confirmed of their journey with the Church and with Christ. They were also urged to look after their trees until they grow to full stature. Planting a tree, is not only a reminder of their journey with the Church and Christ, but it is also a giving back to the mother earth. Trees hold soil together, act as windbreak, provide wood, give us shade and provide Oxygen, just to mention but a few. We wish the young people a good life and a journey with Christ throughout their life. By Ven. Tobias Mutale Archdeacon of Maitland

The Diocesan Green Anglicans team of St. Mark the Evangelist continued their flagship program, Plant A Confirmation Tree- for the second time. The confirmation candidates plant a tree after the bishop’s blessing. The program is aimed at “Bridging the gap between environmental and spiritual sustainability”. By planting a tree the candidates symbolically declare to give their roots to Jesus and to build their lives on Him (Colossians 2:6-7). Efforts to nurture the tree gives surety that the candidates will also nurture their spiritual lives against all odds. On the 3 rd December 2017, Bishop Martin (accompanied by his wife Colleen Breytenbach, popularly known as MmaBishop) visited the Baobab Mission parish to conduct confirmations. The Bishop was accompanied by Green Anglicans Chairman and Treasurer, Makwetsa Ramusi and Ompha Malima, respectively. The confirmations took place at St. James’ church at Kgapane, Limpopo (98 km from Polokwane). The objectives of the program were explained to the congregation and the urgent need for environmental protection was emphasized. The team further reiterated the church’s commitment and interventions to curb environmental degradation and how all parties could be involved. The team presented the tree to Bishop Martin and named it St. James of Kgapane. This was followed by great exuberance from the congregation! To double the blessing, St Peter's in Letaba Parish (neighboring parish to Baobab mission) also donated a Baobab tree which would be planted during the week. The baobab tree is beneficial since it conserves water in its trunk, this is vital in cases of drought. After the procession the Revd. Ron Reiners (priest in-charge) blessed the ground the and the Bishop blessed the tree.The tree was handed over to the confirmation candidates to plant as the congregation observed cheerfully. This marked the beginning of a spiritual journey rooted in Christ and steadfast in the faith.     -Ompha Malima and Makwetsa Ramusi

The African Youth Initiative on Climate change hosted its third African Youth Conference on Climate Change from October 24th-28th, 2017 in Nigeria, Abuja. A wonderful learning and networking opportunity for young people across Africa who are engaged on Climate Change mitigation and adaptation it has been. The theme of the conference was, “Integrating African Youth in the implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions: Trends and Prospects”. Different African Countries has made pledges to the UNFCCC when documenting the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC). The conference equipped youth to take note of NDCs when doing anything on Climate adaptation and mitigation. It was noted that most African Countries had prepared a good NDC but little efforts has been done towards those NDC if not doing the opposite. African youth as current and future citizen of the continent are expected to do something in ensuring countries abide to what they pledged on the UNFCCC. Among other topics discussed in the conference, gender issues when addressing climate change has been tabled as a topic of interest. Climate discussions should include man and women, children and youth and also people living with disabilities. In the discussion it was noted that woman interact with the environment more than men in Africa as they are the ones that does farming, fetch water and fuel for the family among others, therefore it is very important to include women in climate negotiations and any adaptation projects. The last day of the conference was an amazing 2nd African and National Youth Agriculture Festival on Agribusiness under the theme, “Youth at the Centre of Agribusiness Revolution in Africa”. In this festival it was noted that the greater part of the African population is Youth but majority of farmers are people above the youthful age. This festival was encouraging youth to take part in Agriculture for the better future of the African Continent. Different Agricultural work done by Nigerian farmers were exhibited to showcase efforts already done youth and non-youth especially small scale farmers in the field of Agriculture. The festival was hosted by the Youth Farm (Yfarm) network which is an African Network encouraging youth participation on Agribusiness. Yfarm awarded best performing youth across Africa on different sectors of Agriculture. I encourage youth across Africa to get more information about this network on www.freshbrainsinitiativeng.com or email the CEO BARR. Nkiruka Nnaemego at [email protected]. As an individual working on Climate Change and also working with Faith communities I was fascinated to see young people across Africa coming from different sectors such as research, agriculture, adaptation, government sectors with diversity in culture, educational background, religion and moral believes coming together in one voice. The voice was saying nothing else other than that Youth has a major role to play in mitigation and adaptation of Climate change and also taking action in Agriculture to make Africa come out of poverty. As a Young Green Anglican I encourage other Young Green Anglicans to take advantage of networking with other young people engaged on adaptation through the African Youth Initiative on Climate Change on the website www.ayicc.net and the Yfarm on the contact details above. The networks will connect you to different other networks across Africa.

Rev Rachel Mash was invited by the Anglican Communion Compass Rose Society to address their annual General Meeting. Her topic was Climate Change and the work of the Green Anglicans. We looked at the impact of climate change globally in terms of drought, flooding , sea level rise and an increase in storms. Climate change is impacting on the poorest of the poor and will lead to increasing levels of poverty and suffering over the years to come. How can the Church respond? We need to look at our spirituality, local actions, and global advocacy In terms of spirituality , we have been raised on a theology of dominion of the earth, which comes through in colonialism and neo- liberal economic policies. In the words of the fifth mark of mission, we need to commit to renewing the earth – and it is time to move from seeing ourselves as  stewards to becoming healers of the earth. God can speak to us through nature as well as through the written word of God and we need to find ways to allow our congregations to hear from the “first book of God” – nature.  There are many ways in incorporate a spirituality of care for creation in our preaching and teaching and the most effective for the Anglican Church of Southern Africa has been the inclusion of the Season of Creation in our liturgical calendar. In terms of local action, the young people are leading the way – with creative activities around tree planting – linking this with confirmation , clean up campaigns – with a call for a global “coastal and river clean up” next year in September. They are water harvesting, teaching through drama and dance, growing organic foods and many other activities  and one young Green Anglican from Swaziland has even own an Eco award from the national Ministry of the Environment. For advocacy the challenge is to face the local issues, whether fracking, or a lake which is threatened by a shopping mall. We also need to speed up the move away from fossil fuels to renewable energy and this is where we can have an impact by taking our savings out of fossil fuels and re-investing them in renewables.  We cannot burn all the fossil fuel reserves which we currently have without pushing the world past the tipping point of unstoppable climate change. The Green Anglicans movement is proud to be a partner of the Compass Rose society and you can find out more about their work on http://www.compassrosesociety.org/Page.aspx?id=68 The AGM ended with a wonderful dinner at Lambeth Palace hosted by the Archbishop of Canterbury. What a historic moment to end with compline in the very chapel where Archbishop Cranmer found his inspiration for  the Book of Common Prayer