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67 Minutes for Mandela The 18th of July is Nelson Mandela’s Birthday and it has become a day when we take 67 minutes to do something for others. This year the young people of Holy Spirit Heidveld did something to help to heal the world. They spent their morning creating a beautiful vegetable and indigenous garden at their church. They also cleaned up rubbish from around the church Each organisastion – Sunday School, servers, youth etc will be looking after a part of the garden. The idea of Mandela Day was inspired by Nelson Mandela at his 90th birthday celebrations in London’s Hyde Park in 2008 when he said: “It is time for new hands to lift the burdens. It is in your hands now.” It is based on the idea that each person has the power to change the world and celebrates the  67 years that Mandela dedicated to social justice. The United Nations officially declared 18 July as Nelson Mandela International Day in November 2009, recognising Mandela’s “values and his dedication to the service of humanity” and acknowledging his contribution “to the struggle for democracy internationally and the promotion of a culture of peace throughout the world”. #greenanglicans #mandeladay

ANGLICAN STUDENTS COMMIT TO GOING GREEN The Anglican Students Provincial Conference took place in Mozambique and for the first time all six Countries  of ACSA (RSA, Swaziland, Lesotho, Mozambique, Angola and Namibia) were present.  They were excited to welcome Angola branch this year. The students passed a resolution 4/2017 to add Environmental Activities as Key performance area for all regions. We are excited to see how the Students will lead the way in terms of these activities! Thokozani Hlatshwayo presented on the theme of Water Justice We were shocked to hear about the impact of Climate change and how it will lead to increase of drought and severe weather events such as flooding in other areas. As Christians we cannot just stay in our churches and do nothing, we must get out there and make a difference in terms of water justice. Firstly – water is sacred The Bible actually mentions water 722 times! As Anglicans we are welcomed into the family of God through the waters of baptism. We also have water in our wine for the Eucharist – remembering that water and blood flowed from the side of Jesus on the cross. Secondly – access to water We must commit ourselves to helping every person have access to clean water. We must stop throwing litter which ends up in our waterways. We must save water where possible, by putting in jojos and mending leaking taps. It is important to pull out invasive plants which are water guzzlers! And we must remember that it takes a lot of water to produce meat. Let us all live more simply so that others may simply live

The Diocese of Mpumalanga held is annual youth conference from the 6th -9th of July 2017 in Schoemansdal Mpumalanga. Made of three archdeaconaries the diocesan youth has quite a diverse youth, from different languages, cultures to style of worship spread across the province. Green Anglicans was part of the conference to add another wing of diversity in their spiritual development.  To our surprise the majority of the conference was under the age of 20, which immediately indicated finding fun and active ways to teach. The Green Anglicans team was made of representatives from the diocese of Johannesburg, Pretoria and the Provincial office. Talking to about 150 eager young faces, it was easy to share information especially when they are based at a location with more than 6 coal power stations, the prime contributor to climate change in South Africa. It hit home when we told them about all the health and environmental effects of coal, more over, how they get the least service, while they are hosting the largest energy coal power plants.  We were fortunate to have the Bishop Kgomosotho of Mpumalanga to be part of the session and experience first hand the frustrations which are straining lives of many in his diocese. Ending the session with a plan of action, the young people were divided into their archdeaconaries, were asked to discuss themes which included, water, food, energy and waste.  Very insightful reports, from what they are planning to do in their homes, parishes to influencing their small communities. Chang your lifestyle to protect God’s earth is one of the things young people should priorities, to that, it also influences spiritual growth to your neighbour .

SUNDAY SCHOOLS CELEBRATE WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY WED was the buzz word among the Sunday School teachers of the Bellville and Maitland Archdeaconries as they went about planning and preparing for this joint event. WED? Wednesday? Wedding? No! It was the acronym used for our World Environment Day exhibition, based on the Sunday School Syllabus, Ryan the Rhino. After months of communication, meetings, WhatsApp group messages and newly formed friendships later, it all came together on 3 June 2017 at 10:00 in the hall of the Good Shephard Anglican Church, Kensington. After a banner procession by a few of the children of all the participating Sunday Schools, Rev Mash started the day’s proceedings, officially opening the exhibition, with a prayer. All the little children wearing animal costumes were invited to stay on the stage with her while she shared a story about the animals in God’s Kingdom. I am sure they felt very special to be part of Rev Mash’s story. We were given a brief overview by Ncumisa Magadla, of Green Anglicans, who explained the reason for celebrating World Environment Day, making us aware of our environment and how to care for it. She also told us a bit about the Green Anglicans organization. For more information, log into their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/GreenAnglicans/ and or their Website www.greenanglicans.org. Both the children and parents could not wait to explore the exhibits, made of mostly recycled materials by the teachers, displayed on either side of the huge hall. We were taken back to the beginning of time to…. God’s creation! …. Night beautifully displayed with black material, hanging together with tons of toilet roll holders painted black, totally disguising the gazebo from which they were strung. The lengths of lights glittering in the background against the darkened sky perfectly reflected the sparkling stars of the night. The whole scene, with clouds ranging from light fluffy ones, pinned onto a blue curtained Day sky, alongside the bright sun, made from yellow painted toilet roll holders, to dark heavy clouds represented by black painted paper plates, hanging in the foreground, became so real with rain threatening to fall on the day, appropriately guiding us to…. Noah’s ark!……cleverly constructed with gazebos, draped animal print materials and cardboard boxes packed like building blocks in front, included spaces for windows through which the soft toy animals peeped. The opening in the middle of the Ark served as a door through which the children could enter. There was enough space for about 10 children, this being on the starboard side only! They sat on small old wooden chairs, which looked as original as the chairs which could have been used by Noah and his family themselves! The children watched short fun animated video clips, giving them ideas on how to look after our planet, Earth. Recycling, reducing and reusing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCfazf2gVuo. On the portside of the Ark, the children became engrossed in arts and crafts and had their faces painted in similar colours to….. A rainbow!……made out of rows of different colours of painted toilet roll holders, arched above the ark, promised that there were lots more to meet the eye, as we gazed over to….. A town, Cape Town!……. nestled under a mountain, Table Mountain!… built so big it would have touched the ceiling if the ceiling were not so high! Making our way to the taxi, made out of cardboard with lights that actually worked, a message pasted on the window read: “BE A GOOD STEWARD OF GOD’S EARTH WE WILL NOT GET ANOTHER ONE”. As we toured the rest of the exhibit past factories with smoking chimneys (paintings on cardboard stands) polluting the air. Stopping at Boulders beach, the penguins (made out of black sprayed 2 litre plastic bottles) surrounded by tins, paper as well as plastic bottles washed up from the sea (represented by blue plastic laid on ground). Making our way back past the overpopulated Hout Bay townships with refuse littering the streets, the reason for the message was clear. We are destroying God’s earth and killing His animals and birds. We were pleasantly interrupted periodically, during the course of the exhibition, by children displaying their talents, singing and dancing, some holding placards reminding us of the 3 R’s – REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE. One of the smallest children with the most angelic voice, confidently sang the song, “What a wonderful world” while one of the older children wowed us in a soulful voice, accompanied by her guitar, sang Earth Day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4pLhvg_Zkk. There were some fun interactive songs to which a group of children and Sunday School teachers acted on stage…Rev Mario had some fun performing too, after all, it was easy to do! REDUCE, REUSE, RECYLE too…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CvYayV88kY come on everyone, it’s easy to do! Lets go green and become GREEN ANGLICANS for Christ….. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3ZK5pntyNg These songs are a reminder of the Earth we had, what we have and how we should strive to save our planet, Earth. Our children, God’s children, are asking us to save our Earth, our World, Gods Earth, God’s World, for future generations. Will you? #greenanglicans @worldenvironmentday Photo credits by Brigitte Wingrove We also need to give credit and thanks to external exhibitors and performers not affiliated to our Sunday Schools. Dept of Water and Waste – City of Cape Town, Gottlieb Arendse and Jason Mingo – SASS, Dept of Water Affairs, who unfortunately could not display any live goggas or frogs due to the rivers being dry. The Kensingtion Girls Chorale Choir for their flash mob and the outstanding performance on stage, conducted by Lizl Gaffley and accompanied by Thurloe Erntzen on the keyboard. Thanks as well for all the support we received from parents, family and friends especially those who manned the food stations and managed the face painting and craft stalls.

The Anglican youth of the Diocese of Swaziland embarked on a 450 km challenge to raise environmental awareness around the country. They will be donating shoes, school uniforms and sanitary pads at Anglican Schools along their route. They started at Mbasheni Anglican Primary school and then moved to Buhleni township which is highly littered. Building on their partnership with the Swaziland Environmental Authority, they conducted a clean up workshop with the local informal traders.  The event was held in partnership with the Buhleni town committee and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development. The workshop culminated in  big clean up where local residents, informal business people, the Anglican youth  were joined by Students. The students, who are interns with the Dep of Housing, were amazed to see the church getting involved in this way! The challenge is also a fundraiser for the Diocese to buy a vehicle for its social development. If you can help in any way, please contact Mncedisi Masuku on [email protected]

Firstly, we would like to give thanks to Ncumisa Magadla who came all the way to join us for this particular event.  Starting at 06:30 in the morning, we opened with Psalms 8 and Ncumisa did the opening prayer before we walked up the hill where we joined together in a circle.  She then gave us a brief description of what it truly means to be a Green Anglican especially considering the fact that we still use Styrofoam for our events which is not a green Anglican practice. We then had a contact session where she asked us various questions about our living situations and if we relate to them, we should move in closer to the circle. This exercise was to show the youth how the environment affects our mode of transport and the way we live. Lastly, Chimwemwe Owambo conducted the “My June 16 in 2017” and you pass a ball of yarn to the next person across you, rather than next to you. This exercise was for Youth to express what affects them most in the country and the with that string of yarn, we are all connected but we need to lift each other up, because it one lets go of their end of yarn, it will collapse.