News

December 2015

The Anglican Youth Ministries in the Diocese of Free State had an AYM Camp , which took place from the 1 till 4 December 2015 at Golden Gate Wilgenhof Environmental centre.  The camp was a great success where, they had 40 young people and 1 Priest attending the event. The program went according to plan as all speakers and topics were on point addressing under the theme “I’m a young Anglican and I’m Proud, We are part of Creation, save water and live longer. Upon arrival an orientation  of SanParks was led by their host Nelly who told them more about the History of Golden Gate , the animals they have and what SanParks stands for(note : Golden Gate is a grass Park therefore only grazing animals are kept at the park ). After that they moved to the camp site to take on the Brandwag trail which is the most longest and hardest trail for  groups. This exercise took 2h30min to complete and the hero of the day was baby Tswanelo (four year old) boy who joined his dad on the trail and walked up the hill. On the tip of the cliff you can sight the beauty of the reserve as this is one on the top points. The ended with fun games and canoeing.  In the late afternoon one of the youth member and Green Anglican activist Mokhobo Finger took them through a two hour guided retreat under the theme connecting with nature and closed off with a prayer for good use of water in our land. On one of the sessions Rev Mokheshe Koma led a special morning prayer under the theme “Don’t let generational habits get to you.”  His talk was encouraging to the young people, some of the things he mentioned were that it might not be our fault that the earth is in the state that it’s in currently, but we are to blame if we grow up and die living it worse or the same way we found it. We need to stand up and show our repentance towards nature, and nature will itself heal.  Members were asked to show a sign of repentance by taking a 3km walk, to the cathedral cave in complete silence, where the silence was ended with a creative Eucharist service. Bino Makhalanyene, youth coordinator for the diocese said “The highlight of the week would be the last day walk, in which at we prayed for rain that morning and asked our members that we should take that walk as a sign of repentance towards creation asking God for rain. Straight after the Eucharist, God provided and showered us with drops of rain, we all could not complain for we had asked and He provided.” -Bino Makhalanyane

The Diocese of Swaziland is putting a twist to this year’s Valentine’s Day. Working with Hlathikhulu Parish located in the far south of the Diocese they have started a vegetable garden put to place. With an environmental spirit shared each time they work in the new garden, they decided to bring the care for creation spirit on Valentine’s Day. Mncedisi Masuku and his team have also agreed to have an Environmental (Green Anglicans) workshop from February 12-14 in the Parish. “We want to equip each other about waste management mainly for the beginning and establish a recycling centre in the church, have a clean-up campaign in the Hlathikhulu town. We will also establish an Eco-Club which will drive the gospel.” On one of their work days at the garden they were joined by the Wilson family who live by care for creation. Mcedisi being on organising team, they are still at a planning phase for the event. Everyone in the diocese is welcome to join this group of young people who are trying to make a difference on environmental issues affecting the diocese. They plan to share ideas, topics that address environmental challenges, theological materials and BIBLE studies to use on the day. Working with young people they will have a number of activities happening on the day including: Drama, poems, and musicals -Mncedisi Masuku

  The young people of the diocese of Pretoria met at St James Soshanguvhe for an environmental day. Starting with a clean-up, the young people went around the local school picking up litter and into the streets surrounding the church. Following that successful exercise, they started a vegetable garden inside the church premises in hope to supply, events and their youth functions with veggies. During lunch time they sat around discussing environmental challenges they are facing in their living areas and what actions could be taken to combat those. They also talked about the obstacles they may face when presenting their ideas in parishes and that’s when the presentation came in handy. The Young Green Anglicans presentation was done and the focus was on theory of change, introducing change of lifestyle and environmental ministry in our churches. We discussed ways of approach and which activities to do when people are starting out. We finished with a plan of action for the youth especially the ones based in Soshanguve. They committed on the following campaigns Clean up Environmental services Vegetable gardens Tree planting Environmental education -Ncumisa Magadla  

A Green Christmas for Gogo Daisy in Swaziland   As the members of Bolomehluko a Social development focussed group, we decided to spend our Christmas day with Gogo Daizy who is now bed ridden and living with her grandson in Manzini  Our aim  focus was to clean her house and yard and share some Christmas time with her and give her a lovely hamper of food..   Since we are a Green Diocese it would not be enough to do social development without  doing something for  the environment when the country is faced with such drought, so this is what we did:   We planted 2 trees (mango and avocado) in her backyard which will later be a source of food and income for the family as well as  reducing their Carbon foot print. While planting the trees we used prayers from Season of Creation on tree planting and a collect on water when watering the tree. Rev. W. Dlamini from Manzini Parish led us in the prayers and blessed the work of our hands. We also prayed for Environmental Justice and those affected by Climate Change using prayers from Season of Creation.   We later presented some food hampers to gogo Daizy and gave her a copy of Season of Creation to cite a prayer and she promised to keep praying Mncedisi Masuku

The Young people of the Diocese of Swaziland held a four day conference as other Dioceses used to do previously. Beginning on the 10th of December 2015 the Diocesan youth gathered at St Michaels Anglican School in Manzini to celebrate their annual conference. Green Anglicans was invited to come and speak to the young people about the importance of environmental ministry in their spiritual life. With more than 450 delegates the conference venue was obviously going to be filled with programs laying on the ground and lots of plastic packets, however with the pre-conference environmental awareness, we had responsible young people that used bins  and other measure that were provided to maintain a clean environment. As the conference progressed we looked at the economy of the country and farming as being a major boost  in Swaziland, the young people vowed to start up food gardens in their homes and parishes as well as educate those who were absent during the conference about being a young Green Anglican .