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The Green Saints an environmental group from All Saints Landsowne celebrated Earth Hour on the 28th of March.  The evening service had a great turn out with visitors from other parishes.  They celebrated with poetry, songs accompanied by the guitar, breathing and laughter exercises and education about natural cleaning products vs harmful chemicals. Wonder Bags kept the healthy soup warm and the candles in jam jars gave a comforting soft light. “What a lovely warm fellowship evening. We look forward to more green evening where we learn about greening our bodies, homes and the environment.” The Green Saint’s mission is to create an awareness to be green conscious, to have green evenings where knowledge is shared and to raise funds for green initiatives at the church and community. For more green ideas or churches wanting to do similar activities, get hold of the Green Saints contact Glenda Pieterse at  [email protected] or 021 6962156   It is often difficult to judge how our actions and their impact on the environment are likely to affect others. What is clear is that we are the only species with the power to destroy the earth. Birds and insects have no such power, nor does any other mammal. And yet if we have the capacity to destroy the earth, we also have the capacity to protect it. I believe we have an urgent responsibility to do so. Dalai Lama

St John’s Walmer in the Diocese of Port Elizabeth held their first parish E- waste collection on the 21 of March 2015.  Tim Douglas-Jones who was part of this nature- caring initiative says the day started at 12 midday and the turnout was good and had a positive response which was encouraging. They worked with MicroDoctor, an initial computer company that has interest in e- waste who assisted them in orchestrating the waste.  The day ultimately was a success as they had a full bakkie load of waste on Monday the 23rd of March 2015 which was then carted off to recycling.   St John’s in Walmer will have another E-waste collection very soon, look out for the dates and times.

Here are some prayers for Earth Hour.Earth Hour Prayer 2015

Earth Hour started in 2007 as a lights-off event to raise awareness about climate change. We have grown to engage more than 162 countries and territories worldwide. Earth Hour is on Saturday, 28 March 2015 at 8:30 pm local time. We have adapted some materials from the Scottish Eco-Congregations for your use, which are available at this link: Earth hour pack Watch and share this video which shows how the impact of Earth Hour is growing – it is a symbolic action, an awareness raiser that tells us the Power is in our hands! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxIMib4e8f8    

A group of us gathered in His name on the morning of Saturday, 7th March, at Rondevlei Nature Reserve.  This was Vlei Church – an opportunity for “a meditative encounter with God – to listen to God speaking through creation . . . earth, wind, fire, water and all the creatures of creation.”   The week before, also at Rondevlei, some of us had had the privilege of hearing Bp Mark of the Navaho people in Turtle Island (otherwise known as North America) share some of the ways and wisdom of his people.  He told us that whoever they meet and whenever they meet them, they greet them as family.  In the same way, the Navaho people experience their relations with the land and the animals on it, as family relations.  So we started Vlei Church by greeting each other, the land on which we stood and the animals living there, as members of our family.   We met at Rondevlei much as we might meet in a beautiful church designed and decorated symbolically to inspire communion with God and to help bring us closer to God and grasp if only a tiny bit of the great mystery that is God and God’s cosmic creation.  We met with the Book of Creation open before us and what we saw and experienced was good indeed.   Our opening prayer was one authored by Jo Poore[1]: Mother, Father, God, Universal Power. Remind us daily of the sanctity of all life. Touch our hearts with the glorious oneness of all creation, As we strive to respect all the living beings on this planet. Penetrate our souls with the beauty of this earth, As we attune ourselves to the rhythm and flow of the seasons. Awaken our minds with the knowledge to achieve a world in perfect harmony And grant us the wisdom to realise that we can have heaven on earth.   ‘In the round’ we then repeated a few times the first four verses of Psalm 19: 1 The heavens are telling the glory of God;    and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. 2 Day to day pours forth speech,    and night to night declares knowledge. 3 There is no speech, nor are there words;    their voice is not heard; 4 yet their voice goes out through all the earth,    and their words to the end of the world.   A quiet walk in openness  to whatever we came across allowed us by God’s grace to sense the Holy Spirit’s presence and each of us to hear what we needed to hear.  Some of this we could then share with one another sitting on the grass overlooking the vlei.   Our gathering was especially blessed with a rare daytime sighting of some of Rondevlei’s shy hippos as well as by the presence of many beautiful flamingos, pelicans and other birds.   Thank you, Lord, for this special time with You.   Frank Molteno Our next Nature Church event will be “Forest Church” on the 11th of April [1] Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon (eds), Earth Prayers From Around the World, p.179