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DIOCESE OF NAMIBIA RESPONDING TO DROUGHT EMERGENCY “What saddens me the most is that some of the old men are losing the will to live, once they have to slaughter their cattle because of the drought” Ven Nangula Kathindi The clergy of Namibia met for their clergy conference in the Northern part of Namibia , hard hit by drought. The government has declared an emergency, as the crops have failed. Canon Rachel Mash spoke on the theme of Water in her Homily at the Eucharist. Hagar and Ishmael were thrown out into the desert, carrying only 5 liters of water. This shows the injustice of water , where an Isaac can be at home with water to drink, bathe and even play in, and another child, Ishmael, is dying of thirst under a tree. And yet God heard his cry and rescued him. As well as praying for rain, it is a time to reflect on the deep meaning of water in our Scriptures, for water is mentioned 722 times In the workshop we looked at the impact of Climate Change, devastating both Namibia with drought, at the same time as Mozambique with floods. We are truly facing climate chaos and the scientists tell us that we only have 12 years to make a rapid shift globally from fossil fuels to renewables. Yet Namibia and Mozambique have produced very few indeed of those emissions. It is Climate injustice that we are facing. We also looked at the problem of preserving water during the drought, of plastic pollution and the need to grow trees to prevent desertification. It is import to link the actions with Biblical resources so that people know that it is part of their gospel mandate. We are called to go and preach good news to all Creation The clergy divided up into action groups to look at the following areas: 1. Plastic pollution “Cleanliness is closer to godliness” Plastic etc. Let us try to work with our communities and households to avoid using plastic bags. Let us use recyclable bags. By 2020 stop using plastic bags. Have special announcements to save our earth. Especially commit to not using single use plastic at big catering events. When it rains all those are washed into the rivers. Take plastics to recycling businesses. Start in our churches and communities. Clean our church yards. Learn to put rubbish in rubbish bins. Get away from mentality that I don’t care and I am creating jobs. 2. Water Rev 22:1 “Water is life”. Awareness of the importance and use of water. We need to maintain water and care for water. They need to be reminded where to find water and how the community uses water. They need to be taught flushing system for toilets to be limited. Showers to be limited. A request for those workers be requested to dig dams in the area and your village to help when the rain comes. The water from washing can be used for watering trees. This will prevent deforestation. The community needs to be taught that plants can prevent floods also. Before Dec 2020 – we need to: – Try to have big tanks for saving water especially in the centres, homes, hospitals , to use that storage water during drought – Renew the wells and boreholes – Wells need to be covered to prevent evaporation – People need to minimize the waste of water, by using buckets. 3. Trees Need for training and workshops on tree planting to reduce desertification. Gather more info regarding source of manure needed for agriculture. Plant indigenous trees which require less water. We need sermons that emphasize how we can take care of creation, especially in September. We need to learn more about why we should love trees and plants. We need the arbor day in schools and church again. We can go out and consult the headmen in the villages in order to get the opportunity to teach the village counsellors. We also need to emphasize the need to protect our environment. We suggest that the Diocese or parishes can ask the scientists to come and do the research on what type of plants to grow in our areas. Establish some parish environmental committees as the priests are busy. The clergy received a blessing from Bishop Luke Pato as they committed to caring for creation.

Diocese of Natal youth celebrates Earth day at Karkloof canopy tours Young people of Pietermaritzburg archdeaconry and uMvoti celebrated earth day at their Creation care interactive day in Karkloof canopy tours just outside Howick. The day started off with ziplining across the forest followed by a talk by Belinda Crawford; a consultant who does job readiness workshops for unemployed youth as post matritulants. After that a teambuilding game was played around the table which needed each person’s focus and fast reaction. As the day went by; a second round of ziplining was enjoyed then an interactive forest walk led by Catherine our host followed. At the centre if the beautiful clean Karkloof rain forest, Fr Thapelo Masemola led us in meditation where he channelled us towards a personal journey of appreciation of God’s presence in the form of what see in the middle of the forest. Each individual found a spot to collect their thoughts and prayers silently. As we finished our 1 hour walk inside the forest, reflections were made where each young person shared their thoughts and significance of God’s presence in what we see, feel, hear and believe. Lunch was served after! Mandisa Gumada

Anglican Consultative Council passes Environmental Resolution at #ACC17

Christian Conferences and Environmental Justice: Reducing your environmental impact – Lessons from the Justice Conference SA The Justice Conference South Africa attracted 970 participants. One of the commitments was towards environmental Justice Here are the steps that were taken practically to do that. Based on feedback from our 2017 conference, we made a commitment to reducing our overall environmental impact. We committed to going greener and are so proud of the way we reduced our collective impact and learnt together about more sustainable waste management. 1. Outsourced our on-site recycling and composting management to Waste-Ed and Green Anglicans 2. Reduced overall number of meat-based meals (and eliminated red meat) 3. Switched to sugar cane compostable food packaging and utensils 4. Eliminated all individual printed programs and increased our digital communications pre and during conference 5. Ensured our coffee was Fairtrade, all single serve sugars and stirrers were composted, eliminated cans and only used glass softdrink bottles 6. Ecobricked half of our Mixed Waste, diverting 20kgs from landfill We will be offsetting our carbon footprint with some greening initiatives over the next year. Thank you for joining us in this commitment to do justice to the whole of creation! Valerie Anderson

Less Plastic for Lent April 13th Take Action! Individual actions are important, but the most important is to join the dots and to push businesses to reduce single use plastics, and to get politicians to ban them It is going to take small and large commitments to tackle the enormous plastic crisis and every action sends a message to the industry that they must change. We cannot allow products that we use for seconds to pollute the earth for centuries. Here are some actions you can take 1. Show a film about plastic. Eg A plastic tide: https://news.sky.com/video/special-report-plastic-pollution-in-our-oceans-10742377 Smog of the sea https://www.thesmogofthesea.com/ From the waste up : https://vimeo.com/ondemand/plasticfree Blue Planet https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7579782/?ref_=ttep_ep7 2. Write to the newspaper: Placing a letter to the editor in your local newspaper can be an effective way to share knowledge with other people in your region or to call a particular notable aspect of an issue to people’s attention. Here are some tips! • Start with the local press. You are more likely to see your letter published in the local press than national so identifying a popular local or regional paper would be a good place to start. Consult the website for the requirements on submitting a letter before you proceed. 3. Put pressure on your local supermarket You could send the manager or CEO an email, hand deliver a letter to the store manager or the company’s headquarters, set up a meeting with the manager or a company executive, send them a message through social media by tagging them, or if they are not receptive to your request, you could increase the pressure on them by starting a petition or visiting a store to take direct action. What do we want supermarkets to do? . Phase out single-use plastic packaging (eg. plastic bags, products like plastic bottles, sachets, etc) For lots of other idea of actions look at Green Peace’s Million acts of Blue Call for a Plastic-Free Future