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The Anglican Youth of Southern Africa in the Diocese of Mzimvubu went Hiking at Lugelweni falls Mt Ayliff on the 16 March 2019. The aim of this event was to encourage young people of the Anglican church to first enjoy nature by engaging with it in order to safe guard the integrity of Gods’ creation as per The Anglican communion’s 5th mark of mission and the call by Green Anglican Environmental network. As young Green Anglicans we seek to do all we can to safeguard God creation we focused on the fight against river, ocean, plastic and air pollution, thus encouraging youth to stop buying single use plastics as they end up in our rivers and oceans *destroying marine life. We also challenged each one present to commit to wise use of clean water as the country is facing huge shortages due to draught. Our day started by walking up the mountain, then later had our Eucharist service at the top of the mountain officiated by the diocesan AYSA chaplain Revd. Motsa together with Revd. Nogidela and Revd. Mpayipeli who also lead us in prayer as we were climbing the mountain. Young people had fun, playing games and photo shooting at the waterfalls. This was a great adventure and wonderful experience of enjoying Gods creation as young people. We would like to thank Tradition leadership of Lugelweni Mama Fikeni for allowing us to host the Event at The Lugelweni falls. Compiled by Y.Makaula AYSA Mzimvubu communication Officer

ST JOSEPHS LAUNCHES MACASSAR ECO HIKING CLUB On Saturday 2 March 2019 the Macassar Echo Hiking club consisting mostly of St Joseph s Youth members went on their first hike for the year. They hiked from Klein Helderberg Farm to Helderberg Nature reserve. They had experienced hike leaders, and were tracked by the Hikers Network throughout the 5 hour hike. They had a ball of a time and cant wait for the next hike on the 8 th of June with the St Matthew’s Delft Hiking group. They are also eagerly awaiting the 21 March 2019 beach cleanup between Strandfontein and Muizenberg. The initiative for starting the hiking club came from St Josephs and the Club is open to the whole community to join Auriel September #greenanglicans

On the 16th of February 2019, ANSOC Western Cape  region had a outreach at St James beach The main source of litter is from the rail way. The rail way has all sorts of waste, from your normal papers to alcoholic bottles, what was shocking is when we found a diaper. St James beach has a train station drop off and pick up, so people who board the trains are the main source of litter. The litter moves from the railway area to the beach area. A lot of the waste gets trapped in the big rocks around the beach. Going on this outreach made us realise that there is still a big gap in keeping our environment clean and taking care of the environment God has blessed us with.

LAND CONFERENCE – DIOCESE OF CAPE TOWN The Diocesan Environmental Group of the Diocese of Cape Town organised a Conference on the Land. The aim of the Conference was to help parishes prepare for the Lenten Programme, which is focussing on the land. The Lenten materials can be found here 2019 Lent Program There were five themes THE EARTH IS THE LORD’S An opening Eucharist led by Dean Michael Weeder and Rev Natalie Simons celebrated the gift and the wonder of the Land. Rev Shaun Cozett reminded us that in the Old Testament the word appears nearly 1750 times while in the New Testament it appears less than 50 times Biblical scholar. Land is the central theme in the Old Testament expressing the relationship between the land and the people who occupy the land, eg. the land of the Philistines or the land of Egypt. Thus, although the land is gifted to Israel, God remains the owner of the land and Israel is judged by how they live on the land. This idea of the land owner having rights to the land but not being the owner of the land might be foreign to many of us in urban areas, who hold title deeds to the properties we own, yet for many in South Africa this is the reality of land held under customary or tribal rights. EXILE FROM THE LAND A clip from a video from Rev Allan Boesak gave a hard hitting message regarding the relationship between Ishmael and Isaac. Although it was not Isaac who threw Ishmael from the land, he inherited everything that Ishmael lost. This is intergenerational injustice. The two brothers came together at the end of the story to bury their father together – he challenged us to think about what restitution it took to get to that point. The whole video can be found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki27VWBoVto Dage Musangiley shared his experience of being exiled from his own home country of the DRC and how as a young man he was forced to flee and leave in land because of the threats of violence. Prof Frank Matosi shared about the various ways in which people are forced off the land – through environmental degradation and climate change. COMING HOME TO THE LAND Rev Shaun Cozett reflected on the current challenges of land expropriation, arguing that the Current Constitution does allow for expropriation without compensation already. The question that really needs to be asked is – why is this process taking place so slowly?  Donald Hendricks from St Marks District Six shared a little of the story of the homecoming campaign in District Six DEGRADATION OF THE LAND We looked at the huge impact of plastic on the Planet, both the land the Oceans. Plastic threatens wildlife and our health. Hayley Maclellan of the Aquarium also shared some of the ways in which you can stop using plastic. A Plastic Fast for Lent has been developed which can be found here Final Calender Patrick Dowling shared some of the environmental challenges that are degrading the Earth, from pesticides to Climate Change, the massive human footprint is destroying the earth. FOOD AND THE LAND On the earth we depend for food. Peter Johnstone challenged us with the following actions: read labels – know what you are actually putting in your body! Find out where the product comes from consider air miles and fair wages. Put pressure on retailers, share food with others. Eat less meat, leave no waste. Give feedback to supermarkets and restaurants.   In the following break-away we considered the issue of the Philippi Horticultural Area, bread basket of Capetown, which is under threat of development