Christchurch, Kenilworth in Cape Town was the scene of great activity and creativity over the last weekend of October.
On the Friday evening a wonderful variety of stalls selling fresh, wholesome food to be enjoyed while troubadours set the mood for an evening of relaxed entertainment.
Later, a highly original presentation of music, poetry and drama was presented in the church, poetry, music, a rich mix of talents was displayed. All in all, a time to relax and share the gifts and fruits of Creation.
On the Saturday morning the focus shifted to “Learning Zone” with four interactive talks focused on our environment:
“Water in the Western Cape – the critical issues and a Christian response” – Kevin Winter
“Climate Change” – Chris Jack
“ Morality, oil, movement and space” – Lisa Kane
“Christianity, Food, Environment – the buck stops here” – Brendan Argent
Here Mike Kane gives some feedback on the brilliant Saturday morning talks:
“One potential risk of attending green talks on subjects such as climate change is that you can be bludgeoned into submission by a deluge of facts and figures. This was definitely not the case with the talks at the Green Fair on Water by Kevin Winter, Climate Change by Chris Jack, Transport by Lisa Kane and Food by Brendan Argent. I found each of the talks to be insightful, personal and very convincing. What stood out for me was that the speakers who are “experts” in their respective fields synthesized the mass of knowledge they have into personal interpretations of the key implications which were very accessible to us. They also spoke about how our faith provides the context and platform for our response to these challenges.
Another risk of such talks is that you are left overwhelmed by the enormity of the problems and your seeming inability to do anything meaningful about it. However in this case each speaker gave practical examples from their own lives of how to make small contributions to making a difference in each of these areas. It was a privilege to benefit from their insights and using some of their suggestions we could as a community consider ways of facilitating and encouraging more coordinated responses to these real issues.”
Parallel sessions were run, there was the ART FOR ALL workshop- With a variety of flowers and foliage, landscape photography and natural objects, to inspire you, those artistic at heart were able to spend the morning creating their own drawing or painting.
And for those who are more creative with words than paints, Sally Argent hosted A WRITER’S RESPONSE – based on a meditation around some object from the natural world.
The planned walk on the Liesbeek after church on Sunday was shelved due to heavy rains, but if you had listened to Kevin Winters talk on the looming water crisis – then this was a cause for great rejoicing!
What a wonderful , creative weekend. If we are made in the image of God, then we are co-creators with God. This weekend enabled us to share our gifts and creativity with God and to celebrate God’s beautiful world.
