Network of Earthkeeping Christian Communities in South Africa

NECCSA Update: July 2003

A monthly newsletter on Church and Environment in South Africa

1. Annual NECCSA Newsletter 2003

The annual NECCSA newsletter is now available. Hard copies have been distributed to all members and also at the recent South African Christian Leadership Assembly (SACLA) and through the Council of Churches in the various provinces. Please inform the editor Leanne Seeliger (seeliger@sun.ac.za) should you need extra copies.

2.  Issues

a) 'Save the Wild Coast campaign

Supporters of WESSA's 'Save The Wild Coast' Campaign are invited to participate in a post-card campaign expressing their opposition to the government plans to build a toll-road through an area of global botanic significance and the proposed Pondoland Park; and secondly to grant a mining permit to mine for titanium within the proposed Pondoland Marine Protected Area. Johannesburg-based Don Pilkington has printed 10 000 postcards, headed "A call to Action." The pre-printed postcards, addressed to the State President, the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, and the Minister of Mineral and Energy Affairs, appeal to the government to carefully consider the implications of allowing major road-building and mining in a sensitive ecological area with a fragile social structure.

You may contact Mr Pilkington at inventww@global.co.za or WESSA conservation director Cathy Kay at ckay@venturenet.co.za for more information in this regard.

b) Genetically Modified Organisms

Brazilian Catholic Bishops declare seeds to be the "common inheritance of humanity". You can read more on what they have to say about GMO's on the NECCSA website.

3. The Kenosis Community

Here is a story from Günther Wittenberg on what the Kenosis community is doing towards earthkeeping in South Africa:

At the end of 1995 after my  retirement as Professor of Old Testament from the School of Theology, University of Natal I started the Kenosis Community, a training programme for black women wanting to work in the Lutheran Church. The old Lutheran parsonage of the Bishopstowe Lutheran Church was bought from the congregation and permission was obtained to use the existing church hall and the church for the courses.

Right from the beginning I included a course in organic gardening, working with the women in our community garden using permaculture principles, using rabbits and chicken for manure and no artificial fertilizers and insecticides.

The neighbouring property Gate E14 was bought in 1997/98 to accommodate teaching staff and sisters of the emerging Kenosis Community.

In 1998 a project was started for Aids orphans. Funding was obtained to build houses for foster mothers and orphaned children together with better accommodation for Kenosis staff. The Aids orphans project now has 3 foster mothers and 14 orphaned children. We built the houses ourselves, using compressed earth bricks and roof tiles manufactured by our staff. We were able to install solar heating only in one of the houses because there was not enough money. But all the houses were fitted with compost loos, an environmentally friendly design I heard of through the internet.

In 2001 the Community built a Creche with the assistance of two groups of volunteers from Germany. This was in response to a plea from farm workers in the Bishopstowe area that we should provide a facility because there was nothing available for children from farm labourers.

Presently this creche has two teachers and 55 children. The children are picked up by a Kenosis minibus in the morning and brought home again in the afternoon. The service to the community is heavily subsidized by Kenosis.

At the end of 2002 I retired as chaplain of the Kenosis Community in order to devote my time to the development of the new project. At the beginning of 2003 the Community bought a 52 acre property for guest houses and a retreat centre in order to generate some income. There are a number of houses already available that can be used as guest houses and can also be utilized but  most of them  are in a fairly run-down condition and substantial funds are needed to restore them.

The 52 acre property is severely degraded. A large section has been covered by American brambles.  My wife and I moved into a  cottage on the one corner of the property (Gate E 0) that was totally cut off by the brambles from the rest of the property. A path had to be cut through thick bramble bush to establish a connection.

I am now trying to rehabilitate the severely degraded land. I have contacted Working for Water and they have agreed to help me eradicate the brambles. But that is not enough. The plan is not to use it for commercial farming but to rehabilitate it with indigenous trees, shrubs and medicinal plants. We have started in one corner to remove brambles by hand and to replant the area with indigenous trees.

4. The Earth Bible series

The Earth Bible series is by far the most significant product of attempts to read the Bible from an ecologically sensitive perspective. Five volumes have now been published in this series edited by Norman Habel (Flinders University of South Australia) and published by Sheffield Academic Press. The five volumes focus on the themes of Biblical hermeneutics (the first more general volume), Genesis, wisdom, the prophets and the New Testament.  See www.SheffieldAcademicPress.com

The Earth Bible series include a large number of exegetical essays that are generally of a very high standard. While the series has a strong Australian impetus, much attention has been given to invite contributors that would be representative in terms of gender, race and geographical context. Several South African biblical scholars have also contributed to the series.

The Earth Bible team employs a highly critical hermeneutic articulated in six "ecojustice principles" that are employed in reading the Bible. In his series foreword Archbishop Desmond Tutu comments on the significance of this project: "I commend the writers for daring to read the biblical text afresh from the perspective of Earth. Feminists have forced us to confront the patriarchal orientation of much of the biblical text. Earth Bible writers are now confronting us with the anthropocentric nature of much of the biblical text. We now ask: does the text devalue Earth by making the self-interest of humans its dominant concern?"

NECCSA website address: www.neccsa.org.za where membership details could also be found. You are invited to accept ownership of this website in order to use it to share information on Christianity and earthkeeping practices. Please send any information to the email address below.

You are welcome to distribute this NECCSA Update electronically to any other interested person. You are also welcome to send news to be included in the next NECCSA update to  andrew.warmback@diakonia.org.za by 15 August. You may send such contributions in the language of your choice.

Distributed by EM Conradie 24/07/2003