Network of Earthkeeping Christian Communities in South Africa

 

NECCSA Update: May 2008

 

A monthly newsletter on Church and Environment in South Africa

 

 

1. SAFCEI Conference and AGM

 

A successful conference and AGM was held at St Peter's, Rosettenville from 31 March to 2 April.  Organisations and individuals are encouraged to join SAFCEI.  Contact Ms Di Mellon at secretary@safcei.org.za.  The organisation's website is www.safcei.org.za

 

2. Greening our Churches: Workshop on Eco-congregations

 

This is being held arranged by the Anglican archdeaconry of Pinetown, and will take place at St Agnes', Kloof on Friday evening 23rd and Saturday 24 May 2008.  Ms Kate Davies will be the facilitator.  All churches and faith communities are welcome to attend.  For further information please contact Janet Williams at janetcw@telkomsa.net  or phone/fax 031 7055802.

 

3.  Season of Creation

 

The Anglican Church of Southern Africa is preparing liturgical materials for use in churches this year during a Season of Creation (from about the beginning of September to about 4 October.  The following themes are proposed:  God's Gift of Creation, Land, Water, Climate Change, Need not Greed, and Stewardship.

 

4. Church Leaders Speak on the Environment

 

USA Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katherine Jefferts Schori, at an Earth Day (22 April) observance urged everyone to "Be green".  She advised people to use public transport and to eat foods grown locally.

 

The new Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba, in his charge at his installation on 30 March this year urged people to face the challenges, including that presented by the environment:  "From local community issues to questions about the global environment and our own carbon footprints, Christ calls us to join his Spirit-led mission of peace and reconciliation, of empowering and transforming grace."

 

5. Vatican Lists `New Sins', Including Pollution

 

Thou shall not pollute the Earth. Thou shall beware genetic manipulation.

Modern times bring with them modern sins. So the Vatican has told the faithful that they should be aware of "new" sins such as causing environmental blight.

The guidance came at the weekend when Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti, the Vatican's number two man in the sometimes murky area of sins and penance, spoke of modern evils.

Asked what he believed were today's "new sins," he told the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that the greatest danger zone for the modern soul was the largely uncharted world of bioethics. "[Within bioethics] there are areas where we absolutely must denounce some violations of the fundamental rights of human nature through experiments and genetic manipulation whose outcome is difficult to predict and control," he said.

The Vatican opposes stem-cell research that involves destruction of embryos and has warned against the prospect of human cloning. Girotti, in an interview headlined "New Forms of Social Sin," also listed "ecological" offences as modern evils.

In recent months, Pope Benedict has made several strong appeals for the protection of the environment, saying issues such as climate change had become gravely important for the entire human race.

Under Benedict and his predecessor John Paul, the Vatican has become progressively green. It has installed photovoltaic cells on buildings to produce electricity and hosted a scientific conference to discuss the ramifications of global warming and climate change, widely blamed on human use of fossil fuels.

 

[Extract: Source Philip Pullella (Vatican City), 10 March 2008 – Reuters]

 

6. You Make This Publication

 

We welcome your contributions – news of what your or your church has been doing, a book review, an eco-tip, a poem or other piece of creative writing, an interesting website, etc.  Let us keep one another in touch with what is happening in our world.

 

 

Notes:

Distributed by EM Conradie 05/05/08