Network of Earthkeeping Christian Communities in South Africa

 

NECCSA UPDATE: FEBRUARY 2009

 

A monthly newsletter on Church and Environment in South Africa

 

1. Lent

 

Lent, the period of preparation for Good Friday and Easter, has begun.  Traditionally it is a time of personal restraint.  This significant period in the church's calendar is also increasingly used to highlight environmental issues. 

 

Tear Fund, for example, has promoted the concept of a carbon fast during this period, giving ideas for each day on how to cut back on carbon emissions.  Writing on 20 February  in Eco-Justice News, Rev. Peter Sawtell, the executive director of Eco-Justice Ministries, highlights the need for the use of eco-palms on Palm Sunday.  He states that in a typical year, over 300 million palm branches are shipped into the United States from Mexico and Guatemala specifically for use on Palm Sunday.

For the sake of a few brief moments of mimetic drama in our churches, hundreds of thousands of palm trees in Central America are denuded.  The vibrant diversity of healthy forests has been replaced by either stripped and damaged trees, or by the sterile monoculture of palm plantations.

I'm sure we do not have this problem in South Africa.   During Lent this year the World Council of Churches are promoting a focus on water entitled Seven Weeks for Water 2009: Water and Justice.  The weekly meditations will try to raise awareness of water and justice around World Water Day on 22 March.  Each week there will be a short biblical meditation with ideas for action.  Contributions will be made available weekly on the Ecumenical Water Network website http://www.oikoumene.org/  

 

Do you plan to mark Lent in a way that promotes and sustains the life of the earth?  Lets hear from you.

 

2. Planet in Peril – The Oikos Alternative

 

About 40 theologians, students and members of the public from South Africa and abroad gathered in January in Pretoria to listen to presentations and engage in discussions on issues of economic, social and climate justice.  The need for alternatives to current economic models, particularly those that included the economic as well as the ecological dimensions, were highlighted.  A particular high point of the congress was the opening address given by the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, Dr Sam Kobia, whose paper focused on the Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation process, particularly as it leads to the 2011 Jamaican assembly on peace.  

 

The morning devotions comprised reflections on the role of trees in scripture and society.  This culminated in the planting of an olive tree by the delegates on the final morning of the congress.  This South African Missiological Society (SAMS) Congress was held at UNISA from  14-16 January 2009.

 

3.  Religious Leaders' Summit for a Sustainable Future

 

A strong message for urgent action to address the environmental crisis was sent from the religious leaders to both government and faith communities in the form of a declaration and resolutions.  Issues addressed included climate change, food security, water, biodiversity and waste management.  

 

This summit, held on 10 – 12 February at the Eskom Centre in Midrand, attracted about 90 religious readers.  It was hosted by the Southern African Faith Communities' Environment Institute (SAFCEI) in partnership with Indalo Yethu, South Africa's Environmental Campaign.

 

The full texts of the documents will soon appear on the SAFCEI website (www.safcei.org.za).

 

 

The following was written for this publication by the Revd Sue Brittion, a  self-supporting priest in the Anglican Parish of St John the Baptist, Pinetown:

 

4. Layla

 

Layla gazes at me, large blue eyes serious and penetrating. She watches, waiting. What is Granny doing?

 

Sitting in her chair on the lunch table, she solemnly observes as Colleen and I chat, enjoying our salad. Pushing the large strawberry around, she finally manages to pick it up and wave it around, before putting it to her mouth.  A clenched fist holds it there while she tastes. Then she thrusts the strawberry into her mouth to chew and suck and toothlessly manoeuvre some of it onto her tongue.  The rest drops onto the tray, while she relishes the sharp, sunny, delicious taste.

 

Watching her learn to eat – Colleen calls it 'baby-led weaning' – I have a Zen moment. Nothing else in this world. Just this baby of God, exploring the wonder of taste and life and love. Living in the moment – nothing else there. Knowing herself secure and greatly loved.

 

She pauses to consider the other offerings before her. She decides on a crunchy strip of apple, comfortingly rubs it on her almost-teething gums, and relishes its juice.

 

And I ponder. In forty-six years, when she is the age at which her mother gave birth to her, will Layla be able to enjoy a strawberry in a peaceful house near a clean stretch of ocean? Or will the earth, the water, the air be so degraded and spoiled, that she will struggle for food and water, for clean air to breathe, for the basic necessities of life.

 

And I have a moment of great fear for this precious, miracle gift of God. Are enough of us conscious enough to save the world, God's gift, our only home? Will we be able to put right the rules of God's household, the oikos-nomos, this economy manipulated by an elite at the expense of all the rest of us? Do we have the time and the political will to allow the wisdom of God for our home, the oikos-logos, our ecology, our environment to heal our poisoned waters, our degraded land, our dying air?

 

A few days after her baby was born six-and-a-half months ago, my daughter told me that my miracle granddaughter's name was Layla – an Arabic name, she said, meaning beautiful darkness. 'Trailing clouds of glory' she came, unexpectedly gifted to us.

 

And now I know why God has put this particular struggle in front of us. Now I know in my gut once again what Christ means in saying: 'I have come that all may have fullness of life.' And I know why we are called to save the earth, our only home.

 

It's for Layla.

 

 

The World Social Forum adopted the follow declaration at their recent meeting in Bélém, Brazil, 1 February:

 

5. Climate Justice Assembly Declaration

 

CLIMATE JUSTICE NOW!

 

No to neoliberal illusions, yes to people's solutions!

 

For centuries, productivism and industrial capitalism have been destroying our cultures, exploiting our labour and poisoning our environment.

 

Now, with the climate crisis, the Earth is saying "enough", "ya basta"!

 

Once again, the people who created the problem are telling us that they also have the solutions: carbon trading, so-called "clean coal", more nuclear power, agrofuels, even a "green new deal". But these are not real solutions, they are neoliberal illusions. It is time to move beyond these illusions.

 

Real solutions to the climate crisis are being built by those who have always protected the Earth and by those who fight every day to defend their environment and living conditions. We need to globalise these solutions.

 

For us, the struggles for climate justice and social justice are one and the same. It is the struggle for territories, land, forests and water, for agrarian and urban reform, food and energy sovereignty, for women's and worker's rights. It is the fight for equality and justice for indigenous peoples, for peoples of the global South, for the redistribution of wealth and for the recognition of the historical ecological debt owed by the North.

 

Against the disembodied, market-driven interests of the global elite and the dominant development model based on never-ending growth and consumption, the climate justice movement will reclaim the commons, and put social and economic realities at the heart of our struggle against climate change.

 

We call on everyone – workers, farmers, fisherfolk, students, youth, women, indigenous peoples, and all concerned humans from the South and the North – to join in this common struggle to build the real solutions to the climate crisis for the future of our planet, our societies, and our cultures. All together, we are building a movement for climate justice.

 

We support the mobilizations against the G20 summit and on the global crisis from 28 march to 4 April, and the 17 April 2009 mobilisation of La Via Campesina.

 

We support the call for an International Day of Action in Defense of Mother Earth and Indigenous Rights on 12 October 2009.

 

We call for mobilisations and diverse forms of actions everywhere, in the lead up to, during and beyond the UN climate talks in Copenhagen, especially on the Global Day of Action on 12 December 2009.

 

In all of our work, we will expose the false solutions, raise the voices of the South, defend human rights, and strengthen our solidarity in the fight for climate justice. If we make the right choices, we can build a better world for everyone.

 

 

The following was distributed through the Anglican Communion Environment Network on 12 February:

 

6. Archbishop Moxon calls for moral lead in campaign against global warming

 

Archbishop David Moxon has told an international press conference that the Anglican Communion should offer "moral leadership" in the campaign against global warming.

 

Archbishop Moxon has been in Alexandria, Egypt, for a meeting of the Anglican primates of the 34 Anglican provinces that make up the worldwide Anglican Communion.

 

He had earlier led a special session on the impact of global warming on the environment. He was supported in his 90 minute address by Archbishop Paul Sarkar of Bangladesh, a country which faces dire consequences if sea levels rise. Archbishop Moxon later told a press conference that the gathered Anglican leaders were agreed that the Anglican Communion should offer "moral leadership" in the campaign against climate change.

 

This, he suggested, was significantly a matter of setting an example. He spoke of the need for Anglicans to embrace lifestyle changes, and to cutback unnecessary or environmentally hazardous modes of travel. He also spoke of the need for Anglican leaders to encourage what he called "eco-friendly congregations and environmental projects."

 

Archbishop Moxon told the media that the primates believed that the church has a "Biblical, theological and practical role to play in every community" on the issue. Anglicans needed to do what they could to prevent carbon emissions, and the "overcooking or choking of the planet." Such efforts, he said, should be seen as "an act of participation in God's creation and redemption."

 

NOTE: A PDF of Archbishop David's Powerpoint presentation to the primates is available at http://www.aco.org/acns/news.cfm/2009/2/4/ACNS4571.

 

This has four main parts, entitled: The evidence and effects of global warming and climate change; A Biblical imperative; The Christian moral climate; What can the church do?   

 

 

In previous editions of the NECCSA Update we have covered this much publicised case.  The case was heard at the Constitutional Court on 17 February and this press release was issued a day later:

 

7. Biowatch Appeal

 

In a David and Goliath battle, Biowatch on Tuesday argued its case in the Constitutional Court against the seed and chemical giant Monsanto. The 9-year struggle has its origins in an initial application in the Pretoria High Court for information about the planting of genetically modified crops in South Africa. The High Court accepted Biowatch's right to most of the information it requested, but declined to order the Registrar for Genetic Resources, the Executive Council for Genetically Modified Organisms and the Minister of Agriculture to pay Biowatch's costs and ordered that Biowatch pay Monsanto's costs in the case.

 

Biowatch took the costs orders on appeal to a full bench of the High Court and lost although a minority judgement supported Biowatch. The Supreme Court of Appeal refused to hear the appeal, and so Biowatch's final step was to approach the Constitutional Court, the highest legal forum in the land. The eleven Constitutional Court judges heard arguments from Biowatch and Monsanto. The Centre for Child Law and Lawyers for Human Rights, who acted as Friends of the Court, argued that the Biowatch judgment had a chilling effect on litigation by public interest organisations. During the hearing, the Constitutional Court judges referred to the "path-breaking" nature of the case, stressing the need to apply Constitutional imperatives and to recognise the importance of civil society organisations such as Biowatch in translating environmental and social rights into practice.

 

Rose Williams, acting Director of Biowatch, said

It was a relief to get to the Constitutional Court. We felt that our submissions were heard. It has been a long road to the Court and a challenging one for Biowatch. We thank the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) for their support in this case and are hopeful for a positive outcome for public interest organisations in securing their rights.

For more information, please contact Biowatch acting Director, Rose Williams on rose@biowatch.org.za or 082 435 5812.

 

Notes:

Distributed by EM Conradie 26/02/09