Green Anglicans are celebrating the Season of Creation, together with the global ecumenical family. With face-to-face and virtual activities, religious leaders are accompanying the community in actions for the care of creation.
A walk to the mountain
The South African delegation from the Mbhashe Balekile Anesipho Diocese of the Green Anglicans gathered last September 3 for a hike up Khalinyanga Mountain, eNgcobo.
“We chose to climb the mountain where our help will come from, where we will surrender everything and let God be in control of our problems and give us the strength to be altruistic when it comes to Mother Earth and nature,” they noted .
In addition, they also shared a special moment of prayer for climate change, our communities, the poor, livelihoods affected by habitat distraction and mainly we pray for Mother Earth.
They were accompanied by Reverends Msengana and Mlunguza, who conducted the Eucharistic Service. An Environmental Science graduate also gave a talk to encourage us to “look precisely outside of nature. Doing so is a way to give back for all that we get from nature”.
Connected Across Borders
Representatives of Green Anglicans from Angola, Mozambique, Brazil and South Africa met virtually to celebrate the Season of Creation with an ecumenical discussion.
The Season of Creation is “a space offered to humanity to renew its relationship with the Creator and with Creation through celebration, conversation and engagement together,” they shared.
These four countries, despite speaking the same language (Portuguese), have different cultures, rituals, taboos, beliefs, ways of occupying different spaces. However, together they have analyzed what “Listening to the voice of creation” and the symbol of the “burning bush” mean for each of them.
Alberto Franca, a Presbyterian pastor of indigenous peoples from Brazil, gave a powerful prayer for the Amazon; Rev. Aurelio Uquieo, of the Mocambique Green Anglicans; and Rev. Rachel Mash, from South Africa, delivered the sermon on the theme with three questions: “Do we love the Earth? Do we believe that it was made by our Creator God and therefore we must be passionate about caring for creation? Do we listen to the cry of people who are suffering because of climate change?”