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• Canoeing down the river
Thinking ahead to their fête on 6 November, the Parish of Zwartkops River Valley hit on the idea of raffling a canoe, and what better place to sell tickets than at Loerie, the finish of the Great Train Race. A site was booked, and very early on Saturday 28 August eight members of the parish were at Loerie selling tickets to the masses of spectators and runners strolling around the dozens of stalls and enjoying the music and atmosphere. With the canoe on view and the church banner well displayed, many people bought tickets, although no conversions were reported! The following day the ticket sellers had much pleasure in presenting R1 000 to the Parish Treasurer. The canoe will be on display, and tickets available, at various shopping centres in the run-up to the fête, or tickets can be bought from Mike Tucker at 041 466 8327. The fête will take place in the St Agnes church grounds on 6 November beginning at 09h00. Picture: Want to win a canoe? - Eight hardworking salespersonell - selling tickets at Loerie were (standing) Willem Leerink, Mike Tucker, Gareth Lochhead, Johnny and Marie Myburgh with Catherine Lochhead. Sitting at the table are Anne Tucker and Wendy Lochhead.
Meeting over a longer time period and without any decision-making business, PSC was geared to be reflective. Presentations were made by invited guests, and a fair bit of time was spent in small group discussions - culminating in consolidated report-backs in the late afternoon session. Each morning Prof John de Gruchy led us in a plenary Bible study focusing on the lives of the patriarchs. Dr Mongezi Guma led the final Bible study. Our opening session saw a presentation by Dr Paul Siaki on the decline of the mainline churches in South Africa. This was informative, and alarming. Unfortunately we didn’t get too much time to grapple with the many questions raised by his presentation. Church planting is the fastest means of growing God’s church, and that is something we can tackle locally even while the CPSA is still putting resources together through its ‘growing the church’ network.
PSC celebrated the new diocese of Mpumalanga. The election of their first bishop should be over by the time you read this. Zululand was also approaching an election, and two anxious candidates for that diocese were also present at PSC. (Dino Gabriel has now been elected bishop of Zululand). Our new Anglican magazine “Southern Anglican” was launched. As the production and printing costs are carried by our Publisher (through raising advertising revenue), the CPSA merely meets its own costs in producing content and pictures for our articles in it. This has meant five new jobs being created by the Publisher, and the CPSA has employed a trainee journalist. Distribution through local people in parishes means that at parish level the magazine helps, not only to inform us about our church, but to be a practical means of support to people. The topic of same-sex unions took up most of Wednesday, beginning with an ethics presentation by Prof Martin Prozesky. The documents presented to PSC, and the general mood of the discussion groups was largely supportive of this develop-ment. However, the final report-backs urged that the CPSA was not ready to move in this direction.
A fair amount of technical work was considered regarding representation within the structures of the CPSA, led by an address given by Prof Barney Pityana. The CPSA’s legal team gave insight into how the church structures were responding to the various challenges raised by the passing of new laws in South Africa. Provincial Synod next year will work on changing the Canons accordingly. Synod will now happen at Edgewood College of Education in Durban for ten days in July 2005, and not at UPE as initially planned. Socio-economic challenges were considered on our last working day. An excellent presentation by Prof Klaus Nurenburger explored the economic cycles that trap people in poverty, and lead to debilitating conditions in society. Group discussions were focused on issues of gender, with the men and women members of PSC separated for their discussions. PSC also received the reports of various agencies and organisations from within the CPSA - thirty-two of them! Copies can be referred to in the Diocesan Office. The close of each day saw a reflection by another invited guest - Dr Jenny Te Paa, Dean of the New Zealand Theological College. Her perceptions from the ‘outside’ helped PSC to think about the new process it was following, but also to remember that the CPSA is part of the wider Anglican family. If readers would like any more information they may contact one of our diocesan representatives who were: Clergy - Bishop Bethlehem, Robert Penrith, Craig Dunsmuir, Keith Rae Lay: Roger Schärges, Charles Qoto, Daryl Newton and Thandie Xundu MU Provincial President.
What was different about this show was that all six models, who had been part of the Women’s Fellowship self-help outreach programme, had made their own outfits. In the beginning it took a while to get the group going - All Saints is a long way from where they live - so the programme fizzled. We then moved the whole caboodle up to St Ninian’s church hall in the township, and since then it’s gone from strength to strength. We started with mostly greenhorns, and one or two who had a smattering of experience - it was amazing how quickly it took off. We had about ten in the group by December. Then a guy came from Bisho and taught them how to cost their articles, to run a business, to draft patterns, to cut out etc. This inspired some of the women to get really involved.
One of the four of us from our Women’s Fellowship group still go up one day a week to help, advise, and take orders for materials, sewing stuff, which we get at MGE in Port Elizabeth. We also have to take the machines in regularly to Mr Luck who services them and gives us a special price, we only pay for the spares! He has been wonderful.
Thank you Picture: All my own work - Gladys proudly models an outfit she designed and made for herself - including a little bag for her cell phone.
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Picture: PSC
at work and play - Keith Rae, Charles Qoto and Roger Schärges
take a coffee break
Picture: PSC
at work and play - The bishops of the Province summoned for a photo-call.
We
now have three trained women who are teaching the other women the
basics, such as how to sew with a machine, different seams - their
zips are professional.
