Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord, Jesus Christ.
Bishopsbourne family: We are always conscious of the prayer support, hospitality, love, friendship and fellowship displayed by the Diocesan Family towards us. We are all well and the children at St Andrew’s College, DSG and East Cape Midlands have passed their second term exams with much rejoicing.
The first ten rooms were renovated and the fencing completed and we appreciate these developments. The next phase will be to renovate the guest flats.
August a month for Women and of Compassion: We thank God for His love revealed in creating women in His image and to bring them as a gift to this world especially in our various families through out the world. We do not know how the world would be like if it was man folk that was created without women. One can observe though men and women may seem different to each other but in Gods’ plan they were meant for each other to be Gods’ stewards in His creation. We pray that all families may be freed from domestic violence and the abuse of women and children and men as well. May the love of God that passes all understanding dominate men, women and children in the different families of the world and let peace, respect and human dignity reign. We pray that it may not only be the month of August that we get to appreciate women, but it may be through out the year and the years to come.
Parish visitation: When we visit parishes conducting our Episcopal service we are always overwhelmed by the warm welcomes, love and hospitality we receive, and experience the joy of worshipping together. Each parish is unique in its own way which helps in our understanding of diversity. We observe that Anglicans love their church and are supportive in different ways which is appreciated.
Support Ministry: We are blessed as a Diocese to have institutions such as the Diocesan Schools for Girls, College of Transfiguration, the Community of the Resurrection and the Order of the Holy Cross (UMariya UMama Wethemba). We urge you to make use of these institutions and create relationships as we minister together in different ways in Gods’ vineyard. We are also grateful for the ministry of our Chaplain George and Marria. We enjoy the company of our Chaplain and his family in our Episcopal visits and Mxoli who drives us around. They conduct prayers at the Bishops Bourne Chapel in the following ways:
· Tuesday – Morning Prayer and Even Song with wonderful reflections.
· Wednesday – Morning Eucharist @ 8:00 with the office staff and Even Song @ 17:00
· Thursday – Morning Prayer @8:00 and Eucharist @17:00
· Friday – Quiet Time
· Monday – Day Off
· Saturdays and Sundays – Parish Visits, Funerals and other Events
· Prayers are offered for the Bishop and family, all the clergy their spouses and families, Parishes and Institutions. We welcome any regular request for prayers.
The Chaplain and spouse accompany the Bishop and spouse over weekends to conduct Episcopal services from which is learnt a great deal as well as an understanding of the wider church community with its diversity. The Eucharist is celebrated and offices send regularly with particular intentions. Prayer is offered for the Bishop, all levels of the clergy, parishes and institutions and we will welcome regular prayer requests.
We engage in Diocesan and global intercessions daily including requests from ACSA. Standing intercessions include: South Africa, Zimbabwe, the Middle East, other African Countries, Afghanistan, the Economic meltdown, job losses in South Africa, the homeless and government interventions to improve the economy in South Africa, increasing plane crashes, road, air and sea accidents, SADC, the Christian Church and other religions.
Important Dates
1. Clergy and Spouse Retreats - (8-9 September and 9-11 October 2009):
It is compulsory for clergy and spouses to attend a retreat. Kindly advice Nobuntu at the Diocesan Office which retreat you will be attending. Both retreats will be held at the Monastery UMariya UMama Wethemba. For accommodation contact Nobuntu (Bishops’ Secretary) and do book on time. For further information contact Father Charles Lagan Office No: (043) 642 4154, Home: (043) 642 1900, Cell: 083 228 2825
NB
· We encourage all Parishes to pay for clergy and Spouse retreats.
· For retired Clergy, the Diocese will pay for their retreats.
· A register will be kept for those who attend the retreat and those who did not attend either of the retreats will have to account to the Bishop.
2. Ordinations 16 December 2009 at the Cathedral of St Michael and St George at 10h00
3. Gala Dinner for South – 18th September 2009
The Gala Dinner is done in order to launch the new Diocesan Development Agency in that environment. We will also acknowledge our own.
Please note that the income of the Gala Dinner through the sale of tickets will pay:
v The expenses of Gala Dinner;
v Airfares for Programme Director and our Guest Speaker,
v Other logistical things, and
v What is left will be deposited into the Diocesan Revenue Account towards reducing our deficit.
We want you also to observe the following:
· Parishes are encouraged to buy table for R15 000.00. If they cannot, they can buy a table for R5 000. 00
· Small parishes are encouraged to buy table for R5 000.00
· Individuals will buy a ticket for R500.00
· We encourage you to sell your tickets to at R1500.00.
We encourage you to use your own creative ways at parishes and beyond to fundraise for these tables. We love you all and want to see you at the Gala Dinner and please make an effort.
The Diocesan Development Agency will be fundraised for in form of pledge by the Programme Director from the audience that have attended that evening.
Diocesan Company:
An update about our section 21 company is that we have finalised the objectives of the company. We are now busy with the legal part of the company and being assisted by Advocate Brooks (Diocesan Chancellor), Brenda Amsterdam (Diocesan Registrar) and Mr Dumisani Tabata of Smith & Tabata. The Directors of the company will be:
· The Rt Reverend Ebenezer Ntlali
· Mrs Brenda Amsterdam – Diocesan Registrar
· Advocate Richard Brooks- Economics (Diocesan Chancellor) – Tertiary – Rhodes University
· Dr Lesley Ann Foster – Director Masimanyane Women Support Centre
· Mrs Lindelwa Songca – CA lecturing at University of Fort Hare
· Mr Dumisani Tabata – legal (Smith Tabata Attorneys)
· Canon Lulama Ntshingwa as Executive Director of the New Diocesan Company
The temporary name of the company will be: CAPROWAY
Could you kindly send us an email suggesting other names that we may choose from in changing the temporary name.
We call upon all Parishes, Chapelries, Branches that have partnership with government and other partners for social responsibilities to forward all information to the Bishops’ Secretary Nobuntu. Office No: 046 6361996, so as to integrate your programmes with the Key Performance Areas of your company and create a situation where you will account to the company and only the company will account and have partnership with donors, for proper accountability and sound administration.
Lent offering:
We want to congratulate the mentioned Parishes in the attached list that have deposited their lantern contributions which is R45 075.00 to the Diocesan Revenue Account. We want to remind strongly those Parishes that have not yet deposited their lantern contributions. See attached list (7).
It is the Anglican Spirituality that teaches us that, during the lent season we are encouraged to fast and eat less and also giving up some pleasure or luxury and use the money saved to help other people. Could you kindly deposit your contributions so that we can assist the people of Bernard Mizeki at Scenery Park for the building of their church as they are worshiping in a tent at the present moment.
Family day contributions:
We thank God for Archdeacon Mark Spyker, the Church Wardens of St Albans, the Stewardship and Giving Team and the Steering Committee for hosting us on our wonderful family day. The family day creates an environment for us as Parishes to come out of our small pockets into a wider situation which is the family of the Diocese in which we express our unity through the act of worshiping together at least once a year. It is also a time of receiving the word of God and of breaking bread together, feeding on the word and the Eucharist as a family.
Another important element is that, the Family Day creates an environment in which as Parishes and individuals contribute our love gifts to augment the Diocesan budget as means of reducing our Diocesan Deficit which stand at the moment at R1.3 Million. We congratulate those Parishes and the Mothers’ Union guild that have contributed R139 110.00 towards Family Day. To what is outstanding see attached list (8).
May God make us to grow as the body of which Christ is head, and all baptised persons are members. Called the people of God, a holy nation, a royal Priesthood, a community of faith in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. (New Zealand Prayer Book, No:30, Page 931)
We congratulate all the Parishes and individuals that have contributed in meeting their targets that were set by the Diocesan Council. See the attached list. We humbly ask that those Parishes that have not yet contributed on meeting their target that were set by the Diocesan Council in Gods’ name may do so, in order that we may make that target of R230 000.00
Remember that saying which says “unity is strength”. Let us act and be obedient and do this before the Diocesan budget which is in October 2009.
Ukhahlamba News:
We invite all Parishes in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to attend the inauguration of the new proposed Diocese of Ukhahlamba on the 3rd of October 2009 at 10h00 in Queenstown.
We ask both South and North to set this day aside as a commitment to attend this historic, great, joyous day, in giving birth to a new Diocese for the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. The celebrant and the one who will inaugurate this Diocese is Archbishop of Cape Town and Metropolitan of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa ++ Thabo Makgoba, and the preacher of the day will be Bishop + Rubin Philip, Bishop of the Diocese of Natal, who has been so generous to us by donating R150 000.00 towards the stipend and travel of the new coming Bishop of the Diocese of Ukhahlamba. We are praying to have more Bishops, leaders, and Christians from other denominations to attend.
For further information we want to report the following:
· We have the Bishops’ house, which is Emmaus.
· We are grateful to our Trust Board which has bought Diocesan Offices which amounts to R2.1 Million.
· We have bought the Bishops’ car, which is currently used by the Bishops’ Vicar.
· We are preparing St Michaels’’ church Queenstown as the Cathedral of the new Diocese.
· We are towards the finality of the Coat of Arms.
· The budget for the inauguration is ± R80 000.00, we are grateful to those who are donating to this budget.
· We have received 4 oxen in form of donations from Chief Ngangomhlaba Matanzima, Chief Ngubo, Bishop + Ebenezer in the name of his late father Reverend Klaas Ntlali, who was born in Lady Frere,
· We are also told that each parish will donate 3 sheep for the day
Donations and love gifts are done by any parish, Chapelry, Branch, any individual, to make this day a success. These donations could be made through the Bishops’ office, Nobuntu Office No: 046 6361996, Zoleka Maqwili our Administrator, Office No: 046 6361995 or the Bishops’ Vicar, Office No: 043 839 4830/ Cell 079 980 2006 or Reverend Temba Mdedelwa the Acting Administrator of Ukhahlamba proposed Diocese.
Gala dinner 28th August 2009:
We are pleased to inform you that the Gala Dinner in Ukhahlamba was well attended and colourful. We want to thank God and the people of Ukhahlamba for such a success. The guest speaker gave us a wonderful massage on the theme which was “Economical empowerment and Spiritual upliftment in the context of global and social economic crisis”. The guest speaker emphasised that the church is still called by God and is still relevant in our society in leading in prayer in assisting the government and other institutions to do social responsibility to uplift the nation. He also encouraged us by quoting the words of Esther, “I rather leave or die to save the nation”.
We shall make his address and that of the Bishop available in the next ad’ clerum. The total amount of the Gala Dinner R172 918. 00
Family Day 29thAugust 2009:
· The Family Day was well attended; people came in numbers together with the Clergy of Aliwal North and Queenstown Archdeaconry and others from the South.
· Our Souls were uplifted by the two combined quires from Aliwal North and Queenstown which formed their Diocesan Quire.
· The liturgy was so beautifully made that in the act of worship one could observe that our unity is expressed and our diversity.
· The total amount collected for the Family Day R62 081.00
The highlights of the Family Day were the blessing of the new fence and the new signage which is made by the people of St Peters Parish. We were struck by the cleanliness and the beauty of the church inside and outside as well as the hall. We were also touched by their warm welcome and hospitality which one could see that it was flowing from the bottom of their hearts.
We thank God for the ministry of Reverend Temba Mdedelwa and the Church Wardens and the Parishioners of St Peters Ezibeleni for their wonderful work of God.
To the Laos by Archbishop Makgoba August 2009: the Archbishop reminds us to observe August as the month of compassion – to be with people in what they face. We as clergy and leaders in God’s church observe circumstances in the lives of people that require our compassion such as illness, tragedy, unexpected needs, death and sorrow. God in Jesus Christ shows us what compassionate love is.
The people of God are also affected negatively by poverty, job losses and tragedy, and as the church we must be ready to be partners with all initiatives that work towards alleviating suffering on all levels.
Secondly, we are reminded that August is also women’s month. We need to share the burden that women carry of caring for those in need expending their time, energies and resources for the well being of children, grandchildren and the extended family. We thank God for women’s groups in the church – the MU, AWF, lay ministers, St Agnes Guild, Councillors, Sunday Schools and other functions in the church. Please also remember women and girls exposed to sexual violence and human trafficking. See attached copy (6) of the Ad’ Laos.
We commend the Archbishop’s letter to you to keep in our ongoing prayer.
Appointment of Rectors and Priest in charge:
We are pleased to inform you of the following appointments
· Archdeacon Mark Spyker, appointed as rector of St Albans East London, with effect 01-09-2009
· Reverend W.M.Fobosi, appointed as rector of St Mathews Keiskamahoek, with effect 01-12-2009
· Reverend S.E. Williams, appointed as rector of St Martin-by-the-Sea Gonubie and St Pauls Komga. With effect 01-09-2009
· Reverend M.A.T.Mfenyana, appointed as rector of St Philips Gompo, with effect 01-12-2009
· Reverend H.E. Goodfellow, appointed as rector of St Clemens Grahamstown, with effect 01-12-2009
· Reverend N.A.Arends, appointed as priest in charge of All Saints East London, with effect 01-10-2009
· Reverend T.Bada, appointed as rector of St Andrews Mdantsana, with effect 01-10-2009
· Reverend S.W.Mhlontlo, appointed as rector of St Andrews Kwamlungisi Queenstown, with effect 01-12-2009
· Reverend M.M.Sibamba, appointed as Priest in charge of St Michael Herschel, with effect 02-09-2009
· Reverend S.Makalima, appointed as rector of St Andrews Lady Frere, with effect 01-10-2009
· Reverend C.N.Webbstock, appointed as rector of St Saviour East London, with effect 01-12-2009.
· Revd Richard Wyngaard has been elected by Chapter as Canon as at 13-08-2009
INTERCESSIONS: Please pray for:
· South Africa – The H1N1 Virus and the spiraling death toll as a result of the virus the treatment given to those affected. The HIV/Aids pandemic and the death resulting from this illness. For all who grieve the loss of life. The Vara Vatu (OVC) programme in the Eastern Cape and its focus on child care workers and parenting training. For women and child abuse, for protection of all who are vulnerable. Give thanks to the Government initiatives such as the launch of the National Health Service, new Special Unit to deal with drug and human trafficking, new initiatives to deal with poverty alleviation by the Minister of Social Development. The economic policy of government to deal with the recession. Protests by various sectors in the communities affecting the quality of life.
· ACSA/ Anglican Communion: The month of August was identified as the “Month of compassion and Women’s Month” where we focused on God’s compassion, Jesus our Great High Priest’s Solidarity with human suffering and weakness. The call for the church to partner with the government towards alleviation of poverty and protecting the abused and vulnerable. We recognized the role of women in families, communities and the church such as the MU, AWF, women priests and deacon, laities and in church development.
The ACC meeting every three years to review the common life of Anglican Communion, review developments in Mission, the network on women families, youth, interfaith, peace and justice, the environment and institutions of learning. The Anglican covenant on the Agenda of the Synod of Bishops in September. Refugees around the world, the Global networks, the Refugee Highway Partnership and the World Evangelical Alliance. Pray for families who because of war, violence or disasters are forced out of their homes and communities.
Pray for the Episcopal Church in the USA, their Mission Partnership with ACSA, Anglican AIDS and Healthcare Trust and Hope Africa, the Human Sexuality debate and the future of the Anglican Communion. The position of the Episcopal Church in the USA to authorize the blessing of the same sex unions. The proposal by Archbishop Rowan William of a “TWO TIER COMMUNION” with reference to traditional biblical teaching on sexuality.
GLOBAL TRAGEDIES AND DISASTERS:
Please pray for the victims and casualties of the Air France plane crash in June. The Iranian Air crash on the 15 July and 24 July, for all who were injured and those who died and their families who mourn. Pray for the Christians persecuted in Iran that they may be protected and live safely. The nine people killed in the Moslem Region in Russia as a result of a suicide bomber, six people killed in Pakistan by a suicide bomber. Pray that the Taliban Militants cease to kill people. Pray for the raging fires in Greece and the loss of life and property, the typhoon Marakat in the Pacific Ocean affecting China, Japan and Taiwan with a bout 4 million people affected. The accident between a plane and a helicopter over the Hudson River in the USA where 14 people died. Pray for healing and comfort for all affected by the tragedy. The raging fires in Los Angeles where two firefighters died and 10000 homes affected. Fires in the Canary Islands where 20 people died.
Seychelles: Pray for the new Bishop the Rt Reverend James Richard Wong Yin Song, his wife Doreen and their children Jeremy and Deborah.
· The Middle East: Pray for Israeli-Palestinian peace, for Jerusalem to be the secure and lasting home for Jews, Christians, Moslems and interfaith relations strengthened.
· Zimbabwe: Pray for the new Bishop of Harare, Chad Gandia- for God’s blessings on his mission and ministry in a country that is traumatized, bruised and discouraged. For the end dictatorial rule and abuse by Robert Mugabe so that he may embrace multiparty democracy. For Morgan Tsvangarai’s aim to stabilize the country through peace efforts. For development assistance to alleviate poverty and address the cholera pandemic. Pray for the healing of Zimbabwe.
· Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane and Mrs. Nomahlubi Vokwana-Ndungane: we are asked by the Archbishop Thabo to pray for this couple that the Lord may guide and direct them in solving what is between them. He argues further that all of us as ACSA we affirm the integrity of both Archbishop Njongo and Mrs.Ndungane. We commend them to the Grace of God and your prayers. Could you read the letter and statement released by Kaamilah Paulse, regarding allegations published in the most recent Sunday Times, for understanding and your prayers.
· H1N1 “SWINE FLU”: we are grateful that Archbishop Thabo has given us as members of the Anglican church of Southern Africa guidance of how we can conduct ourselves towards H1N1 “swine flu”, let us continue to pray that the various governments of the world may find a cure for this H1N1 (swine flu). See the letter from the Archbishop.
The Reverend Janet Trisk
We have been informed by Archbishop Thabo that the Reverend Janet Trisk has resigned her position as a lecturer and will be leaving the College Of Transfiguration to take up a position as a Parish Priest. Quoting the words of our Archbishop about Janet he states, “Janet has given of herself unstintingly in her position as a lecturer and as Acting Rector at the College when this position was vacant for many months, and we extend our heartfelt thanks to her and wish her well in her new ministry.”
We as the community of Grahamstown love Janet for who she is and for her contribution to the community of the College Of The Transfiguration and to the community of Grahamstown.
We will miss her commitment to God, the College, the Students and Stuff and to us as colleagues in the kingdom of God. May God pore his grace upon Janet as she prepares for her new ministry and we pray that Canon Bill Domeris the Rector of the College may find a suitable person to fill the position and take the College into the future.
Episcopal Elections in the Church of the Province of Central Africa
· This is to inform you that the Electoral Collage which set at St Peters, Lilongwe, Malawi on Saturday 01-09-2009 elected the Reverend Canon Fr. Lesley Richard Mtekateka as the Bishop of Northern Malawi, who succeeds Bishop Christopher Boyle, who resigned and took up a new post of assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Leicester in the UK.
· The Venerable Fr. Frances Kaulanda, Archdeacon of Lilongwe was elected as Bishop to the vacant See of Lake Malawi by the Electoral Collage that met at St Peters, Lilongwe, Malawi on Saturday 01-09-2009. The Diocese has been vacant since the passing on of Bishop Peter Nyanja in March 2005. As a Diocese we congratulate Fr. Lasley and Fr. Frances and we command both to the grace of God and prayers.
We commend all the items that are in this Ad’ Clerum to your prayers, as we are the body of Christ in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. Let us then pursue all that makes for peace and builds up our common life in our lovely Diocese and beyond. (APB no: 106, p142)
Grace and Peace
Bishop +Ebenezer
Diocese of Grahamstown
Return to the front page of the Diocese of Grahamstown