Rethinking Business as Usual - Archbishop Thabo on climate change

The Archbishop recently participated in a 24-hour webcast dealing with climate change, hosted by the former American president, Al Gore. This segment on South Africa was described by the producers as follows:

Water is Life, Sanitation is Dignity - JustWater 2017

Cathedrals and churches on four continents have come together to raise awareness and activism about water by launching the JustWater website. This website is part of a new project focussed on celebrating, protecting and ensuring equal access to the gift of water for all, with an international programme organised by St George's Cathedral (Cape Town); St Paul's Cathedral (London); St Paul's Cathedral (Melbourne); and Trinity Church Wall Street (New York). Archbishop Thabo spoke at the launch of the initiative in London.

Water is Life, Sanitation is Dignity

JustWater 2017

Archbishop Thabo Makgoba

London, February 2017

Thank you Dean David and your team for inviting me here to help launch this initiative. Hillary and David are spoiling me at the deanery – thank you for your generous hospitality. Barbara thanks for all the practical arrangements.

As I was preparing for this event, we learned in Cape Town that as a result of diminished rainfall over the past year, the dams supplying water for our metropolitan area are only 29 percent full, this at a time when we cannot expect our winter rains to begin before May. While I won't go here into the linkages between the El Niño phenomenon and global warming, our water crisis had the effect of concentrating my mind on how precious water is and on how devastating the effects of scarcity can be.

Of exiled heroes and arguing Anglicans - Blog from ACC-16 in Lusaka

In our Bible study on chapter 4 of Ruth on Friday, verse 10 was the one which stayed in my mind. The equivalent for me is the need to keep preserved, beyond my tenure, my and our heritage at various levels: family, clan, ACSA and the Anglican Communion.

Anglicans called to join worldwide Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation

Anglican Communion bishops beat the drum for climate justice
(From the Anglican Communion News Service)

The Primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, has called on Anglicans everywhere to join Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Lutheran and other Christians in a World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation on 1 September.

Archbishop Makgoba welcomes Pope Francis's letter on 'Our Sister, Mother Earth'

People of faith need to focus on the moral and spiritual elements of the crisis brought about by rapid climate change, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Cape Town said today in response to Pope Francis's encyclical on the issue.

In a statement issued from Cape Town, the Archbishop said:

“I would like to thank Pope Francis for this historic, ground-breaking letter. I look forward to studying it in more detail.

“Across Africa and in other developing countries, we are already suffering the impacts of climate change, and the people hit hardest by severe droughts or storms are in our most vulnerable communities.

To the Laos – To the People of God, Pentecost 2015

Dear People of God,

At Pentecost, we celebrate the birth of our Church, marked by the empowering of Jesus’ Apostles by the Holy Spirit. So Pentecost, and the season which follows, give us an opportunity to ask questions about the nature of the Church. Questions such as: What are we as believers supposed to become if we want to witness to the presence and the working of the Holy Spirit? 

           

On Pentecost Sunday, I worshipped with the congregation of St Monnica's in Midrand, north of Johannesburg, where we used the reading for the day from Ezekiel, in which the prophet is set in a valley that was full of dry bones. I call that passage my conversion passage, because growing up in Alexandra Township I recall vividly how the Revd Sam Buti, the schools chaplain in Alex, linked the image of the dry bones to the frequent gang killings that happened there. In particular, he warned us that one day all of Alex would be a valley of dry and dead bones if we didn’t pluck up the courage to root out the gangs. 

Now is the Time for Prayer and Action on “Unprecedented Climate Crisis”: Anglican Bishops

A group of 17 Anglican Bishops from all six continents have called for urgent prayer and action on the “unprecedented climate crisis”. Their Declaration The World Is Our Host: A Call to Urgent Action for Climate Justice released today sets a new agenda on climate change for the 85 million-strong Anglican Communion.

The group met in South Africa in February to build on months of conversations carried out via the internet. The group involved bishops both from cultures and nations that are major contributors to climate change, and those producing low levels of CO 2 but disproportionately affected.

The Archbishop of Cape Town and Primate of Southern Africa, the Most Revd Dr Thabo Makgoba, who brought the group together, said:

“We accept the evidence of science: Human activity, especially in fossil-fuel based economies, is the main cause of the climate crisis. We heard of extreme weather and changes to seasons; rising sea levels; acidification of seawater; depleted fishing grounds; and displaced people who are climate refugees.

Archbishop Makgoba appeals for prayers, aid for the South Pacific

An appeal for prayers and for practical aid for the people of the South Pacific Ocean in the wake of Cyclone Pam has been issued by Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, Chair of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network.

In a statement issued from Cape Town, Archbishop Makgoba said:

“Having just hosted a meeting of eco-bishops from around the Communion, including Bishop Api Qiliho from Fiji, the network is particularly aware of the threat posed by climate change to the people of the South Pacific.

“We have been shocked by the devastation wrought by Cyclone Pam, particularly in Vanuatu in the neighbouring Province of Melanesia.

“Our prayers go out to the families of those who have died, to those who have been displaced and to those who have lost their homes and property.

“We pray too for Bishop James Ligo of Vanuatu and his people, and for those providing shelter and helping to relocate the homeless. We urge Anglicans to respond to appeals for practical help.”