Diakonia Council of Churches

Tag: GFS

  • Blessed are the Peacemakers GFS 2019

    Blessed are the Peacemakers GFS 2019

    Diakonia Council of Churches, whose legacy of working towards a just society for more than four decades, once again calls people of faith to our annual ecumenical Good Friday service at dawn on Friday 19 April.

    The event which is a highlight of Durban’s Easter weekend activities begins at dawn at the Durban Exhibition Centre (DEC) before processing – in silence – through the streets of the city, to the Durban City Hall.

    The well-established tradition of the ecumenical Good Friday Service has become not only the flagship of Diakonia but also a major event in the Durban calendar, attended by thousands of people who gather together at the most auspicious time for Christians, to commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus and his death on Calvary.

    Each year, the service highlights a particular aspect of national suffering or injustice. At this crucial time in our country’s history, the service this year will focus on the theme Blessed are the Peacemakers.

    “We will be reflecting on whether we as people of faith are truly instruments of peace. How we can use our faith to bring peace to our homes, our communities, our country and the world? Our country is going through a turbulent period especially with the upcoming general elections we pray for peace and need to ask ourselves if we are doing what God wants us to do in our land,” says Nomabelu Mvambo-Dandala: Executive Director of Diakonia Council of Churches.

    The sermon will be delivered by Revd Thato Tsautse. Revd Thato represents the Anglican Church and has recently relocated from the Diocese of Natal to the Diocese of Pretoria where she serves as the assistant priest at St Francis Waterkloof. She became one of the first girl-servers in the early 1980’s at St Barnabas Anglican Church and later served as youth leader before serving in many structures of the church.

    “Jesus Christ was a social activist so we as the church and people of faith must address issues affecting our society,” GFS preacher Revd Thato Tsautse.

    She responded to her calling in 2008 started her Fellowship of Vocation (FOV) in 2009 and was ordained into Priesthood in 2015. Revd Thato has a very impressive background in the business and legal arena specialising in corporate shipping. In 2011, Tsautse was the first female to be appointed as President  in the history of the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Her passion for social justice has made her a close and long-standing friend of Diakonia.

    Meditative singing will start at 5.15am in the Durban Exhibition Centre, where-after the first part of the service will take place at 5.45am.

    The congregation will proceed through the streets of Durban in silent public witness.

    The service will conclude at approximately 8.15am at the Durban City Hall with the flowering of the Cross as a show of commitment by all present to act for a just society and take up God’s call.

    Limited parking and street parking is available at the DEC with additional off street parking around the City Hall. Transport back to the DEC from the City Hall will be arranged for the elderly and the infirm.

    Entry to the Good Friday service is free and all are welcome, with a collection being taken up during the service to support the burgeoning costs of this event. All are welcome to participate in this significant, multi-lingual Christian Easter service.

    For more info, contact the Diakonia Council of Churches on 031 310 3500 or visit www.diakonia.org.za.

     

    • Diakonia needs volunteers to participate in the smooth running of the service. Please contact their offices if you can help.

     

     

  • Do not Fear, Stand Firm GFS 2018

    Diakonia Council of Churches, which for more than four decades has worked towards  a just society, presents its annual ecumenical Good Friday service at dawn on Friday 30 March starting at the Durban Exhibition Centre (DEC) before processing – in silence – through the streets of the city, to the Durban City Hall.

    The well-established tradition of the ecumenical Good Friday Service has become not only the flagship of Diakonia but also a major event in the Durban calendar, attended by thousands of people who gather together at the most auspicious time for Christians, to commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus and his death on Calvary.

    Each year, the service highlights a particular aspect of national suffering or injustice. The service this year will focus on the theme Do Not Fear, Stand Firm.

     “This Good Friday we will be reflecting on an internal journey to see if we are ready for God’s vision for us as individuals.

    We need to stand firm, even if it means standing alone – standing in truth, in hope, in justice and in faith. The world, and (at times) our country, may seem like it is in turmoil with rampant prejudice, corruption, crime and financial strife and while most of us feel we should rather look away and focus on ourselves, families and work stresses, we must ask ourselves if we are doing what God wants us to do in our land,” says Nomabelu Mvambo-Dandala: Executive Director of Diakonia Council of Churches.

    The sermon will be delivered by Revd Thulani Ndlazi – the Synod Secretary of the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa (UCCSA), a position he has held since 2013. Prior to moving to Johannesburg to take up this role, he was based in Durban 2011 – 2012 as Moderator of the UCCSA, for the KwaZulu-Natal region. Durban people will remember him as the programme manager of the Church Land Programme based in Pietermaritzburg from 2004, in which he spearheaded and coordinated the first ecumenical Land Matters Project (focusing on land and human rights) in KwaZulu-Natal. He also co-facilitated research based Bible Study production process that also led to a formation of rural social movement called Rural Network.

    From 1995 – 1998 he studied at UDW reading for a Bachelor of Art in Theology (Honours) specialising in Systematic Theology and Ethics. As a post grad he studied in the Lancaster Theological Seminary in Canada from 1999 to 2002.

    Meditative singing will start at 5.15am, where after the first part of the service will take place at 6.00am.

    The congregation will proceed through the streets of Durban in silent public witness.

    The service will conclude at approximately 8.15am at the City Hall with the flowering of the Cross – as an act of commitment by all present to act for a just society and take up God’s call.

    Limited parking and street parking is available at the DEC with additional off street parking around the City Hall. Transport back to the DEC from the City Hall will be arranged for the elderly and the infirm.

    Entry to the Good Friday service is free, with a collection being taken up during the service to support the burgeoning costs of this event. All are welcome to participate in this significant, multi-lingual Christian Easter event.

    For more info, contact the Diakonia Council of Churches on 031 310 3500 or visit www.diakonia.org.za.

     

  • Standing firm at Lent

    Today is one of the most important holy days in the Christian liturgical calendar.

    It is the day which opens Lent, a season of fasting and prayer.

    Ash Wednesday takes place 40 days before Easter Sunday and is observed by many Christians, especially from mainline traditional churches, throughout the world.

    “Ash Wednesday comes from the ancient Jewish tradition of penance and fasting,” Lorna Charles, spokesperson for the Diakonia council of churches’ Good Friday Service, said.

    Reverend Canon Vernon Hammond, St Aidan’s Anglican Church rector and Diakonia Council of Churches supporter, blesses parishioner, Cherise-Leigh Kistnasamy with ashes in preparation for Ash Wednesday.

    “The practice includes the marking of ashes on a congregant’s forehead. The ashes symbolise the dust from which God made human-beings. Priests would apply the ashes to a person’s forehead while saying: ‘Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return’.”

    Christians are invited to increase their prayer, to fast and focus on their private meditation.

    They are called to observe this season of Lent with self-examination and repentance, by prayer, reflection, abstemiousness and reading their Bible.

    Typically, Christians choose to give up something they enjoy for the duration of Lent.

    Lent is also the period that Christians use to prepare themselves for the death of Jesus Christ commemorated annually on Good Friday – this year on March 30 – and for the celebration of the resurrection of Christ with special acts of repentance and faith.

    The end of Lent is marked by a Good Friday service – often celebrated at dawn.

    The Diakonia Council of Churches will present its annual ecumenical Good Friday service on Friday, March 30, starting at the Durban Exhibition Centre at 5 am before proceeding – in silence – through the streets of the city, to the Durban City Hall.

    The theme this year is “Do Not Fear, Stand Firm”. Entry is free and all are welcome.

    PUBLISHED IN THE POST NEWSPAPER

    14 FEBRUARY 2018 

  • Diakonia unites politicians and people of faith at Good Friday Service

    Diakonia Council of Churches once again celebrated the victory of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion on Calvary at their ecumenical Good Friday Service on Friday, 14 April.

    The annual service is an important day in the South African Christian calendar as well as a highlight event in the Durban Easter holiday cultural line up.

    This year, despite the tense political climate, politicians once again joined religious leaders from across denominations and thousands of congregants to put party politics aside as they participated in the service.

    Cardinal Wilfrid Napier OFM, of the Catholic Archdiocese of Durban preached around the theme for 2017: Whom shall I send? (Isaiah 6.8).

    Cardinal Napier said South Africa’s great challenges facing Christianity today as a faith and culture that comes from Jesus was rampant relativism and resurgent paganism.

    “Relativism is an ideology, which places the individual, his rights, his values, his needs and desires at the centre of and above everything else. The individual is the only reference point. There is no place for other people, their rights, their values, their needs and desires – least of all, the poor and marginalized.

    Indeed, rampant Relativism has no place for God, for Jesus Christ, for his Church, for the Community or for Creation. Its only focus is the EGO,” Cardinal Napier said.

    Speaking of the resurgence of paganism, he said, “For us this challenge comes mainly, but not solely, from Africa. It too is manifest in a similar rejection of Christianity, in favour of dubious traditional beliefs and practices at odds with Christianity,” he said.

    Speaking of South Africa post 31 March 2017, Cardinal Napier said, “As we reflect on and pray in commemoration of the Passion and Death of Jesus, who in a similar way broke the beliefs and traditions of the ideologies of his day, we must be prepared to “Stand for the Truth” as we did nearly a generation ago. Just as then so now must we be convinced that our Faith has the answers.

    MECs Sihle Zikalala, Weziwe Thusi and Ravi Pillay as well as Dr Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Mayor Zandile Gumede, Cllr Zwakele Mncwango also got into the reconciliatory spirit of Easter at the Good Friday Service, carrying the cross on its last leg of the procession to the City Hall where it was symbolically flowered concluding the service.

    Diakonia Council of Churches

    Tuesday, 18 April 2017