Sarah Oliver Cape Town activities, Interfaith, Peace

World Day of Prayer for Creation

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On the 1st September, the Cape Town Interfaith initiative participated in a wonderful event held to celebrate the World Day of Prayer for creation as we start the Season of Creation.

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CTII Director James Ellman assists in planting the tree to honour the day.

The service started with words from the Laudato Si
“The poor and the Earth are crying out. Help us to protect all life, to prepare for a better future” read by Rev Natalie- Simons Arendse, Deputy Chair of CTII.

The event was organised by the Green Anglicans, SAFCEI and CTII to bring together different faith communities to offer prayers of blessing for creation, and to call us to action in commitment to protecting and saving our precious Earth.

The service ended with a planting and blessing of a tree.

See what else happened for this special day all around the world: https://medium.com/@CathClimateMvmt/season-of-creation-begins-f885ecc4645f

 

Sarah Oliver Announcements, Cape Town activities

Visit from Boston College USA – Religion Justice and Reconciliation

IMG_2659CTII in partnership with The Jewish Board of Deputies hosted 15 students and their Professor from Boston College USA, on the 15th August, in the succah at the Holocaust Centre. Local Jewish and Muslim students were invited to the conversation on “Religion Justice and Reconciliation”. It was an excellent interactive dialogue, thank you to all involved!

Sarah Oliver Interfaith, Music of the Soul, Peace

Music Of the Soul Concert 2016

On the 6th November 2016 at Erin Hall the Cape Town Interfaith Initiative presented its annual Music Of the Soul Concert. A wonderful line-up of professional and amateur musicians offered songs from their religions with much devotion.

The first group were members from Ananda Kutir Ashrama, a centre that teachers Integral Yoga. This group sang an universal song, which included ‘The Universal Prayer’ of Swami Sivananda, improvised singing of short one-line prayers from various faiths, and a sanskrit hymn invoking the blessings of the prophets, saints, sages and gurus of all religions.

This was followed by beautiful and joyful singing by the Soul Singers of Baha led by Clare Mortimore representing the Baha’i religion. The group consisted of a choir of male and female voices singing harmonious praise songs. Dominique Sylvester also rendered a beautiful song on vocals and guitar.

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The third act was offered by the international musician Madosini accompanied by Pedro the Musicman. Madosini offered African Traditional songs and played on traditional instruments. She sang soulfully about various aspects of life interspersed with some humour as well.

Then Thazkiyah offered Qawwali songs in the Islamic/Sufi tradition. Their music was vibrant and their lead singer Haroon Hussein gave wonderful translations and teachings of the songs.

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Reverend Peter Fox, accompanied by Colin Leo on supporting vocals, Nic Paton on guitar and Garth Hammer on piano, sang soul-stirring Christian hymns, one of which was composed by Nic Paton. The love of God and mankind was heard through their voices.

14956545_1765354743713612_393841072418568093_nThe final offering was presented by the opera singer Belinda Silbert whose songs representing Judaism. Her beautiful operatic voice resounded through the hall as she offered classical as well as modern songs, one of which was a song that she had received in a vision.

The concert was enjoyed by all participants as well as the audience. The variety was wonderful and the atmosphere was charged with devotion. It was evident that the devotion is the same in all. There is only one religion, the religion of the soul.

Sarah Oliver Interfaith

Mind and Mental health- Integration with Spirituality and Religion

The World Psychiatric Association partnered with Cape Town Interfaith Initiative to host a roundtable discussion as part of the recent Conference held in Cape Town. The roundtable was held between international leading psychologists and nine local different faith leaders to address the integration of religious, spiritual and cultural influences on mental health.  All participants found the interaction most inspiring and there was an impetus to create a working group to take the conversation further seek ways to collaborate and create joint programs and initiatives.  It was shared that mental health is fast becoming the most prominent cause of ill health, and there are only 200 000 psychologists to serve 7.5 billion people.  There is definitely a need for this collaboration, as faith leaders play a significant role in counselling and helping people and are usually the first people to be consulted before professional help is taken.

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An exceptional dialogue took place in the Mandela Auditorium, at the SA Jewish Museum on Sunday 20th November after the roundtable discussion.  The audience was privileged to hear the comments from members of the WPA hailing from Egypt, India, Brazil, Canada, America and Britain and dialogue with four local religious leaders. All participants enthusiastically encouraged a relationship between faith and cultural leaders and psychologists.  Education, trust and better understanding is needed so that collaboratively the best care could be offered to people struggling with mental health.  Interestingly also the partnership of western medicine and African Cultural methods of treatment could be encouraged without either feeling threatened. Much discussion occurred around suicide, depression and the lack of mental care especially for the marginalised, rural areas, schools and prisons but also for over stretched medical personnel.

The dialogue inspired hope and the assurance of continued input from the WPA to encourage development in this approach to treatment .

Mary Frost CTII

22 November 2016