On Friday 2nd January 2026. Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac of Bethlehem, together with his family, was welcomed to Masjidul-Quds, or Gatesville Mosque, in Athlone, Cape Town.
A new years message to Cape Town from Bethlehem
Country Roads: a Reconciliation Day interfaith meander
On Reconciliation Day, December 16th, we have traditionally in Cape Town have organised an Interfaith Walk in District 6. But over these 3 years this became beset with various problems, not least the changing behaviors post-covid and the current divisive world climate.
So yesterday, myself, Cecil Plaatjies, Nic Paton, Aidon Allies, Marie-Therese Nga set out for Mamre to visit the Seutloali family. We took a different route from usual and meandered through upmarket suburbs, vast tracts of farmland, past farm workers’ homes, growing townships and forgotten areas with meaningful names like, Atlantis.
A journey that points to so much that should still be reconciled in this country. Along the winding roads north of Cape Town, we reflected on spatial division, and how many have been flung to outlying areas, with not much access to amenities and opportunity.
It was my second visit after the devastating fire which destroyed the Seutloali homestead. (See “Rising from the Ashes”). We were met with broad smiles and warm hearts. It was a lesson in resilience, hope and victory of the spirit. The Seutloali’s are rebuilding their home and planted crops again.
We spent the afternoon in conversation and encouraging each other, and also got to meet another family from the community who came over to visit.
Interfaith is often viewed as a public event consisting of many different religions on the same platform. Person-to-person dialogue does not make good copy. It is invisible, not easy to quantify and label, but it is a model of real peace work and reconciliation. Something that should become part of our daily interactions with each other.
Without planning or ceremony, we found ourselves having been meaningfully involved in an act of Reconciliation.
Spiritual Friendship is The Path: The Spring Walk
On Saturday 15 November, CTII held the second of its bi-annual hikes in Newlands Forest, led and organised by Nic Paton. Typically, each walk has a theme upon which the participants can reflect, together as well as individually.
This Spring, the themes were “Resistance and Renewal“, and seven ‘stations’ along the path offered our community of walkers the opportunity to take a sacred pause and share with one another prayer, poetry, meditation, ritual, and teachings. Our group was wonderfully diverse in age, faith, tradition, language and background.
“This entire spiritual life is good friendship, good companionship, good comradeship. When a monk has a good friend, a good companion, a good comrade, it is to be expected that they will develop and cultivate the noble eightfold path.”
Buddha’s teaching to Ananda, his faithful attendant
In essence, our togetherness is what sustains us and guides on our way. This is certainly what we experienced, there on the side of Hoerikwaggo, Table Mountain.
On the ascent, we began by considering “Resistance”, with Cecil leading us in a ‘Welcome to Land’, an honouring of our connection to all that is, to our history, to the First Peoples of the Khoi and San, and to all those that have walked before us.
Aidon, a graduate of the CTII Youth Programme and resident of Bonteheuwel, urged us to resist the pervasive violence that grips our communities.
Steve shared a refection on Isa inspired by the Qur’an, and Whitney enlightened us with the concept of a ‘pluriverse’, the many making up the one.
James, of Faith Hope Love Communities in Elsie’s River, offered us an insight from his Christian response to compassion for all, after which we made the final ascent in sacred silence.
Then, pausing in a gulley with the mountain spring bubbling around us, Nic offered a meditation with music from his flute.
On the descent, Raksha from the Brahma Kumaris led us in a meditation of “Renewal”, and Emma shared a poem, inspiring us to ‘Try Softer’.
Then, before completing our walk, Pippa closed the circle with a ritual of contemplation, each of us considering the power and potential of a seed and how we might “be the renewal” we want to see.
With the beauty and peace of our surrounds, sheltering us from the wind and bathing us in the gentle heat of Spring, we were reminded once again of Nature’s nurturing, and the sustenance to be found in togetherness. This is, as the Buddha said, the essence of our journey, and WE, as community, are the Path for each other.
photos by MJ Mzamo Jilana, Whitney Hedlund, Zahra Jobe and Nic Paton
A Good Shabbos at the Mosque
“Good Shabbos” is the traditional English greeting amongst Jews welcoming the Sabbath. On Friday 7th November this goodness was on full public display as Claremont Main Road Mosque in Cape Town hosted the Jewish community for their evening ritual in an exceptional interfaith event. A reported 250 or more people of many faith backgrounds attended and the place was packed.
Continue reading “A Good Shabbos at the Mosque”
A broad church: Groote Kerk hosts Albanese
by Ann Paton and Nic Paton
On Sunday 26th October, Dominee Riaan de Villiers of Groote Kerk, Cape Town, curated a solemn yet celebratory, open yet resolute, safe and dignified welcome to Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories.
