Food for Thought

Recently I read these encouraging words: “The decisions to take just one more step; to give to just one more person; to help to fill a need just one more time, are the daily building blocks of a godly life.” May these words inspire you to ‘salt of the earth’ and ‘light of the world.
News from the Circuit Conferences and Congregations

Circuit Conference East Inland Parish

At its meeting in April the UELCSA Church Council has decided to place Vicar Martha Weich in the Inland parish. She will be resident in Stutterheim and start serving in the parish from October 2016. We wish her and the members of the parish a fruitful journey.
Circuit Conference West St Martini

Pastor Siegfried Hambrock will go on retirement at the end of June 2016. He has faithfully served the congregation and the Cape Church for more than 13 years. We thank him and his family for their valuable and dedicated service. We wish him a well-deserved retirement. Pastor Claudia Nolte-Schamm and family will move from Gauteng to Cape Town in July 2016 to start her ministry at St Martini. We are looking forward to journey with her.
Pastor’s Conference

The Combined General Pastors’ convention of ELCSA(N-T) and ELCSA(Cape Church) will take place from 19-23 September 2016 in Red Acres, Pietermaritzburg. The topic will be: “Being Church here and now.” Topical inputs, listening to the word of God, times of sharing and engaging with one another will create opportunities to grapple with this important question. We want to seek ways of serving better as the body of Christ and deliberate on how structures might need to change.

Theological Training

Are you called to become a pastor? Are you interested in studying theology? Please speak to your pastor about it. The Church is offering bursaries to assist prospective full time students. The preferred place of study for UELCSA students is the Stellenbosch University.
Outreach work and Public Relations

The EKD has created an App for which information can be gathered about congregations worldwide who celebrate services in the German language. Is your congregation registered on it
Outreach: A task team has been set up to look at different ways of making the Cape Church and its congregations better known through media, home pages and other means. There is a special need to reach out to the many long-term German tourists who live amongst us. Are you interested in joining the team? Then contact the Church office.
Talks with the ELCSA(N-T)

As a follow-up to the meeting with Bishops Horst Müller and Gilbert Filter, as well as their deputies, Pastors Theo Jaeckel and Felix Meylahn at Communitas (Stellenbosch University), a workshop on the ecclesiology in a Lutheran perspective has been arranged for 22-24 July 2016. This is part of the ongoing process of dealing with the motion adopted by synod. The foundational theological discernment is important when dealing with the structures of the church. Dr Chris Johl is systematically working through and comparing the Constitutions, the Orders and Church Laws. These discussion are taking place to seek what is in the best interest of the congregations.
LWF Assembly 2017 in Windhoek

Much information and documentation has been prepared by the LWF for the Assembly, which will also commemorate the 500 Reformation Jubilee. An interesting website to find out more about the topic: Liberated by Grace is https://2017.lutheranworld.org/study-booklets
500 Years Reformation in 2017

What are you planning in your congregation to celebrate this significant period in history? Share it, so that we can join in the celebrations. On the ecumenical front some events are planned as we continue to investigate the significance of the Reformation for our African context.

Bishop Filter