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2009 was the year of The Spirit of Hope at St
John's. There were a number of fun-filled events held during the year,
with an emphasis on fun and fellowship.
Guitar Lessons for Beginners:
Throughout the year, Revd Caroline Beech has
been holding lessons after the 9am service on a Sunday. Her pupils
ranged in age from teenagers to grandparents, and they have been so
successful that the guitarists have played at several church services during
the year. These lessons are planned to continue throughout 2010.
6 February: A Theatre Supper was
held, during which a 3-course meal was served and we were entertained by
readings from a wide variety of stories and poetry, and discovered
remarkable talents within the congregation.
24 February: Shrove Tuesday:
This year, in addition to the traditional pancakes, we feasted on other food
representative of our varied cultures: fish and chips (English), samp and
beans (African) and rotis (Indian). The evening concluded with a very
meaningful liturgy during which we burned the last year's palm crosses to be
used the following day, Ash Wednesday.
25 April: Elegant Garden Party:
A typical tea party, with tea and cake, when the ladies were encouraged to
wear an elegant hat.
8 May: Ukukhuthaza Fundraising Auction:
Although not strictly a Spirit of Hope event, everyone
in the parish helped with this auction by donating things to sell, by
helping on the night and by coming and bidding on items! Thanks to
everyone, and especially auctioneer Rob Thunder, it was a great
success, and raised a considerable for the Ukukhuthaza Aids Support Group.
9 May: Beading Workshop:
Leigh-Anne Murray-Rawbone is very talented in many crafts, beading being one
of her favourites. She held this workshop to teach others this craft,
and it was so successful that workshops of this kind are to become a regular
thing.
21 June: Patronal Festival and Parish Picnic:
The picnic was held at Tanglewood, a beautiful privately-owned nature
reserve at the foot of Field's Hill. There were guided walks of
different types - a gentle stroll among the trees for the less active and a
more strenuous hike up a hill to the waterfall for the brave.
7 August: Jazz at St John's:
The well-known jazz guitarist,
Bheki Khoza, and his musicians, entertained us royally. Even the
electricity failure after dinner failed to dampen spirits - the hall was
filled with candle-light and Christopher Cockburn entertained us on the
piano until a generator was found and the guitars could play. It was a
wonderful evening, with old and young dancing to the jazz.
22 August: Women's Day Breakfast
at which the Revd Bellina Mangena, rector of St Alphege's in
Pietermaritzburg, was the guest speaker.
4 September: Arbour Day was
celebrated in true St John's style with supper, followed by an ecology quiz.
Solomon Dlamini then gave an account of the clean-up undertaken by him and
his team of the Umgeni River, and Janet Williams gave a very interesting
demonstration of how to make compost in any small container.
13 October: Visit to Motala Heights:
In response to Archbishop Thabo's appeal to parishes to spend 67 minutes on
Mandela Day doing something for others, a group of parishioners, led by Revd
Caroline Beech, visited Motala Heights, taking with them food, clothing and
other things that the community would find useful. These were handed
to the community worker there, Shamita. This is a community who live
in very poor conditions, and several homes had been destroyed by fire the
previous week. Caroline has become very involved with helping Shamita
to cope, and has succeeded in persuading the Pinetown Ministers Fellowship
to also trying to help.
23 - 25 October: Celebration of Hope:
This weekend was a celebration of the talents within our parish, newly
discovered and of long standing. Demonstrations of crafts, ranging
from Bonsai to embroidery were done in the hall, and in the church was a
wonderful display of all our talents, from writing to sewing to cake-making.
Christopher Cockburn provided some wonderful musical interludes during the
weekend, including the guitarists from Caroline's group playing music he had
written specially for them.
4 December: Potjiekos and 60's Music:
An evening of fun and fellowship, when people made their favourite potjie
recipes to share, and everyone danced to the music of the 60's.
11 December: Bishop Rubin Peace
Lecture: Bishop Rubin was honoured in 2009 with the award of the
Bremen Peace Prize for his continuing stand for human rights in South
Africa. At St John's, we had a dinner to celebrate this, at which
Bishop Rubin was the guest speaker, making his inaugural Peace Lecture,
which we hope will become an annual event in our parish.
[A gallery of photographs of all these
events will be available shortly]
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