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On the 5th of December members of the #together4creation group organized a #bigfalsebaycleanup in five different locations across the 33 km wide bay: Muizenberg, Mnandi, Macassar, Monwabisi, and Strand.
“Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures,” says Gen 1:20. This coast does indeed teem with swarms of living creatures. But when they see small pieces of plastic, they think that it is food and swallow it. “When their stomachs are full of plastic, they get no nutrition and so can die of hunger. God has called us to be keepers of the earth and so part of that task is to stop pieces of plastic from going into the ocean,” explains Rev. Rachel Mash, environmental coordinator of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa.
The #together4creation group was born during Season of Creation when young people from different churches joined forces to organize an online service for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation on the 1st of September. They decided to continue working together on an ongoing basis, inspiring other churches to join them.
Over 200 people including Anglicans, Catholics, Methodists, Lutherans, members of the Dutch Reformed Church and others, took part in the clean-up.
In Khayelitsha, they were joined by 10 Cuban doctors and the clean-up ended up with a dance festival! The group from Muizenberg was sent a message from former Miss Earth South Africa ambassador Margo Adonis (who was in isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic) saying, “remember it is the little pieces of plastic that we think won’t cause damage, that are actually harmful to sea creatures.” Other partner organizations took part, such as the Ocean Awareness group and a group of surf instructors, giving information about marine pollution and water safety.
On some of the beaches, nurdles were found – these are tiny pieces of plastic that look like eggs and are a huge risk to marine life.
This a contribution to the WCC-EWN newsletter made by Green Anglicans.
