October 5, 2023

Rev. Stephen Pedro (left) and Rev. Karin van der Broeke, Ecumenical Relations Officer of the PKN (Protestantse Kerk in Nederland)   During the last week of August 2023, Rev. Stephen Pedro, MSS for Congregational Witness and manager for the roll-out of the Contextual Bible Study (CBS) project to our URCSA Cape Regional Synod’s congregations visited […]

August 29, 2023

Rev. Potwana after her confirmation as minister of URCSA Overberg. On Saturday 26 August it was a big occasion for URCSA Overberg when Proponent Phakama BJ Potwana was confirmed as their new minister. Background information Dr Daniël de Wet, MSS Witness Ministry, was present and says, “From Witness Ministry’s side, Rev. Stephen Pedro communicated with […]

August 3, 2023

From left to right: Rev. Stephen Pedro (MSS for Congregational Witness), Rev. Sean Esterhuizen (Diaconia), Rev. Godfrey Baartman (Chief Executive Officer: URCSA Cape Regional Synod), Rev. Eugéne Beukes (Manager for URCSA at the Seminary), Rev. Lucas Plaatjie (Ministry for Financial Administration and Actuarius), and Rev. Willie Koopstadt (Chief Executive Officer: Steinthal Estate).   The URCSA […]

August 1, 2023

The five CYM members who attended the CBS follow-up workshop. Fltr: Sinazo Witbooi, Chwayitwa Cakwe, Anathi Nkozwana, Anele Bhili and Nomhle Qengqani   “Today I have learnt skills and tactics of facilitating. I also realised that preparation is vital when you are going to facilitate a workshop in order to be able to guide your […]

July 31, 2023

“The follow-up training made me feel at ease. Now I feel prepared to go and facilitate and even train others,” says Mrs Funde, one of the CWM members who attended die CBS facilitators follow-up workshop on 12 July. Rev. Babalwa Sifuba facilitated the workshop to the CWM of the URCSA presbytery of Port Elizabeth. The […]

July 31, 2023

On the weekend of 20 to 23 July 2023 the Minister in Synodical Service (MSS) of Congregational Witness, workshopped with a few congregations from the Presbytery of Fish River. As always, we started off with a blessed Dwelling in the Word session. According to the Lectionary readings, we read from the Psalm of the week, […]

July 31, 2023

On Tuesday 4 April 2023 the CBS project manager, Rev Stephen Pedro, had a planning and training session with the CBS trainer, Rev. Babalwa Sifuba, as well as with the Christian Women’s Ministry (CWM) and Christian Youth Ministry (CYM) facilitators at URCSA Port-Elizabeth in Schauderville, Gqeberha. A few facilitators, who could not be present in […]

July 26, 2023

“My eyes were opened on how the Bible is being read, analysed, and understood,” says one of the members of the Youth Ministry who attended a CBS workshop on Sunday 2 July 2023, at Hofmeyr in the Eastern Cape. If you mention the word, Hofmeyr, most people won’t even know what, or who, you are […]

July 4, 2023

Rev. Stephen Pedro with some of the church council members at the equipment workshop.   On the weekend of 30 June to 2 July 2023, Congregational Witness had an equipment workshop with the church council of URCSA Laingsburg. Their request was that we should focus on preaching and on the tasks of the elders and […]

November 6, 2023

On Wednesday 1 November 2023, Witness Ministry’s AGM was privileged to have had Rev. Shaun Cozett as one of our guest speakers. He presented to us an introduction to climate change. Rev. Cozett is the rector of St Paul’s Breë Street in the Anglican Diocese of Cape Town, where he also serves as the coordinator […]

March 15, 2022

Hi there! I am Noxolo W. Fihla, a proponent of URCSA waiting to be called to a congregation. I am a strong believer that the power of nature lies in this; that it gives back what has been given to it. If we preserve nature, it too in turn will preserve us. It is a […]

March 2, 2022

It is with great pleasure that we welcome Shaneeze Dilgee (URCSA Lavender Hill) and Frikkie Marais (DRC Napier) on board of our Green Team. May you enjoy the energy and enthusiasm of our team and may the Lord use our input in various ways to help people to think GREEN and help to preserve our […]

April 20, 2021

Earth Day is a movement that is more than 50 years old and first started in 1970. The mission of Earth Day is to champion diversity, educate people and activate a worldwide environmental movement. At the moment it is the world’s biggest environmental movement working together with more than 75 000 partners in more than […]

May 12, 2020

CLF (https://clf.co.za/) included this important opinion piece on ecology, written by Elise Tempelhoff, in their series on “Pastoral Tools for the Covid-19 time” (see https://clf.co.za/christian-resources/) – a must-read. Elise is a renowned environmental specialist journalist. The CLF-Elise Tempelhoff Prize for Ecology, as part of the prestigious Andrew Murray Prize Fund, carries her name. The 2020 […]

April 21, 2020

Maybe the COVID-19 challenge is giving us opportune time to talk about poverty. COVID-19 is leveling the playing fields – confronting all of humanity with the reality of our communal and individual poverty. “While the word ‘poverty’ is a negative term that immediately connotes deprivation and dependency … it is probably the most appropriate word […]

March 2, 2020

Please follow this very inspiring FAST FOR EARTH in lent, and make your life a joyful experience:   Fast for the Earth  

August 21, 2019

I was completely unaware of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report that was to be released on 8th of August 2019 when I wrote my two previous contributions for VrydagNuus on the need for changing our human diet. The English language calls such synchronized events (without human involvement) serendipity and normally they happen […]