MARFAM WEEKLY E-NEWSLETTER 2 SEPTEMBER 2026

1st September has been and gone, one could say, but it is definitely not the end, but Day One, the start of 34 days of Caring for our Common Home in a more focused way than usual.  The theme of Living Water in fact gives us a lot of food- and drink- for thought and reflection as I heard on the beautiful Opening Reflection of the programme for the interdenominational Season of Creation. .. The programme took us through the theme and its scripture passages by way of short prayers, reflections and music.   An amazing array of speakers from around the world and from many different Christian religions contributed, highlighting the richness of our Christian faith.  There was praise, thanksgiving, laments, confession of guilt, hope and intercessions around the needed transformation. Download to listen or listen again https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnho_aeql2w or use the text as presented in the Celebration guide………..

But that wasn’t all for today.  In the morning the Johannesburg Justice and Peace office had arranged for the SOC Opening Mass for our archdiocese to be celebrated at St Peter Claver Parish in Soweto with the main participants being the 500+ primary school children to whom Fr Mchunu spoke simply about God’s goodness and their responsibility in caring for creation.  My take on that includes Becoming Eco-Friendly Families and in particular “Water Worriers are Water Wise.”   Aspects of water and its importance, beauty, preciousness, vulnerability, fragility, its exploitation and abuse will be unpacked in different ways in the course of the next weeks but we, as citizens of the Johannesburg metro and Randburg, our town, are very conscious of our community’s water problems and the frustration of water outages that complicate our daily lives and about which we all complain constantly.  I, however am finding myself just a little more conscious of the fact that we in our suburban homes do suffer, but there are thousands, if not millions of citizens almost on our doorstep and all across the country who suffer far more. Across the world it is reported that 1 in 4 people do not have safe, drinkable water on tap at all and are reduced to fetching water and even having to buy water for the most basic needs, not only for the “safest, purest,” filtered drinking water which we more affluent people do, too often in small plastic bottles which end up contaminating the environment. In the upcoming local elections water and its management is for many their top concern.

An interview with a friend and colleague, Cecilia Molontoa, describes the topic of water management in poorer, rural communities from the voluntary work she and others are doing.  Water in urban settings is a particular major concern for the state and local government because of the high density of the populations. Clean drinking water everywhere for personal use but also for farming, growing food crops, mining and industry,including the digital world where water and electricity needs very often go hand in hand. Droughts and floods have had, and are having, an effect, even on nature conservation, animals and plants.   On a recent visit to the Pilanesberg National Park I enquired about that and was told that in that particular location, an extinct volcano, with its various types of geology and vegetation water is present in various places so that nature is overall still able to provide.

Here are Some Shared Thoughts from the Season of Creation guide (www.seasonofcreation.org) and the prayer service which used content from the same guide, provide a very insightful overview of the topic to ponder.   

2026 ECOMUNICAL SEASON OF CREATION SYMBOL AND LOGO.   Our Biblical text drawn from Ezekiel 47: 1- 12, portrays his vision of hope for God’s life-giving water flowing from the temple of God, which at his time was totally destroyed while the people were in exile.  The river grows deeper and deeper restoring barren land, reviving waters, and sustaining flourishing ecosystems. The vision invites human responsibility: recognising ecological damage, embracing interconnectedness.  We are called to immerse ourselves in the water and, actively safeguarding and working for the renewal of creation so that environmental healing and human well-being may flourish together. The symbol call is for transformation – that Christians in the process of undergoing conversion, would be immersed in the living water flowing from the throne of God, stepping in deeper and deeper, being inspired by the Spirit of God, working together for the renewal of Creation.

Intercessory Prayers

Reader: God of living waters, today we pray for a wounded world where waters are exploited, polluted, and withheld. Reader: We pray for places where plastics, toxins, and oil spills blacken beaches and wetlands, for communities whose fishing waters are contaminated and whose children drink from polluted streams.  Heal what has been poisoned. Bring justice where profit has silenced truth.

All: Where water flows, Lord, let everything live, trees for food and leaves for healing.

Reader: We pray for all rivers dammed without the consent of the vulnerable; for farmers whose soil dries seasonal flood; for indigenous peoples whose sacred waters are engineered for distant cities and data centers; for the suffering of communities whose livelihoods are stolen by corporate greed, and whose health is sacrificed for global consumption.  Free what has been unjustly controlled. Let rivers flow again with dignity and life.

All: Where water flows, Lord, let everything live, trees for food and leaves for healing.

Reader: We pray for oceans burdened by plastic and chemical waste; for coral reefs bleached by warming seas; for great whales navigating through labyrinths of nylon and ghost nets; for the microscopic life, the plankton and the krill, now mingling with the invisible dust of synthetic waste; for the rivers that carry our runoff — the fertilizers, the dyes, and the heavy metals. Turn our guilt into grace and our apathy into action. Make us a people who live justly and bring healing to every shore and stream.

All: Where water flows, Lord, let everything live, trees for food and leaves for healing.

Reader: We pray for communities where rising seas claim communities and ancestral lands, where saltwater invades freshwater wells, where graves are washed away with memory and belonging; for those who have contributed least to climate change, yet suffer first and most.  Hold them in dignity and strengthen global resolve for justice.

All: Where water flows, Lord, let everything live, trees for food and leaves for healing.

Reader: We pray for informal settlements and rural villages where taps run dry or water is unsafe to drink; for children walking miles to collect water or women burdened by scarcity; for those whose sickness is caused by contaminated supply.   

We pray for those whose lives are closely intertwined with water – coastal peoples,  fisherfolk, marine biologists, water engineers – who can teach us wise ways to live with water. We pray for people to be moved to action and use their inherent or entrusted power to create change. Stir governments, corporations, and communities to protect and share water justly.

All: Where water flows, Lord, let everything live, trees for food and leaves for healing.  (Methodist Church of Southern Africa)

A call to conversion.  Leader: Convert our hearts, O God. Where we have treated water as a commodity, teach us to receive it as a sacred gift. Where we have consumed without thought, teach us simplicity. Where we have used water without reverence, teach us to protect it as a gift entrusted to every generation and honour water as a source of life for all. Where we have been silent and tolerant of injustice make us courageous protectors of rivers, defenders of seas, and companions to those who suffer water injustice until justice and mercy flows like the river of life.

All: Where water flows, Lord, let everything live, trees for food and leaves for healing.

Amen. 

MARFAM THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY for this time are not all around the topic WATER WARRIORS ARE WATER WISE but they do conclude each day with the shortened version of the Prayer for Creation 2026 relating each of the persons of the Blessed Trinity to the message of the call to IMMERSION IN LIVING WATER.       TR   2 SEPTEMBER 2026

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

September 2.  FEED THE WORLD, DON’T KILL THE WORLD.  (From Becoming Eco-Friendly Families)   The Boney-M Song “Don’t Kill The World” goes back some 40 years. Environmental awareness was just starting and the song made a strong impact then.  But it hasn’t stopped us killing the world, which continues unabated.  In those early days activists were often ridiculed, seen as tree huggers or bunny huggers but they were already aware of the hunger caused by droughts, famine and the extreme weather patterns which are now almost accepted as normal.  The average world temperature is rising almost every year, heating the oceans, melting icecaps, affecting marine life, causing hurricanes and floods as well as drought in other places. 

Killing the world is killing opportunities to produce food to feed the world, resulting in hunger. This affects especially the poorest people in villages and small towns, who often grow some of their own food.  Feeding the world and the hungry is also providing aid to those affected by no, or low, rainfall and crop failures or floods and destroyed farmlands. Those displaced due to the wars and internal conflicts in parts of the world are among the hungry.  Such conflicts kill the world through the massive damage to infrastructure that we see daily on our TV news programmes.  War cuts food production, as in Ukraine where reduced wheat and sunflower exports are affecting staple foods of other countries. In addition wild fires brought on by temperature rises destroy many of God’s creatures and their habitats.      

Reflect, share, act. Scripture:    Now Simon’s mother-in-law was ill with a high fever and they asked him about her.   He stood over her and rebuked the fever and it left her and immediately she rose and served them. Luke 4:38-44.   Pope Francis. Approximately a third of all food produced is discarded and whenever food is thrown out it is as if it were stolen from the table of the poor.  LS 50   With the money spent on weapons and other military expenditure let us establish a global fund that can finally put an end to hunger and provide  development in the most impoverished countries so that their citizens will not resort to violent or illusory solutions or have to leave their countries to seek a more dignified life.  FT 262.  Eco-tip.Offer help to someone who is sick, mentally or physically challenged or works with sick animals.   As families revive the song, listen and meditate on the words, share and sing along.

DAILY FAMILY PRAYER from Season of Creation 2026.  May God our Father, who brought water from a rock, sustain us in the desert. May Christ our Lord, who is Living Water, refresh us for the work of restoration.  May the Holy Spirit carry us on currents of grace until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Amen. St Francis guide and inspire us on our way.