WhatsApp weekly update (18–24 January 2026)

Greetings, everyone!

Hope you are well.

On Thursday after the weekly 10h00 service, I spent most of my session with the 20 young people at Volmoed attempting to brief the new young people who joined us about the themes, principles and history of VYLTP. For those who do not know, since inception in 2016 we have been focusing on the five themes of Volmoed, which are:

A. HEALING AND WHOLENESS. (I taught them the prayer “Holy Father/Jesus/Spirit, make us holy; Holy God make us whole”)

B. PEACE AND JUSTICE: We do not stand for “false peace” — the kind that avoids truth, accountability, or real transformation. Instead, we align ourselves with movements that embody authentic, active peace‑building, such as the Buddhist monks’ “Walk for Peace” currently taking place in the USA (See https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/17/buddhist-monks-walk-for-peace).

C. RECONCILIATION. Again, we do not believe in false reconciliation but in costly authentic reconciliation primarily as seen on Good Friday.

D. CREATION AND CREATIVITY. Much of what we do reflects this aspect.

E. BELOVED COMMUNITY. We build this daily and especially on Thursdays at Volmoed.

It was an interesting and fun session – there were lots of laughs and stories. Inathi, who just recently returned from Taize after an 8 month stay there, told the group about how she travelled to Germany from Taize to visit her “home family” there. Being part of VYLTP opens up opportunities….

In other news…

Last Saturday, about 20 of our young people joined in the choral workshop at St Peter’s, Hermanus. Bongani Magatyana  is an excellent choral teacher and will be back in Hermanus on 14 March for the next workshop. South African choral singing speaks to the soul and therefore it was great that we could be part of these wonderful workshops.

We are going to put much more emphasis on our social media presence this year. Please go to the Instagram page @volmoedyouthdrummers, follow us, like and share the photos. Also please encourage others to do the same!

Good news about some of our young people: a young man (Afikile) has returned to grade 10 at Hawston High school after being with us for a year. Inathi will probably be studying teaching through the Overstrand Learning Hub. We hope more can continue their education. We wish them well!

I talked to Fr Chris Schonerger at Ha Phororo near Hartebeespoortdam this week: they plan to bring eight young people to our 10th anniversary in June.

Global connections

I also drafted a programme for a July 2026 visit of a group of young people from Boston. It is called “Shore to shore” and led by Rev. Amy Whitcomb Slemmer. They have booked several nights at Volmoed for late July. Yesterday we had a zoom call to talk through their programme, in which our group will also participate. They also want us to visit Boston in about a year from now. I thanked them for the invitation but said that we do not want to put any of us at risk, so we will monitor the situation in the USA and will only respond positively to their invitation if we feel it is safe for all of us to travel there.

Edwin Arrison