WhatsApp weekly update (9–14 February 2026)

This was another interesting week. Our session on “Reconciliation” on Thursday led by Dr Allan Boesak was preceded by an excellent sermon by him on the Transfiguration text. You had to be there. It was entitled: “there is a boy waiting”.

In our session afterwards, he focused mainly on the Biblical texts related to “reconciliation” (2 Cor 5, Gal 3 etc.) but spent a lot of time on the Zaccheus story in Luke 19. It is hard to keep a preacher from preaching, so we were served a 5-course meal on reconciliation starting with repentance and ending in restoration. One notable insight was that if we all put in the same effort that Zaccheus put in, a deep and profound relationship with God and neighbour becomes possible. At the end, I recommended that everybody should read “When ubuntu takes flight” in his book “Pharoahs on both sides of the blood red waters” and “The re-radicalisation of Desmond Tutu” in the book “Radical reconciliation”. This coming Thursday John de Gruchy will lead us in the conversation on reconciliation.

Speaking of Desmond Tutu: there is a rose named after him, and two members of a Friday online Eucharist group (Lavinia Crawford-Browne and Nulda Beyers) came to deliver 10 Desmond Tutu rose-bushes at Volmoed for it to be planted there. Visitors to Volmoed will soon see this new feature! Thank you to the Friday group who responded so positively to my suggestion.

A member of St Peter’s parish (her name is Gao) has been attending the sessions on reconciliation and (after drumming with the young people) she brought her son on Friday to see how the young people make the drums. Afterwards (while getting lunch for the young people) we went into a small business support office in Hermanus to see if they can support the drum-making project. We are not holding our breath (unfortunately government structures are not normally efficient) but we will continue to engage them.

Thursdays 4pm during Lent: Rev Wilma Jakobsen, chaplain at Volmoed, will lead Taize prayers there every Thursday for 6 weeks. The young people will join from next week. All are welcome to attend this as an act of prayer during Lent.