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Hi everyone: For this week, let’s start beyond the end and move backwards….
On Monday 23 February, we celebrate Dr Allan Boesak’s 80th birthday! Some of us know him from the 70s and 80s. What a privilege (a God-incidence?) that he is at Volmoed at this time, especially as the world said farewell to another prophetic figure (Rev Jesse Jackson) this week. We wish him well and thank him for his dynamic ministry over many many years. His 1976 book “Farewell to Innocence” will be re-launched at UWC on Monday.
This last week could turn out to be the most consequential week of the year for the Volmoed Youth programme, especially as the VYLTP Leadership team is currently meeting. On Friday, we had an excellent session with two Volmoed Trustees to determine how we will journey forward together this year, deeply mindful of the governance requirements of the Volmoed Trust and the wonderful presence of the young people at Volmoed every Thursday since March 2023. Part of this reflection is happening because this is the 10th anniversary year of the Youth programme and the 40th anniversary year of Volmoed as a whole. We committed to journeying together as we really are a gift to each other. The 10th anniversary theme “I call you friends” will guide us. Watch this space….
At our Thursday session on reconciliation with John de Gruchy (the author of “Reconcilation: restoring justice” and resident of Volmoed) we were reminded how telling the truth is not only a prerequisite for reconciliation (after all, the truth shall set us free), but how telling the truth is also a skill, if a relationship is going to be maintained, deepened and healed. So is listening a skill in the reconciliation journey. John reminded us that these two skills can and should be learnt and practiced, especially if the church is going to make a meaningful contribution to reconciliation.
On Wednesday, the young people took an almost 90 minute walk to the top of “Hoy se koppie” in central Hermanus and then to Grotto beach via the new cliff path. Hermanus is beautiful, and this beauty was on full display on Wednesday.
On Tuesday we had a visit from members of the Women’s action group based in Mt Pleasant who wants to journey with the young people to assist with their physical health. Our first full session with them will be on Friday and hopefully this will continue for an initial three months.
Next week Thursday the young people meet with the dean of Coventry Cathedral to wrap up the month-long focus on reconciliation. We have come to realise that we need many more months to deal with this topic so we will circle back to it every now and then.
And… drumroll…The following Thursday on 5 March at 10h00, the Gift of the Givers will bring Rev Munther Isaac from Ramallah, Palestine and some students from the Bethlehem Bible college to preach and teach at Volmoed. They will then lead a conversation with everyone who will stay behind after the Thursday service. As Christians started Lent and Muslims started Ramadan this week, we are once again reminded that there is a better way than perpetual conflict and war: that we can indeed build friendships across many artificial barriers and journey together as a human family. True peace is possible…
Again, a big thank you for all your support and efforts to support us. A big THANKS especially to Molly Wood at Volmoed and also to Steve Hendrickson from Boston for all your efforts!
Edwin Arrison
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.
Hi everyone!
On Thursday, we started our four-week focus on Reconciliation. The Afrikaans word is “Versoening” (“soen” means to kiss) and the isiXhosa word is “Uxolelwaniso” (“uxolo” means peace). One of the good things about being South African is that we have all these languages, each with its own unique nuance and emphasis. It is important that we reclaim this and other words before it loses all meaning (e.g. what does “peace” mean or what does “ceasefire” mean?). Whether we like it or not, there is a war on words and their meaning.
Continue readingGreetings, 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:
Continue readingThis is the last weekly update for this year as we have now officially closed for the year, except for Hermanus Country Market where we will have a stall as often as possible over the next few weeks. Our excellent volunteers (Walter and Sarah) with two young people will manage this stall for us. For us, it is not simply about “selling drums”: it is about telling the Volmoed Youth story to as many people as possible. We are the most outward-facing ministry of Volmoed and it is important that we share whatever good news we have to share.
Continue readingThank you to those of you who read and respond to our weekly update. Please feel free to tell me if you do not wish to continue to receive it (we will still love you!). Next week will be our last weekly update for this year as we officially close on 11 December and re-open on 8 January 2026. We need to rest …
A special thanks to Les and Cheryl from the Quest women’s group in Hermanus for your visit to us and your wonderful donation! Les put us in touch with Elaine, the owner of the Country Market in Hermanus – at the cricket grounds – who offered us a space at the market where we can drum and sell drums. We will definitely be taking up this opportunity from this week!
Continue readingOur leadership team met online this week. Sam White from Atlanta joined the team for the first time this week. Welcome Sam. He, together with his wife Janalene (originally from Durban), are alumnae of VYLTP 2016.
One of the decisions we made was to hold our 10th anniversary celebrations from
12–16 June 2026 as we can take advantage of that weekend. We hope that many of the alumnae as well as others between the ages of 18 and 35 will join us. Our theme will be “I call you friends” with a sub-theme of “From fear to courageous community”. How do we build friendships rather than fear? We look forward to some deep and joyful reflection on those themes.
This morning about 40 young adults will gather at Volmoed for a “Taizé day” under the theme “Advent hope for young people”. Besides the local young people, there will be 15 young people from Khayelitsha in Cape Town and others from across the Western Cape.
Also, one of our delegates to Taizé in France (Cleo) returns home this morning after five weeks in France due to personal reasons. We will embrace her upon her return. We have been getting photographs and videos from Masixole: this week they experienced snow in France!
Continue readingThe Volmoed Youth Leadership Training Programme (VYLTP) invites you to participate in the ‘Pilgrimage of Trust Gathering in South Africa’ in the style of Taizé. The gathering is for young people between the ages of 18 to 35 years (other older age groups are most welcomed) from different denominations, to gather, on Saturday, 22 November 2025. Just complete the form: https://forms.gle/sGoyj7XzfAjbNqQw6
Let us gather to be in solidarity, which is an effort to bring the body of Christ together, uniting us through song, praise, silence, workshop/s and listening to the Word and each other, as we strive to rekindle the ecumenical spirit in with our beloved South Africa and beyond. We would love to make this an inclusive and intergenerational event. The gathering will take place at Volmoed Retreat Centre in Hemel-en-Aarde.
#TaizeSA2025 #Hope #VYLTP
A year ago, we were in the USA on our “Drumming for unity and healing” tour. It was a few days after Trump’s election and many people felt encouraged by our presence.
Yesterday I counted that we have at least seven USA groups and one group from Canada visiting us in 2026.
6 overseas tourists=1 job
Township tourism
VYLTP
Volmoed Youth 