Greetings, CTU Members and Friends –
All are welcome to attend our class on “What is Unitarianism?” scheduled for this Saturday, 1 April, 2:30 - 4:30 pm SA time, online only. Come learn more about Unitarianism, our community and how best to support each other on our spiritual paths. Details below.
A very special gift from Gur: a free wine tasting for up to 25 people, this Sunday, 2 April at 12:30 pm at Groot Constantia wine farm, the oldest in South Africa! Please see below for more details, including how to RSVP.
April is a month of celebrations for the Abrahamic religions: Passover, Easter, Ramadan. We will be exploring the meaning of these various traditions and discover new ways of understanding, practicing and/or celebrating these three religious traditions.
Hans is inviting everyone to the last AfrikaBurn volunteer day before the big event. All are welcome. See below for details.
Lastly, Thursday meditations are back! This month we will experiment with the meditation practice of Centering Prayer. See details below.
With love and light,
Nima
nimajanettaylor@gmail.com // WhatsApp number: 0760249120
In This Issue of the Newsletter
Sunday Topics
Upcoming activities and events, including the Somerset West Fellowship, “What is Unitarianism?” class, wine tasting at Groot Constantia, weekly Thursday meditations in April, AfrikaBurn volunteer day, Chalice Kids and online Chalice group
Community updates, including the March Council meeting recap, announcement of CTU’s new brand colours, photos from the tie-dye party last month and the Ministry Team meeting recap
UPCOMING SUNDAY TOPICS
Please note: All services are now hybrid
2 April, Sunday – Traditional Service: What is a mystic’s perspective on the teachings of Jesus? Join Nima for a peek into the Gnostic Gospels and how they point to an entirely different interpretation. What if Jesus was instructing us how to actually experience “heaven on earth”?
9 April, Sunday – The Meaning of Ramadan, with Imam Taj Hargey: Imam Taj, founder of the Open Mosque in Cape Town, will share with us the meaning of Ramadan and fasting in the Islamic tradition. Come support his vision of a world where Islam is open and inclusive.
16 April, Sunday – The Power of Passover in Judaism: Barbara Miller will be with us to share her vision of Passover and what we all might learn from this beautiful Jewish tradition.
23 April, Sunday – Sharing a Pastoral Care Experience From Tygerberg Hospital, with Gur Mouanga: As part of his seminary studies, Gur has been a Chaplain at Tygerberg Hospital and will share stories of his experiences there. Come support Gur on his journey to becoming a Unitarian minister.
30 April, Sunday – World Cafe: We will hold an online-only service with an opportunity to discuss our learning and understanding of the Abrahamic religions with each other. Come with what you know, with questions, ideas and curiosity!
UPCOMING ACTIVITIES
Somerset West Fellowship - IN PERSON
1 April, Saturday, 10:00 am
Vonke House, Chapel Room at 121 Lourensford Road
The guest speaker will be Kevin Pippert, who has served as Regional Coordinator for Southern Africa with Medical Ambassadors International since 2005. Kevin has a passion for empowering individuals and local organizations in community development and will be sharing about his work in Southern Africa and the significance of “ordinary” people being involved in the transformation and development of their own communities.
Originally from Chicago, USA, Kevin and his Durban-born wife, Erica, established a South African Christian Non-Profit organization, 360 Transformation, in 2009 to facilitate the work of training, consulting, and networking with organizations and churches in the strategy of holistic community transformation called Community Health Evangelism. “CHE” as it is commonly known, is used in over 100 countries around the world, empowering ordinary community members how to live healthy lives (physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually). Kevin has a BA in Biblical Studies and a Master of Divinity from Trinity International University, and has spent over 20 years overseas, traveling to more than 60 countries, and has lived in the Philippines and England as well as South Africa. Kevin and Erica currently reside in Somerset West.
There is no charge for the meeting. Light refreshments will be served. Please register by contacting Dave Mayes at +27 021 850 0863, or davidjeanmayes@gmail.com.
What is Unitarianism? - ONLINE
1 April, Saturday, 2:30 - 4:30 pm
Zoom, please email nimajanettaylor@gmail.com for link and password.
Nima, Gordon and others will facilitate an online-only class on Unitarianism. We’ll explore the history of Unitarianism globally as well as in Cape Town. CTU is a democratically run community, and we count on our members to drive our future direction, so there will be information about what it means to officially become a member of CTU, without any obligation to do so. Come learn more about our beloved community!
We will meet at location #6, which is the production cellar.
Groot Constantia Wine Tasting - IN PERSON
2 April, Sunday, 12:30 pm
Groot Constantia Wine Farm, meet at Production Cellar
A huge thanks to Gur, who has arranged for a free wine tasting for 25 people. We’ll also get a special tour, and for those interested, we can afterwards buy lunch at a discounted price: sandwiches or burgers for between R75 - R100. Come bond with other community members over a delightful glass of wine!
Schedule
12:30 pm Wine tasting, then a wine cellar tour
2:00 pm Lunch
Please RSVP to Nima at nimajanettaylor@gmail.com or +27 076 024 9120 no later than Saturday, 1 April, at 12 noon. Apologies for the late notice on this event. We will Uber and carpool from 64 Hout Street after the Sunday service. If you need a ride or can provide a ride from Hout Street or elsewhere, please let Nima know in your RSVP. It’ll be fun!
Weekly Thursday Meditations - ONLINE
Every Thursday in April starting 6 April, 1 pm
Zoom
Nima will facilitate an online 30-minute meditation every Thursday in April. This year, we will explore the meditation practice of Centering Prayer, which includes a sacred reading, 20 minutes of meditation and time for reflection and discussion at the end. Contact Nima for the zoom link.
Volunteer Day at AfrikaBurn - IN PERSON
15 April, Saturday, anytime between 10:00 am - 4:00 pm (no need to stay the entire time!)
AfrikaBurn headquarters at 8 Junction Road, Salt River
Join us for a day of volunteering for AfrikaBurn, the temporary creative community that gets built in the Tankwa Karoo every year. We will spend a fun day preparing signage, making tie-dye volunteer t-shirts and throwing down some tunes. Click this link to get the vibe of the volunteer event.
What to bring: a snack, a helpful hand and a smile on your dial. Lunch will be provided.
RSVP to Hans at +27 072 127 6497 so enough food will be available.
Online Chalice Circle - ONLINE
15 April, Saturday, 3:30 - 5:00 pm
Zoom
Contact Nima at nimajanettaylor@gmail.com for the April packet of materials.
Chalice Kids - IN PERSON
We have a robust Chalice Kids education project every month. If you would like your child to participate, email Nima at nimajanettaylor@gmail.com. She will help you choose the right group for your kid(s) and share the homes where we are meeting.
COMMUNITY UPDATES
Council Update from March Meeting
Council decided to extend Hans’s contract to live in 64 Hout Street and manage events in the building until 30 September 2023. All agreed he has helped bring more activities–including income-generating activities such as the art exhibition–to the building.
Melanie and Shelley will work to roll out the Principle Statement in 2023 to make it an integral part of our community. The first project will be to create a Chalica packet with our values, as agreed upon in the Principle Statement.
We are still looking for possible tenants to rent the building.
Eduan will no longer be eligible for Council, so we need to elect new members and a new council chair at the upcoming AGM.
The next Council meeting will be held on 14 May 2023 at 12 noon.
The Annual General Meeting will be on 28 May 2023 from 11:30 am - 1:30 pm.
CTU Brand Refresh Update: Our New Colours
The Communications Committee is happy to announce that we have chosen new CTU colours: purple, yellow and turquoise. Thank you to everyone who took our brand survey last year and participated in follow-up conversations with the communications committee.
Purple was the most popular colour chosen in our brand survey. This colour represents spirituality. Yellow was tied for second-most popular colour and represents hope and happiness in the CTU community. Turquoise is a combination of blue and green, which were tied with yellow for second-most popular colour in our survey. Turquoise represents the earth, water, the interdependent web of all existence and the vibrancy and diversity of our community.
As a next step, we will send out a request for proposals to brand firms to help us identify the right shades of these colours that also work well together and work with our logo. We will keep you updated on our progress.
Great Tie-dye Party!
A great time was had and wonderful clothes were produced! A big thank you to Hans for his loving care of the process and all the items that had to be dried for 24 hours before we could untie and admire their awesomeness.
Ministry Team Meeting Recap
The Ministry Team met on Sunday, 26 April, to discuss the spiritual direction of our community.
We prepared for a wine tasting event on 2 April.
We will incorporate the values from our Principle Statement in our monthly themes.
April’s theme will be the Abrahamic religions.
We are considering creating a survey to get input from the community on Sunday gatherings and other activities.
Everyone had fun at the tie-dye party!
Where Did All Our Art and Decorations Go?
If you’ve attended a Zoom service lately or been in our building, you may have noticed the walls looking bare. This is because everything hanging on the back wall was removed when we hosted an art exhibition in February. Hans and Nolu are working on getting everything back to place in the next coming weeks. We would like to invite any volunteers to help put everything back and maybe decorate the back wall. If interested, please send a text to Nolu on +27 069 437 8926.
Have questions or comments for Council? Please email us at community@capetownunitarians.org.