(Robin
Opperman from Umcebo Design with some of the proto-type vines public art works..
Pic by Illa Thompson)
Spend a few hours on Saturday morning
having fun, learning a new skill, meeting great people, and making art from
recycled plastic! Join Diakonia as they make components for giant vines out of
empty ice-cream containers.
Starting at the Diakonia Centre, the idea
is to have dramatic, huge public artwork vines decorating the inner city in
October, in time for the Diakonia Social Justice Season Festival.
The first vine making workshop will take
place at the Diakonia on August 3 from 09h00 until 13h00.
For 37 years, the Diakonia Council of
Churches has been working for a transformed society. It is running a Social
Justice Season later in the year looking at churches as life-affirming
communities and encourages parishes and individuals to come along and
participate.
“In 1985, the late Archbishop Denis Hurley
proposed an annual Social Justice Season. For a month or so every year, the
local churches would concentrate their attention on one social issue. Through
the hymns, readings and prayers of the liturgy, through sermons and exposure
programmes, the church’s energies would be galvanised for practical social
action. The most powerful way, he suggested, of establishing a strong tradition
of social justice activism in the churches is to encourage parishes to form
small groups that would work together on these issues,” says Nomabelu
Mvambo-Dandala, Executive Director of Diakonia Council of Churches.
“A well travelled biblical image is that of
the vine-keeper pruning the vines, removing the deadwood so that the available
nourishment will be focused on the remaining productive branches,” Mvambo-Dandala
continued. “Using this image as a starting point, our Social Justice Festival,
planned for October this year, will be called The Vines Social Justice
Festival. What we envisage is that the local congregations through their small
study groups will prepare to showcase their social justice activities and
projects at the Diakonia Centre during their Social Justice Festival.”
To find out more details of the Social
Justice Season, and to book space at the workshop, contact Diakonia on 031 310
3500 or email: Karen.Read@diakonia.org.za
The first vine making workshop will take
place at the Diakonia on August 3 from 09h00 until 13h00. The workshops will be
co-ordinated by Jackie Sewpersad and Robin Opperman of Umcebo Design (email: robin@umcebodesign.co.za / Facebook:
Umcebo Design | Umcebo Trust.) Entry is free and all are welcome! Please take
along a few empty two-litre white and cream ice cream containers!