Fifty young folks from the dioceses of the Anglican churches in Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe gathered in Lusaka, Zambia during the week just prior to the ACC – 16 meeting in the same city. They were joined by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd Justin Welby and the archbishop primate of the Church of the Province of Central Africa, the Most Revd Albert Chama.
The gathered youth made presentations to the Archbishops regarding our responsibility of stewardship for the earth. Some presentations were spoken, others took the form of skits incorporating music and drama. The presentations covered a number of important topics; renewable energy, mining, deforestation, land erosion, farming practices, waste, water, and air pollution.
The conference was sponsored by the British non-governmental agency Tearfund. Each of the fifty young people selected to participate in the conference were active in projects in their home diocese related to the environment. One had set a goal to plant 1000 trees by the end of the year and has already accomplish planting 850 of the trees. Similar to that, one of the proposals by one of the conference youth presentations was the challenge that Anglican bishops plant a tree for each conformation they conduct.
+Justin also made a presentation following those by the youth. Then, wrapping up the conference this past Thursday, Archbishop Chama presided over a Eucharist service. Two of the youth attending the conference were chosen as its representatives to ACC-16 which began on Friday.
The original story and the photos can be found at the Anglican Communion News Service.