‘Blessed are the Peacemakers’ at Good Friday service
The event, which is a highlight of Durban’s Easter weekend activities, begins at dawn at the Durban Exhibition Centre.
Diakonia Council of Churches, whose legacy of working towards a just society for more than four decades, once again calls people of faith to its annual ecumenical Good Friday service at dawn on Friday, April 19.
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The event, which is a highlight of Durban’s Easter weekend activities, begins at dawn at the Durban Exhibition Centre before proceeding – in silence – through the streets of the city, to the Durban City Hall.
The well-established tradition of the ecumenical Good Friday Service has become not only the flagship of Diakonia but also a major event on the Durban calendar, attended by thousands of people who gather together at the most auspicious time for Christians, to commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus and His death on Calvary.
Each year, the service highlights a particular aspect of national suffering or injustice. The service this year will focus on the theme `Blessed are the Peacemakers’.
“We will be reflecting on whether we as people of faith are truly instruments of peace. How we can use our faith to bring peace to our homes, our communities, our country and the world? Our country is going through a turbulent period especially with the upcoming general elections we pray for peace and need to ask ourselves if we are doing what God wants us to do in our land,” says Nomabelu Mvambo-Dandala: executive director of Diakonia Council of Churches.
The sermon will be delivered by Reverend Thato Tsautse who represents the Anglican Church and has recently relocated from the Diocese of KZN to the Diocese of Pretoria where she serves as the assistant priest at St Francis Waterkloof. She became one of the first girl-servers in the early 1980s at St Barnabas Anglican Church and later served as youth leader before serving in many structures of the church.
Meditative singing will start at 5.15am in the Durban Exhibition Centre, where-after the first part of the service will start at 5.45am.
The congregation will proceed through the streets of Durban in silent public witness.
The service will conclude at approximately 8.15am at the Durban City Hall with the flowering of the Cross as a show of commitment by all present to act for a just society and take up God’s call.
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