During May 2003 an agreement was signed between the York and Hull District of the Methodist Church and that of the Cape of Good Hope District in South Africa. In accordance with the inter-district twinning and complimentary to that Haxby & Wigginton Methodist Church and Pinelands Methodist Church in Cape Town entered into twinning relationship in November 2003. This was done simultaneously on a Sunday in November and both congregations made use of videos produced by both churches. In addition we held a successful "Tastes of South Africa" evening in the church hall.
Pinelands Methodist Church building
Principles
The principles of the twinning are:
- To support each other work in the areas of Spirituality, Evangelism, Development and Church Growth, through frequent communication and the exchange of ideas and programmes.
- To support each other's endeavours by mutual encouragement, materials and prayer.
- By direct contact through membership and ministerial exchanges where possible.
Mike Crockett - Pinelands Minister
Process
Both Haxby & Wigginton (Steph Cooper from end April) and Pinelands have appointed a co-ordinator and in our case a twinning committee meets regularly.
At this stage a process of interaction has commenced between groups/departments with similar in ministries in both congregations.
Amongst these it is hoped that in due course interaction will take place between the following:
- Youth Church
- Children's Sunday School
- Women's Groups
- Outreach Ministry
- Adult Education (Home Groups)
- Worship Ministry
- Senior citizens
- Men's Group
Pinelands Methodist Church Stewards
The Pinelands Church is very active in the Joe Slovo Squatter Camp through a project called Phambili nge Themba. Find out more here.
It has also been suggested that families and individuals interact and we have designed a family/individual profile form which will enable members of both congregations with similar interests to communicate either by e-mail or letter.
