Every morning started with a devotion session led by ministers from different faith communities:
Day 1 (5 June) Stephen Pedro, Minister in Synodical Service for Witness, from the Uniting Reformed Church in South Africa (URCSA), led the devotion session by building it around a song “Christ be Our Light”. He said that the theme of this winter school was deliberate: Justice, reconciliation and unity “… because there cannot be true peace if justice is absent.” His scripture reading was from Ephesians 4:1-4.
On 6 June Anriëtte de Ridder, Minister in Synodical Service for Youth and Family Ministry, from the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) talked about Stories of Togetherness, using smells triggering things one remember, and sharing it. She used the story in Luke 5 about Jesus eating with Levi. She concluded: “….it is in the making of the fire, together; the cooking of the food, together; the eating of the meal, together; the laughing together; the differing in opinion, together; the sharing of experiences, that unity is born, relationships are restored, and justice is re-imagined. It is then that unity, justice and reconciliation happens in the heart, rather than in the mind.”
On 7 June Stephen Snyman, pastor in the Calvyn Protestant Church, led the delegates in praise and worship with his guitar and singing, and then talked about Zacchaeus in the tree. He concluded: “South Africans stands to lose such a lot. But we are also on the brink of gaining such a lot. May God help us to revive the spirit of Ububtu that has been captured, because reconciliation wants us to be real… reconciliation must be re-covered … re-embraced, so that we can live fully in South Africa – for God’s glory.”