The church has an extremely wide reach in South Africa. If you are a church leader, consider how you can connect with and mobilise impactful responses from the people within your sphere of influence at this time. Some questions to help you think through this include:
- Am I part of a wider denomination than just my local church? How can I leverage this network for support and mobilisation of a wider response to the current situation?
- Am I part of any interdenominational networks that could be leveraged in similar ways?
- Do I, or other leaders that I work with, have the capacity to organise a local community response group?
Once you have committed to organising a local response group (and perhaps helping other church leaders you are connected with to do the same), see information under point 3 below to assist in practical guidelines for setting these up.
The Warehouse convenes and is part of various ecumenical and civil society networks in the city, province and country. Please be in touch with us if you would like to connect with others who are trying to coordinate collaborative efforts in your area. If you are in the Western Cape and want to join the RESPOND coalition, please contact us on respond@warehouse.org.za. If you are elsewhere in South Africa and the continent, please contact covid19sa@warehouse.org.za if you would like to be connected.
To get broadcast information from both the Western Cape Ecumenical Network’s (WCEN) Covid-19 Task Team and from the RESPOND Coalition, please sign up on either of these two channels:
Whatsapp Broadcast Group: join via this link https://chat.whatsapp.com/C7tki6XSGSJ10Lad8Ke6Qe
Telegram Public Channel – https://t.me/WCENCOVID19