God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

11/29/2009 • 10:59 pm Comments Off on 29.11.2009 A new week

29.11.2009 A new week

A new week starts – the 1st Advent is already gone and with big steps we are approaching Christmas. This year, my service on Christmas Day will be in the parish of Milnerton. This is after 12 years of German Christmas a new experience.

But until then many things must be done, this week I must finish a lot of paperwork and next Sunday, Dominik will be ordained deacon, as mentioned before another chapter is closed then and I have done my duty. In the last 13 years we had in the German-speaking Catholic Community one Primiz, the first mass of a new priest and now the ordination of a German, who will after one year also be ordained priest. Should nobody say that we German-speaking people abroad having not done our bid to keep the church going.  🙂

Otherwise it was a more of a quiet weekend – some relaxation and I must admit this was very much-needed and welcomed.  I slowly but surely get used to my new working rhythm and when I can occupy in February my office at Tygerberg Campus, then I guess I have once again a very much structured working life.  And that is needed, specially with such a broad portfolio as I do have in the moment.

Yesterday came the second invite to participate in a podium discussion during the 2nd ecumenical church day in Munich. So not only “children and AIDS” but also “global learning” is now on my radar for this big event in Germany. I am happy that I can bring in my expertise in both fields and looking forward to Munich. But also the POZ initiative, the pastoral work for HIV positive priests and religious should be a topic for Munich, but as it seems rather on the sideline. There is still a long way to go until I will have this topic in Rome, but I am working on it… 🙂

Filed under: General, , , , , , , ,

11/16/2009 • 4:51 pm Comments Off on 16.11.2009 New week starting

16.11.2009 New week starting

At 6 am I am up and running already this morning, too much is waiting for me today. The first hours I spend writing the next pages for a book to be published with the University of Trier. I was asked to contribute 15 pages on HIV and AIDS and slowly but surely the first 10 pages are done with an overview and some insights about the pandemic in Africa. Then a meeting with a parishioner from my previous German-speaking parish in Durban – time to have a coffee and catch up with his and my life. I always encouraged the people in Durban to phone when they are in Cape Town and to meet for a coffee and a chat. It is so important to stay in touch, specially when “your” community lives two flight hours away from you. For me it is nice to see that they still phone and pop in – even after I left this working field.

Afterwards meeting with the management board of the HOPE Cape Town Trust to prepare for the AGM later this month. There is always much to consider and to prepare to have a successful meeting with the whole board of trustees.

Answering emails and scheduling meetings is my current task – this week is so full, it is amazing and I have difficulties to pack into the week a bit of gym to release tension and to do good to my body. Later this eve I will visit friends to have a good “Linsensuppe” – a real good finale for a full day.

Filed under: General, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Reflection, Uncategorized, , , ,

11/15/2009 • 2:46 pm 2

15.11.2009 Still confused

Coming back from a brief retreat I am still confused and frustrated to being threatened by a London law firm about the contents of  two of my blogs. It feels like money reigns over truth. Nevertheless, I will wait and see. At the end, so I always hear, will the truth prevail. It should not take too much of my energy in the moment. I am awaiting the content of the complaint from the law firm directly and then I will decide how to follow-up on it. I have altered the two blogs concerned until further notice and me seeing the essence of the complaint.

This all should not stop me from continue working for the cause of HOPE Cape Town and writing the blog to continue networking with all readers and interested people. I still hope to being able to do this with WordPress, but I am also aware that they cannot judge such matters and being themselves subject of a complaint, might react and suspend the blog. If this happens then please check: http://www.stefanhippler.com – there will for this eventuality  be a notice where to find the continuation of the blog.

 

Filed under: General, Reflection, , , , ,

11/07/2009 • 12:19 am Comments Off on 07.11.2009 First day in office and a final letter …

07.11.2009 First day in office and a final letter …

A first day in office after all my travel, and as it is almost every time the case, first one has to sort out all the papers brought with me from the trip – and just have a look through all mails, emails and requests waiting for my arrival.

It is a vast to-do-list I have made today – but I am sure when I work through Saturday and Sunday, I will be able to start fresh into the new week – at least almost fresh.. 🙂 There are so many encounters with people, I still have to work through, so many challenges and obviously a good time-table and organisation of work is a must.

Tuesday we will have HOPE Cape Town planing meeting – then I know better what kind of travel I will have next year – with the Okeumenischer Kirchentag in Munich, Vienna World AIDS Conference, Hope Gala Dresden and Berliner Aidsgala as well as the Bundespostivenkonferenz,  meetings regarding the Charite Exhibition and a further meeting in Rome with the papal council there seems to be lots of travel ahead. I hope that I am able to coop with all the demands. But the circle of friends of HOPE Cape Town is growing

Today, my previous headquarter of the Kath. Auslandssekretariat der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz, the office dealing with the portfolio of German-speaking Catholic Communities, has given me notice, that they will cease taking donations for HOPE Cape Town. It seems that only the priest in the community counts – not the rest of the parish. The chairperson of the Pastoral Community Council is at the same time Chairperson of the HOPE Cape Town Association management – the project is not a “Stefan Hippler” initiative, but was an initiative out of the community – and HOPE Cape Town was until now a proud parent of HOPE Cape Town.

I will accept the ruling, why should I start arguing again – but I find it sad, that a clearly marked project which has identifiable links to the church and to the Cape Town German-speaking Catholic Community has now to rely on another way to channel the money and issue tax-deductible receipts. Thanks God I saw it come and the HOPE Kapstadt Stiftung can do all that in Germany. Nevertheless, I feel sad while another indication is sad, that personal dislikes of  one or two members of the Auslandssekretariats staff influence the donations stream for very needy people.

Evaluation of the higher legal interest would have done the trick.

But so, from February 2010 there will be no possiblity to send donation to HOPE Cape Town via the German Bishops Conference’s office of the Kath. Auslandssekretariat.

Filed under: General, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Networking, Reflection, Uncategorized, , , , , , ,

11/04/2009 • 9:30 pm Comments Off on 04.11.2009 Farewell thoughts

04.11.2009 Farewell thoughts

Sitting at Frankfurt airport I can feel the how tired I am and how much I am looking forward to sleep while flying back to Cape Town. I will be happy to be back home again.

For 16 days I toured through Germany with a detour to Rome, I have had meetings, planing workshop, planing meeting, one2one meetings, telephone meetings, talks – I saw round about a 1000 people in those days – statistics can be interesting. Plans are made until 2013 – I feel the manager syndrome arriving on my doorsteps, but I guess many people are telling me that since years. The Ecumenical church day, the world aids conference, the Bundespositivenkonferenz, the world awareness campaign part two, the exhibition at the Charite Museum, a film project, quite some invitations, amongst them to speak also about economy and ethics as well as how to achieve a value system for one’s own life, motivational talks – the visit of bishops to bring the idea of the pastoral care for positive clergy via bishops conferences to Rome – I am this evening indeed sure that there will be no dull moment in my life for the next years to come. And I thought it will take time to find enough work in my new working environment

HOPE Cape Town will be re-structured a bit – new offices, partly changed job descriptions – the Catholic Aids Networks registration as a NPO and PBO and I guess also there is some restructuring necessary – I still have to write a contribution to a book published by the University of Trier – writing down for me all the “still have to do” list is frightening and challenging at the same time. But I am in a good spirit that all can be done, seeing all the marvellous colleagues giving a hand and taking a lead with me.

Next week we will have our management and planing meeting from HOPE Cape Town and then I will report back in detail and we will plan for the new year ahead. Despite my tiredness I can feel the dynamics of networking – the possibilities lying ahead and I once again don’t understand the stand of many NGO’s which are so protective of their work and see most others as competition rather than a completion to their own work. This year I have seen some naughty incidents were other NGO’s were not afraid to try to lure away sponsors on our very own events. There are still so many feathers to earn in South Africa – and there are also so many willing sponsors if you have a good programme – there is no need to fight each other for anything.

 

Filed under: General, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Networking, Reflection, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Blog Categories

Follow God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE on WordPress.com

You can share this blog in many ways..

Bookmark and Share

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,711 other subscribers

Translation – Deutsch? Française? Espanol? …

The translation button is located on each single blog page, Copy the text, click the button and paste it for instant translation:
Website Translation Widget

or for the translation of the front page:

* Click for Translation

Copyright

© Rev Fr Stefan Hippler and HIV, AIDS and HOPE.
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Rev Fr Stefan Hippler and HIV, AIDS and HOPE with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

This not withstanding the following applies:
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.