God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

10/15/2009 • 10:43 am Comments Off on 15.10.2005 Exhaustion and travel preparations

15.10.2005 Exhaustion and travel preparations

It is amazing how a body can hold on and keep one carrying through weeks of stress – until the point where it feels that rest is needed. That happened to me on Monday when my body simply shut down and I almost slept for 36 hours – with some small interruptions to get some food. An amazing feeling when you feel at the end of it all – nothing goes anymore, even to think seems to cause stress and is almost impossible.

After 2 days of further rest I am slowly getting back to normal and will leave for my trip to Germany and Vatican on coming Saturday. I will meet in Hannover with my friend Joachim Franz from be your own hero e.V. and we will both fly to Rome to meet with the papal council for health care workers to continue discussion we had in November last year. Then back to Wolfsburg where we will have a 2 days meeting to discuss further cooperation between us. Very exciting times for me, for HOPE Cape Town and for all those, who will benefit from more cooperation and maximized support.

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

10/11/2009 • 10:46 pm 2

11.10.2009 Diversity and in between

This weekend is the first weekend as a priest without a fix community and I supplied mass in Milnerton and Brooklyn. As I know Milnerton a longer time, it was a good experience, also seeing people again who I had not seen for a longer time. It has been as a chaplain always good to keep in touch with the “South African way” of saying Mass. What stroke me most today was the diversity of the Brooklyn parish – and how many kids attended the service. The church was full, the singing more “African” with clapping. Generally the diversity and the way of being relaxed is in both communities remarkable.

One has still the feeling of belonging to a big family when attending such a service, it is a feeling I still know from the good old days in Germany. As it is in often in South Africa, the mix of modern and old fashioned is fascinating, beamers bring the hymns to the screen, but the mobilar is still from “annodazumal” as the Germans would say. Writing this it reminds me of the meetings with the sangomas, where during rituals suddenly cellphone are ringing: pearls, feathers and bones are no obstacles to embrace new cellphone technology.

I think that this mix of diversity combined with old traditions and new technology carries the fascination of this country and its people – and it adds to the confusion of the visitor and guest: South Africa is still a developing country but also a modern country, it is a country in between. And the same goes for the church of South Africa – it is between the old and known and the new and unknown. Especially the Catholic Church, which was during apartheid times rather a suspicious group, had to jump quite fast to catch up after the end of apartheid.

A fascinating field to work in as a priest between the old and the new world.. in transition..

Filed under: Reflection, , , , , , , ,

10/10/2009 • 11:29 pm 3

10.10.2009 Are you still a priest?

I am not sure how often I have been asked that question. Even this evening, after supplying mass in a local parish people are worried about my status of priesthood. Many are confused about being a priest, but not having a fixed community to serve. Well, even when it was the 11th hour – I remain a priest and in employment of the church. The next question people ask is about the Fidei Donum priest – most have never heard of it.

Fidei Donum is the title of an encyclica of pope Paul VI where he encourages western churches to give priests to churches in developing countries. Most Fidei Donum priests of my diocese are in Bolivia as we have a partnership between Trier and Sucre in Bolivia.

The agreement says that I am now for the next 5 years as a Fidei Donum priest here in Cape Town with the portfolio of HIV and AIDS, HOPE Cape Town, Catholic Aids Network and other entities and besides that, I will supply for parishes in need of a priest for the eucharist.

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

10/08/2009 • 9:12 am Comments Off on 08.10.2009 secret gag order?

08.10.2009 secret gag order?

Since I took up my post as Fidei Donum priest in the Archdiocese of Cape Town, I am asked again and again what secret deal I have made, what kind of restrictions are lying on me to be able to work in the fields of HIV and AIDS for the church. And seems that people doubt it when I say, that there has been no burden laid on me in any form. The frame of my work constitutes our faith, which means that we have to proclaim that everybody is loved by God and that this love is unconditional. The frame is marked by the message of Jesus, that we are all brothers and sisters and that we have to care for each other. The frame is set by the spirit of God, his good spirit allowing all men and women to achieve full potential of their lives if it is not messed up by the fellow brothers and sisters. The framework consists of the message of justice for all, peace for all and an environment, which will keep a future for our kids and the kids of the kids.

I never doubted or lost that framework, and that is why I believe that it must be possible to talk to each other without any anxiety, to meet each other, to listen to each other. I will always be concerned if man of the cloth or employees of the church don’t meet this basic rule. I suspect, that if there is anxiety to speak to one another, there is a lack of experience of God’s unconditional love.
Nevertheless, in the framework of our faith I am working now in the new portfolio and I have no intention to change that frame. I believe that religion and faith has much power to give to the people, lots of strength, and hope and believe in a good future. And all this I want to take to those here in South Africa, who are stigmatized thought the pandemic and this little virus called HI virus.

Lets see how it all develops…

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

10/07/2009 • 9:53 pm Comments Off on 07.10.09 business

07.10.09 business

This morning the Regional Council of the Southern African – German Chamber of Commerce and Industry met with the new Consul General of Germany. And as I am part of this regional council as the vice-chair, I attended the meeting. For me as a priest, being involved in pastoral work and now mainly work in the fields of HIV and AIDS the business sector was always an interesting portfolio, so to speak. Not only because of fundraising purposes.. :-), no, I strongly believe that work forms an integral and important part of a life of a person. Having a proper training, having a good job, earning a living is essential for the dignity of people and I believe that ethics play a great role in business dealings. Since years I am associated with the Chamber of Commerce which also produced a wonderful friendship with the head of the Cape Town office, Anja. I mentioned this morning during the meeting that church (= social), chamber and consulate should work hand in hand, especially when it comes to welcome political delegations from overseas. They should be informed about all three sectors of human society and so form a good and reasonable picture of South Africa.
As my father was a banker, I guess, there are also some business genes in my body and it is said, that I am quite good in money matters – which may be the case :-).
So training issues and renewable energy were part of the discussion this morning and I am sure that we as the newly elected regional council can contribute to the development of training possibilities here in the Western Cape. It is indeed difficult to find a training as I am used to find in Germany. Giving people the ability to work and earn money with their hands work will reduce poverty, will reduce crime and will give them a sort of education, which will automatically also benefit our fight against HIV and AIDS.
This afternoon I attended the board meeting of IAM, an organization looking into the ministry of churches for the GLBTI community. This obviously is an important work as it touches on the understanding of peoples lives in a very personal way. Our churches are not known to be very tolerant towards the gay and lesbian community and there is still so much work to do to stop discrimination and to welcome them with an open heart into our church communities. IAM also runs a safe house for gay and lesbian people, who are kicked out from their families after disclosure or similar. Especially in the black communities there are major problems of acceptance which have to be addressed. For all of them should be the unconditional love of God a daily experience, right?

Filed under: Reflection, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , ,

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.