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ALMA
Angola London Mozambique Association

Linking the Anglican Churches in Angola London and Mozambique

Annual Report 2016

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Highlights of 2016

Staff changes in London and Niassa: Bishop of Edmonton, Rt Revd Rob Wickham became London's new Bishop for ALMA. Niassa's new Bishop was elected by ACSA Synod of Bishops: Revd Vicente Msosa will be consecrated and enthroned in 2017. We also welcome Joanne Beale who takes over from Michael Collop as ALMA Projects officer for Mozambique.

ALMA Sunday with Bishop André Soares, Bishop of Angola. His visit included link parish visits, Chatham House and All Parliamentary Angola Group meetings, lunch with Angola link Priests, Edmonton Re-visited and London Diocesan Synod.

Exchanges in many directions: a health conference and later a Savings one in Angola, with Mozambican attendees; Emeritus Bishop Dinis visited Angola; young green Anglicans from Angola and Mozambique attended Anglican Consultative Council in Zambia and put Green issues on the agenda. An ACSA youth cluster met in Lebombo with Angolan and Niassan attendees, as did the African Primates retreat and the ACSA Children's workers conference.

Visits St Paul's Knightsbridge visited their new link parish, All Saints Nhamavila; Revd Chris and Sandy Swift, St Nicholas Shepperton, returned to Milange; Twyford School returned to their link school at Maciene and visited Maputo. Three young travellers spoke memorably at the ALMA meeting in October.

Advocacy: on illegal debts to Mozambique with Bishops Carlos and Manuel being interviewed by the Church Times. Eco Church launched

Marathon for ALMA! Many thanks to Chareen Lyle, who works at London Diocesan House, who ran the Brighton Marathon for ALMA on a hot April day.

Donations

£15,751 of unrestricted income

£67,972 of restricted income

In 2016 we remitted £134,777 to our link dioceses which includes some past Lent Appeal funding for major projects. See below.

The London Diocesan Fund (LDF) Charity Reg. No: 241083 manages ALMA Funds.

Supported projects and initiatives

Thanks to ongoing support from individuals and link churches we were able to support our link dioceses financially in the following ways.

Drought Relief

Drought affected all link dioceses. In Angola Bishop André found empty villages in Cunene province as everyone had left to seek food. ALMA gave £2000 to each Diocese. In Niassa they used the money to distribute drought resistant cowpea seeds.

Construction

Angola: Two link parishes have been extending and building schools in Angola, an ongoing project. Eight more church schools are planned!

Lebombo: improvements to link churches and plans launched for new seminary

Niassa: Final touches to church buildings complementing local contributions in Lichinga, Mongue and Chigoma

Training

We supported clergy training days that coincided with Synods and Diocesan Family Days to maximise cost efficiency of these huge journeys. The continual training of priests and catechists (lay ministers) is a major challenge to our partner Dioceses.

Community Development

Link Parishes and individual donors have supported this work in a variety of ways - contributing to water projects; supporting Orphan and Vulnerable Children by paying their school fees and basic school costs; provision of Malaria nets for remote communities; and a small fund for the training of Adeptos (community fieldworkers who encourage the Life Teams in Niassa).

In memoriam

We remember those who died in 2016: Bishop Paulino Manique, 2nd Bishop of Niassa; Revd Fundo João priest at Cristo Redeemer in Luanda; Fr Jose Chamusse from Lebombo who mentored many of today’s priests at St Christopher’s Seminary.

What is ALMA?

London, like most dioceses, has an overseas partnership to share companionship, ministry and mission. We also encourage and learn from one another in our call to be the global body of Christ. Our partnership with the Anglican churches in Angola and Mozambique is known as ALMA (Angola London Mozambique Association - an acronym that inspiringly means 'SOUL' in Portuguese) so we are Soul Friends!

Together we seek to live authentic Christian lives in an increasingly complex and polarised world where insecurity, the impacts of climate change and poverty remain daunting. 2016 saw a severe yellow fever outbreak in Angola, economic hardship and continued conflict in Mozambique. The disparity of our socio-economic contexts is a particular challenge to those of us in London. Our partners can teach us much - from being resourceful yet joyful in poverty, to their community development work grounded in the faith, strengths, skills and aspirations of their people - in very rural, peri-urban, urban and capital city contexts.

Here is the ranking of the ALMA partners in the 2016 Human Development Index:

  Ranking
(out of 188 countries)
Income
per capita
Infant Mortality
per 1000 births
UK 16 $37,931 4.2
Angola 150 $ 6,291 156.9
Mozambique 181 $ 1,098 78.5

Being Church together is our defining characteristic and our whole partnership is undergirded by prayer. We do though raise funds for projects that are core church projects in our partner dioceses which would not otherwise be supported. In 2016 this has included responses to the drought, joining in with a variety of capital projects and to supporting the training of clergy and lay leaders. Twin parishes and schools are also active in partnering with smaller local projects.