Reps Circular

Dear ALMA Reps and Friends,

Last September we prayed for Maputo as the food riots raged there. Today we ask our partners to pray for us in London, and now across the UK, as we face riots and destruction that we struggle to understand. Bishop Dinis has sent the following today:

‘Greetings in the name of Jesus the Prince of Peace and the Peacemaker.

We have been profoundly shocked to hear and watch the disturbances in your city and beyond in recent days and it pains us to see how in such a short time the same have gone to cause so much material and emotional damage. The involvement mostly of young people is particularly disturbing as we have been working to give to our younger generation a more smiling and peaceful environment. You are very much in our prayer and may the Almighty lead the whole British Society to the path of tranquillity and harmony and may the followers of the Prince of Peace find and follow their role in this complex issue of our days.

Together in Peace making in Jesus' name’.

As an ALMA community we hold All Saints Nacala, (Niassa) in our prayers where the Church Warden, Sr Cumbe has died unexpectedly less than a year after Goodwyn Mynawa the Headteacher of the school. We pray for Sre Cumbe who is district MU President, and Paolo Chintinguiza who is such a loyal correspondent from Nacala, and also for Arnold our Zambian accountancy volunteer in Angola whose young brother has tragically died aged 19.

There has been a great deal of sorrow since ALMA Sunday but it is important to acknowledge how special it was to celebrate this in the Cathedral and to be part of such a joyous service. Many thanks to everyone who made this possible and for all the extra miles cheerfully and willingly walked. If you missed the service and would like to know more about it do look at the news report on the Diocesan website. It is also possible to download the service sheet and see some pictures of the service. There may be ideas you would like to use in your own parish settings, particularly the intercessions on the theme of A-L-M-A with wonderful visual prompts.

It was also special to see a new stage in ALMA Twinning relationships marked by the presentation of Twinning Covenants to the new link parishes and schools since last year. These covenants show the commitment partner parishes and schools make as they agree to journey alongside each other and these will be extended to all twin schools and parishes in the near future.

Bishop Dinis commented on the wide range of age groups represented in the service especially the children and young people who ‘marched in the light of God’ with ALMA banners and swatches from the ‘River of Prayer’, sang in the Diocesan choir, and led the Intercessions. Part of our ALMA commitment must be to nurture the next generation of ALMA Reps, Friends and Officers by involving the young and looking for our successors! We don’t have many Diary Dates this month but there is one and it is the response of one of the younger members of the ALMA community. Do support it if you can and help build a church!

1. Diary Dates

Sunday 4 September 6pm Concert: Canto da ALMA - Sarah Warren and Friends sing Devotional, Classical, Musical and Jazz from the Soul at St Mary’s Stoke Newington (£7/£5 conc). Refreshments Available.

Sarah has been a member of St Mary’s since she was 13, was confirmed last year, is also a Cantor and choir member, and a member of the National Youth Theatre. She works at the Angelshed Theatre Company with children with Special Needs, and sang with the Diocesan Choir too on ALMA Sunday.

She writes

‘When we had the 150th celebration for St. Mary’s I met the visitors from St Mary’s link parish - Tete in Mozambique and found them to be really serious about their faith and really joyous in their view of life, and full of fun. I was at a dinner for them and heard them speak about building a church in Tete. I could not imagine a life without a church. They all sang at the end of the concert and their voices were so truthful and pure. Julio’s was especially beautiful. I have wanted to do something to contribute to the building of that church in Tete and as I am a singer and as we have some lovely voices at St. Mary’s I thought a concert would be a good idea. So with some friends at St. Mary’s and friends I know through music and theatre we will be performing on 4 September at 6pm to raise money to help our friends in Tete finish their church. Hope to see you all there!’

2.  News from our Partners

a) Angola:

• Revd Richard Fermer from St George’s Paris, the Supervisor of the Ministry and Mission Programme in Angola preached on Holistic Mission (Missao Integral) ( 72Kb) before he went to Angola. He has had a very intensive visit! There is much to discuss and learn from.

  Itinerary and Timetable of the Visit:

  20/07		Arrival in Luanda 6.05 am
  	9am	Meeting with the Rev’d Adolfo Simao, Diocesan Programme Co-ordinator.
  	10am	Observed a lesson by the Rev’d Adolfo.
  	11am	Meeting with the Luanda students of the M&M Programme.
  21/07	5am	Departure to Diocesan Office
  	9am	Clergy Training Day for the Luanda District – observed a presentation given by the Rev’d Joao Fundo on “Liturgy”.
  	11am	Presentation by me on “Holistic Mission” (Missao Integral) to the clergy, followed by lunch with the clergy.
  22/07	3.30am	Departure for Uige arrival at 11.30 am.
  	2pm	Departure for the Church Farm, “Bom Jesus”.
  	5.30pm	Visit to inspect the Church School construction at Songo.
  		Return to Uige 7pm after repairs to broken vehicle.
  23/07	9am	Gathering of all clergy, catechists, evangelists, leaders of the Mother’s Union from Uige, Songo and Mucaba at the Parish of the Martyrs. Presentation by me on “Holistic Mission” (Missao Integral).
  	2pm	Meeting with the three students of the M&M Programme from Uige.
  	3pm	Meeting with the three Co-ordinators of the M&M Programme in Angola.
  24/07	10am	Presided and preached at the Joint Eucharist of all the parishes in Uige at the Parish of the Martyrs.
  	2pm	Return journey to Uige, arriving at 9.30pm
  25/07	9am	Meeting with Bishop André
  	11am	Meeting with the Bishop, Fr Nunes, and the Rev’d Adolfo Simao.
  	4.30pm	Meeting with the Rev’d Joaquim Bondo.
  26/07	4.50am	Departure for the Airport and Return Flight to Paris

• News from Parish of the Martyrs Uige

  One of the new links receiving a Twinning Covenant on ALMA Sunday, St Marylebone, has received lovely pictures from Uige showing the whole spectrum of parish life there.

• Next e-edition of The Angola Monitor

  This issue covers rumours of President dos Santos not running for re-election, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to Angola, Angola-DRC oil sharing talks, Angola’s proposal to increase diamond sales, an NGO report which classed Angola as “Not Free”, the detention of a Cabinda civil rights leader in DRC, possible re-housing of victims of forced eviction, a pledge to eradicate hunger, a report which identifies Angola as among the worst in Africa for helping children and development of a new “city” near Luanda.

  Read the full issue of Angola Monitor( 128Kb) or Word version ( 85Kb)

  You can also download previous editions.

b) Lebombo

• As you know Bishop Dinis had a very full programme during his visit to London for the MANNA AGM, St John’s Waterloo Festival and ALMA Sunday. He travelled fairly extensively too and wrote some thoughts on his visit. Here are a few particularly relevant to ALMA:
  • To share with ALMA representatives filled one with a tremendous responsibility about communication and transparency and also the nature of our partnership as far as diocesan undertaking as distinct from Parish to Parish relations. It filled one with hope for a deeper and wider partnership.
  • Addressing Children/Students at St. John’s Primary School at Friern Barnet, at Christ Church School in Ebbw Vale, Wren Academy in Friern Barnet on the theme of the culture of peace was such a delightful hope filled challenge.
  • Sharing with St. John’s School at Friern Barnet, taking into consideration the link with Zove, the need to strengthen this partnership through improved communication and enhancing the message that School should be attractive especially to the girls as a way of preparing a healthy future.
  • Family encounters like the two that happened in Elizabeth Tucker’s home, the fantastic angelic voices from Friern Barnet singing in a moving way “Zove” would move emotionally even hearts of stone! What a privilege to hear such faith raising song!
  • The presence (and I hope the participation) of young people and younger generation in the various events and the diversity and creativity of the events is a promising factor and calls for an immediate response from all of us to seize the opportunity for the manifest interest by this younger generation. The use of modern technology for communication seem to be the way forward on which to invest our time and skills, in addition to our current means of contacts.
• At the same time as Bishop Dinis was in London a group from Twyford CE High School in Acton was visiting their links schools, the primary and technical schools in Maciene and celebrating ALMA Sunday in Maciene Cathedral. There is a delightful visit report complete with photos on the ALMA website which details the deepening bond between the two schools.

c) Niassa

• The trio of visitors from St Pancras to St Mark’s Cuamba have also produced an illustrated visit report with some more news on Archbishop Thabo’s first visit to Niassa.
• Sarah Leedham from Southall and A Rocha is currently in Lichinga with an environmental remit which includes teaching and developing the rural training centre – the Maschamba.
• At the ALMA Reps meeting in May, Sylvia Daniels spoke on support for the Van Koeverings ministry in Niassa:

  ‘From September 2003 to April 2011 The Van Koeverings’ were supported through USPG. Since this funding ended in April 2011 a new Trust Fund has been set up:  ‘The Van Koevering Trust Fund’. Revd Patrick Coleman from Newport, who is also Bishop Mark’s Commissary in the UK, is the Chair of the Trustees and Revd Chris Swift from Shepperton, London Diocese is the Vice Chair. The new Trust Fund is trying to secure the funding to enable the Van Koeverings to complete the final five years of their ministry in Niassa. Please look at the Trust’s website or their leaflet ( 701Kb) also hosted on the ALMA website for further information. All donations, regular or one off, gift aided if possible, are really welcomed. The equivalent of 500 people giving £5 a month for five years would provide the resources to enable this dynamic and inspirational ministry to be completed’.

• The Niassa timetable for the next two months is copied here for your prayers:

  Month	Trainings	Episcopal visits	VK school holidays
  August	19- 25 same youth conference in Tete WITH SA/UK VISITING TEAM	2-14 Cobué Archdeaconry.   18-22 Maputo meetings.	19-22 Half Term     Family holiday 23- 30 August
  September	13-16 Leadership training	9-12 Metangula.   22-30 Synod of Bishops, SA	23 Sept – 2 Oct Jake begins university.

3. London News

• Lent Appeal Update

  We’re almost at £40,000 which will be divided between the three partner dioceses and purchasing copies of the Africa Bible Commentary in Portuguese. This is still short of the £64,000 target. Could we encourage you to send any remaining donations as soon as possible. It’s also not too late to make contributions as the 2011 Lent Appeal Fund remains open until the end of December 2011.

  If most of your ALMA giving is towards your link parish please remember Lent Appeals are our annual opportunity to support diocesan wide work in our partner dioceses which all link parishes benefit from – especially this year with the focus on building the church through training.

4 Wider Issues

• The London Diocesan Fairtrade Campaign is now only 11 churches short of being able to reach Fairtrade Diocese status for London and reaching one of the London Challenge 2012 Targets. We know the benefit of Liberation and Harry’s Nuts to northern Mozambican nut producers and that fairtrade is something practical we in London can do now to make a difference. Can you check if your church has a fairtrade certificate?
• Keyboard Shortcuts for Portuguese (with grateful thanks to John Tasker)

  Do you send emails or letters in Portuguese and are frustrated by not having a keyboard with Portuguese language characters?  Do you insert symbols each time you need to type a character not available on an English keyboard?  There is another solution - try these keyboard shortcuts for international characters, just press the Ctrl key together with the accent you want followed by the letter over which you want the accent, and then voilà!

  For Portuguese, you can use:

  • CTRL+` (Accent Grave), the letter for à, è, ì, ò, ù, À, È, Ì, Ò, Ù
  • CTRL+' (Apostrophe), the letter for á, é, í, ó, ú, ý, Á, É, Í, Ó, Ú, Ý
  • CTRL+SHIFT+^ (Caret), the letter for â, ê, î, ô, û, Â, Ê, Î, Ô, Û
  • CTRL+SHIFT+~ (Tilde), the letter for ã, ñ, õ, Ã, Ñ, Õ
  • CTRL+, (Comma), c or C for ç, Ç

  (To obtain a full list just type "keyboard shortcuts for international characters" into Microsoft Word Help).

Happy typing!