Reps Circular

Dear ALMA Friends,

Very soon we will be welcoming the Bishop of Angola, Rt Revd André Soares to London to celebrate ALMA Sunday on 10 July – a coming of age celebration for our partnership. We're very much looking forward to seeing the London ALMA Community, families and friends gathered together for the service at 6pm in St Paul’s Cathedral. It will also be the first ALMA Sunday for Bishop Rob Wickham, Bishop of Edmonton - our new London Bishop for ALMA.

Before the service there is an afternoon tea for ALMA Reps and Friends at St Vedast Foster Lane (very close to St Paul’s Cathedral) from 3.30 - 5pm. Please RSVP if you can come to this and as usual any offers of cakes and help would be greatly appreciated.

HOT OFF THE PRESS:

• Warm Congratulations to Alice Hudson Executive Headteacher of Twyford C of E Academies trust (twinned with Maciene School) on receiving a damehood for extraordinary services to education in the Queen’s 90th Birthday Honours List
• Our Link Officer in Lebombo, Ivan Macie, has just become a father. We welcome Iker …
• … and also Sophie, born to Revd James Hughesden, St Paul's Old Ford (linked with Sao Paolo Lichinga)

Bishop Carlos Matsinhe has opened the church of All Saints, Nhamatanda in Lebombo. He is shown knocking at the door

1. Diary Dates

5-15 July St Paul’s Knightsbridge visit to Nhamavila

7-20 July Twyford School visit to Maciene School

8 -22 July Bishop André in the UK -a joint ALMA and MANNA visit

Sunday 10 July. ALMA Sunday – afternoon tea with Bishop André Soares – 3.30 - 5pm at St Vedast Foster Lane (very near St Paul’s Cathedral).
Followed at 6pm by ALMA Sunday Service St Paul’s Cathedral with Bishop André - to mark the coming of age of our partnership: ALMA is 18.

Tuesday 12 July. Lunch for Priests with Angola Parish Links with Bishop André. 12.30 - 2pm Main Hall Diocesan House.

Tuesday 18 October. ALMA Reps Meeting at Diocesan House Main Hall 6-8pm. Light refreshments from 5.40pm

2. News from our Partners

a) Angola

• Emeritus Bishop Dinis and Lina visited Angola (Songo, Uige and Luanda) in May - a visit in recognition of his holding of the Angolan church in the 1990s until it became a missionary Diocese in 2003. If you haven’t ever read the remarkable story of the founding of the Angolan church why not look at some of the fascinating items on this -from Archibald Patterson onwards - on our website. The photos show Bishop Dinis in Uige and the special service in St Stephen’s Luanda.
  
  Bishop Dinis at Uige

  
  The special service in St Stephen’s Luanda
• The Anglican youth of Angola celebrated 40 years.

  Avelino Boavida writes:

  “I want to wish all the young Anglicans happy birthday, may God pour his blessing on all of us so that the youth can progress in all fields: material life, social, spiritual, academic and financial. To all the young people who always do everything in your power to raise the good name of the youth and the church of Christ God above everything and everyone. Amen”

• On June 5 Angola hosted world environment day. The theme was ‘Go Wild for Life’ which is focusing on the high volume of illegal trading of wild life. The country is seeking to restore its elephant herds and conserve its biodiversity, and safeguard the environment as it continues to rebuild after a quarter century of civil war. Members of the young green Anglicans network in Angola have been circulating resources and encouraging churches to take part in special services to mark the event.

  Angolan Environment Minister Maria de Fatima Jardim said,

  “The illegal wildlife trade, particularly the trade in ivory and rhino horn, is a major problem across our continent. By hosting this day of celebration and awareness-raising, we aim to send a clear message that such practices will soon be eradicated.”

• We remain very conscious of continued economic challenges Angola is facing because of the collapse in the oil prices, the yellow fever epidemic and the continued drought in the south of Angola in Cunene province. Bishop André’s prayer in 2007 for the church to be an advocate for the people and to be “prophetic in its witness to society defending the cause of the poor in concrete ways” is ever pertinent.

b) Lebombo

Amid the anxiety of the ongoing drought (this link is to an article on a child’s view of drought) and the efforts to alleviate this suffering there have been several things to celebrate including:

• Three Pentecost Ordinations at Santa Caterina Church and the opening of very beautiful church of All Saints, Nhamatanda – (see also the picture in the introduction to this circular).
  
  The ordinands

  
  All Saints, Nhamatanda
• Bishop Carlos’ pastoral visit to Homoine and the next stage of Influene Church – new doors
  
  At Homoine Pastoral Zone

  
  Influene Church - note the new doors
• News from Hokwe Creche was welcomed by Daniel’s Den Toddler group in Brent – great to see the new child sized chairs and read about the chickens!
• A greatly loved Priest Fr Jose Chamusse died in May. He served the Diocese of Lebombo as priest for 36 years and taught Old Testament at the theological seminary. His funeral service took place on Wednesday 4 May at St Stephen’s and Lawrence followed by burial at Maputo Lhangené Cemetery. We prayed alongside Lebombo for Vasta his widow and family that day in St Paul’s Cathedral.
  
  Fr Jose Chamusse

  
  Fr Chamusse with the Seminary class of 2010

c) Niassa

• 
  It was wonderful to share the 2015 Diocese of Niassa Mission report with news and updates on the department's programmes, volunteers and community impact. PLEASE will you take time to open this beautifully crafted and encouraging report – no summary I could write here could do it justice.

  We give thanks for the staff team, the Adeptos and the 9572 volunteers - each one an Ambassador for Christ.

  We warmly encourage all London Ambassadors to read this.

• Yohannah Abdallah continues to thrive and add finishing touches as this photo from Rebecca Vander Meulen shows. Can the Southall church partners spot what is new here?
  
• In July Joanne Beale, who has headed up the WASH (Water Sanitation and Hygiene) Project in Zambezia, and her husband Andy leave Milange where they have lived and worked for the last two and a half years. We have been inspired so many times by the WASH work and the water projects Jo has led - including the rain water harvesting tanks; the Messumba water supply and the hygiene animators.

  Jo has a long ALMA connection, first visiting Niassa as a student in 2007 and then after graduating in 2010. We have all learnt much from her and wish her well as she and Andy move.

  

3. London

• Twyford School (linked with Maciene School) held a ‘Mozambqiue enrichment day’ which began like every Mozambican school day. Do look at this video clip if you are intrigued!
• We are sad to let you know that Twyford teacher Sophie da Silva is leaving the school at the end of this term. Our Schools Officer and Twyford Chaplain Revd John Seymour writes

  “A fluent Portuguese speaker, Mme da Silva has also applied her expertise as the leader of the Twyford Trust Language Specialism to ensure that learning to understand different cultures has been as much a part of the schools' link project with Maciene school as other elements of the partnership. This has meant organising dialogue, debate and learning between students from China, Mozambique and Europe to set up United Nations style debates on education and on investment; but she has also drawn Maciene students into student debates based in the European Parliament.

  Mme. da Silva is passionate about social justice and has been a strong advocate of sponsoring students in Maciene school to ensure they are able to enjoy the advantages of education on offer. Without her contribution, the resources that help other schools and churches to partner would not have been generated and the Twyford Trust – Maciene link would not have been the kind of success that it is”.

  We wish Sophie well in her new post!

• Licensed Lay Ministers (Readers or Catechists) in the United Kingdom celebrated 150 years of Lay Ministry in 2016 with celebrations in May.
• RE with Soul – the web based RE teaching resources seen through the lens of the ALMA Partnership is being presented on 30 June at The National Society's Hallam conference a one-off opportunity to launch RE with Soul to a group off 100 national leaders in RE.

We very much look forward to seeing you on ALMA Sunday. Please RSVP for the afternoon tea.

There are two downloads available:

• an ALMA Sunday poster (656Kb)
• the music of the Special Gloria from Tete (2633Kb) that we will be singing in the Cathedral (thanks to St Mary Stoke Newington).

See you on 10 July!

Sheenagh Burrell
ALMA Co-ordinator
Tel: 020 7932 1231 Tuesdays Diocese of London, London Diocesan House, 36 Causton St, London SW1P 4AU.