Reps Circular

Dear ALMA Reps and Friends,

On the eve of the Service to mark Bishop Donald Arden’s 50 years as Bishop we thank God for all the seeds sown in his ministry – one of which has led to ALMA! Everyone is welcome at the service –details below.

1. Diary Dates

Wednesday 30 November 5pm at St Paul’s Cathedral St Andrew’s Day Eucharist to mark the 50th Anniversary of Bishop Donald Arden’s consecration as a bishop in Malawi on St Andrew’s Day 1961

Monday 5 December ALMA Strategy Group Meeting

Thursday 26 January 2012 ALMA REPS Meeting  6-8 pm at London Diocesan House, Main Hall.

A chance to hear about St Pancras’ visit to Lichinga and Cuamba, St Thomas Finsbury Park’s visit to Maputo and Twyford School’s visit to Maciene School AND to collect your parish 2012 Lent Appeal Materials ‘Giving Ministry Wheels’

2. News from our Partners

a)  Angola

• John Tasker visited Luanda, Uige, and Negage at the end of October and brought back this news:
  • Rev Simao Adolfo (M&M Programme Co-ordinator) has been appointed Director of Education since the Synod approved the creation of the role.  This involves responsibility for the development of schools as well as theological education.  Fr Simao will take over from Fr Nunes responsibility for developing plans / budgets for future school projects.
  • St Stephen’s, Luanda. The overhead power lines have not been moved by the government.  This means that although the school is operating in five classrooms, the building work can not be completed and therefore the government has not formally approved the school.  That means they are not paying the teachers yet, so the church is doing this using small contributions made by the pupils families.  When the school is finished the government will pay the teachers.  St Stephen's is producing a plan to finish the building in order to access government funding, and intend to include movement of the overhead power lines in the plan - the church has accepted that the only way to get the lines moved is to pay the cost
  • St Barnabas, Songo.  Good progress which has been made with building of the school. The structure has been completed, but further finishing off is needed before the official opening which had been scheduled for November. There are several weeks before the new school year, so the opening has now been moved to February
  • St Michael & All Angels, Negage.  Was able to see the toilet block and septic tank had been completed since my last visit.  Fr Capembele also showed me the musical instruments sent by St Paul's Primary School, Winchmore Hill
• Angola Monitor (4/11) published quarterly by Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) covers the deportation of southern Africa civil society leaders, Angola’s hosting of the SADC Summit, rumours about whether President dos Santos will stand down before elections in 2012, objections to the proposed changes to electoral law, discussions with the DRC over oil, the sale of properties at Cidade do Kilamba, recent protests and the authorities response, the halting of evictions in Lubango, the conviction of a newspaper editor for libel and the recent floods in southern Angola.

b) Lebombo

• Lebombo celebrated their Diocesan family weekend at the end of October with visitors from Connecticut. Bishop Dinis’ full report is on this site along with some of the photos from Roger LeCompte from Connecticut and Fr Juliao Mutemba. More than 4000 people were present (and fed by an amazing team of cooks).

  Read more…

c) Niassa

• Bishop Mark and Helen have been to Messumba for the confirmation of 160 young people. If you’d like to share the joy of this celebration look on the ALMA London Facebook page to see and hear the worship! The Cathedral parish of Messumba has several outlying congregations under Dean Franco Cacongue - the furthest is around 15 kms away (45 mins drive) from Messumba village
• A new congregation (in Chivulukuto, near the airport) started this year in Bairro popular parish (Lichinga) led by Padre Manuel.
• Rebecca Vander Meulen has written a piece ‘Understanding Malnutrition and Responding Effectively’ for the Hunger Report.

  Do read this article which concludes ‘Because investing in the nutrition of children under age 2 has such a multiplier effect, agricultural development and food aid should focus particularly on targeting benefits to young children and pregnant mothers. Well-nourished young children become productive adults who have the potential to improve the outlook of entire nations’.

3. London News

• Lent Appeal 2012

  If we talk with our partners the biggest impediment to ministry and growth is transport! Their dioceses are huge: Angola is five times the size of the entire UK and each Mozambican Diocese is 1.5 times the size of the UK. Public transport infrastructure is minimal and, although the bicycle is king in local contexts, for effective ministry to happen our partners need vehicles- sturdy and reliable ones that can cope with the dirt roads in the most remote places, and not just in the dry season. Each diocese has two or three vehicles but at the end of their useful lives, so our final Lent Appeal of London Challenge 2012 will be ‘Giving Ministry Wheels’.  Our aim is to raise £60,000 to help fund a good quality second hand vehicle for Angola, Lebombo (Southern Mozambique) and Niassa (northern Mozambique).

  Materials will include Lent Posters (A3 and A4), Lent Appeal Cards and Gift Aid Envelopes which will be available for preview from early December and for collection early January (a sample will be sent to each parish) and at the ALMA Reps meeting on 26 January. Additional materials including power points illustrating some of the journeys our partners make, and problems encountered, will be available on the London Diocesan and ALMA websites along with stories and photos for downloading

4. Wider Issues

• Climate Change

  WDM has published a new report The End Game in Durban? to coincide with the Durban talks. The report exposes how negotiating teams from small developing countries have been pushed around by large and well resourced rich country delegations. They have been bribed with climate finance, which has been illegitimately tied to emissions reductions targets. They have been picked off one by one, and excluded from vital meetings where crucial texts are drafted. And they have been pressured into putting their name to deals they know to be catastrophic or risk being blamed for the talks' failure.

  The report received significant attention both in the UK - articles in The Guardian and The Independent and across the world.