From Sheenagh Burrell, ALMA Co-ordinator
almacoordinator@london.anglican.org T: Tuesdays: 020 7932 1231
Dear ALMA Reps and Friends,
What a wonderful ALMA Reps meeting we had last Wednesday with three excellent presentations from Heather Wignall, Rachel Woods and Revd Chris Newman Day. We’re encouraging all our speakers to give us a précis of their talks so we can share their ideas and insights more widely. Thank you too for all agreeing to look at your own parish websites to ensure your ALMA Links (if you have them) are included and up to date, and that every parish website has a link to the ALMA website.
We were also privileged to pray the opening and closing prayers from Provincial (ACSA) Synod, share the unsettling news that Renamo ends the 21 year peace accord in Mozambique and Joe Hanlon’s piece ‘History Matters’. We all agreed to pray for peace in our Sunday intercessions and to remind people of Bishop Dinis’s recent Litany for peace.
Since the meeting there have been two further pieces of important ALMA news which herald significant change:
5-7 November. Partners In World Mission Conference: The Changing Shape of Mission. Watch this space! Helen, Michael and Sheenagh are attending.
26 November. St Paul’s Cathedral 7 pm: the five yearly re-licensing of Readers and LLMs. Please come and support Helen, Michael, John and myself and the ALMA Reps who are LLMs. The collection from this service will go towards the purchase of Africa Bible Commentaries in Portuguese for Lay Ministry in Angola and Mozambique.
1 December. World AIDS Day. Useful materials from Strategies for Hope
Between 2011-2015, World AIDS Days will have the theme of "Getting to zero: zero new HIV infections. Zero discrimination. Zero AIDS related deaths". The World AIDS Campaign focus on "Zero AIDS related deaths" signifies a push towards greater access to treatment for all; a call for governments to act now. It is a call to honour promises like the Abuja declaration and for African governments to at least hit targets for domestic spending on health and HIV.
Tuesday 25 March 2014 ALMA Reps meeting, 5.30-8.00 Main Hall London Diocesan House
Sunday 13 July 2014 ALMA Sunday Celebration Service 6 pm St Paul’s Cathedral
Tuesday 18 November 2014 ALMA Reps meeting, 5.30-8.00 Main Hall London Diocesan House
Recently we have heard of the deaths of: the father of Revd Oliveira’s (Assistant Vicar at St. Stephen) and Clarice de Almeida (the wife of Revd. Pedro Almeida, the Assistant Vicar at Patterson). Please, keep these families and the churches in your prayers.
Masala writes ‘Within the youth, we’ve started a special prayers program in order to ask for God’s protection for the church as it is usual to have a lot of diseases and deaths at this time of the year in Luanda and all over the country. The number of car accidents and other incidents is far away higher at this time of the year. So, we’ve decided to intensify our prayers to surrender all to our ALMIGHTY GOD’.
Bishop Dinis’ announcement was the huge surprise of the weekend.
Sheenagh Burrell
ALMA Co-ordinator
Tel: 020 7932 1231 Tuesdays Diocese of London, London Diocesan House 36, Causton St, London SW1P 4AU.