Reps Circular

Dear ALMA Reps and Friends,

During July a couple of ALMA London facebook posts have begun ‘an historic …’ and I think we can all agree that this has been an exceptional month: we have celebrated the 17th ALMA Sunday with Bishop Mark and Helen visiting from Niassa; said a unique ALMA farewell to our Chair, former Archdeacon Rachel, and sent her onward on her journey to Gloucester with our love and three tokens of her time with ALMA; seen Rachel consecrated in Canterbury Cathedral as the Bishop of Gloucester; seen Claudina and Albertina, the first Mozambican women, ordained as priest in Nampula alongside their colleague Hilario; Twyford Teacher Sophie da Silva has spent a week at Maciene School; Bishop Carlos celebrated ALMA Sunday in Zimbabwe wearing his ALMA Stole; Bishop André has been in the USA at a conference on the vulnerability of women and children in sub -Saharan Africa and finally we have launched our  ALMA Tutudesk initiative! I hope this circular can give you a flavour of the month.

1. Diary Dates

5 August:  Today Angola features in the London Cycle of Prayer: ALMA (Angola): pray for Bishop André Soares and his staff, especially Kiaku Avelino (Senior Priest, National Director of Anglican Schools, and Supervisor of Missionary Areas); and for John Tasker (Bishop’s Commissary in the UK).

4-7 August: Clergy meeting in Niassa with 70 Parish priests and church wardens from around the Diocese in Lichinga for four days.

9 August: in Messumba, Ernesto (deacon in Tete) and Patson (deacon at Yohanna Abdullah, Lichinga) will be priested, and Lourenco (catechist at Yohanna Abdullah) will be ordained a deacon.

10-15 August: 12 community priests for further training at Kuchijinji with Revd Helen Van Koevering, Director of Ministry.

6-19 August: Revd Dawn Jewson; Nikkita Robert and Afiya Romain-Bains from Southall (twinned with Lichinga) will be joining in with this ‘life lived to the full’.

September: Archbishop Thabo has asked for prayer for a key meeting mid-September:

In just over six weeks’ time, representatives from all 28 dioceses, including experts in strategic planning, will hold two meetings, back-to-back, in which the Province will seize a Kairos moment to review our Vision and Mission as a church, to strategise around ways to implement our priorities, and then to make practical decisions on how to implement them in a manner that is productive, holistic and transformative. Read more about this.

Tuesday 20 October: ALMA Reps and Friends Meeting 6-8 pm Main Hall, Diocesan House. Refreshments from 5.40pm. Please RSVP to Helen. This will be an opportunity to meet each other, share good practice and hear some of the insights from recent visits. We’re looking forward to hearing from St Mary, Stoke Newington among others (briefly!) and there will be a photo round up of ALMA Sunday as you arrive.

2. News from our Partners

a) Angola

• The most recent news bulletin from the Diocese of Angola is on the ALMA website
• Bishop André has been on a pastoral visit to Malange Province, Huambo and Bie, where a new church was planted a few years ago. Bishop André visited Bie last November and again more recently and appointed a priest to lead the church there, Revd Joaquim Miguel Bondo who trained in Brazil to see how it can grow. He asks for our prayers for the Missionary calling of the Diocese of Angola.
  

  

  
  Bishop André on a pastoral visit to Huambo and Bie in Malange Province, Angola
• The St John’s Pinner /ALMA’s Children School Building Project in Benguela continues apace, and it is wonderful to see from Revd Maria Domingos’ recent visit (below) that the exterior is now plastered, and also to learn from her that Nsosso School (a London Lent Appeal School) is now open with 700 children attending. Maria hopes to visit soon and share photos with us
  
  Benguela School

b) Lebombo

• 
  In June many from Lebombo took part in the Bernard Mizeki Pilgrimage to Marondellas in Zimbabwe where Bernard Mizeki was martyred, and in July Bishop Carlos returned to Zimbabwe for a training conference, celebrating ALMA Sunday there by wearing his ALMA stole.
• The report of my visit to Lebombo in June will be on this site shortly (click on the recent changes bar in the home page to access new items easily). It was very good to visit ALMA link parishes and projects including Magumeto, Maience, Nhamavila, Bagamoyo, Santa Monica, Magoanine and Influene with Ivan Macie our Link Officer and of course to meet up with many friends, although in such a short visit there were several people I didn’t get to see.  While I was in Maputo there was a very sad funeral at St Ciprien’s: that of the 17 year old son of Fr Germano (who you will remember visited London and died in December 2013). Please hold the rest of this doubly bereaved family in your prayers.

c) Niassa

• It was good to be in Niassa in June for the second part of their Diocesan Review to determine their Diocesan vision and goals for 2016 - 2020 (picture below). The Review involved the senior staff of the Diocese, the Diocesan Board and partners including Anglicord, ERD, Nets for Life, Tearfund, World Renew. Everyone played a part whether presenting, translating, leading worship, charting, or running the two projectors (one Portuguese and one English). A full report on the Review will follow.
  
  At the Niassa Review
• Another joy of being in Lichinga was seeing the completed church of Yohannah Abdallah (first picture below). In 2010 I had seen the overgrown foundations and now in 2015 there is a huge, visible, prominent church, resplendent with the Southall banners. In town, right by the market place, the Church of Santa Cruz (twinned with St Paul’s Old Ford is also almost finished). I saw Yohannah Abdallah full too: on the Saturday after the conference there were 96 baptisms and on the Sunday 116 confirmations and a further seven baptisms.
  

  

  
  Yohannah Abdallah church and some of the confirmation candidates
• On Sunday 26 July there was an ordination to priesthood service in Nampula with Hilario, Claudina and Albertina being priested as Community Priests. An historic day as Albertina and Claudina are the first two Mozambican women priests.
  
  Albertina and Claudina with Canon Philippa Boardman last year
• You will see from the diary dates that there is a very full month for Niassa Diocese in August so please do hold everyone there in your prayers

3. London

• It was a delight to have the Van Koeverings with us to celebrate ALMA Sunday and to have the opportunity to hear from Bishop Mark in the Cathedral and at Diocesan Synod. A huge thanks to the ALMA London Team, particularly Helen Doery, and our many helpers for all the work that went into the Link Priests’ lunch with Bishop Mark, the ALMA Reps and Friends’ Afternoon tea at St Andrew’s by the Wardrobe and for the ALMA Sunday Eucharist itself. We are indebted to the Cathedral, St Andrew’s, the City of London Brass Band, the Diocesan Choir, St John’s Stanmore CE School Sing Along club, St John’s Greenhill Harrow Gospel Singers, our readers, intercessors, including Kylie Van Koevering (and of course to her Mum and Dad) and to ALMA Rep Ann Flett who created such wonderful ALMA Stoles for Bishop Mark and Bishop Rachel.

  The service was our opportunity to launch the ALMA Tutudesk project in London and to say thank you to Bishop Rachel and send her on her way to Gloucester with our love and thanks. Here is a copy of this part of the service.

  
  St John’s Stanmore CE School children

  
  Bishop Mark preaches

  
  Presentation of stoles

  
  Bishop Rachel with Pectoral Cross and Tutudesk

  There are two news stories on ALMA Sunday on the Diocese of London website: one about ALMA Sunday and the other on the launch of the Tutudesk Initiative

• On Wednesday 22 July several of us were privileged to attend Bishop Rachel’s consecration as Bishop of Gloucester in Canterbury Cathedral a joyous day and there has been much in the media about this, and her pectoral cross from Lebombo, including the BBC;  the Guardian and  Diocese of London. There are many others which we included on our facebook page!

• In London new appointments have been made and we pray for the new Bishops and Archdeacons as they prepare to take up their posts:

  Bishop of Kensington	Reverend Dr Graham Tomlin
  Bishop of Edmonton	Revd Rob Wickham
  Bishop of Islington	Revd Ric Thorpe
  Archdeacon of London	Archdeacon Luke Miller