Reps Circular

Dear ALMA Reps and Friends,

This comes with every best wish to you and your families for 2013 all across the ALMA community – in Angola, in London and throughout Mozambique!  May 2013 deepen the ties that link us and may we together be the ‘wellspring of energy and source of life-giving vision’ that Archbishop Rowan talked of in his New Year Message.

This circular won’t follow the usual format, it’s more of a catch up on December, delayed by travel and subsequent bronchitis, but there are a couple of events you may be interested in, and invitations for prayer.

1. Diary Dates

Friday 11 - Tuesday 15 January MU Wave of Prayer on the theme of ‘The Seeds We Sow’. London joins the dioceses of Angola, Europe, Freetown and Bo (Sierra Leone), Mandalay and Myitkyina (Burma) and Kontagora (Nigeria). ALMA Reps and Friends may like to join in the prayer for Angola each day.

‘We pray for MU members in Angola, for Bishop André Soares, the MU president Elise Coria and Kikala Isabel Thomas. We thank you Lord that Angola has had 10 years free from conflict and that many of the landmines   that littered the country have now been destroyed. We pray for the work of the MU in training members to deliver primary health education in their communities and for the workshops run for members to encourage spiritual growth within their homes’

Saturday 12 January ALMA Strategy Group Away day. Please remember your ALMA volunteer team who are taking time together, outside our usual meeting schedule, to look ahead and have some time for ‘blue sky thinking’!

Wednesday 30 January ALMA Reps and Friends Meeting 6 -8 pm Main Hall London Diocesan House. Several of you have asked to see the Pictures of Bishop Dinis’ wedding and also the 10th Anniversary of the Diocese of Angola pictures. We thought it might be good to have an in-house meeting where we can see the pictures and spend some time in our ‘chaplaincy groups’ (where we gather according to link partner diocese: Angola; Lebombo; Niassa or general ALMA) to catch up with each other. Refreshments from 5.40 pm.  Please will you  RSVP if you can come?

Monday 4 February Cafe Diplo:  “Angola Ten Years After the War and the prospects for the future” with Justin Pearce

The Angolan conflict, which had its roots in the anti-colonial struggles of the 1960s, seemed to defy the efforts of peace mediators as it continued until the beginning of the present century. It ended only when the state, buoyed by its status as an emerging oil power, destroyed its long-time enemy by force of arms. Justin Pearce is a research associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies and has spent time in Angola researching the civil war and its aftermath. As a newspaper journalist, southern Africa correspondent for the BBC news website and BBC world service correspondent in Luanda he had previously gained extensive experience of the Angolan conflict and the politics of southern Africa. He will talk about the political, economic and social challenges a decade after the end of the conflict, considering the social and political legacy of the war alongside the state's ever more important role as a provider of energy to the China and the United States, and the demands of a post-war generation anxious for an equitable distribution of the country's wealth.

(The talks begin at 6.45pm and end around 8.30pm giving plenty of time for questions and discussion. The Cafes will be at the usual venue at The Gallery, 70/77 Cowcross Street, London, EC1M 6EJ. The nearest tube station is Farringdon. Further details on Friends of Le Monde Diplomatique website.  Many thanks to Fran Chandler for the alert on this event).

2. December Round Up

• 1 December was World Aids day and in the last few years we have been privileged to share Rebecca Vander Meulen’s reflections on HIV in Niassa. This year she was on the road but posted her very moving and challenging reflection later. Please do make the time to read this!
• December also brought the long awaited wedding of Bishop Dinis and Lina!

  There is a report on my visit in the Visits section of this site; and I am hoping you have already seen a picture of the very happy couple walking down the aisle after the wedding in the news item on the Diocesan website. And Archbishop Thabo Makgoba’s reflection on the wedding is in the From Church Leaders section.

  I hope the TV station in Mozambique will produce a DVD of the wedding so that one day you can share in it yourselves.

• Amid the joy of the wedding and the celebration of the friendships which unite us it was not possible to escape sorrow. The unexpected death of Fr Germano Manjate, priest at Beira, who had visited London in 2011 to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of his link parish St John’s Friern Barnet, came before the wedding, and as Bishop Mark and Helen journeyed home we learnt that Padre Laja's wife (a Niassan Priest from Mongue in Milange) died by drowning after she fell into a well.  Please pray for Father Germano’s widow Gertrude, their children, the people of Beira and Friern Barnet, who also lost their previous priest and link priest, Fr Isaias, suddenly) and for Padre Laja, his family and the people of Mongue. May Fr Gernamo, and Padre Laja’s wife, rest in peace and rise in glory.

3. Archbishop Thabo’s reflection on Bishop Dinis and Lina’s wedding

The Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba, has written of his visit to Maputo for Bishop Dinis Sengulane’s wedding to Lina Valoi.

4. News Snippets:

• Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is to become chairman of the board of trustees of Christian Aid, the international development agency.
• Chuli Scarfe has sent information on a web based Portuguese language course – She says it is Portuguese-Brazilian, perhaps because of world cup fever, but it may help get us started!
• A few more long standing ALMA Reps have left the capital. Many thanks to Tim Wright from St Thomas Finsbury Park who is now in Lincoln, Chris Owens from St Peter and St Paul in Teddington who is now in Wales and to Denise Ball from St James-the- Less Bethnal Green who is now in Bexley Heath for their commitment to ALMA and their regular support of our meetings. We shall miss them.
• And hot of the press from Christian Aid this afternoon: ‘Young AngolanTeenagers Scoop Diana Award!’ Christian Aid’s long-term local partner, Women’s Christian Union of Angola, have won this year's International Diana Award for their ‘Girls building Bridges’ project in the poverty-stricken suburbs of the Angolan capital city, Luanda. The 12 teenage girls, aged between 11- and 15-years-old, won the prestigious award for their unwavering commitment to improving HIV awareness among young women in their communities, and challenging the rife stigma and discrimination associated with the virus. They received the award this Saturday on behalf of all other girls involved in this programme.

Please do RSVP if you can come on 30 January so we can get the catering right! Best wishes for 2013.