Reps Circular

Dear ALMA Reps and Friends,

We give thanks for the ongoing improvement in Bishop Andre’s health and continue to pray for renewed strength as he convalesces at home.

1. Diary Dates
2. Report on ALMA Reps Meeting with Rebecca Vander Meulen
3. Further information on HIV/AIDS in Mozambique
4. Update on Crisis Appeal from Peter Southwood
5. Snippets

1. Diary Dates

8-22 June Visit to London from St Stephen’s Golfe, Luanda Angola to their link parish
There will be an event at St Stephen’s (Canonbury Rd, N1) where ALMA Reps and Friends can meet with the 4 visitors (Ven. Dacosta Emmanuel, Albertina Sebastiao, Osvaldo Ferreira and Rosita Morais) and learn at first hand some of the highs and lows the Angolan Anglican church has faced in the last few months. Please check the website for meeting date.

Monday 11 June, 7.30pm
Clare Rider and Chris Owens are giving an illustrated talk on their visit to Pemba in their church (SS Peter and Paul, Broad St, Teddington, TW11)

Sunday 15 July ALMA SUNDAY
Some resources for this will shortly be on this website and will be sent out in the next email circular. Please do see if you might have a small slot in your service or intercessions to focus on ALMA – it has been a very eventful few months in the life of our link. If you are planning to have a collection for ALMA please do remember that we have Gift Aid envelopes available –contact the ALMA office. Gift Aid forms may also be downloaded from the website.

Wednesday 18 July
Beryl Warren will be leading a Mass with ALMA at the heart of it at St. Marys Church , Church St, Stoke Newington, N16. Please check on the website Diary dates section for time of this.

2. Report on ALMA Reps Meeting 9 May 2007

with Rebecca Vander Meulen HIV Co-ordinator Niassa Diocese.

The report can be seen here.

3. Further Information on HIV/AIDS in Mozambique

a) Mozambique’s population is strikingly young, with 10 million children accounting for half of the total population of 20 million.

b) About 1.5 million of Mozambique’s children are orphans, 470,000 of them have lost one or both parents to AIDS, forcing grandparents to look after them.

c) There is a very interesting report on HIV education in Manica province featuring Chimoio. We will put this up on the HIV section of the website too.

4. Report from ALMA Link Officer Peter Southwood

I am pleased to report that a further total of £5,297 is being transferred to our Link Dioceses in Mozambique, concerning the ALMA Crisis Appeal (Ash Wednesday):

Diocese of Lebombo: £2,247;
Diocese of Niassa: £2,247 plus £803 restricted donation.

A total of £2,247 to the Diocese of Angola is being held in the London Diocesan Fund, along with other Special Project donations, pending confirmation of receipt by the Diocesan Office in Angola of the funds transferred on Easter Tuesday.

A grand total of £18,890 (inc. £4,649 in restricted donations) has been raised towards the Crisis Appeal which is a wonderful response. Our thanks to all concerned.

5. Snippets

ALMA BOOK Club

Last year several of us read a novel set in Maputo: Chronicler of the Winds by Henning Mankell. This year the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, Britain’s most valuable honour for literature in translation, has been won by Jose Eduardo Agualusa for his 6th novel ‘The Book of Chameleons’.