Reps Circular

Dear ALMA Reps and Friends,

Today and throughout this weekend many of us will be journeying in prayer alongside Bishop Dinis and his family as the tenth Anniversary of the death of his wife, Berta, is marked at Zove. Prayers will be said in our Cathedral, and in Zove itself there is a Mothers’ Union conference with a service of thanksgiving on Saturday for Berta’s life and legacy.

Marvelling that Zove now is a place of hope – with a church, school and health centre - ALMA has donated £1000 to the Esperanca Berta (Hope Berta) health centre to mark this anniversary. Both Elizabeth Tucker and Robert Ashdown, who were badly injured in 1998, have returned to Mozambique for the Anniversary of the accident. Father Paul Walmsley-McLeod has also travelled. He and Elizabeth are taking gifts from St John’s CE Primary School Friern Barnet to their twin school in Zove including the most wonderful murals of the Lord’s Prayer.

This mailing contains news of:

1. ALMA Reps Meeting 13 November 2008
2. Readers’ Quinquennial and re-launch ALMA Lay Leaders’ Link
3. Recent Visits
4. News from Angola and Mozambique
5. From ALMA Reps and Parishes

1. ALMA Reps Meeting 13 November 2008

See the report in the Meetings section of this web site.

2. Readers’ Quinquennial and re-launch of ALMA Lay Leaders’ Link

19 November 2008. This was a very special service when several of the ALMA family were relicensed and the Lay Leaders’ Link was relaunched. Bishop Richard spoke about hope and mentioned ALMA in his Quinquennial sermon:

‘Some of the most hopeful people I know are members of our church in Mozambique. It was at this service in 2003 that we pledged ourselves to assist in the training of lay catechists. What has been achieved appears on the service paper. Theirs is one of the poorest countries in the world and there is little scope for light pollution. In consequence, Mozambican catechists are utterly clear that hope must be at the heart of any great human endeavour.

Hope which is unshakeable and which creates civilisations comes from beyond ourselves – not from our own scheming and calculation. Those weary wise men from the East studied the heavens and noticed the star which led them to the birth of a most surprising hope. The star led them to an encounter with the word made flesh; not to God the tyrant; not to some idea of a God infinitely remote from the passion of human life but to a child’.

The new Lay Leaders’ Link leaflet (206Kb) is now available. The statistics which show the key role of Catechists are extraordinary:

You might also be interested in the insert on the inside front cover of the service booklet:

‘At this service in 2003 the Lay leader’s Link was launched, initiating connection between Lay Ministers in London and their counterparts - Catechists in Mozambique. There the church is both rapidly growing and predominantly lay led, and since 2003 over £35,200 has been raised to resource Catechist training. However, our partner dioceses in Lebombo and Niassa encounter many difficulties in providing this training: language; resources; distance; transport; education; health and climate change are some of these.

Tonight, as we celebrate Reader Ministry we can, in a very practical way, give thanks for the training we have received within London Diocese by supporting our colleagues in Mozambique*. Likewise parishes who have benefited from lay ministry have a special way of extending this blessing.

A leaflet about the Lay Leaders’ link is enclosed in the service booklet. Please will you read this and think about supporting a Catechist over the next five years or making a donation to this fund? For further information on ALMA, our Diocesan Link, see Angola London Mozambique Association at www.almalink.org

*Angolan Catechist training has been financed by a separate donation.

3. Recent Visits and Reports

There are three fairly new reports of recent visits on the ALMA Website – each with much to share and so much insight and humanity. Please see:

• St Paul’s Winchmore Hill visit to Angola in July. We will hear from Tom Smith at the next ALMA Reps meeting.
• Father Paul Walmsley-McLeod’s report of his visit to Beira and Zove in June.
• St Luke’s Chelsea visit to Chimoio in June.

Simon Sheldon, from Shepperton, recently returned from Niassa, reports on the joyful opening of the school in Milange in the presence of Bishop Mark and the Milange Mayor. St Simon’s School will initially open as a ‘pre-univeristaria’ or sixth form college – the only one in the district. They also visited the school in Njema. More on this visit to follow.

4. News from Angola and Mozambique

• Our partners have launched the Growing the Church Programme – an initiative from the Anglican Church of Southern Africa.
• In Lebombo a Diocesan Synod was held immediately after the family weekend at the end of October.
• Local elections have been taking place in Mozambique – Joe Hanlon’s email network has reported extensively on these if you are looking for specific information.

5. London News Snippets

• Welcome to the newest member of the ALMA family in Teddington – Chris Owen’s son: Harrison William Owens.
• St John’s Pinner has just had a concert that raised £800 towards the building fund for a school in their link parish of Benguela in Angola.
• Remember Joan Wayland ALMA Rep St George’s Freezywater as she has a second hip replacement.
• On 27 November some of us were present at St Paul’s Cathedral to hear Berta Sengulane being remembered and Bishop Dinis and his family being prayed for.