Reps Circular
From Sheenagh Burrell, ALMA Communications Officer
almacomms@london.anglican.org T: 020 8567 7400
Dear ALMA Reps and Friends,
Christ is risen and we his Easter people, are called to be signs of hope and resurrection. Many ALMA Reps and Friends are just this throughout London in a huge variety of ways, not least in championing the Living Water Lent Appeal so creatively! I hope we will be able to share some of these stories at the ALMA Reps meeting on 7th May.
This mailing contains:
Thursday 7 May ALMA REPS AND FRIENDS MEETING at London Diocesan House, 36 Causton St, London SW1P 4AU Main Hall. (tube: Pimlico, mainline: Victoria and Vauxhall) 5.45 for light refreshments, 6.00 for meeting which will include Angolan worship, News, Reports on John’s recent visit to Angola and Shepperton’s visit to Milange, two global justice actions on malaria and EPA’s, Chaplaincy time.
PLEASE RSVP so we can get the catering right! Is anyone able to help Margaret Davies with teas and coffees at the meeting?
Saturday 15 May St Mary’s Spring Grove Osterley are having a family fun day ‘Spring to Life’ on a water theme. Some of the proceeds will come to ALMA – do support this if you are local.
Following on from the news of flooding in Cunene province last month -see item 6 for a reflection on the increase in flooding in Southern Africa which affects both our partner countries.
We have today received news of Bishop Dinis’ visit to Beira
VISITATION TO BEIRA 14 TO 19 APRIL 2009
HEALTH PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL were the major concerns of the visitation to Beira. Two day were reserved for the Interreligious Programme Against Malaria (PIRCOM} and four for Spiritual concerns.
Having planted anti malaria programs TOGETHERN AGAINST MALARIA [TAM] in the Provinces of Zambezia and Nampula now was the time to launch in the Province of Sofala whose capital city is Beira. The dates for this were 14th to meet with the leadership of TAM to be acquainted with the realities of Sofala as far as communication with the media, health services and religious organizations. 15th was the date for the launching ceremony which consisted of speeches by those who have a role to play in the fight against this deadly disease.. Plans were made for the training of those who will implement to program in the six Districts that have been identified as where people will be trained to implement immediately TAM. 16th a trip to Nhamatanda, 120 km to the west to launch the program at the District level where more than 20 religious leaders were joined by the health officer to plan the nature of religious involvement in the fight against malaria. It was another opportunity to visit Nhamatanda Health Center which has played important parts of our lives in the past..
PASTORAL SPIRITUAL VISITATION
Celebrating the Eucharist in 5 places, namely Nhamatanda (All Saints),Mecombezi {Most Holy Trinity}, Chiro {St.Paul), Gorongoza {Christ The King} and Beira (St. George), a total of 129 were baptized, 69 were confirmed,6 marriages were blessed and teaching in matters of faith was given in the many hours spent together in Churches. Many hours of travelling were used in roads which had been badly damaged by rains. Many people spent many hours travelling on foot and lots of singing were the characteristics of the gatherings some of which were overnight in preparation for the visitation. The mains thrust of the visitation was teaching the faith, hence the reduced number of places that were visited in comparison with previous visits when the aim was to reach as many people as possible with Sacraments .
Praise be God who gave us an opportunity to deepen our Christian Faith through teaching, prayer and healing ministries.
Josephine, the ALMA Lebombo Link Officer, has sent photos of the solar panels which provide the energy to pump the water from the Chihunzuine borehole into the water storage tanks. Do look on the website or on the Lent Appeal thank you card which will reach your parish this week!
Bishop Mark tells us that Revd David Geraldo will be the next ALMA Link Officer in Niassa. Welcome David. We express our thanks to Helen Van Koevering for all the work she has done in carrying this out alongside her numerous other roles and responsibilities.
Almost £17,000 has been raised so far which is magnificent. (See the Lent Appeal 2009 page.) Thank you for all your efforts and for your roles in asking your parishes to participate.
from John Tasker, ALMA Twinning Officer:
ALMA now has 43 parishes, three schools and one parent & toddler group in the Diocese of London with twins in Angola or Mozambique. Eight parishes have recently established links, with more in the pipeline. We welcome the new links between:
Glad Tidings – the Twyford School Gospel Choir won BBC Songs of Praise Choir Competition! This will not be a surprise to ALMA after our 10th Anniversary ‘River of Life’ Service when the choir sang magnificently and were such an important part of our celebrations. Well done to everyone involved. You can hear an excerpt from the choir at the BBC website.
Welcome Back to Diana Evans from St Paul's, Winchmore Hill who has just returned to London after eight weeks in Angola working with Nets for Life and the Diocesan Development Department. We look forward to hearing her insights on the social situation in Angola, and on how the Church is showing God's love in action. Rachel Phillips has been visiting Angola in the post Easter period and we look forward to hearing from her too.
Please pray for Carrie Lees, Marshall Lees, Revd Derek Winterburn and Theresa McCluskey from St Mary’s Hampton who are currently in Mandimba (Niassa) and remember Revd Joe Moffat and his wife Jo who will be visiting their link parish in Chimoio (Lebombo) in May.
There are several new visit reports on the ALMA website – each unique and each adding to our ‘picture’ of life in our partner dioceses.
John has sent me this news report from Adam Berthoud of Oxfam, saying ‘I thought this was a very good perspective on the floods affecting Angola and Mozambique’
‘Another year, another flood. For the third year in a row now there is flooding across several Southern Africa countries. In Southern Angola, Cunene Province is under water again and the now-ubiquitous tented camps swell in the provincial capital Ondjiva as people arrive in hope of finding some assistance from the government and NGOs like Oxfam. In neighbouring Namibia, river levels have reached a 40-year high, whilst in Western Zambia the islands in the Zambezi floodplain, where people traditionally seek refuge during the seasonal flooding, have started to disappear. Everyone is now monitoring the weather forecasts to see if more rain will fall and worsen the flooding. And as most of Southern Africa's rivers end up in Mozambique, we're nervously watching the levels of the Kariba and Cahorra Bassa dams, to see whether Mozambique will be the next country submerged by floodwaters.’
See the full blog entry on the Oxfam site.
Looking forward to seeing you on 7th May.
Best wishes
Sheenagh
Sheenagh Burrell ALMA Communications Officer Diocese of London
Email: almacomms@london.anglican.org
T: Tuesdays 020 7932 1231