Reps Circular
From Sheenagh Burrell, ALMA Communications Officer
almacomms@london.anglican.org T: 020 8567 7400
Dear ALMA Reps and Friends,
What an inventive group of people ALMA Reps and Friends are! So many things connected to ALMA have been going on around London: from St Mary Spring Grove’s ‘Spring to Life’ day (complete with a giant working tap - see the picture) to Jonathan Palmer’s 40th birthday Thames Float, and Africa week at St John’s Friern Barnet which celebrates the visit of their link priest, Father Isaiah, from St George’s Beira.
This mailing contains:
Monday 1-Friday 5 June 10.00-17.00 Mozambique - a contemporary view by Eight Leading Artists. A celebration of contemporary art from Mozambique organized by the Mozambique High Commission. Entry Free. Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AR
Sunday 7 June - Sunday 14 June St John’s Festival at Friern Barnet has events connected with its link to St George’s Beira in Mozambique. Fr. Isaiah from Beira is in Friern Barnet during the Festival:
Thursday 11 June - Sunday 14 June Patronal Festival St Barnabas Bagamoyo Maputo
Tuesday 16 June is the Day of African Child. In the weeks leading up to 16 June the World Malaria Day website will be running a specific campaign linking stakeholders working on malaria and children. This site will remain dynamic and interactive for 365 days a year, providing resources and an advocacy portal that will help to inform, educate, mobilize and stimulate the highest possible number of stakeholders in the fight against malaria. Malaria accounts for one in five of all childhood deaths in Africa. Anaemia, low birth-weight, epilepsy, and neurological problems, all frequent consequences of malaria, compromise the health and development of millions of children throughout the developing world. Yet much of the impact of malaria on the world's children could be prevented with currently available interventions. (See the malaria story from Dr Peg Cumberland who works on the Niassa Lakeshore in section 2b).
Saturday 28 June The Thames Float 09.00 at Richmond Lock. Niassa Chaplain Jonathan Palmer celebrates his 40th birthday floating down the tidal bit of the Thames on an inner tube to raise funds for his link parish Ngofi, RNLI and Shooting Star Hospice. Come and support Jonathan as he floats down the Thames – wave an ALMA postcard at him!
Sunday 12 July ALMA SUNDAY – intercession suggestions in next Circular.
Saturday 19 September MANNA AGM. Details to follow.
Diana Evans has returned from her eight weeks in Angola, working with Nets for Life and the Diocesan Department for Community Development. She also visited her link parish in Negage, Uige. Diana has returned with several suggestions and project ideas – watch this space.
Some snippets from ‘The Mozambican Investor’ (Club of Mozambique). There are three items from the recent edition 140:
And from Mozambique Business issue 1147 we learn that Pemba has just been admitted to the club of the most beautiful bays in the world.
The most recent USPG magazine also has two interesting articles on Mozambique work.
St Monica’s church Mahlazine has been rising from the ashes with help from ALMA. You will remember it was badly damaged by the armaments explosion in Maputo in March 2007. We have had news and several pictures from Father Juliao Mutemba on a day of blessing at St Monica’s. The shell of the building is now complete but internal fixing such as tiling, electrics, security bars and painting remain. St Monica’s would love to have a partner church in London. As it is situated between the military base and Maputo International Airport the noise of planes taking off and landing is a regular feature of worship and church life. We wondered if there is a similarly challenged church in London who would consider twinning?
Please pray for our ALMA link Officer in Lebombo, Josephine Mutemba, who has been in ill health and undergoing investigations recently. Pray too for her husband Father Juliao Mutemba as their parish in Bagamoyo celebrates its patronal festival with special events on 11-14 June.
In March the Medical Orchestra Concert at St Mary’s Brookfield raised some funds towards building a new community health post in Mandambuzi (area inland from the Lakeshore). This story from Dr Peg Cumberland shows just why it is so important.
‘A couple of months ago a father from Mandambuzi came to see me with his 14 year-old son to ask me if there was anything we could do to help the child recover full health. The boy was very unsteady when walking and his speech was slow and awkward. The father told me that his son had been an active lively child until 2 years previously when he suddenly developed a fever. As the nearest health post was 3 hours walk away and, at that point, the child was not very sick, the family decided to wait to see if the fever would settle on it's own. A day later the boy's condition suddenly deteriorated and he became confused and unable to walk. lt was now clear to the family that he required medical help but, as he was incapable of making the long hike down the mountain, they delayed further. On the third day the child became unconscious. Afraid he would die his family and friends made a makeshift stretcher and carried him down the steep, rocky path to the lakeshore. He was finally transferred by boat to a small hospital on Likoma Island, Malawi, where he was treated for cerebral malaria. He recovered consciousness after a couple of days and was discharged home two weeks later but the delay in treatment had led to severe neurological damage and for three months he was unable to walk or feed himself. During this time his father kept him alive by placing small morsels of food in his mouth, washing and changing him. Over the past two years, with the help of a lot of loving care from his family, he has gradually recovered to his present state but he will never return to being a normally active child. Had there been a health post in Mandambuzi the boy would almost certainly have been treated with antimalarial tablets on day one and never have become seriously ill. Talking to the father I felt very sad that we had not managed to open a health post in the area before this event occurred. I hope very much that it will soon be possible’.
A full report of the ALMA Reps meeting on 7th May will be on the website soon along with a picture of the wonderful ALMA banner Anne Flett and Beryl Warren have been working on. This incorporates material from the ‘rivers of prayer’ in our River of Life service last July and in due course we’re hoping to have kits so parishes can make banners for themselves and their link parishes each with some of the rivers of prayer. John Tasker spoke of his visit to Angola to present the Mission and Ministry Programme Certificates to the Catechists who had completed the three year course and Simon Sheldon shared thoughts and images of Shepperton’s visit to Niassa for the opening of Milange School and what being a link parish had meant to his church. We also had a rolling PowerPoint of recent ALMA photos, some suggestions on advocacy focussing on Trade Justice, Malaria and Stand Up (in October 2009) from Sheenagh and finally Chaplaincy time! Many thanks to the volunteers who helped with refreshments and to Richard Munnings for our beautiful name labels.
St Dunstan’s Acton youth group leader has succeeded in shipping 21 computers to a school in their link parish St Mark’s Matola (Lebombo). She will be writing this up for us so others can benefit from their experiences.
Elizabeth Wilmot from St James Hampton Hill reports
‘Together with SS Peter and Paul, Teddington, we have been collecting good second hand and new children’s clothes from our congregation to send out to those affected by cholera and AIDS in our link parish in Mozambique (Pemba). We are also collecting old mobile phones to sell for parts to raise the money to cover the cost of shipping the clothes. As ever, people are very generous and we already have several bags full! We'll let you know how it goes.’
Hammersmith and Fulham Deanery Synod have very generously agreed to support the building of two churches in Lebombo – T3 and Xai Xai
Thank you for your generous response to the Lent Appeal. You will see from the Lent Appeal 2009 section of this site that we have now reached 51% of our target - £30,586 - with more donations coming in each day. So by the time you read this the figure will have changed again! It is good to hear that many of you have felt the appeal really resonated in your parishes and that the response has exceeded previous years despite the credit crunch.
Please do let me have your news for Circulars and contributions for the website. It is one of our ‘dreams’ to have a short profile of each parish link on the website. This need not be a dissertation – one or two sides of A4 with the main dates/events/visits and a few reflections of how being linked has affected your church would be wonderful. Photos are welcome too! Visit reports also inspire us – watch the recently added section of this site – very shortly Father Joe Moffat’s report on his visit to Chimoio will be going up.
Best wishes
Sheenagh
Sheenagh Burrell ALMA Communications Officer Diocese of London
Email: almacomms@london.anglican.org
T: Tuesdays 020 7932 1231