From Sheenagh Burrell ALMA Communications Officer
sb@burrell1980.freeserve.co.uk T: 020 8567 7400
Dear ALMA Reps and ALMA Friends,
I hope you all had a very pleasant Christmas and that 2007 will be a year of renewed hope and promise for each of you and for all those we are linked to in Angola and Mozambique. We have a reps meeting booked for 15th March 2007 when it will be good to catch up with one another and to share news and stories of how our links are growing. This mailing contains:
Sadly this meeting with two excellent speakers was not as well attended as usual. However, we gained a lot of practical insight and wisdom on starting and maintaining long distance relationships in very different contexts and had the opportunity to share ideas, impressions and dreams with each other.
Revd Felicity Scroggie spoke about how a relatively poor church could engage in ALMA and be transformed in its local ministry by doing so. It is important that relationships between partners are about more than finance – the mural sent from the Sudbury community to Messumba is testimony to this (see photo on photo gallery section of website). We need to share our problems, concerns and difficulties too – remembering to show more than ‘tourist’ London when we are hosts. We also need to be aware and prepare for the hardship that can be encountered on visits.
Beryl Warren, ALMA Rep from St Mary’s Stoke Newington, echoed this and spoke of how all the setbacks they encountered led them to a closer dependence on God. Her full report will shortly be on the website along with Revd Graeme Watson’s – here is a short section:
‘In so many ways God taught me how to look deeper and beyond outward appearances. He showed me honest compassion through the graceful generosity of spirit that was shown to us from every Mozambique we met. A people who seemed to know how to be very much in the present. Their aspirations are the same as people anywhere in the world - food, good healthcare, clean water and an education for their children. The difference is nothing is taken for granted and having a Church building is of paramount importance to them.
There is nothing like seeing things first hand and the four of us came back enriched and empowered. If asked “What do the people need?” I would answer A CHANCE.’
In the second part of the meeting we went on a virtual tour of the new ALMA WEBSITE: www.almalink.org looking at the 11 toolbars:
Welcome; Background; News; Links and Visits; Getting Involved; Diary Dates; Wider Issues; Resources; Picture Gallery; Donate Now; Contact Us and the hyperlinks within each section.
Some sections are work in progress but we hope in 2007 that each parish with a link will contribute a small link profile on how their link began and will record its key moments. Likewise it will be wonderful to see more and more visit reports uploaded –please do keep sending them in to me!
As a result of the meeting we want to embark on three new practical pages and invite you to share your experience for the benefit of others:
Remember the Dairy Dates section is there for you too - ADVERTISE YOUR LOCAL ALMA EVENTS.
Send all contributions for the website to the ALMA Communications Officer sb@burrell1980.freeserve.co.uk
I want here to record our thanks for the web project to Jonathan Sheldon who designed original layout of the website; Clara Osenie who did the early updates; Simon Burrell for the ALMA design on the website and postcard; Duncan Caldwell at Diocesan House for being our webmaster and to Ann Peterken for all her work and quality control.
An ALMA Postcard has been designed to publicise the launch of the website. These cost 2.7p each and can thus be fairly widely distributed if you are planning an ALMA service or event. They are available at Diocesan House front desk, from Peter Southwood at the ALMA Office and from Sheenagh Burrell in Ealing. Do phone before making a special journey to collect cards. We also have some ALMA Gift Aid Envelopes.
See the news section of the website for a report on the London Service at St Stephen’s Church Shepherd’s Bush which featured Mozambique. We have also put the powerpoint pictures from Niassa on the website but are aware that they could take a long time to download for some of you. If you cannot download these at present, hold onto the image of the Equipas da Vida teams (life teams) with their blue T shirts and the slogan
‘In Christ there is no positive or negative’. The Independent also had a major article on HIV/AIDS in Mozambique which we have a hyperlink
World AIDS Day was also marked in Angola, with an appeal from Bishop André.
Please do let me have any news for the next circular, which is planned for the end of January. Thank you for all your encouragement on the website and for your patience with the glitches – the most recent one has been sorted!
Happy New Year.
Best wishes, Sheenagh