Bishop Dinis with students at Twyford School

Bishop Dinis had an extremely busy day on 12 September. He landed at Heathrow at 6.30am; spoke at Twyford School (twinned with St Cyprian’s School in Maputo); met some of the Twyford students and staff, including the Head and the Chaplain who had visited Maputo in 2004; had various meetings with the ALMA Task Group and finally met with the ALMA Reps!

He gave us a picture of his life as the Bishop of such a huge diocese (1600 kilometres N-S and 300 E-W) where this year there have been droughts, floods and the deadly armaments explosion. Alongside coping with these emergencies and human suffering, church life has continued to celebrate. Bishop Dinis attended a big Mothers’ Union gathering of 600 at Xai Xai where 100 new members were admitted. There have been 36 new congregations in 2007, with a further 24 developing. The church grows each week as an August visit with Father Isaiah of Beira demonstrates: in nine days 16 Eucharists were celebrated; 350 were baptised; 700 were confirmed and countless couples were married.

Bishop Dinis also shared his own family’s joy at his son Theopilo’s wedding and the recent news of his daughter Fidelia’s wedding on 13 October to a Swedish priest teaching at the seminary in Maputo.

Malaria remains the scourge of Mozambique – he told us of the death of a Brazilian visitor to Maputo, newly married, who died of malaria contracted in Mozambique and of the daily suffering of families who lose children. Malaria is a disease of poverty and thus does not attract the same support as HIV/AIDS where both rich and poor are affected. He urged us to use our voices to address this! The church in Mozambique is doing its part – firmly backing the Roll Back Malaria initiative, using its unique countrywide networks to disseminate information on malaria prevention and treatment and including this in catechist training.

He spoke of the eagerness to learn amongst children lucky enough to have a school – and of the one million who don’t. Amongst adolescents the Council of Churches in Maputo is running a project called ‘Choose Life’, tailored for teenagers, giving them the opportunity to go on a camp to experience alternatives to a life of crime and violence.

He ended with two questions for us that deserve to be reflected on in depth: what makes God smile? and what can ALMA do to make God smile in Mozambique? There were several contributions at the meeting: the Swords into Ploughshares Project; the ‘Deus Salve’ capulana produced in Mozambique after the 2000 floods; the Equipas da Vida teams working with all aspects of HIV; the deepening relationships between Mozambique, Angola and London and the encouragement we can each give each other in our daily discipleship.