ALMA Reps Meeting 16 May 2011 at London Diocesan House

[Source: Helen Doery]

Sheenagh Burrell welcomed the speakers for the evening, Revd. Matthew Grayshon from St Mary’s Hanwell and John Watson from St Stephen’s Twickenham, who were going to tell us about Rooted in Jesus – a discipleship course written for Africans and used in Angola and Niassa for confirmation classes, training catechists, evangelists, lay leaders and clergy.
New Reps and Friends were welcomed - Gwynneth Lloyd (St James Hampton Hill), Barbara Austin (St Peter’s Notting Hill) and Revd Ron Herbert (St Michael and All Angels Stonebridge Park).
Sheenagh shared a brief news update from Helen van Koevering, on Bishop Mark:
“Just to keep you up to date and for you to pass on – Mark comes home today after two weeks in SA: one week with doctors and in hospital, the other retreating in friends’ beach house near there. He feels fine, and the doctors have said there is no heart disease and ‘excellent’ arteries, but he has spasmodic atrial fibrillation which will now be controlled with drugs. On Tuesday he takes off again for Nampula and Cabo Delgado for two weeks visiting etc, but Archdeacon Daniel and I are collaborating to organize him flying there and then transport through the churches there, so Mark won’t be driving the whole way. But we have just had a very restless night with Mark not comfortable at all – he has brought pills back with him, given a ‘clean heart and arteries’ diagnosis but has spasmodic atrial fibrillation. Could produce stroke, but no one seems overly concerned about Mark’s type. Still needs prayer, even if not on a danger list.”
Revd. Rachel Treweek opened with prayer and included Bishop Mark (Niassa), Dinos Kousolou and Jo (leader of Daniel’s Den Nursery Group), who are all suffering from heart conditions. Then Teresa led us in saying The Lord’s Prayer in Portuguese.
Beryl Warren told of arrangements for the ALMA Sunday Service in St Paul’s with Bishop Dinis (Lebombo) and encouraged all to attend with their congregations for this enjoyable ALMA Family event.
Sylvia Daniels informed us of the launch of the van Koevering Trust Fund to support Bishop Mark and Helen van Koevering’s successful leadership in Niassa for the next five years, as USPG ceased supporting them financially in April 2011. Donors are being sought to pledge £25 a month (100 needed) or 500 at £5 a month. This fund is entirely separate from ALMA but obviously of great interest particularly to those with Niassa links).
The presentations on ‘Rooted in Jesus’ followed.

Matthew told us the background and the way the course was used – it was written for the Bishop of Kilimanjaro in 2002, is based on Mtt.28:18-20 and 2Tim. 2:2 – making disciples who will teach others also – but also draws on Jer.17:7-8 - and requires only the leader to be able to read, or have a Bible. It consists of four books, each book is made up of three modules and each module is made up of four lessons. The course is more about who you are becoming than what you know and it has resulted in changed lives, changed churches and changed communities.

The material is absorbed and practised orally and each session is summarised by a memory verse so that none of the participants needs to be able to read or write. There is much emphasis on active participation and direct dependence on the Holy Spirit by each member and so a considerable amount of time is spent in prayer and group discussion. Participants draw up a list of names of those they will disciple in a group of their own, after completing a module.

John then led a lesson to demonstrate how the material is used so we could understand more fully the practicalities of how a session would work with role play, group participation and memorising Bible verses. On completion of the module a certificate is given to each participant. This was followed by pictures of a training session in Angola.

For more detailed information look at www.rootedinjesus.net. An English equivalent course is soon to be published ‘Beyond Ourselves’ and would be wonderful to do in conjunction with a link parish that is doing ‘Rooted in Jesus’.
The meeting was closed with us saying The Grace in Portuguese.