Meeting Report
[Source: Helen Doery]
Bishop Rob opened the meeting with prayer and introduced Bishop Manuel, Area Bishop with responsibility for Lurio and Zanbezia, and currently the Vicar General of Niassa.
He spoke of the large refugee camp established near Nampula with more than 16,000 people from numerous countries including Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. A Priest and two Catechists had been appointed to minister there. He also spoke of the need for a different training of priests as their rôle is changing from just leading services on a Sunday, to involving more people and uniting mission and ministry. As more than half the population is under 12-15 years the government wanted churches to help with education so they were looking at links between churches and schools. He also shared prayer needs for peace and stability in the area, and for sustaining Fr. Vicente (now Bishop of Niassa) and himself in their work.
Revd. Chris Swift of St Nicholas Church, Shepperton told of the ups and downs of the partnership with their link church in Milange (which is on the Malawian border and hosts many refugees). It was most interesting to hear of the progression of the relationship between the two parishes and how even through a five year lull they maintained the link through prayer in the weekly liturgy. Currently the church in Milange is looking at education as 40-45% of the children have no school places. If they provide the buildings the government will provide the teachers and the equipment. There are already four rooms in the school and they want four more so Shepperton PCC are looking at partnering with them to raise the $60,000 needed from the church and the community to do this.
Sheenagh then introduced the Diocesan Lent Appeal which this year is for ALMA and spoke of the educational projects for which it is raising funds. Reps were asked to to collect Lent Appeal material for their’s and neighbouring parishes. This was followed by a call to action from Fran Chandler to support the Jubilee Debt Campaign’s to ask our MPs to tackle the UK’s role in Africa’s debt crisis. Bishop Rob closed the meeting with the Lent Appeal Prayer.
