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St Peter and St Paul Mozambique link Update.2005 To the April 2007.As the time for our first trip to our link parish in Mozambique grows ever closer, I thought it would be appropriate to put pen to paper so to speak and just give a quick update on the history of our link to date.It was Father Shane who first put forward the idea of forging a link with another parish in either Mozambique or Angola back in March 2005. Myself, Jaco Stander and Clare Rider then set about understanding the two countries and their current/past difficulties before reaching a decision on Mozambique, additionally as Jaco is from SA he was to able to provide more insight on this Country based on a number of visits he had undertaken their over time. We then advised the ALMA London Diocese on our chosen Country and were then provided with a few named parishes to choose from who were interested in linking. As you are probably aware from our weekly intercessions, we chose the parish of Sta Maria, de Madelina in Pemba and the Rev Juliao Fenias. With any new relationship, good communication is vitally important; therefore we set about trying to contact them and to learn a little about our new link, firstly by letter and then by email (Once we realised that Father Fenias did have an email address). The former had proved quite slow from a communication perspective, however the latter did not prove as fast and reliable as one had hoped, but to cut a long story short our first reply from Father Fenias was in the Month of March 2006 exactly a year from the initial decision to form a link, obviously things were going to take time! I think that was the first indication on subtle differences between our two Countries. Again as you’re probably aware from various updates at the weekly Sunday service we felt that a visit was the order of the day to cement our relationship further and to gain a better understanding of their needs and values. It was then that Jaco and his lovely family left the parish to return to his native homeland, his help & knowledge had been most valuable in keeping the momentum going on our link. Chris Darling kindly stepped into the breach and based on his time spent in Tanzania along with his incredible charity fund raising abilities has contributed tremendously to the present day, as those that attended the recent “Round the World Breakfast” will confirm. For those who are not aware, myself and Clare will now be flying out to Pemba this coming Friday (20th April 2007) and returning on the 28th April, we have already been sent a high level itinerary for each day of our visit by Father Fenias, additionally as he is in the process of being priested, Clare has arranged to take out with her a stole and based on the kind donations from church members we will be using the funds to take further items out for the children, (Pens, toys etc) along with items that have been requested by Father Fenias and the Bishops wife, the main request being for specific books with named titles and authors and items pertaining to the Mothers Union. On our return will be sure to give a talk on our how the trip went along with photographs of the local parishioners and the area in general. Chris Owens |
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