ANGLICAN DIOCESE OF LAKE MALAWI

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Bernard Gordon
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2 ANGLICAN DIOCESE OF LAKE MALAWI Anglican Diocese of Lake Malawi (ADLM) was carved 34 years ago from the nation-wide former Diocese of Malawi, and is being served by Rt. Revd Francis Kaulanda. It has 53 parishes and 58 priests. Its vision is to be a caring and prayerful Church that lives according to the Word of God for the salvation of mankind. Its Mission Statement is to bring salvation and spiritual growth to the Diocesan community and beyond through evangelism, discipleship, and socio-economic development. Its Core Values are: Trusting the Word of God as final authority in decision making Observance of Sacraments and liturgical traditions of the Anglican Church Practice humility, moral courage, integrity and honesty Commit ourselves to stewardship and giving Encourage unity, fellowship and harmony of the Anglican Church The Diocesan Secretariat has the following Departments: Evangelism Department, Department of Education and Projects, Education Department, responsible for training and providing oversight of all diocesan learning institutions; Health Department, responsible for the proper functioning of hospitals and clinics, and all health related programs; and Administration and Finance. Diocesan Institutions: Health: The diocese has two hospitals; St. Anne s Hospital and St. Andrew s Hospital, and operates five clinics. Education: The diocese has 100 primary schools with a total enrolment of 61,778 pupils, and four secondary schools. Lake Malawi Anglican University has just been accredited as the only Anglican University in Malawi. Social Care Services: The diocese runs six orphan care centres and a Lay Training Centre.

3 Challenges Faced o Floods and hunger situation o Water and sanitation o Health and cross cutting issues o Abduction of albinos for ritual beliefs Intervention of the Church Under the name of Anglican Church in Development (ACID) the Church seeks to mitigate some of these challenges under four areas: o Health & Cross Cutting Issues: HIV and AIDS, gender, maternal and child health, TB, malaria, cancer, water and sanitation, malnutrition and family planning o Education: bursaries, adult literacy, early child development, girl child education, access to education and school infrastructure development o Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change: Permaculture, goat rearing, demonstration gardens, re-afforestation and agro-forestry o Youth & Women s Empowerment: self-help initiatives, Microloan programs, Skills Development Centres, promotion of human rights, advocacy for good governance and anti-gender based violence campaigns. Although ACID is aligned to Christian values, programs and services offered are for socio- economic and rural community development irrespective of religion, gender or race.

4 ANGLICAN DIOCESE OF NORTHERN MALAWI The Anglican Diocese of Northern Malawi was established in It has 89 churches clustered into 28 parishes in Six Archdeaconries. We have 14 primary schools, 2 Community Day secondary schools and 1 Private secondary school. We also have one hospital, two health centres and three mobile clinical sites. We are also participating in water, sanitation and hygiene, food security and adult literacy programmes. The first bishop of the diocese was Bishop Emeritus Jackson Biggers ( ), followed by Rt. Revd Christopher Boyle ( ). The current bishop is the Rt. Revd Fanuel Magangani who took over the leadership as the first native bishop of the Diocese. The main focus of the diocese in the past 15 years has been on Christian formation (making Christians strong), capacity building and other social services to the communities within it. While building a strong Christian community continues to be a major activity, the new focus will be to achieve a solid financial base through local income generating activities to supplement the Parish Assessment while still utilizing private support from our partners in the Diocese of Birmingham. The Diocesan leadership feels that it must now transition from financial dependence on our partners toward a self-sustaining model based on viable income-generating activities. The first step required to achieve this goal is a change of mind-set on behalf of the whole church. We are very grateful for the support we have enjoyed over these years from the people of the Diocese of Birmingham. We hope that you are going to walk alongside us in the remaining part of the journey. Key Challenges In Our Diocese 80% of our people depend on farming, and droughts and floods have led to a decrease in receipts from Parish Assessment; Other financial challenges: Donor fatigue and withdrawal; paying competitive remuneration packages for project personnel

5 Divisions in the church worldwide HIV/ AIDS and related diseases affecting members and the clergy Climate Change Gender Based Violence Strengths And Opportunities The Diocese has dedicated members and professionals who are ready and willing to assist in its growth It is well organized, with an operational secretariat. It has trading activities including a printing press It has developmental partners, such as Diocese of Birmingham A proposed project involves building an office complex in the diocese s main town of Mzuzu. ANGLICAN DIOCESE OF SOUTHERN MALAWI Anglican Diocese of Southern Malawi covers the seven administrative districts of Southern Malawi. It is 14 years old, coming from the division of the then bigger Southern Malawi. It inherited no infrastructure in terms of administrative offices, schools, recreation centers, even buildings to cater for health services. Our Secretariat (the Bishop, Diocesan Secretary, Accountant, Projects Director, Health Officer, Youth Coordinator, Guilds Coordinator and Adult Literacy Coordinator) is housed in an old hostel. We have one secondary school, six primary schools and one uncompleted building for a clinic. We have 28 parishes with 34 clergymen, which are grouped into six Archdeaconries. Our membership is around 43,000. Some parishes have three to seven churches manned by one clergyman. We thank Diocese of Birmingham for the motor cycles which were donated sometime in the past.

6 In terms of administering and managing the diocese, we have four Boards that help: Administration, Development, Finance and Education. These comprise professionals who give advice on different matters. Pastorally, we have Mothers Union, St. Veronica Ministries, Daughters of the King, Men's Fellowship and Youth. Much of our area is prone to natural disasters like floods and drought, particularly in the past two years. Even now living conditions are still very difficult. The area has high levels of poverty, illiteracy, infant mortality and health related problems - HIV/AIDS, Malaria, eye problems, poor water and sanitation. Financially, we are unstable because we still rely on donations to run our programs. However, we have managed to raise over 70% of our operational budget. We have no endowment or any form of investment, so issues of sustainability still haunt us. We thank Diocese of Birmingham for the support she renders to us, administrative, training, infrastructure, budgetary, education and operations. It is our prayer that we now need to look into factors that can help us to become self-sustaining, self-reliant and self-propagating. We need to be able to send missionaries. ANGLICAN DIOCESE OF UPPER SHIRE The Anglican Diocese of Upper Shire is one of the four dioceses in Malawi, covering seven administrative districts of Zomba, Mwanza, Neno, Ntcheu, Mangochi, Machinga and Balaka, and also the eastern part of Dedza District. We share boundaries with Diocese of Southern Malawi to the south and Diocese of Lake Malawi to the north and with Mozambique to the west and east. The Diocese is heavily populated as it has a population of 2.8 million with a density of 134 people per square kilometre.

We have 32 parishes with 286 churches, 7 archdeaconries, all being managed by 56 priests; 40 primary schools, 12 secondary schools, 2 hospitals, 8 health centres, a nursing college, a lakeshore

7 We have 32 parishes with 286 churches, 7 archdeaconries, all being managed by 56 priests; 40 primary schools, 12 secondary schools, 2 hospitals, 8 health centres, a nursing college, a lakeshore cottage, a rural vocational training centre and a diocesan farm. About 80% of the parishes are located in rural areas and its people are shared among two main sources of their livelihood, farming and fishing. Currently the Diocese and Malawi at large are experiencing two main problems affecting the lives of people and the growth of the Church: a. Abduction and killing of people with albinism Due to the increased levels of poverty people are trying all they can do to earn a living. Some people have reached the point of killing people with albinism as a way to get rich, as cheated by witch doctor. b. Food insecurity For the first time in history, Malawi has declared a state of national disaster for two consecutive seasons due to the negative effects of climate change. Firstly the 2014/ 2015 season, over fifteen districts were affected by massive floods which resulted in the death of over 150 people, damage to crops and loss of properties among others. A dry spell followed, negatively impacting the harvest. The 2015/2016 season the country has been affected by the effect of El Nino causing prolonged dry spell. Currently despite being the harvesting season, people are dying due to hunger and related conditions.

8 ANGLICAN DIOCESE OF BIRMINGHAM Birmingham is the UK s second city, with the youngest urban population in one of the most lively and diverse regions. The Birmingham diocese, founded in 1905, is one of 42 dioceses in the Church of England. Covering an area of nearly 300 square miles, the diocese includes parishes in the West Midlands including Birmingham and parts of Solihull, Sandwell, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. Right at the heart of what we do there are 187 Church of England churches and worship centres with an average Sunday attendance of 15,000 from a population of 1.5 million. In these churches are clergy and churchgoers representing a wide scope of Church tradition and breadth of ethnicity. Over 150 paid priests, together with additional self-supporting ministers, offer spiritual and pastoral care in the parishes, together with retired clergy, readers, local ministry teams and other non-ordained ministers. Transforming Church has been at the heart of our diocesan mission strategy since Its aims continue to be the same: growing churches at the heart of each community. This year we are particularly pleased that significant additional funding has enabled us to ramp up our efforts still further. The bulk of our energy and efforts will now be invested in our fourth Transforming Church Diocesan Goal: to develop a spiritually enriching children s and youth ministry in every parish and church school. To this end we have launched Growing Younger, a goal of which is to work with parishes to reach out with the gospel to 1,000-2,000 children and their families over the next three years. We also seek to increase the number of young leaders, drawn from every ethnic group, who are trained and deployed in the Church and wider community. As part of this vision, Urban Disciples is an innovative project, unique to the Church of England - Birmingham, which seeks to draw together young people from different churches in urban contexts. It seeks to develop young disciples to be confident in their faith and grow in leadership skills.

9 Malawi Birmingham Partnership A Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Bishops of Birmingham, Lake Malawi, Northern Malawi, Southern Malawi and Upper Shire Pentecost, 15 May 2016 We give thanks together for fifty years of the Malawi Birmingham Partnership and are grateful for Bishop Wilson, Bishop Arden and the early pioneers. We acknowledge our partnership in the gospel of Jesus Christ and our sharing in the bonds of unity that link us within the worldwide Anglican Communion. We recognise with joy the spiritual riches that we find in each other and that are unlocked as we share them together. We are thankful for all that Birmingham has been able to do for the practical support and development of the Anglican Church in Malawi. Our Partnership has reached across the gap between material abundance and material need. This help should be seen in the context of the wider support offered also by other Anglican charities and mission agencies. The main areas of support and particular instances include: Education Teacher skills share teams offering interactive in-service training to Malawian primary teachers Gifts of educational materials, school books and furniture Renovation of teachers houses Provision of loan guarantees for construction projects The 50 th anniversary appeal to build classroom blocks

10 Health We give thanks for the link between Birmingham Children s Hospital and Queen Elizabeth Hospital Blantyre. As an expression of this link nurses have gone in each direction to give or receive training. Medical equipment and supplies have been sent on Birmingham containers. Ministries Malawian clergymen coming to colleges in Birmingham for further ministry training Clergy exchanges and sabbatical visits in each direction Youth exchange visits Motor bikes provided for clergy at the diocesan centenary in 2005 Lorries given to the four dioceses Mothers' Union prayer and vehicles Administration Regular budgetary support to the four dioceses Training and equipment for Malawian finance officers Cross Cutting Issues Relief aid Advocacy with UK government departments and in Parliament For its part, Birmingham benefits from the blessings of being able to give support and offer mutual prayer and thanksgiving for each other s needs and joys. We recognise the need to infect the next generation with the joy we have discovered in this Partnership. We seek to operate the Partnership under certain core principles. These are:

11 Sustainability. The Malawian Church is seeking to move from reliance on outside benefactors towards generating its own income, leadership and resources, and Birmingham undertakes to play its part in these developments. Trust and Accountability. We recognise trust as an essential foundation of any partnership. At the same time we acknowledge that where resources are transferred, accountability and transparency are essential both to comply with charity law and to maintain the willingness and confidence of donors. Relationship. Face to face meetings, fellowship and joint activity are vital expressions of our partnership in the gospel. These need to be supported by regular contact. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. Philippians Signed by Rt Revd David Urquhart Rt Revd Francis Kaulanda Rt Revd Fanuel Magangani Rt Revd Alinafe Kalemba Rt Revd Brighton Vita Malasa Bishop of Birmingham Bishop of Lake Malawi Bishop of Northern Malawi Bishop of Southern Malawi Bishop of Upper Shire

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