Archbishop Richard with the children in the School based at St John’s Chingola
The concluding element of the CMSI Partner Visit to the Diocese of Northern Zambia involved Archbishop Richard Clarke and Revd Adrian Dorrian visiting different areas in the Diocesan and spending time with the people there.
Archbishop Clarke spent two days with his Zambian counterpart, Archbishop Albert Chama. On the first day they toured the city of Kitwe, which is the second city of Zambia and the base for the Diocese. This included calls at several churches and a tour of a meeting facility the Diocese is developing. The intention is to set up a multi-purpose venue that can be of use to the Church for large gatherings but also be rented commercially, enabling the Diocese to move towards financial stability. Poverty is a very real issue here and while people are very generous in their giving, the church struggles with its income.
On the same day, Adrian accompanied Father Stephen Chibubi around Kitwe. Father Stephen is the New Testament lecture at St John’s Seminary but he also has responsibility for two Parishes in the Diocese. The pair visited these two, one of which (St Andrew’s) includes an early years provision Centre – the Parish offers a free pre-school facility for the local community that is already heavily oversubscribed. Work will soon begin on a new toilet facility and there are longer term plans to use the Church land to build classrooms. Alongside these Church visits, Adrian accompanied Stephen on some pastoral class – one to a parishioner who had recently been discharged from hospital after suffering a stroke and the second to a wake. They joined in singing hymns and saying prayers with the bereaved family.
The second day of visiting saw both Archbishop Clarke and Revd Adrian travel with Archbishop Chama to Chingola, a mining town about 50km north of Kitwe and also in the Diocese of Northern Zambia. Here they visited four Parishes and accompanied Archbishop Chama as he paid pastoral visits to several clergy and their families. In addition, the group met with a Mother’s Union Group in St John’s Chingola and visited two different schools, one in St John’s and one in St Monica’s Church.
At the end of this final full day in Zambia, the two Irish visitors along with Keith and Lyn Scott (CMSI Mission Partners) and Archbishop and Mrs Chama shared a meal together. Please continue to pray for the Church in Zambia, for Archbishop Chama and for the Scotts as they serve in the Seminary. Pray too for Archbishop Clarke and Adrian as they travel back to Ireland on Thursday and Friday.
Revd Adrian Dorrian with the children in the School based at St John’s Chingola
Archbishop Chama, Archbishop Richard and Revd Adrian
with the Mothers’ Union of St John’s Chingola