Pastoral Letter
Dear Friends,
On the weekend of 16th/17th August we have the privilege of receiving a visit to the Anglesey Group of Parishes from Bishop Hilkiah Omindo the Bishop of Mara in Tanzania. The Bishop is coming over to England for the Lambeth Conference and wants to visit us to thank us for our support of his Diocese in 2007.
In 2007 we organised a special appeal for his diocese to help fund the purchase of bicycles for some of the clergy there. We managed to raise a total of £1500 for the project, which enabled us to buy 20 bicycles for the clergy.
The Diocese of Mara was created in 1985. It covers the administrative region of Mara in Tanzania, which stretches from Lake Victoria in the West to the Serengeti National Park in the East, and from the Tarime highlands bordering Kenya in the North, to Mwanza region in the south. Mara Region has a population of 1.4 million and includes the four districts of Tarime, Musoma, Bunda and Serengeti.
The central office of the diocese is in Musoma where the new Cathedral was opened in 2000, and the new offices officially opened by the Archbishop of Tanzania in April 2003.
The first Bishop of Mara was Bishop Gershom Nyaronga, and in 1994 Bishop Hilkiah Omindo was chosen for this position and continues to this day. The Diocese now has 4 archdeaconries, 22 deaneries and 68 parishes with more than 200 churches. There are approximately 60,000 baptised Anglicans in the Diocese.
The diocese is committed to holistic mission, and this mission is delivered through several departments. Some of its main activities include an AIDS awareness programme, working with disabled people and helping farmers of fruit and vegetables improve the quality of their production and find new markets, especially in Serengeti National Park tourist hotels.
Tanzania is one of the world's poorest countries. It has few exportable minerals and a primitive agricultural system. As of 2006, the estimated population was 38,329,000, with an estimated growth rate of 2%. Tanzania has more than 126 tribes and each ethnic group has its own language. No language is official, but Swahili is the de-facto official national language, used for interethnic communication and for official matters.
The Diocese of Mara includes the Serengeti National Park, one of the world's most famous game sanctuaries. This park occupies a vast area of grasslands and woodlands and is home to thousands of wild animals. It has also been declared a world heritage site by UNESCO. It attracts close to 150,000 tourists every year. The sanctuary is home to more than a million wildebeest, 200,000 zebras and 300,000 Thomson's gazelles.
Road conditions Mara are extremely rough. Clergy have very large rural parishes to cover, and bicycles have proven to be a practical and reliable way of enabling them to get about their parishes.
The Bishop's visit will, I am sure, offer a fascinating insight into a way of life very different from that of our own. It will also enable us to see the way that the Christian Church in that country is seeking to meet the needs of its people and share the love of God with them.
The Bishop will be speaking to us at a Men's Breakfast on Saturday 16th August at Quy Village hall (tickets £7 from the Vicar) and at a special service for the Anglesey Group of Parishes in St. Mary's Church Swaffham Bulbeck on Sunday 17th August at 11am, followed by a Barbecue (tickets £5 from Swaffham Bulbeck Church). You are very welcome to join us.
May God bless you all,