St Mary's, Abergavenny visit their link parish in the Highveld

Returning from a trip to our link Diocese of the Highveld, Anne Parr, the parish link officer for St Mary’s, Abergavenny, writes: “I was amazed at the amount of outreach work done by the Diocese of the Highveld.

Anne went with three others from St Mary’s parish which is linked with the parish of Benoni. They joined in Sunday worship. Fr Malcolm Lane preached in St Dunstan’s cathedral while Richard Keech and Caroline Woollard went to the daughter church of St Mary Magdalene for a two hour service which included the most wonderful unaccompanied singing.

During the week they saw the work done with children:
“Thembi Creche, which our parish has been supporting with jumpers, blankets and toys from our Diocese, caters for ninety six babies, along with pre-school and after-school children. There are only two rooms and one window, but the brothers who help run the crèche are very caring. The fee for a week is 40p. The children arrive at 6.30 am and leave any time up until 6.00pm.

"Melodi Primary School is an amazing place! Not much in the way of equipment, but the commitment of the staff is wonderful. The class sizes ranged from 48 to 64, and that was with some pupils absent due to the rain. Some children had had to walk a very long way to get to school. The pupils used to be fed at the soup kitchen of St. Alban, but the government has now taken over the programme.”

The group visited two soup kitchens. In Etwatwa Township two hundred people are fed twice weekly: they each bring a container for soup and are given bread to take away for the family. In the kitchen of the Church of St. Alban, Daveyton, huge pots of soup were cooking away, all looking and smelling very tasty. There is a sewing project here too and the volunteers are learning on both hand and electric machines. The hope is to encourage an eventual business enterprise.

By contrast, the facilities at St. Dunstan’s College are modern and the building work on-going. There is a fountain in the grounds and a new church. The classrooms are bright and airy and classes much smaller. Eventually there are to be rooms for training priests – one will be called the Monmouth Room*.

Anne concludes: “I believe that we can learn much from each other both spiritually and practically. I hope that the link will continue to go from strength to strength.”

If your parish would like to link with a parish in the Highveld, contact Irene Doull, World Mission Officer

* Money from the Bishop’s Lent Appeal to fund this modern training facility is coming in - over £6,500 has reached Hazel Paling so far. If you haven’t sent your contribution to her at the Bishop’s Office yet, please do. The facility is urgently needed because the work in the Highveld of caring for the poor, the hungry, the homeless and those affected by HIV and AIDS happens where the churches are growing, and they cannot grow without theological education and trained laity and clergy.