The Angola, London and Mozambique Association
Parish Rep: Stephen Tucker
The Anglican Church in Angola has one of the most remarkable stories in the Anglican Communion. It began in 1925 when an English lay reader, Archibald Patterson, arrived in the north of Angola, in what is now Uige province. He built a school with the support of local chiefs and in return taught them to read. He made thousands of believers, baptised them and trained many to be evangelists and to use the Book of Common Prayer. By 1961 the church numbered about 70,000 members.
Unlike other colonial powers, Portugal was very slow in granting independence to its colonies. Foreign missions were seen as a threat and protestants were fiercely persecuted. In 1961 Patterson was expelled. As he left, he was handed a list of his church leaders who had just been executed. Others hid in the bush and yet others fled to Kinshasa (Congo). Those who remained were pastored by Alexander Domingos, who walked enormous distances caring for the scattered believers, often in great danger.
In 1985, Domingos came to Selly Oak College in Birmingham to learn English. His announcement that he came from the Anglican Church in Angola was greeted with the astonished response “What Anglican Church in Angola?” He met with USPG saying that he wanted the Church to be recognised as part of the Anglican Communion. On his return to Angola, Domingos made contact with Dinis Sengulane, Bishop of Lebombo, who had also trained in England.
Bishop Dinis visited Angola in 1990, when the Anglicans numbered about 10,000. He ordained Domingos as priest and other leaders as deacons (and a year later as priests). Potential priests were sent to the Anglican seminary in Maputo, Mozambique, including André Soares. Bishop Dinis was asked by the Archbishop of Cape Town to give episcopal oversight and Angola became an Archdeaconry of his diocese. Meanwhile, Bishop Dinis was a major player in brokering the peace settlement in Mozambique, signed in 1992.
In 2000 the churches began to cooperate in the search for peace. The Inter-Church Commission for Peace was formed by the Roman Catholics and the Anglican Council of Churches and people began to look to the churches to break the deadlock in the civil war. The collapse of the world diamond market significantly weakened UNITA and the government forces won out. Peace at last came to this troubled country in 2002, but the scars of war are everywhere.
Angola is now one enormous missionary diocese. There are 4 districts (Luanda, Uige, Nzadi-a Lukizi and Lukunba Lozi) served by Archdeacons and several missionary areas (Benguela, Cunene/Ondjiva, Huila, Huambo and Cabinda) each served by a priest or cathechist.
The Anglican Church is growing fast – about 25,000 members in 2007. Bishop André and the congregations need our prayers and our material support as never before. A theological training programme by extension (TEE) is being funded by ALMA.
A brief history of the Anglican Church in Mozambique
Mozambique has 10 civil provinces. The Diocese of Lebombo covers the six provinces south of the River Zambesi, and the Diocese of Niassa the northern four provinces.
Anglicanism took root in three locations:
In the south of the country many men left to seek work in the gold fields around Johannesburg, where a number became Anglicans. When they returned to their homes in southern Mozambique they wanted the Church to continue to minister to them. With the passage of time, congregations were established in and around Lorenco Marques (now Maputo), Inhambane and Xai-Xai. The Diocese of Lebombo was formed in 1893 to consolidate this work. The last expatriate bishop was Daniel de Pina Cabral of the Lusitanian Church in Portugal, who resigned in 1976 to make way for Bishop Dinis.
In Beira, in the province of Sofala. As the port and rail terminus for inland Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Beira became a natural growth point for the Church. It was under the care of the Bishop of Southern Rhodesia until it joined the Lebombo Diocese in 1970. Work has extended from Beira to other important towns such as Chimoio and Tete in the central belt.
In the north of the country, evangelism came via missionaries of the Universities’ Mission to Central Africa (UMCA), one of whose aims was to eradicate slavery. The main slave market was in Zanzibar, but slaves were brought from many places, down as far as the shore of Lake Nyasa. In 1861 Charles Mackenzie was consecrated Bishop of the Mission to the tribes dwelling in the neighbourhood of the Lake Nyasa and River Shire, but he died of malaria in early 1862. William Percival Johnson reached Lake Nyasa in 1882 to evangelise the people of the lakeshore area. He continued this work for over 40 years, becoming Archdeacon when the area became an Archdeaconry of the Diocese of Nyasaland (now Malawi). During those years, the Anglican Church converted many thousands of people both on the lakeshore and on the high plateau inland, and by 1920 had established a large mission at Messumba. In1959 the Archdeaconry became part of the Diocese of Lebombo. The separate Diocese of Niassa was created in 1980.
Taken from the ALMA website almalink.org where you can find much more about their work.
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