The world comes to Eccles

Published: 21 July 2008

Four Bishops from four corners of the globe came to Eccles Parish Church in July. The day before their journey to Canterbury for the Lambeth Conference, the bishops and their wives came to a reception and lunch hosted by the Mothers' Union, where each was able to share something of their home situation. Jill Crofton reports:

Bishop Sadiq Daniel from Karachi in Pakistan told us with pride that his diocese is completely self-sustaining, and that recently Karachi has become a much safer city to live and work in. They have a thriving healing ministry right across the diocese and work closely with the Ibtida drug rehabilitation project. Problems arise for the Christian churches whenever anti-Western feelings flare up in the Muslim-majority population; the Afghan border is not far away.

Bishop Robert and his wife Beatrice (Bob and “B”) from Hawaii told us how Queen Victoria had sent the first-ever bishop to the islands, and he invited us all to visit them! They minister in a totally multicultural setting. Their great need was for younger clergy to replace those retiring, across forty parishes.

Bishop Nathaniel of Namibia in South West Africa, and his wife Vistorina, described their vast and sparsely populated diocese, with the majority of the Anglican Christians living in great poverty in the far north on the Angolan border, where the incidence of HIV/AIDS is very high. Mothers' Union work here centres on the work of trained “care-givers” who take food and anti-retroviral drugs to affected families, and help provide for the many orphans.

The Bishop of Bondo in Kenya, and his wife Elizabeth, spoke of the devastation of their people after the post-election violence earlier in the year. Harvests were uncertain, and weather patterns increasingly unpredictable. Many were still displaced and in abject poverty. Bishop Johannes and Elizabeth were themselves trying to provide school fees for 27 orphans as well as their own children.

May we all allow these insights to fuel our prayers week by week.

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