The Parish of St Peter's Chains, Katlahong, South Africa
Bishop David Bannerman of the Highveld
The huge hall at the Beula Park Conference Centre hosted around 1,500 people from the Diocese of the Highveld for the Consecration and Enthronement of David Bannerman as the second Bishop of the Highveld.Grand pageantry marked the occasion as trumpet fanfares combined with traditional African music, and a contemporary touch was added by the youth choir from the parish of Wattville with a Rhythm and Blues feel.Bishop David was presented by two of his fellow bishops, and the principal consecrator was the Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba.Eight other bishops from the Anglican Church of Southern Africa joined in the consecration.David was enthroned by the Senior Priest of the diocese, an impressive Zulu figure known to many in the Diocese of Monmouth, Wilmot Ngobese.Bishop David has a hard act to follow the huge presence of the late David Beetge, but his kindness, spiritual nature and dedication to the Lord's work has endeared him to the diocese of which he has been Dean for some years. He is glad of our prayers and support, and our diocesan Link is very close to his heart.
Fr Patrick Coleman
Our World Mission Officer, Irene and her husband Iain Doull were hosting a visitor from our link Diocese in South Africa.Daphne was in Wales for a family wedding, and specifically requested to come out to visit us because of our strong relationship with the Diocese of the Highveld and more specifically, with our link parish of St. Peter’s Chain’s in Katlehong. We arranged for them both to come out to Portskewett on the following morning for the 10:15am parish Eucharist, to which also come years five and six from Archbishop Rowan William’s School.This was my inside of a week off after Easter, and Pam had agreed to lead the service on Tuesday, which suited everyone very well.Pam loves to take the service, and the staff and pupils love to see her. Irene and Daphne were made welcome by everyone in church that morning, whilst I stayed home and tidied around a bit, waiting for them to come back after the service for coffee. When they came back, accompanied by Moira and Frances the churchwardens, we spent a very pleasant hour chatting about our link, and of how important it is to us.Daphne was able to reassure us that our love and prayers for St. Peter’s Chain’s and the Highveld are very much appreciated down there in South Africa.Irene and Daphne then left to go to Archbishop Rowan William’s School to give a gift that Daphne had brought from home.It was humbling to learn that Daphne had specifically asked to visit us during her short (and private) visit to Wales.Her commitment to the link should inspire all of us to do whatever we can to strengthen our link with our friends in South Africa.We are currently seeking to determine how we can show our concern for them in a more tangible way, which is not to say that our prayers are not important and very much valued.It would be fantastic if we could one day invite someone from St. Peter’s Chain’s to come and spend more than just a couple of hours in the Benefice of Caldicot.
Fr Den
Recent Email Correspondence Between Friends
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To one of our friends in the Highveld:
It is absolutely ages since I last emailed you - and that's an indication of how manic life has been.It really has been hectic.Even though we're only just approaching Spring, we've already had lots of Baptisms - which is lovely - and even more funerals - which isn't.All that, along with Lenten courses and extra services has eaten into the days and weeks.I can't believe that it's now over a year since the sad news of Fr. Sindile's death.? Where does the time go?Bishop Dominic is touring around the Diocese - every weekday evening of Lent with a Lenten Course on John's Gospel.We've had two, and three more to come.He is thrilled by the support he's had - over 800 people each week which is a fantastic response.I spoke to Bishop Dominic at the memorial service for Bishop David about how we in Caldicot could help support financially some initiative that St. Peter's Chains might have.He suggested that we wait until your new Bishop was elected to see how he felt about such an arrangement.I'm delighted to learn that David Bannermann is to be your next bishop (I hope you are too).I met Dean David (soon to be Bishop David) on one of his visits to Monmouth Diocese a few years ago.To help us prepare our decision, could you tell me if there's something that we might be able to help with?Perhaps a nursery project or a creche or some such thing?Previously we've sent pens, pencils, paper, toys and clothing, and lots of vegetable seeds, but there seems to be a new initiative coming into place where we are being discouraged from sending some of these. You hopefully realise that I'm very keen on maintaining the diocesan link - and even more so our parish link, and at a church council meeting yesterday evening I promised to see if there was something else practical that we could do.
With love and prayers,
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The reply from one of our friends in the Highveld:
With the new spiritual leader, as a parish we are now adjusting from our old way of doing things and you know how difficult change can be, sometime as human beings you reject the idea without even giving it the trial period, anyway through our prayer partners who always carry us through thick and thin, it seems like we are through that phase of uncertainty.
We are having a backlog in some areas of our lives as a parish due to our Rector and his wife who is challenged by ill health but God being our saviour, Fr. Elija is much better now and we are hoping that Gladys who has been in and out of hospital will also rise above the storm.
We have experienced a lot of growth in our parish due to relocation of communities; the unfortunate part of this growth is these are the people from a nearby informal settlement who come from the rural area of our country to look for employment opportunities and with this global recession most companies are closing down, some are working short hours which makes it difficult for the unemployed to get employed, hence we have this rapid number growth of children who come to our feeding scheme and the poor parents cannot contribute anything towards the running costs of the parish because of their unfortunate situation. Nevertheless we thank God for the Link because here you are inquiring about those who are less fortunate and being concern about their plight. On a lighter note we have started our LENTERN PROGRAMME which includes retreat for all women of the parish on the 4th April, 25 infants to be baptized on Easter Sunday and as a Lay Minister I am assigned to hold classes for the parents that includes teaching them about the Holy Sacrament of Baptism and the entire Anglicanism. There is also so much to learn from Fr. Elija, the manner in which he conducts his services - the good part is he explains to us why it is done that way.
I think I’ll take a pause now and continue sometime next week when time permits.May this Lent help us to be SPIRITUALLY GROWN, FORGIVING with deep-rooted FAITH.
Bless you,
Article written by Mrs Pauline Haywood, Church Warden, St Mary's Church, Caldicot, to Celebrate 5 years of the Link with South Africa
I was a little surprised when I was asked to write a piece for the edition of the diocesan magazine celebrating, marking, remembering the five years of the link between the diocese of Monmouth and the High Veldt in South Africa. At first I thought ‘I don’t know enough about it to write an article’ but the more I thought about it the more I was inspired to put down on paper what are my thoughts about the High Veldt and my understanding of how it did and how it now does have an effect on my life. And the realisation that people less informed than I am now, probably have no real idea of what our support means to those in Africa; or any idea of the spiritual and prayerful support we receive from them. I wasn’t involved initially with the ‘High Veldt’, only like many others who knew of the link and attended the November link services in our church and participation in the collecting of things to ship out there. Naively it hadn’t even occurred to me that each box that was sent cost, sometimes, more than the contents inside. I gave the toys, pens and pencils, paper and materials, wool and needles; all things that I had at home or which cost hardly anything to buy here in the UK. I bought the Christmas cards and thought them a bargain as I did my little bit. I had no idea of the area we were linked to and maybe like others considered that South Africa can’t be that poverty stricken surely, compared to others. What the link was intended for was spiritual support, they prayed for us and we prayed for them.
I became a stand-in for my daughter on the committee as her university commitments did not allow her to attend meetings, and I was at an illustrated presentation by Irene Doull given to the Mother’s Union and it was then that I came to realise that although I supported the High Veldt initiative, I did not actually know much about it.
Various members of the committee and members of churches from the diocese went to visit the specific areas with which they are linked and came back with their pictures and their accounts of life there. That is when I knew that even though they only ask for support through prayer, financial support is vital. Imagine if you were dependent on a soup kitchen once a day for your only meal of the day. Those vegetable seeds that were sent to grow those vegetables become very important. The wool and needles enabling you to knit sweaters for your children to be warm in the cold nights; being taught to make clothes with the sewing machines and materials that could then be worn by you or sold to give an income. Imagine if you were a child living in an orphanage where your daily meal was a bowl of mealiepap Monday to Friday but you had nothing at the weekend because there was no money. Or you were a child who had never had a toy. To us it is unthinkable, in the high Veldt it is the reality.
Not everyone there is so poor. Some live in lovely bungalows – with high fences and gates. As a visitor you could not go outside those gates unless accompanied by the owner, it would not be safe. What if you had to live in your garden shed? What is needed for your lawn mower here was home to your family of 4 or 5? If your child’s classroom was a container? These are the reality.
To bring home that reality we organised a High Veldt evening to which Irene Doull was invited to give her talk to the Benefice of Caldicot,Portskewett and Rogiet. The food was typical SA food. We began with mealiepap, the bland mixture of maize flour and water. The longer it is boiled, the better it tastes, not that there is much taste. If there was nothing else to eat it would at least fill your stomach. The second course was potato pancakes which we served with butter and sugar to make them more palatable to us. They are tasty and very filling. Finally we dined on lamb potje. A stew like meal made in one pot cooked over a fire all day where anything and everything they have can be added, mostly vegetables. Cheap, filling and nutrious. A good time was had by all and donations were made to the fund to be sent out to feed the children. What you cannot show through pictures and talks is the love that these communities share. They care about one another and work together to better their lives. They share what little they have with the visitors who go out there and do it willingly and with love. They worship God with great joy and thank him for life as it is. Praising God and their church is important to them every day and they live their lives through their religion. Most of us go to church on a Sunday as an add on to our lives, if nothing else gets in the way.
There has been great sadness for them and for us particularly in the last year when they lost Bishop David and the parish priest of our link parish but new people will take their place and the link will carry on. We must continue to send financial aid to them and a decision will need to be made as to what that aid will be. Sending boxes of goods is becoming more expensive and we have the added problem of where those goods can be stored until dispatched. We have to ensure that the boxes are full of worthwhile, useful goods, but what exactly will those be? Should we send money to feed the children in the orphanage or to the communities for the soup kitchens?
Another will write of the spiritual links, I think of the practical, but at least I do now think about the High Veldt and those who live there. I can see them tending their communal vegetable garden growing the contents of the cooking pot, the families squashed into a small garden shed, the children waiting anxiously for their mealiepap but not at weekends, the school and the clinics in the containers. But I also know of the enthusiasm and joy and singing and prayer in their churches and the pride of the ladies in their Mother’s Union uniforms and I know that when it comes to openly praising God and thanking him for all we have, we have a lot to learn from the people of the High Veldt. Please always remember them in your prayers.
