About our Mission Partnership with
St. James' Episcopal Church: New York, NY, USA

Contact Person:
Leeanna Varga, Associate for Mission
lvarga@stjames.org
St. James' website: www.stjames.org

November 12, 2007

Report from Madeline Schroth

Partners in Mission – Africa
St. James’ Episcopal Church
865 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10021 USA

Background Information about our Mission Partnership

In 2005, a mission group from St. James’ Church visited Southern Malawi and met with Bishop James Tengatenga to investigate the possibility of forming a partnership between St. James’ and the Diocese of Southern Malawi.

In the spring of 2006, the Bishop and Mrs. Tengatenga visited New York to meet parishioners and establish the partnership. The major focus of the relationship continues to be building projects in which the work is shared by St. James’ parishioners and members of the local community.

Our Building Projects in Southern Malawi

In the summers of 2006 and 2007, St. James’ parishioners worked alongside Malawians on building projects funded by a generous gift from parishioners of St. James’ Church in a series of trips led by the Rev. Steve Smith.

CLICK HERE to see a PHOTO ALBUM of our 2007 Mission Trip.
Photos may take a few moments to download.

In June of 2006, a six-bed maternity clinic in Mindante was begun. Malawi has the highest maternal mortality rates in the world and there is great need for this clinic. This project is nearing completion but the clinic still lacks a roof.

The August 2006 group started a priest’s house in Lunzu. This house has now been completed and is ready for occupancy. Two priest’s houses, still to be completed, were begun in the summer of 2007 in Manyamba and Chigalu. In all cases, St. James’ parishioners and local Malawian parishioners, along with professional builders, worked together on these projects. As Bishop Tengatenga has aptly stated in previous reports on this partnership:

“One may wonder why there seems to be an obsession with clergy houses. Being a Eucharistic community and the priest being a sign of hope and courage in a deprived society, we have as a strategy of church growth decided that it is important to begin with priest’s houses in the areas we are growing into, and that while we have this help we can make sure that the houses are built to a certain standard which if people are left to themselves would not be able to build to the same standard due to lack of local resources.”

In March of 2006, with funding from Episcopal Relief and Development, the Diocese of Southern Malawi hired a building project supervisor, Luka Chipembere, who is overseeing all partnership projects.

Two trips are planned again for the summer of 2008.

The St. James’ groups will be led by Leeanna Varga, Associate for Mission at the church. Leeanna will be making an advance trip to Malawi before she leads the summer groups. The specifics of the projects for this summer are under discussion with Bishop Tengatenga.

Partners in Mission Fellows

In addition to work trips, St. James’ has sponsored two Partners in Mission Fellows from the Diocese of Southern Malawi.

The Venerable Charles Masina, shown (left) at the St. Jame's altar, came to New York in the fall of 2006 and Dean Auster Kalilombe is currently in New York through December, 2007.

Each "fellow" lives and attends classes at General Theological Seminary and participates in the life of St. James’ Church as a member of the clergy.

Not only do these fellowships strengthen bonds between St. James' but also with General Theological Seminary, where Bishop Tengatenga was a visiting scholar in the fall of 2004, and from which he received his second doctorate honors causa.

Both priests have visited St. David’s in Austin, Texas and St. Luke’s in Somers, New York, which are also partner parishes of the Diocese of Southern Malawi. The presence of the fellows among us gives more St. James’ parishioners an opportunity to learn about Malawi, even if they are not traveling there.

It is hoped that as the relationship grows there will be more activities and mutual visits in the fulfillment of the mission of God among the parishioners of the Anglican Diocese of Southern Malawi and St. James’ Episcopal Church, New York, USA.

Dean Auster Kalilombe, Dean of the Southern Malawi Cathedral,
with a new sightseeing friend in New York City, Martin. A. Witt.

> CLICK HERE TO ALSO READ AN EARLY OVERVIEW WRITTEN BY BISHOP JAMES TENGATENGA ABOUT
THE DIOCESE OF SOUTHERN MALAWI'S MISSION PARTNERSHIP WITH ST. JAMES' CHURCH.