xAbout our Mission Partnership with the
Diocese of Birmingham: Church of England
by Bishop James Tengatenga

Contact Person: Michele Simms
michele.simms@birminghamcathedral.com

Website:  www.birmingham.anglican.org

CLICK HERE to read about Birmingham's Malawi Task Group and 2007 project

The Diocese of Birmingham helps with some budget support funds for our diocese and has helped with the building of the Church Hall at Ndirande and are helping pay off our Festina Loan with USPG.

They have been a Mission Partner with the Anglican Church in Malawi for 40 years.

During the last Famine they also supported us with the relief for the affected areas. There have been visits back and forth between our two dioceses.

Most recently there was a skills share group led by Rev. Philip Swan who is chair of the Malawi Support Group in Birmingham.

Two years ago the Ven. Justice Msini was in Birmingham for a three month experience exchange visit and one of his parish choirs were in Birmingham last year for Birmingham’s Centenary Celebrations.

Background Information

The Birmingham-Malawi link began in 1963 after the Toronto Anglican Congress. This is where Bishop Donald Arden and Bishop Leonard Wilson met and discussed its possibility at the instigation of Bishop Leonard?s daughter, Sue Cole-King, who was working with UNICEF in Malawi.

The link is not just with Southern Malawi but is with all the four dioceses in Malawi.

The link is kept alive through parish links, school links and mutual visits. Every two years there is a meeting of the leadership of the Anglican Council in Malawi and Birmingham Diocese. The meeting is held in both Malawi and Birmingham every two years on a rotational basis.

Birmingham helps with some budgetary support money for the Malawi dioceses and has a small fund for theological education in honour of the first Malawian Bishop, Josiah Mtekateka.

The Josiah Fund helps with in-service training for clergy and further theological studies. Currently part of the budget support funding for Southern Malawi is going towards the payment of the Festina Loan from USPG for the bishop's house.

In 2005 Birmingham bought motorcycles for the clergy in the rural parishes. They are currently raising money for a multipurpose lorry for the diocese.

The link also goes beyond church into the public sphere. Through the agency of the church in Birmingham Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Blantyre is linked with Birmingham Children's Hospital.

There have been nurse exchanges and the nurses have been hosted by church members. In the years between the official meetings clergy from Malawi (on a rotational basis for the four dioceses in Malawi) have spent the Autumn in Birmingham on an experience exchange and advocacy visit in Birmingham parishes.