Northern Diocese

NORTHERN DIOCESE

VISIT TO BISHOP ALBERT AT KITWE

TUESDAY 23rd OCTOBER 07

We got up at 5.30am to have breakfast at 5.45am ready to go for our early flight to Ndola. But while I was in the shower Bishop David’s car arrived with Bishop Peter and Liz – they had come half an hour earlier than we’d expected. They too hadn’t realised it would be this early. We had a quick breakfast and said ‘goodbye’ to Rodgers and Esther and left for the airport. Airport tax was 28 kwachas. I’m writing this as we are taxiing down the Lusaka runway! The pilot has just told us to ‘sit back and enjoy your flight’. There are only 8 passengers, a hostess and a pilot on board. Bishop Peter has just said ‘this is more comfortable than BA’!! We have an extra bag as luggage that contains presents from many at Holy Trinity, and groups such as ‘Explorers’, Mother’s Union, and Morning Break, as well as individuals. It contains all sorts of ‘goodies’ such as toys, crayons, pens, pencils, lotions, notebooks, calendars, tea towels, soaps, knitting needles. Jenny Humphries had given us a large bag of knitted squares, which we left in Lusaka with Catherine, who is the MU worker for Lusaka Diocese. Previously MU members she said had knitted small blankets for premature babies in Eastern Diocese.

There has just been a ‘funny’ noise, which made my heart miss a beat!
I looked to see what the pilot was doing! Ken joked ‘Oh it’s probably the kettle boiling!’ And sure enough the waitress is now up and preparing drinks for us!! We landed safely in Ndola having had a very good and comfortable flight lasting about 45 minutes. A driver from Kitwe met us, we presumed he was Bishop Albert’s driver. We had another 45 min journey from the airport to Kitwe mainly on dual carriageway. The scenery was dusty from lack of rain, huge termite mounds, quite a lot of trees and areas alongside the road that were cultivated – men and women with handheld ploughs. There were also various straw covered huts selling things at regular intervals each side of the road – from arts and crafts, to armchairs, beds, doors etc!

We arrived at Kitwe around 9am at The Providence Guesthouse. We had some coffee and toast while waiting for our rooms to be got ready, and to be picked up to go, we thought to St Michael’s where Bishop Peter understood he was to be speaking to the St John’s Seminary students. We were a bit concerned as we thought we were expected there for 10am. Midday came and still we were waiting, no sign of anyone coming to pick us up!! When we enquired in the office we were just told ‘ they will be coming’! On our itinerary and speaking to Bishop John Osmers, Rector of St John’s Seminary ( when he was in Lusaka for the Licensing of the new Dean), we definitely thought we’d got the early plane so as to be with the students and staff at 10am! So not sure what is happening.

Bishop Albert came just before !pm and asked us if we’d had a good rest. We would have done if we’d known we weren’t due anywhere for a while! He said that the programme was for us to rest and then be at St John’s Seminary at 2pm. We told him we hadn’t eaten yet as we thought we were going to be picked up any minute for the last 3 hours! So we had a lovely meal of chips, vegetables and chicken kebabs. Bishop Albert told us he’d only got back from Malawi last night – as Dean of the Province of Central Africa, which includes Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Malawi, he is acting Archbishop for the Province as Archbishop Bernard Malango has retired. Malawi has a vacancy (3 Dioceses). Elections can’t take place unless there are Bishops in place in all the dioceses. There are a lot of church politics going on with a parish priest in England pushing to be the Bishop. Bishop Albert had a very difficult time there and was threatened physically. People warned him that he might be killed. He replied ‘ if I am killed I will welcome death, I am not going to be afraid’, and he remained sitting rather than escaping. This morning he had a meeting with his archdeacons before coming to us.

After lunch Bishop Albert took us to see a building that Ken had seen on his last visit. It has since been renovated and enlarged. In the grounds offices are being built, for renting out so that the diocese can have an income. The main building ‘houses’ the Diocesan office, the Bishop’s office, MU office Community Development office and a lovely large hall for meetings etc. Bishop Albert has a lot of vision for the diocese to be self-supporting. He wants to \move from aid to development.

His driver then took us to a large compound, which has St John’s Seminary, training evangelists and ordinands. We met the Rector there, Bishop John Osmos, and the Lecturers:
Olga from Czechoslovakia originally (though she has lived in Tanzania since she was 19yrs), has been at St John’s for 6 yrs. She teaches Church History and Biblical Studies.
Keith Scott from CMS, Ireland, teaches systemmatics – homiletics and IT.
George, a Franciscan is a visiting Lecturer, teaching Spirituality and Liturgy.
Francis, a Zambian, teaches Pastoral Theology. Linda, Keith’s wife teaches English, as some come from French speaking countries.

We all sat in quite a small room and Bishop Peter spoke on Changing Lives, and showed a clip from the Changing Lives video. Ken also spoke, then questions and Bishop Peter presented them with the Changing Lives DVD series. We then had a drink and biscuits, and a tour around, plus a group photo. We visited the vegetable garden where bananas, oranges, mangoes, sweet corn, cabbages, marrows etc were growing.

An appointment followed at The Mindolo Ecumenical Foundation with Rev Reuben Daka. He is a lovely Zambian, full of humour and wonderfully welcoming with a beautiful smile. His sermon at the Independence Service in Lusaka Cathedral, was front page news in The Zambian Times newspaper! Reuben has taken over from Charley Thomas as Director of the Mindolo Ecumenical Foundation. He is a Presbyterian. Bishop John Osmers told us that Bishop Michael Lapsley is here for 3 days to speak about Reconciliation and Healing of the memories. Like Bishop John he had publicly supported the ANC during the Apartheid in South Africa. The S. African Government didn’t like that, and the Security Forces sent parcel bombs to try and kill them. Bishop John said that his parcel bomb was only a small one compared to Bishop Michael Lapsley’s! Bishop John lost his whole hand and Bishop Michael lost both hands and one eye. He now has a huge ministry not just in Africa but places like East Timor etc. on reconciliation. As we left the Mindola centre in the car we saw Bishop Michael walking along the road to the MEF. We dropped Bishop John off at St John’s Seminary and then went back to the guesthouse.

The room we were moving into still wasn’t ready – a couple of men were trying to fix the air-conditioning to no avail. When we were able to move in we had a shower and then just after 7pm we walked along the road to Bishop Albert’s house for dinner. His wife, Bertha is a lot better since having treatment for cancer in England. Their 3 yr old daughter has also had treatment in England for sickle cell anaemia. She is a very sweet petite little girl, quite ‘bouncy’, but still has to return to hospital at times. We didn’t meet their 10yr old son, Michael as he was out playing with friends. When we arrived at the house it was all in darkness – there was a power cut, so we had dinner by candlelight, which was very nice.

The food had all been cooked on a brazier as the power had been off since 9am. I couldn’t help thinking that if that happened to me in England, with lots coming for supper, I might have either postponed it or given them something cold!! Bertha produced lots of different hot dishes!! The electrician came while we were there and found a huge cable completely bent, and someone out there with a fire going, obviously sleeping there. They warned him the cables could kill him. I think he was taken off to the police station! Anyway it’s going to be a huge task to get the electricity back on, so they might be without it for quite a while.

In the candlelight we met other invited guests church leaders who live nearby. There was Frazer, an Archdeacon and his wife, Judith. He had been Rector of St John’s Seminary before Charley Thomas. Then there was William, a priest who was supporting his mother and I think niece and nephew, who’d both lost parents to Aids. The niece had also had a child out of wedlock. In Zambia, he said that poverty means that if someone offers you some meat in exchange for sex, then it will happen. William not only has a parish, but is also the Bishop’s chaplain. Then there was Joyce and her husband, a lay Canon and also on the Standing Committee. We then enjoyed the buffet meal- nshima, rice, pasta, chicken, chicken curry, beef stew, and various vegetable dishes. We all felt quite exhausted, and it was hard at times to make conversation, especially as it was hard to see anyone in the dimness! Bishop Albert was in and out trying to deal with the electrical problem and also, and also phone calls on Provincial business. It was a delicious meal, Bertha had done amazingly with so many to feed and no electricity!

Just after 9pm we returned to the guesthouse and were in bed at a reasonable hour. Our room had been sprayed with mosquito spray. Our mosquito net had holes in it but we weren’t disturbed by any! In fact we only ever saw one dead mosquito!!