Dear brothers in the Lord, Christ is risen! It is a joy and an honour for me to communicate with you in order to make you partakers of the work that is being carried out, by the grace of God, with the blessing and love of His Beatitude Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, Theodore II, and of course with your moral and material support and assistance. My ministry in the Holy Diocese of Burundi and Rwanda counts about 15 months. Our primary concern is to further improve the organization of the local Church and to reach out to people who want to get to know the Orthodox Church and join its ranks. As you already know, in Burundi’s capital, Bujumbura, the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, in the city centre, and the Church of St. Arsenius in the industrial area are in operation, while the Church of St. Demetrius in the district of Charama remains unfinished and is used for catechisms.
Buramata
About two hours away from Buzouboura, there is the Orthodox parish of Buramata, whose inhabitants are war refugees. Understandably, the area has enormous shortcomings and needs, the first being the immediate need to evangelize the inhabitants, fight hunger, provide better education and health care, and shape the social environment. It is in these areas, therefore, that we are working intensively and concretely:
Catechism
After three months of teaching, more than 600 catechumens joined the Orthodox Church, while after their baptism 120 couples celebrated their religious marriage. Every day the number of catechumens increases.
Health
At each visit, we distribute medicines to those in need. Furthermore, through various means, within our capabilities, we actively participate in the relief of people in case of natural disasters.
Education
In September, at the beginning of the school year, we celebrated the consecration service, distributed stationery to the students and bought bicycles for the teaching staff, who live far away from the school, which has about six hundred students.
Social environment
We have allocated an amount – a respectable amount for our meagre finances – to various Orthodox and other cooperatives, for example for bread making and rice cultivation.
Dealing with hunger
We implement a food program, which consists of providing a meal (rice and beans) daily to both students and teaching staff. As far as I am able to know, all the members of the Buramata Orthodox Church are happy with our 80% contribution to their livelihood.
Rwanda
Today, there are more than 100 people who have already been baptized, while about 3000 people attend catechism classes every Saturday and Sunday after the morning prayer and 15 parishes are already functioning under the supervision of the catechists.
Mass is celebrated once a month because there is no local priest and a Burundian priest is in charge of celebrating Mass here in Rwanda. With the blessing of our Patriarch, we have sent two young people from Rwanda to the Macarius III School of Theology in Nairobi, Kenya, to study theology and be ordained priests. One was even ordained a few days ago. We have excellent relations with the Rwandan authorities and, as they have indicated, they are interested in the organisation of our Church. The communities in which the presence of Orthodoxy is strong are the regions of Kaziba, Rwabatanzi, Kigali and Nyamata. The mayors of all the provinces of the country invite and beg us to establish catechetical centres, but the necessary infrastructure to realize their wish is not available, at least for the time being, due to the impossibility of purchasing land for the construction of churches. We are currently planning a new system of education for young men and women, in collaboration with the mayors of the various regions. We are also running a Sunday school, after the Divine Liturgy, aimed at children. Furthermore, I would like to inform you that according to the law of Rwanda, I could not take any action without having a permanent residence in the country. I was therefore forced to rent a house there as well. We need to have a permanent home either by buying land to build a house or by buying a ready-made one. Buying a plot of land costs €30,000-35,000 and buying a ready-made house costs between €70,000-100,000.
In conclusion, I would like to remind you of a few more problems that already exist, and others that have emerged in the meantime. The construction of temples in Rwanda, the creation of a dispensary, the creation of meeting places, the raising of funds to provide scholarships for needy students and even the construction of a building to house a high school in Buramata. And if I am not being too demanding or demanding, we need some money to purchase items related to the hygiene of the young women and schoolgirls who are absent from school on the difficult days of the month.
† Burundi & Rwanda Innocentius
