Dear Friends of Mission,
Rejoice in the Lord from Uganda and the newly established Diocese of Jinja.
We rejoice and receive strength from your love and constant help and support in all fields of the functional and social needs of our Missionary struggle.
It is with great pleasure that we share with you the good news that the country of Uganda, from where the Mission to Africa began, has been strengthened by another Diocese. The Diocese of Jinja. So now there are three Dioceses. The Diocese of Kampala, the Diocese of Gulu and the Diocese of Jintza, which was created by detachment from the Diocese of Gulu.
We are now making a new beginning. Once again, the needs are many and great. From the founding of the Episcopal Church Building, to the renovation of the churches that already exist and the construction of new churches and building infrastructure.
I ask again for your prayers so that we can meet the new challenges. Africa has received a religious invasion from a homodox country, with the aim of religious expansion against the Church rules, motivated by petty interests, scandalizing the souls of our flock, which with so much effort and prayer for so many years we have been serving faithfully, trying to respond to the call of our Lord for the evangelization of nations. But injustice is not blessed. The few pieces of silver they offer now to redeem these souls will one day run out. On the other hand, we are here waiting, and we will still be waiting like the father of the prodigal son, until their spiritual eyes clear up and they see the reality. All the countries of Africa have their father, and this is the Primate of the Throne of Alexandria, Pope and Patriarch of all Africa Theodoros II. Pray, my brothers; it is the only means we have to overcome problems and provide solutions.
To return, our work, as you will see from the photographic material, has primarily to do with the sanctification of souls with social care following. The Bishop, the Priests, the persons who serve voluntarily, give their souls. Next to the word and the meaning of love comes sacrifice, sacrificial love. Complete love, without discrimination in races, social or religious groups. Everyone who knocks on the door of our Missionary Team does not leave without taking something. That is why we are now concerned with setting up centers, we have already started the establishment of the Spiritual Center in Jinja and we have started a farm in Nakabale region with crops and livestock, so that we can have the resources to offer more spiritual and social support as well as charitable help to our poor fellow human beings, and especially to children. In all this, we need your help.
So we knock on the door of your heart again. Do not get us wrong. Africa is a beautiful continent, it has everything, but it lacks infrastructure. What we are trying to do, along with the spiritual food, is to improve the living conditions. You know what Saint Cosmas the Aetolian taught and urged the enslaved Greek people to do. To build schools. Because there they will learn the truth and be liberated. This is what we are trying to do. We build churches to free ourselves from the shackles of demonic prejudice, we build schools to learn to think, to become creative, to be free.
The new Diocese of Jinja is a new challenge in our Missionary work. It is the proof that in Africa Orthodoxy gives meaning to people’s lives and more and more people want to learn and experience the truth of the Gospel and taste the Body and Blood of the Lord. This is what we offer, this is why we sacrifice ourselves to fulfill this purpose and this is why we seek your prayers.
Thank you once again from the bottom of my heart. Be sure that through the photographic material which we will send, you will see your own projects being implemented thanks to your own kind support and all of us becoming shareholders of the same joy.
† Silvestros of Jinja
