Dear Friends of Mission,
By the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, with the blessings of H.D.B. Theodore II Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, and with the love of His Grace Bishop Fotios of Malawi, we continue our missionary work in Malawi.
We will start our update with the good news. In a previous text in your magazine, we mentioned the need for the creation of a school in the Dowa Region in Lilongwe, specifically in the parish of the Holy Trinity. The first step has been taken. A kind-hearted donor helped us so that the borehole drilling could be done there. What remains now is the need for financial assistance, because there is a school with two classrooms operating in that area. The cost for each one of them is around 5,000 euro. On the occasion of this drilling, we will not stop making appeals for the drilling of more boreholes. Water management is Africa’s big problem, which unfortunately will not stop existing for many years to come. Our goal is for each parish to have its own borehole as this will help considerably in our Missionary effort. Our main priority is the parishes that haven’t got priests yet, such as those of the Three Hierarchs, St. Ermolaos, St. Stylianos, Sts. Cosmas and Damian, and a few others.
Another important field in which we have made progress is the publishing sector. We have recently finished the translation into the local Chichewa language of the last two untranslated books of the Menaion, namely the months of May and June. The translation of the Triodion has also been completed, and now only the Prayer Book (the Supplicatory Canon) has been left, which we hope, by the Grace of God, will be soon completed. The Menaion cost around 15 euro each. This amount may seem small, but for the completion of this project for all the parishes, the total amount is estimated at 2,000 euro. This amount will definitely increase if we also include the prayer books that we print every month, along with collections of prayers from the services of the Matins, the Vespers and the Compline, which our priests and catechists need on their mission trips for the daily prayers in the thatched huts. Naturally, books wear out quickly due to weather and storage conditions, so we need to replace them quite often.
The accession of some clergy to the Russian Exarchate has left a few liturgical gaps in some parishes, but this temptation gave rise to new workers of the gospel and clergy candidates. For this reason, last January we started and will continue for as long as we can seminars for clergy candidates and catechists. The reason why we mention this is the fact that these seminars have a cost. Most participants do not live in Blantyre, therefore they have to travel long distances to come here, and of course, travelling always costs money.
We always pray in God for help and hope for the immediate response of your donor partners, who are always by our side. Once again, we ask for your prayers.
From the Holy Diocese
