My dear brothers,
Once again I am contacting you to make you part of our activities in our Holy Diocese, where the Church has made us to minister.
With God’s grace and after many efforts we are ready to operate our monastery in the Missionary Center of Kidamali, which is dedicated to Archangel Michael and Saint Minas. A small sisterhood of women will be the first nucleus of the monastic presence in Central Tanzania.
Monasticism is a practical application of the gospel word and the genuine patristic spirit. In a place like Africa, where the Orthodox presence is only a few dozen years old, the existence of a monastery is indispensable. Monks and nuns by their example and by their lives are the most authentic preachers of the Gospel, because their preaching is expressed through the example of their own lives. It is this “example” that we need most in our days, and even more so in the mission field.
This monastery will be the centre of the missionary effort in the Iriga region. The cells and the Church of Archangel Michael have been built, but there is still work to be done to build ancillary facilities, which will include an icon-making workshop for the decoration of the Bishop’s holy churches, an icon-painting workshop, a sacred art workshop for the needs of the clergy and the decoration of the churches, and seminar rooms for the teaching and learning of Byzantine music. It is a space particularly important for the support of missionary work.
We are called to complete all these works in a very difficult financial period, but we proceed with faith in God, seeking the intercession of Archangel Michael and hoping for your help, which always accompanies us. We appeal to your benevolent feelings to help us in this great work we envision, which is very important, because it will help to lay a solid foundation to establish Orthodoxy in the country of Tanzania.
Our polyclinic is located in the same area of the Missionary Centre in Kidamali, Iriga. With the help of your Brotherhood and the Holy Metropolis of Nea Fountain and Kalamaria, the expansion works were completed with the addition of a gynecological-obstetric department and now it remains to equip this new medical department, so that it can open its doors to the indigenous mothers as soon as possible, so that we do not have to mourn any more unfortunate lives of babies and mothers.
My brothers and sisters, I would also like to share with you a happy event that happened recently. For many years we have been trying to find a suitable plot of land in the Tanzanian capital, Dodoma, with the intention of creating a Missionary Centre in the heart of the country. We have faced many obstacles in our efforts, but by the grace of God we have acquired a 5-acre plot of land, where we hope you will help us to establish our new Mission Centre, which will be dominated by the Holy Trinity Church. It is very important for our Church to have a serious and strong presence in the capital of Tanzania, so that as many of our brothers and sisters as possible can experience the presence of Orthodoxy in this blessed corner of the fertile African land.
My brothers, do not forget the missionaries on earth. Your little help from your spare or surplus is for us a source of life and a breath of optimism that our brothers and sisters, despite all the difficulties our long-suffering country is facing, have not forgotten the Orthodox Mission.
Bless you, my brothers, for our new missionary openings and the consolidation of Orthodoxy in a region where people are hungry for the knowledge of the Truth!
With gratitude and love of Christ,
† Ο Arusha Agathonikos
