DCT NEWS

Dear Friends in the Risen and Ascended Jesus Christ Shalom to you all

‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards heaven?' .. ‘You will receive power ..You will be my witnesses'

The ascension feast is a great day that marks our ascended Lord and our faith. There is something beyond our gaze, our meditation and the splendor in our gloried Lord Jesus and our faith. Yet, what is encouraged, promoted and empowered is not the vision experience and spirituality, but the way of discipleship - to become Christ's witnesses in the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ has a mission for us all to do and this takes priority over against all spirituality and concerns. We have work to do starting at our feet, going on to our near and far neighborhoods and to the end of the ‘oicumene'. Today we take the local and international mission of God together and simultaneously.

THE CARPENTER'S KIDS. We together with our brothers and sisters in the New York Diocese are indeed graced by God to bring so much hope, joy and life to the most neglected and voiceless HIV/AIDS orphans. Over 1,000 of our targeted 10,000 orphans have now settled down to a life of love, care and schooling. We are indeed becoming Christ's witnesses of love and care to these most vulnerable of Christ's humanity - the children. The transformation in the givers and receivers is overwhelming. Our faith is being renewed and the lives of these children and their guardians are also being remodelled into the very likeness of the Risen Lord.

THE PRIMATES' MEETING. Then the other face of Christ's Church congregated in the tight security operations at the resort beach of White Sands hotel in Dar es Salaam. Instead of being free and agile, the Primates became prisoners of their making with no contact with the local and public life of the country except the one day when the Primates commemorated the abolition of the slave trade in Zanzibar Cathedral, the place where the former slave market stood. The Zanzibar Christians were reminded painfully of the scourges of slavery as they watched some of their ‘fathers in God' refuse to share the bread and wine with them just as in the slavery days!!! If some of the Primates did not see Christ standing alongside those ‘refuse remnant' Zanzibar Christians to share his bread of life and the bitter cup of suffering, and death then whose face were they seeing?

The Primate's meeting in Tanzania brought us not grace but more insults and chaos. Instead of people and the press talking about salvation in Jesus Christ in the world of sin, suffering and hurting, the Primates' meeting has left behind people talking derogatively about ‘ mashoga' gay and lesbian people in even more barbaric language than before. Surely this was not what Jesus envisioned his ‘ascension' message should be - gazing on this issue as though it were a heavenly spiritual experience?

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION AND NURTURING. It was refreshing after the Primates' meeting to see Bishop Neil Alexander visit his daughter Kelly who teaches at one of our secondary schools in Dodoma. Among many things we talked about were how the Church should be Christ's witness in promoting Christian learning, education and nurturing for all God's people and the challenges of lay nurturing and training. Our prayers and concerns continue to be directed toward the building up of a good library at Msalato and a library building itself.

TEAM (Toward Effective Anglican Mission) CONFERENCE  A team of 5 of us flew to South Africa to attend an Anglican gathering on God's mission. About 35 provinces out of 39 attended with more than 400 participants. It was a great time of exploring how the Church should become Christ's witness in this sinful, suffering and hurting world. We shared, discussed, deliberated and focused our attentions on how the Church can become part of the Millennium Development Goals initiatives and go beyond the MDGs to encompass the whole of God's mission on earth - including the strengthening of the Church to become a powerhouse of love, service and witness for the world.

BACK TO FLOODS AND FOOD SHORTAGES. As we drove back to Dodoma from Dar es Salaam after South Africa, we could still see the marks of the flooding that devastated 6 villages. Most people still need help for rehabilitation and restoration. We thank friends such as Bishop Catherine Roskam, New Zealand Board of Missions, New Zealand CMS and a German parish who sent us some gifts of love to buy food, clothing, cooking utensils and school uniforms for children. The victims are most grateful and we and our friends too are encouraged to respond graciously to their need.

We were also graced to support our 1500 pastors and catechists during the January/ February food shortages. Enormous thanks go to the Springwood/Winmalee Anglican parish in the Blue Mountains, Australia, for their unspeakable generosity, and David and June Pearce from New Zealand. A token of love and care has gone a long way to care for and support these poorly paid ministers of God. Thanks that the Church international and individual Christians still love and care so much.

‘Back to basics' too to the realities of the type of Christianity we have in the country where responsibility, accountability and forgiveness don't like each other. After spending 4 years of negotiating, discussing and deliberating over the embezzlement of ear marked funds by Bishop Kusenha, my assistant bishop, the Diocesan General Council decided in November to discipline Bishop Kusenha by suspending him from office until he repays the money. Well, as though we let hell loose, he and one pastor who was also disciplined last year have vowed ‘in the name of god' to destabilize and bring disorder to the diocese. They are trying to use the Primate's communiqué by castigating DCT for not supporting the embargo which the Bishops of the Anglican Church of Tanzania issued in December 2006. With outside influence from some of the Network parishes in the US and some of the Bishops here are using the media and other tricks to poison the populace and isolate the Diocese.

Well, we live by the truth, faith, hope, love and prayer. All our priests are standing firm. Please pray for some of our laity who do not hold dear these Christian values of responsibility and accountability.

LOOKING AHEAD. We have plenty of work to do. I start our Confirmation Season this May for the 200 parishes. With no assistant bishop, I have paired parishes and will have two confirmation services every day for a 4-5 days time schedule at each given time.

The New Zealand Board of Missions have invited me to be their key note speaker at their annual meeting in October and thereafter work for them in trying to sensitize the Church for Mission until the end of October. In November/ December, I hope to be working as locum priest in Canberra and Goulburn Diocese as we wait for our son Nyemo and his wife Rachel to graduate on December 13. Irene and I hope to return to Dodoma after Christmas.
Please keep us in your prayers.

The ascended Grace and Peace be with you all

+Mdimi