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Report from Prebendary Walter Gould
Walter Gould, Tanzania Link Coordinator in the Diocese of Hereford, was asked to represent the Bishop of Hereford, and the Hereford Diocese at the Service on 6th September 2009 to Inaugurate the new Diocese of Newala and to consecrate Oscar Mnun’ga from Dar es Salaam as the first Bishop of the new Diocese.
A short description of the Service is appended below, together with a report of a day he spent going round villages near Masasi with Basil Mkata, the Diocesan Secretary.
Newala – Sunday 6th September – Service for the Inauguration of the new Diocese of Newala and Consecration of the first Bishop of the Diocese.
Two 30-seater buses left the Conference Centre near Masasi Cathedral at 7.30 am with bishops from all over Tanzania, their wives and some clergy for the 2-hour drive to Newala. The Service began at 10.00 am and lasted 4½ hours. The preacher was the former Archbishop, Donald Mtetemela.
A further 1½ hours was spent in the Cathedral for greetings to be given to Bishop Oscar Mnun’ga, including greetings from Bishop Anthony, a photo call and then 20-minute speeches by Archbishop Valentino Mokiwa, Bishop Oscar and the Government Chief Secretary. The former President of Tanzania, Mr Benjamin Mkapa, was also in the congregation.
There were 8 choirs drawn from different parishes, some of which had travelled for 4 hours or more to be there. There were no other representatives from churches outside Tanzania. After the Service at about 5.00 pm local time, refreshments were served at the nearby Secondary School in Newala
Visits to villages around Masasi to see Diocesan projects for alleviating poverty and improving food security.
This part of the country has suffered from drought for 3 years and large areas are tinder dry with no sign of any crops, only stunted, dead maize stalks in many places. Smaller cashew nut trees planted within the last three years and normally drought resistant, have also died. Emmy, the Bishop’s wife, spoke with real concern about the food shortage, and I subsequently read in a Tanzanian paper that this is true of many parts of Tanzania due to the failure of rains. In two villages I saw oxen, some bought with money from the Hereford Diocesan Advent Appeal. These are used for ploughing and can plough an acre of land in a few hours which would otherwise take a week if dug by hand. They feed on grass and maize husks and their dung is used for compost. Village committees with a project volunteer hire them out for ploughing and for work with bullock carts which are used for carrying many things such as seed, compost, harvested maize, bricks, water especially for poor people etc There is good accountability in the form of twice-monthly reports to the Diocese by the project volunteer on behalf of the project committees.
Masasi Diocese has 200 acres of land near Mkwapa for a seed farm. The plan is to plant up to 50 acres in the first year, depending on whether the forecast of good ‘Nino’ rains in October prove to be correct. The Diocese buys better quality seed from an agricultural centre at Morogoro, and then when it is harvested some is taken back there for testing and if there is a good report, it is then sold to farmers. Seed is tested every year to ensure good quality. This has already been done on a small scale in the Diocese, but with the money from Hereford it can now be done on a larger scale and more farmers will benefit.
Close to the road between two villages a good supply of water had been located at a depth of 70 metres and a water pump had been installed just one week previously. This was now serving the two villages.
At Chakama there were solar ovens which had been made at the Diocesan Centre. This is one of the Mothers’ Union projects in the Diocese. With bright sun, rice and maize can be cooked in 1 hour, otherwise 4 – 5 hours. Solar ovens are smoke free and don’t require fuelwood.
At Kamundi, a village 20 miles from Masasi and 5 miles off the main road, it was good to see some progress on the building of a new church where Bishop Anthony had laid the foundation stone in 2006, but progress had been slow due to the 3-year drought. Water has to be carried nearly 5 miles from the nearest water source. Members of the congregation are making all the bricks themselves and have raised Tsh 2.9 million, about £1,500.
On the cashew nut farm where many trees had been planted three or four years ago, almost all had died, and only a few dead maize stalks could be seen. For the sake of £200 - £300 it was agreed to ask Brother Francis, who is able to locate water by using ‘water divining’ techniques, to visit both Kamundi and the Cathedral compound to try to locate water sources. |
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ANGLICAN CHURCH OF TANZANIA - DIOCESE OF NEWALA
A Brief Report on inauguration of Newala Diocese and immediate challenges facing the Diocese
INAUGURATION CEREMONY
The official inauguration of the Diocese of Newala and consecration of the Rt Revd Oscar Mnung’a was carried out on 6 September 2009 with a special Mass led by the Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Tanzania, Dr Valentino Mokiwa. During the Mass, the Archbishop was assisted by fifteen Bishops from the Dioceses of Masasi, Dar-es-Salaam, Ruaha, Zanzibar, Kagera, Kiteto, Mara, Morogoro, Ruvuma, Southern Highlands, South West Tanganyika, Tabora, Tanga, and Western Tanganyika. There were a total of 62 Anglican Priests, three Priests from the Catholic Church and the Revd Canon Walter Gould, the representative of Hereford Diocese in the UK. There were also Government Officials, political leaders and other representatives from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), making an approximate total of 2,500 people who attended that memorable event.
The Hon Philemon Luhanjo, the Chief Permanent Secretary Presidents’ Office who was the Guest of Honour on behalf of the President of the United Republic of Tanzania, made an urging and congratulating speech! He urged the Diocese to continue cooperating and working with the Government in various developmental aspects including education and health services as the Diocese of Masasi was doing. He also congratulated Bishop Oscar for being consecrated and enthroned as the first Bishop of Newala Diocese and urged him to become innovative, cooperative and more responsive to the Diocesan community without segregation.
On the side of the Government, Hon. Luhanjo pointed out that the Government appreciates the good services provided by the religious institutions, particularly in education, health, agriculture, and community development in general. This is evidenced by various people who believe that the services provided or facilitated by religious institutions are given with good faith and no corruption. The Government, therefore, hopes that the services which the Diocese of Newala will be delivering to the community will also be better compared to the Government institutions.
On challenges, the Hon Luhanjo said that the Government has also so many challenges, but as long as there is cooperation and good relationship with the religious institutions, it is believed that the provision of community services will continue. Finally he wished Bishop Oscar and his family good health to effectively and efficiently perform his responsibility and solve accountability challenges for the success and benefit of his new Diocese.
DEVELOPMENTAL CHALLENGES
• Evangelism The Diocese of Newala covers an area of 16,707 sq kms with a total population of 885,807 people in sixteen Parishes. Out of them only 39,870 are Anglican members. Apart from other denominations and Christian members, Moslems are more than 70% of the population. In this situation, evangelism is one of the Diocesan priorities, which faces a lot of challenges. Long distances from the Diocesan Headquarters are among the challenges, whereby, most of the Parishes are located at distances ranging from 8 kms to 140 kms. The harsh environment with sandy and appalling roads is also another challenge. This will contribute in hindering smooth movements for evangelism services to the Parishes due to lack of reliable transport as the vehicle – Landrover 110, which the Diocese of Masasi gave to the Bishop of Newala, is 15 years old. This vehicle is too old to effectively and efficiently cater for the day to day Bishop’s pastoral work. Running a vehicle which is almost dilapidated and frequently breaks down is economically unviable. In that sense, there is need to get a new vehicle, and a Land Cruiser/Landrover 110 Station Wagon, the current cost of which is up to Tshs 70 million is more preferable to match with the stated harsh environment.
• Renovation of Health Centres There are two Health Centres located at Luatala and Lulindi villages. Most of the buildings were built using mud bricks by the Diocese of Masasi in 1930s and 1950s respectively, and currently all the buildings have alarming cracks, jeopardizing the lives of health staff. They are really dangerous buildings needing major rehabilitation that can cost Tshs 50 million so as to have the safe health centres.
• Establishment of Rest House It is important to note that Newala town is placed at a locality of mushrooming activities such as meetings, workshops, seminars, study tours and travelling groups, which always go to Mozambique via Newala and cross the Ruvuma River. Because there are no decent hostels and conference facilities in Newala town, many travelling groups are forced to end up in squatter places where they sometimes face health hazards, night insecurity, disturbances and so forth. Taking into consideration that Newala is now the Headquarters of the new Diocese of Newala, obviously various internal and external partners and other travelling groups would like to visit and or stay at the Diocesan headquarters for security purposes. Unfortunately, the Diocese does not have such provisions, which could adequately cater for such partners or visiting groups. From that background, the Diocese thinks to renovate (if not to construct a new building) one of its old buildings built by CSP Sisters in order to have a reliable hostel that will be providing reliable security (accommodation) to partners and other travelling groups as well as their properties. The renovation cost is estimated at Tshs 10 million.
• Inadequate financial capacity for appointing qualified/skilled staff As a new Diocese, Newala will obviously suffer substantially from getting qualified/skilled staff because does not have sufficient financial support to cover fringe benefits/incentives for such personnel. The current competition of recruiting professional staff will affect the Diocese, as most of them require good remuneration and incentives, a situation, which a Church cannot afford. It is an actual fact that most skilled people nowadays are attracted by better working conditions (salary levels, incentive schemes, training opportunities, etc). As recruitment of new staff for church-based institutions against competitive salaries is increasingly difficult, especially, given the current financial difficulties that the Diocese will be experiencing for the first two to three years, we would like to ask partners to support the Diocese to cover salaries for three important positions (Executive Secretary, Financial Officer and Development Worker). The salaries will be at least for a period of three years while the Diocese is thinking of developing a comprehensive strategic plan that will focus more on enhancing and building the capacity of the Diocese in:
1. generating and managing incomes in a sustainable manner at all parish and Diocesan levels.
2. formulating sound and affordable recruitment policies that will apply contractual approaches for all workers.
3. improving staff performance by building skills on planning and budgeting.
4. empowering staff by tapping available training opportunities and promoting remuneration and incentives.
5. developing guidelines for staff performance (clergy and laity) to ensure good accountability.
Fencing the Diocesan Headquarters:
As the Diocesan Headquarters is not fenced, its security is questionable. There are currently many families/people who have established their settlements within the Church premises. It has been revealed that it is very difficult to remove these people as it requires compensation of millions of Tshs, which the Church cannot afford. In order to maintain security and protect the remaining Church plots it is planned to fence the area at an estimated cost of Tshs 8 million.
• Conclusion: There is no denying the fact that the success of the above-mentioned challenges require a better coverage of reliable working facilities including transport, financial and material support, as well as committed human resources to efficiently execute daily responsibilities and effectively implement the planned pastoral and physical developments of the Diocese and community in general. This is very important as, in this world of competitive environment, the question of effective and efficient institution becomes more serious and urgent to guide institutional and community-based development. This can only be achieved by reinforcing unity through sharing and acquiring expertise, information, technology, material and financial support from partners worldwide. + Oscar Mnung’a Bishop of Newala Diocese
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