Visiting Diocesan projects - Friday 22 July

Using the mini bus, which will be our mode of transport for most of our visit, we set off to visit various places where the Diocese of Matabeleland has projects, some of them with help from the Kingston Episcopal Area Link.  First of all we visited the Church of the Good Shepherd, Rangemore where we were able to see a bore hole working which will help to transform the work of the church in that area.   There is now a submersible pump which leads to a 500 litre tank which provides water for the church and for the farm which they are beginning to make on the land around the church. 

The new tank now means that the church no longer has to use the old petrol tanks to store the water that the pump draws from the bore hole.  They now have someone living on the land and have employed a farmer who was watering prior to planting seedlings.   The pleasure of those whom we met at these developments was palpable and it is extraordinary to see how much change a bore hole and pump can make to the peoples lives.

From there we went to Cyrene Mission to visit the school.    We met the Principal and Acting Headteacher and some of the senior teaching staff.  We were able to look around the school buildings and visit the dormitories.  The school could provide schooling for 500 boys but at present there are only 385 students.   The Principal and Acting Head are both hoping to increase the number in the near future.  The school was founded by Fr Paterson in 1939 but it burned down in 1965 and had to be restarted afresh.  It began as a school for ‘naughty Anglican boys’ to teach them how to live but gradually expanded to become a school based on helping the boys to be spiritually and socially strong.   Paterson believed that teaching them about art, religion studies and agriculture would give them all they needed for life.       

We were able to see the building which was the original heart of the school. The Acting Principal explained that they hope to be able to regenerate the original building as an administrative block. 

We were also able to see the Clinic which is in the grounds of Cyrene.   It has a catchment of c1500 people from 42 local villages from a radius of 4 kilometres.   The Clinic offers family planning advice, an immunisation programme and help in stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS from mother to child and other educational and basic first level medical care.  In addition, the Clinic looks after the basic medical needs of the boys at the school. 

But, the Chapel at the school is the most surprising building on the site to those, like me, who had not been forewarned.  It is full of artwork depicting Biblical stories which was made by earlier students as the school was an art college.   It is an extraordinary building which is peaceful and full of wonderful evocative paintings including an icon of Bernard Mizeki, the first Zimbabwean Christian martyr.

It is hardly surprising then that the artworks painted onto the walls of the art block are also quite remarkable and evocative depicting the students’ hopes for the future.

Following lunch Bishop Richard, Alison Warner and Annie Kurk spoke to some of the students about the link between Cyrene School and Archbishop Tenison’s School in the Kingston Episcopal Area.     

As soon as the Cyrene School has its Internet connection up and running then the details of how the link between the schools will be finally worked out and the link can start to work properly and students can begin to share their hopes, struggles and learnings.

From the school we went to Cyrene Farm.   The Farm has 292 cows (four of them new this week) and five working bulls.  It also has broiler chickens which are grown for food.  We were shown one bore hole which had been drilled and which had been found to not have enough water beneath it to be viable and another which is working well with its new pump.  In order for the farm to expand it will be necessary to drill more successful bore holes.

The farm is vast and so there is lots of game on it and people come in to shoot leopards and other game for which they pay a trophy fee which helps to also fund the work of the farm.

After the farm it was back to our hosts to freshen up, prior to a service of welcome for the visitors from the Kingston Episcopal Area.  The service was a choral evensong and during it Bishop Cleophas and Bishop Richard discussed together the nature of partnership and the journey upon which the Kingston Episcopal Area and Matabeleland Diocese are embarked.   Both spoke of the importance of learning from and praying for each other and of the joy in seeing the link grow from strength to strength.  Bishop Richard then introduced the team from the Kingston Episcopal Area.

After a cup of tea in the Church Hall, surrounded by the portraits of previous Bishops of Matabeleland, the group left for dinner at a local hotel and then home to bed - ready for another busy day.