African Christianity - and it has a presence at St Paul's at Bakery Hill, #Ballarat

Australia is a large continent with a small population.  Congregations of the major historical denominations in Australia are diminishing and ageing.  We forget what happens elsewhere.  

At St Paul's at Bakery Hill in Ballarat, our parish priest is Nigerian and we love him.  He has married this year, and, while we have met and love Faith, we are waiting for her, as she wends her way through Australia's immigration procedures, to come and settle. The people of Ballarat, as they meet Constantine Osuchukwu and get to know him, think well of him.  We are sure this will be the case when Faith comes to her new home. Please pray for a speedy resolution to the immigration matters so that Faith can settle among us.

At St Paul's, we also have African members of the congregation.  At the moment, Botswana, Kenya, South Sudan and South Africa are represented.

As we engage in conversation, and as we read in international Anglican news, we learn how very different are matters Anglican in Africa.  For a long time, the power of the Anglican Communion has lain with its Anglo origins and the former British Empire, now the Commonwealth of Nations.  Things have changed as the Anglo countries find their congregations diminishing and the former colonies of Empire in Africa have found their congregations growing.  This is a massive shift for the Anglican Communion to consider.  How long will it be until there is an African Archbishop of Canterbury?

~~~~~~ 

Mission Theologian in the Anglican Communion lecture explores African Christianity

Posted on: October 26, 2015 12:06 PM

The Canon Professor Joseph Galgalowith Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby at Lambeth Palace

Photo Credit: Church Mission Society

[ACNS] Christianity in Africa has benefited from sustained exponential growth, with numbers growing from about 10 million in 1900 to just over half a billion in 2015; but the diversity of the different forms of Christian practices and teachings on the continent means that it may be more accurate to see it as Christianities rather than Christianity – that was the message from Canon Professor Joseph Galgalo as he delivered the inaugural Mission Theology Seminar at Lambeth Palace last week.

The lecture by Prof Galgalo, vice-chancellor of St Paul’s University in Limuru, Kenya, was the first in a new series of seminars organised by the Mission Theology in the Anglican Communion project.

“There is no denying that African Christianity is increasingly vibrant and as the populations of the countries keep growing, the churches proportionately take their fair share of this growth,” Prof Galgalo said. “The growth is not limited to any particular denomination and increase in numbers often results into variety of Churches. To cite the example of Kenya, during the 2009 national census, 31,877,734 (82.98 per cent) out of the national population of 38,412,088 identified themselves as Christian (of Catholic, Protestant or other denominations). This translates to about nine points percentage increase compared to the result of the 1999 census.

To read more, please go here. 

Motivators and mobilisers - Shiree Pilkinton

At left:  Shiree Pilkinton in conversation with
Dr. Sundrum Sivamalia of the Ballarat Regional Multicultural Council Inc (BRMC) 

There is a person in our Ballarat community called Shiree Pilkinton.  She works here in #Ballarat at the Centre for Multicultural Youth.  She does a lot of work with refugees.  Shiree has a host of contacts and friendships across the community.  When she is organising an event and needs some food - out goes the call from Shiree in the DM on Facebook calling for slices and other goodies and the food turns up.

Yesterday, the DM went a bit further than the need for slices and other goodies.  Won't go into all the details but the gist of it was that a woman from an African country who is on her own with a number of children was in a bit of strife.  The woman was behind in the rent and her cupboard was bare. Her money had gone back to Africa to help a relative.  The money she wold have used for rent she had held back to feed the family.

Shiree's SOS went out with an AMAZING response.  She now advises that the woman is so grateful.  There is now food in the cupboard - at least to get her into next week.  There is fuel in her car so she can get kids to schools.  This meant she could release the money she was holding back and has now paid her rent.

It is a good thing to have lynch pins in one's community like Shiree.  They are motivators and mobilisers.  It is good to have responsive people in our community who move in with good will to enable someone like Shiree to place help where it is sorely needed.  The woman Shiree and Co have helped is grateful to one and all.

The message of the minerals map

Do modern nations give consideration to the birthright, the part of creation, for which they are responsibile.  Looking at the message of this map, the selling of one's birthright for a mess of pottage (Genesis 25: verses 29-34) comes to mind. 

Modern nations need to be aware.  What sort of pottage are the nations of Africa receiving in return for their birthright of natural resources? Or will they find, in the end, they have inherited a mess!

Post by Deep Green Resistance.