wfn.org | ANGOLA: NEW DIOCESE PLANNED

[Audrey Whitefield <a.whitefield@quest.org.uk>]

Sept. 23, 1997
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE
Canon Jim Rosenthal, Director of Communications
Anglican Communion Office
London England

[97.9.3.3]

ANGOLA: NEW DIOCESE PLANNED

(CPSA) The Church of the Province of Southern Africa (CPSA) is planning
to expand its work on the sub-continent by establishing a new diocese in
war-torn Angola by the turn of the century.

A pilgrimage by the bishops of the Church, planned for mid-1999, will
formalise the creation of the 24th diocese of the CPSA, signalling the
completion of work first started in 1995 when the ChurchOs provincial
synod adopted a resolution to create a missionary diocese in Angola.

The decision to establish the new diocese was taken during the annual
meeting of the Anglican Church's Provincial Standing Committee, being
held at Modderpoort in the Free State.

Work in Angola since 1995 has progressed under the watchful eye of the
Bishop of Lebombo in Mozambique, the Rt Revd Dinis Sengulane.  In a
report on the work in the country, Bishop Sengulane said that creating
the new diocese was both a challenge and a privilege.

Noting the devastation caused by the war, the Bishop said:"God cannot be
smiling as he looks at what human beings have done to one another and to
his  creation.  Graves, ruins, carcasses, traumas and handicaps caused
by the war.  But we thank God that we can restore his smile in Angola
for the Angolans."

Bishop Sengulane says that the Anglican Church is growing fast.  On a
recent visit he had 17,000 attending worship services  -  some had
waited an entire week in the church after walking up to three days from
their home villages.