The Official Blog of the Lichfield Cathedral Youth Fellowship visit to the Diocese of Matlosane, South Africa

21st-29th October 2011




The Diocese of Matlosane

The Diocese of Matlosane covers over half the North West Province of South Africa, an area of 24,432 sq. mls., is 165 miles from north to south as the crow flies and 145 miles from west to east.

The Diocese is organised into 4 Archdeaconries, North, Central, Cathedral, and South. The Church of the Resurrection at Ikageng (Ika-heng) was inaugurated as the Cathedral in 2004, the first Cathedral to be established in a township in South Africa.

In October 2009 there were 41 clergy in the Diocese: Bishop Stephen, Bishop Sigisbeth (ret’d), 36 priests and 3 Deacons.

Of the priests, 2 are retired, 3 others over retirement age, and 21 are Self Supporting. There are only two white clergy, one of whom is over retirement age.

The clergy serve 20 parish churches, most of which have daughter churches and a very large number of outstations. The majority of the congregations are black, and there are over 80,000 communicants in the Diocese, some of whom receive the sacrament very infrequently due to lack of transport.

There are also 2 ordinands in full time training at the College of the Transfiguration, one paid for by Lichfield Diocese.



Friday 21 October 2011

Day 1 Birmingham to Dubai


After meeting at Canon Pete’s at 11am we took the opportunity to practise our singing in preparation for a solo slot in the service we will be attending on Sunday morning. We made a very good job of Rejoice in the Lord Always, helped out by Robert, even if we do say so ourselves

The next excitement was the presentation of our Matlosane t-shirts which have been kindly organised by Tina Powell. They all looked fab and so we had to have a group photo
outside the Cathedral to show them off


The journey to the airport and check-in was uneventful and nobody got searched or arrested. We then settled down for a 7 hour flight to Dubai (from where we are currently blogging!). The flight was excellent with fantastic entertainment, loads of films, games, nice food and several screaming children (right behind Canon Pete and Ros!!). We arrived at Dubai at 1am local time and it is the most surreal place. Heaving with every nationality, lots of retail therapy for the extremely wealthy, gold and bling everywhere. We are making do with a coke and bottle of water but we suspect that Ed and Tom have discovered Dubai’s answer to Burger King


 
 STOP PRESS
Ed and Tom have just returned and in fact they found Macdonalds
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6 comments:

  1. Zoe22 October 2011 at 01:27

    Zoe here. Glad flight to Dubai went ok. I think the Tshirts look fab. No surprise with the lads finding MacDonalds. Hope 2nd flight went as well as 1st. Looking forward to your next update.

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  2. Pete22 October 2011 at 10:31

    Good to hear everything is going well :) hope to hear frequent updates over the period of the next week :) - PG

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  3. Philip22 October 2011 at 12:56

    Hi there. So good and exciting to hear your news. I was at Lichfield Cathedral for midday Eucharist today and prayed esp for you guys. Cathy asked if you had arrived safely so people are thinking about you. Blessings as you forge friendships...... and love to Fr Edward, Bp Steve and his lovely family, the choir, Nita....

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  4. Philip22 October 2011 at 12:59

    And by the way, Ed and Tom can be reassured that Burger King is Big in Matlosane.

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  5. Phil23 October 2011 at 08:00

    Wonderful to hear all your news and to be able to follow you All. Have a wonderful first day. God Bless and lots of love. Tina and Phil XX

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  6. star24124 October 2011 at 14:58

    Hannah as normal hiding from the cameras...

    ReplyDelete

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