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 28 October 2011

Day 6: school visits


Wednesday

Today we were split into 2 groups (3 young people and one adult) to visit 2 schools for the morning. Hannah, Tom, Holly and Ros visited the primary school of which Mike (one of our hosts) is the Head. When they arrived they were welcomed by the staff after making the mistake of taking out a camera in the playground and nearly causing a riot as children from all around clamoured to get in shot!! We then attended 2 assemblies, one for older children and one for reception and years 1-4. We were all introduced to the children who chanted in chorus ‘Hello ….., we love you’. It was a wonderful moment. Ros then did a short talk to the older children and Tom to the younger about why we were there and where we are from. We were then assigned a class each, as we supposed to shadow the teacher for the next few hours. In fact, in all but Hannah’s case we found that the teacher was present for only a small proportion of the lessons and so during the other periods, we were thrown in at the deep end and ended up taking the lessons!! These lessons took a variety of forms depending on the age of the children, from discussions about England and debates about politics, to English lessons, Setswana lessons (the children teaching us, not the other way round!!) and Ros even ended up teaching maths!

The other group visited a local senior school in Ikageng. When they arrived they were introduced to all the teachers. They then spoke to a year 10 class about school life and general life for young people in Britain. The young people found this discussion very enlightening but also disturbing as it highlighted some of the incredible challenges faced by learners growing up and going to school in South Africa and the impact this has on their education. This was followed by a nice game of cricket with the pupils in the sunshine. Following this our young people were able to chat to the only 2 white teachers in the school. This was a very enlightening conversation about how they perceived they were treated by other teachers, the difference between schools in Ikageng and the more wealthy schools in the local town Potchefstroom and how the school coped with very limited teaching resources. Meanwhile, Helen sat in on an English class with learners of around 14-15. The teacher and the pupils were all hugely enthusiastic and lively, and Helen was impressed by the levels of engagement and English language abilities.

In the afternoon we were excited to set off in the mini-bus for Pilanesburg, a 3-hour drive, where we would be visiting the game reserve the next day. We spent the evening and the night at a lodge outside the gates, which felt luxurious, with dinner taken on the verandah with stunning views of the sun setting over a huge plain.
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