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MACS in Action | ||||
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| The Anglican church in Malawi is growing rapidly and MACS receives many appeals for church building enlargements, re-developments or essential repairs. As new congregations are formed, temporary bamboo and thatch structures are often built. The congregation then set to work making bricks for more permanent buildings and it is then that they often appeal for funds for cement and roofing materials. More than 40 churches have received some assistance from MACS, about half of this number being for completely new structures. MACS has also helped with the building of clergy houses. Often, when a priest is allocated to a new parish, there is nowhere for him to live and MACS has now funded more than a dozen houses. One-third of healthcare in Malawi is delivered by church hospitals, health centres and mobile clinics. In rural areas the figure can be 60%. Much the same is true of education and women's development. MACS tries to support Christian communities struggling to bring the fullness of life of which Christ spoke. Find out the facts on the church in Malawi
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 The church in Malawi is central to the community and is growing rapidly. |
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MACS support for pastoral projects: MACS supports pastoral work in Malawi in many different ways. Each example demonstrates the committment individuals and communities have to helping achieve a fuller life for their people. Specific examples include: Chapananga is a remote valley on the Mozambican border. A group of Jehovah's Witnesses, expelled by former dictator president Dr Banda, returned to Malawi and asked to be received into the church. Two men working at Nchalo sugar mills cycled 50 miles to Chapananga every weekend for six months, preparing a group of 100 for baptism. They were baptized in the river and the Christian community is now 1,000 strong. They have built five churches out of local materials - meaning a grass roof with a life of two or three years. MACS has given grants to put permanent roofs on two of them. Chapananga is now to be a parish with its own priest. Maurice Malasa is a Yao speaker and therefore of Muslim origin; the Yao people came with the slave-traders from Zanzibar 150 years ago. He has three jobs: as parish priest, Yao translator of the Bible, and as leader of a community-based orphan project which feeds, clothes, educates and sustains 2,000 orphans. This is a joint Christian-Muslim enterprise. He has severe diabetes, needing an expensive form of insulin not available in Malawi. He also needs a new motorbike. His former one was stolen and the doctors have forbidden him to ride a bicycle. MACS has managed to acquire the drugs from another charity and hopes to be able to buy him a replacement motorbike. A young priest, James Marioti, recently arrived at Lisungwi with his family when the wind took the roof off the clergy house. An e-mail got the news quickly to MACS and £541 was sent to put it back again. During the civil war in neighbouring Mozambique a million refugees entered Malawi. They were accepted without question. None had food; some barely had clothes. Most returned in 1992 and small churches started springing up on the Mozambican side of the Mulanje massif. Asked why, they said they had met so much love from the Mothers Union in Malawi that they wanted to take the seeds and plant them in their own country. MACS has supported congregations on both sides of the border by making available copies of the Chewa prayer and hymnbook. Mental and spiritual hunger can sap the efficiency of rural clergy. At college they live a community life immersed in banter, discussion and mental stimuli. In their rural parishes they give to those who are hungry, weak from AIDS or bereaved, but receive little themselves. MACS is now giving every priest six books a year, chosen by one of the Malawian bishops, and The Lamp magazine six times a year. The Lamp is a local ecumenical journal which reflects Christian thinking in Malawi on issues which trouble people. These range from drought-resistant crops to how to train the young to protect themselves from AIDS. |
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There are no stories or eye witness accounts relating to the church in Malawi at present. Send us your story or visit the site again in future to see if there are any new stories. In the meantime read first hand accounts on other issues by those who have visited Malawi or who are living or working in the country. |
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