August, 2024 to July 2025
REPORTED BY FR. WILLARD KAMANDANI
Seated: Bishop Farai from Zimbabwe, Bishop Alinafe Kalemba from Diocese of Southern Malawi, Mrs. Eunice Zamtenge from Lake Malawi Anglican University.
Standing from right to left: Dr. Mundenda from Bishop Gaul Seminary, Fr. Timverane from Leonard Kamungu Theological College, Fr. Jonasi from LAMAU, Fr. Chifunda Phiri from LKTC, Rev. Canon Charles Chiutula, Principal LKTC and Rev. Canon Steven Chibubu from St. John’s Seminary-Zambia.
Community of Hope International in the Diocese of Eastern Zambia
The Church of the Province of Central African covers Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It was inaugurated in 1955. The first Anglican Missionaries arrived in Nyasaland (now Malawi) in 1882. When Malawi became independent in 1964, the diocese of Nyasaland changed its name to diocese of Malawi
WHY COHI IN OUR MALAWI?
COHI was founded by Rev. Dr. Helen Appelberg in 1994 in the US. It was founded to empower the Laity to become actively involved in lay pastoral care, as we know most parishes have more than one station offering an opportunity for lay ministry. The growth of the church is an effort of every member of the Church, not only the clergy. In Malawi, we have parishes with many stations making it tough for one clergy to manage. Members of COHI help the clergy to reach out to the people in need of pastoral services. As our mission statement is to create and sustain Christian communities of lay volunteer pastoral care givers/lay chaplains united in prayer, shaped by Benedictine spirituality, and equipped for and serving in pastoral care ministries.
WHO ARE WE?
Community of Hope International equips lay people to serve in all forms of pastoral care. Pastoral care is when a person is being “present” in a listening, compassionate, non-controlling manner to an individual or group. The purpose is to represent God to them and seeking to respond to their needs. Members learn to match theological insights and spiritual practices with their experiences of ministering to others.
LEADERSHIP STRUCTURE AT NATIONAL LEVEL
The Community of Hope International is growing in Africa. At first, we had COHI only in Malawi but now it has grown and established offices in Mozambique headed by Daliso Liyama and the following members Antonio, Alberto, Elias and Andre. We have COHI Coordinators in all the four Dioceses in Malawi: Fr. Willard Kamandani Diocese of Southern Malawi who is also region coordinator, Fr. Jones D. Zowani Diocese of Northern Malawi, Fr. Rabson Kalulu Diocese of Upper Shire and Fr. Charles Makwenda of Diocese of Lake Malawi.
We have also established centres in Zambia headed by Rev. Canon Steven Chibubu, he is very passionate and helps the centre organization spread very fast in Zambia. Rev. Canon Steven Chibubu is a principle of St. John’s Seminary and he is fighting to integrate the course of lay training into the system.
The following are some of the achievements made within the period of reporting:
Registration of the Organization at the Registrar’s office
Registration of the Organization at NGORA
Registration of the Organization at CONGOMA
Establishing three centres in Zambia
Establishing five centres in Mozambique
Establishing three centres in Zimbabwe and yet to have memorandum of understanding with Bishop Gaul Seminary.
Memorandum of understanding in progress between Evangelical Bible College of Malawi and COHI.
Memorandum of understanding in progress between Leonard Kamungu Theological College and COHI
A number of leaders from the dioceses started talking about COHI after hearing from Bishop Magangani of the Northern Malawi Diocese, while Rev. Canon Steven of the Diocese of Northern Zambia and many others failed to start online learning due to the failure of network connectivity and many experienced a challenge of internet connectivity too. That led to the creation of the diocesan phase 1 team to be trained as trainer of the trainers so that they can be teaching others in Zambia. Fr. Willard Kamandani agreed with the suggestion of training a team of ordained personnel and non ordained personnel on pastoral care giving and send them out to train others.
The Order of the Benedict (COHI -Malawi) agreed that it will send the learning materials to the diocese to use and adapt the material as needed to fit their situation and time. The COHI would also provide the books from the lists of books such below for the initial group of Eastern Zambia participants in the locally-based program. That will take place alongside some Zambia participants continuing in the US-based Zoom-delivered program.
BENEDICTINE SPIRITUALITY
This is the rule of life written by St. Benedictine of Nursia in 6th Century for the monks of his monastery in Italy. He came up with this rule as an encouragement to those who would seek God together in a community:
The hallmarks of his Rule are:
✓ Balance life- all aspects of life matter
✓ Humility- consider others as more important, and
✓ Hospitality-to see in each other the face of Christ
CIRCLE OF CARE
The circle of care nurtures and sustains members/lay chaplains spiritually as they seek a balanced life between doing for God and being with God. Members gather in the Circle of care to pray and read then reflect on the Rule of Benedictine, share pastoral care experiences, share a meal or refreshments, and provide each other with mutual support and encouragement. Doing the above deepens their spirituality, comforts, heals and gives hope. As of today, we have circles of care in 3 of the 4 Dioceses in Malawi.
TRAININGS
Without the help of COHI America we were able to train 15 groups of 8 members each in the eight out of three countries. After training they went back to their respective Dioceses and conducted trainings for the lay pastoral care givers.
SO FAR, WE HAVE REACHED TO THE FOLLOWING GROUPS
Chikwawa Prison: The Prison in Chikwawa, Nsanje and Thyolo have become our partners in this area and we are planning to training them. Our main problem so far is cash flow since we are not funded by the Diocese. We also visited Mulanje Police and Chichiri Prison respectively and we distributed food items, face mask and soap which we received from well-wishers.
Chikwawa District Hospital: Misomali Health Centre, Mindanti Health Centre is also one of the government clinics that has shown interest in COHI and we are working with few individuals but we need training for these people as well.
Business community: Currently we are meeting and offering some services to JDC Investment on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This group is unique since it has members from different denominations who works there.
