Our ALMA link

ALMA stands for Angola London Mozambique Association, a partnership setting up links between Anglican parishes in London and parishes in and .

We have recently taken the first steps to set up a link between St John’sprovince of Niassa. and a parish in , in the

Lichinga is the provincial capital of Niassa and our link is with the parish of Lichinga, newly formed in 2006 to help focus pastoral and evangelistic work on the town and the ‘bairros’ (suburbs) Lichinga consists of three main congregations: Bairro Popular with about 1000 members and being looked after by a team of retired priests and one younger priest, Marias Ntoko: Sanjala has about the same number who meet in a large hall at the training centre Kuchijinji with a new community priest, Pedro Crispin who is also a teacher, and another community priest, Luis who is also a diocesan evangelist: and Nsinji with 200 members where Helen van Koevering (wife of Bishop Mark) is priest and who is our ALMA contact there.

The parish is in the process of a building project in Nsinji and plan to build a large church in Sanjala in the not too distant future.

Lichinga has a population of about 45,000 and the governor of the province is a member of the Bairro Popular congregation. The people of Lichinga live mainly in mud houses with the concrete part of the town so small that it can be walked through in 10 minutes! The capital is at a high altitude and the climate is mainly dry and cold in our summer with the rainy and malarial season between December and April.

For more information about ALMA go to their website – www.almalink.org

ALMA stands for Angola London Mozambique Association, a partnership setting up links between Anglican parishes in London and parishes in and .

We have recently taken the first steps to set up a link between St John’s and a parish in , in the province of Niassa .

Lichinga is the provincial capital of Niassa and our link is with the parish of Lichinga, newly formed in 2006 to help focus pastoral and evangelistic work on the town and the ‘bairros’ (suburbs) Lichinga consists of three main congregations: Bairro Popular with about 1000 members and being looked after by a team of retired priests and one younger priest, Marias Ntoko: Sanjala has about the same number who meet in a large hall at the training centre Kuchijinji with a new community priest, Pedro Crispin who is also a teacher, and another community priest, Luis who is also a diocesan evangelist: and Nsinji with 200 members where Helen van Koevering (wife of Bishop Mark) is priest and who is our ALMA contact there.

The parish is in the process of a building project in Nsinji and plan to build a large church in Sanjala in the not too distant future.

Lichinga has a population of about 45,000 and the governor of the province is a member of the Bairro Popular congregation. The people of Lichinga live mainly in mud houses with the concrete part of the town so small that it can be walked through in 10 minutes! The capital is at a high altitude and the climate is mainly dry and cold in our summer with the rainy and malarial season between December and April.

For more information about ALMA go to their website – www.almalink.org