St. Anna Parish in the Catholic Diocese of Mangochi on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 28 officially launched a yearlong Golden Jubilee with a High Mass presided by Rt. Rev Bishop Montfort Stima.
During a Eucharistic Celebration attended by hundreds of parishioners from across the 26 outchurches, Bishop Stima called upon the faithful in the parish to seize the jubilee opportunity for holistic spiritual revolution.
“Learn from your past and get set for a focused future in all spheres of life as a local church and as individuals. Be guided by the special theme opted for the yearlong golden jubilee – ‘…YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH…’ (Mt 5:13). Be salt yourselves to those that seek to understand that the Lord is risen. However, you can only be salt by seasoning other lives with your witness to the gospel of his resurrection through your own styles of life. As learnt from the Book of Acts, look up to the first faith communities for inspiration. They lived in unity and loved each other as a family. By this, they were salt. You too, live to be witnesses of the gospel of resurrection”. Bishop Stima said.
Bishop Stima also called upon all Catholics legible for voting in the diocese, to turn out for the exercise on May 21.
At this, the bishop presented Srs. Crementina Mkandira, Rita Mbalule and Evarista Sinoya of the Congregation of St. Teresa as a Golden Jubilee gift to the local faithful community.
In his words, pastor of Kapire Parish, Fr. Charles Kaponya indicated that the preparations aim to promote a deeper and meaningful understanding of faith as the parish celebrates its 50th year anniversary of being canonically erected. For this reason, the parish year-long event has lined up a host of events and activities in a bid to help the parishioners assess spiritual support and grow emotionally. Such activities include apostolate missions for the poor, pilgrimages to native shrines, skills and motivational trainings for the laity, catechism and lectures for the youth on faith based topics etc.
Later, the pastor through the parish council moderator, Madam Catherine Mwasulama presented to the bishop and the congregation the leading team in the preparations towards the 2021 celebration, and he said:
“I have appointed a team of 12 lay skilled faithful Catholics to assist in the organisation of all that surrounds the activities through the year and the Golden Jubilee Event. The 2021 Golden Jubilee Events Team will be led by Fr. Kingsley Tebulo”.
Finally, Fr. Kaponya welcomed the Teresian sisters. He was quick to appreciate the services their company is rendering to the community. However, he asked the reverend sisters to laboriously collaborate with everyone else in their undertakings.
‘Let us work. I believe in the leadership that shares dreams,” He said.
The Teresian sisters replace the Poverelle Sisters who in August 2018 closed their house at Kapire for pastoral reasons.
Golden Jubilee activities and events will culminate of the feast of St. Anna in 2021