Letter from Tanzania

AMDG

The feast of St Ignatius, 2010.

St Francis Xavier Church, Mwanza, Tanzania.

Dear Everyone,

happy feast day!

As they say here, on meeting anyone: “How are you?” “We are fine”. I hope you are all well and continuing to enjoy the summer.

The five students from the chaplaincy – Bianca, Charlotte, Dominic, Katia and Nick – and I have been here for four days and it seems like “four-ever”, in a good way, of course! We had a lie-in this morning which made a huge difference to us all. Then we spent the morning and early afternoon walking around one of the local markets on the edge of Lake Victoria with a visit to the local ferry port, accompanied, chaperoned, guarded by one of the sisters, Sr Consolata!

In the afternoon myself and Charlotte and Katia gathered together about 40 of the boarders (there are about 240 who live on the compound during term time, either because they live far from home or are orphans) for some singing. I taught them, you’ve guessed it … the Jamaican Alleluia and they taught us a couple of beautiful Kiswahili hymns. Charlotte taught them a great little song about a happy Kukuburra and Katia a Holy Holy in Spanish – so very international. What a joy to be with such open, joyful and generous children.

Then this evening a beautiful Mass on the roof of the Jesuit community (what a sunset!) with about 50 friends of the community. A wonderful celebration led by Fr Raymond, the Tanzanian superior, who also did his tertianship in Australia – it is a small world! No Australian wine, unfortunately, but some very good local beers: Kilimanjaro, Serengeti and Safari!

Tomorrow I’m on the late, English speaking, Mass – 10.15am. The two Swahili Masses are at 6.30am and 8.00am. There are some benefits to speaking English! I will continue to keep you all in my prayers, as I did especially at Mass this evening. Once again, what a blessing it is to be a member of the Society of Jesus. Let’s continue to pray for vocations to the Society throughout the world, but especially in the British Province and regions and let’s pray for one another. Thank you for your prayers and support.

You are all very much in our thoughts. With our love and prayers and African lion hugs! God bless you,

Fr Simon SJ, Nick, Katia, Dominic, Charlotte and Bianca.

PS A memorable phrase someone said to us in the market today. “Welcome to Mwanza! Feel happy and never complain!” They seem to live by their words.

Visit to Tanzania

During August Fr Simon and five students will be travelling to the Nyakahoja Primary School in Mwanza, Tanzania. This is the second year that students have gone out to teach for a month and to develop our friendship with the community there. We have also been raising money to help them build a new Secondary School. Thank you to all those who have supported the group with there contibutions and prayers.

JRS in Haiti

Jesuit Missions have expressed their thanks for the donation of £720 to the work of the Jesuit Refugee Service in Haiti. Here is an update on what is happening:

“We are starting the political phase of the reconstruction. It is the time to go from individual aid to overall proposals. With the emergency phase still open, at Entreculturas we are working with our partners on a reconstruction programme based on three lines of work:

1. Education in Emergency. The priority is to create an emergency education programme in seven camps for displaced persons, We want to work with affected children to overcome their trauma and allow them to return to school. School construction will take some time and we have to recover school attendance as soon as possible. As of today, between 5.000 y 7.000 children have been assisted. We have 110 teachers and seven coordinators for each camp.

2. Education for Reconstruction. It is a priority to work on a formation programme to teach technical skills for the reconstruction. With this initiative we want to offer the Haitian youth the capacity to reconstruct their own country. We will give courses with 20 technical teachers hired for this purpose with an estimated 1.200 attendants, with ages from 16 to 30.

3. Education recovery. After the earthquake, schools of Puerto Principe and surrounding areas have been strongly affected. In some areas, 90% of schools have been destroyed. On the other hand, non affected areas are receiving many of the affected people and are beyond their capacity to absorb new students. In this context, we want to promote a school reconstruction and teacher training programme.”

Jesuit Volunteer Community

JVC is a one-year development programme based in the UK in situations of social need.  Volunteers live in community, sharing a life of prayer …

CAFOD and Climate Change at the Union: Wednesday 7th Week, 7:45.

CAFOD has teamed up with a number of other Societies to co-host a discussion on Climate Change at the Oxford Union, beginning at 7:45, Wednesday, 25th November.

“Faith-based and secular perspectives on climate change and environmentalism”

As we approach December’s Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, hailed as the most important political meeting in our lifetime, it’s more crucial now than ever that we seek to understand the diverse attitudes to climate change which exist both globally and within our own community.

Often shaped by religious beliefs, do our perspectives on climate change share common ideological ground, or is only the desire to protect our preferred lifestyles which unites us in the face of climate chaos?

At this unique event, we bring together individuals from a variety of faith and non-faith groups to share their perspectives on climate change, sustainable living and environmental activism.

Confirmed speakers include: Raymond Perrier, Head of Communities at Catholic development charity CAFOD, whose previous work with the British Jesuits and in the marketing industry has given him a particular interest in the issue of ethical development; Allan Allport, a practising Quaker and retired Professor of Experimental Psychology, who will speak about the psychology of sustainability; Rabbi Nathan Levy, the Chief Rabbi’s liaison on environmental issues; and a representative from the Research and Science team at EarthWatch.

One Voice Event Postponed

Because of unforeseen circumstances, it will not be possible for the planned One Voice event to take place in Oxford tomorrow, 18th November.  One Voice apologises for this, but hopes to reschedule for February next year. Please watch this spot…

Here is the background to the event:

The OneVoice Movement will be bringing two of its Youth Leaders from Israel and Palestine this November to speak as authentic voices from the region about one of the most watched conflicts in the world. On the 18th of November, we will be coming to Oxford on our 2009 UK tour “Listening to the grassroots.”

OneVoice is the largest civil society movement in Israel/Palestine. We are a parallel working NGO with a Palestinian Office in Palestine working with Palestinians and an Israeli Office in Israel working with Israelis. To date we have signed up 300,000 Palestinians, 300,000 Israelis and 50,000 international supporters to OneVoice. We represent the pragmatic grassroots majority on both sides who recognise the humanity of both sides and are looking for a negotiated end to the conflict.

We are giving students the opportunity to come and hear two of our highly trained Youth Leaders from the region. Unlike other NGO’s we are not a dialogue group. Our Youth Leaders work in their own communities as passionate nationalists who have realised that pragmatism rather than ideological entrenchment is the best way to end the conflict. On Wednesday 18th, students will be able to meet Dina from Palestine and Beata from Israel and hear their experiences. We will also be giving students of Oxford the results of our ground breaking polling that we have been using to brief the US State Department, the Foreign and Commonwealth office and the office of Javier Solana in Brussels.

The central focus of the tour will be looking at a solution for the region that is pragmatic, workable and acceptable to the majority of Palestinians and Israelis. Reviving hope that the window for a peaceful agreement is still open, the OneVoice Youth Leaders will talk about their past experiences and their nationalistic aspirations for a peaceful and prosperous future for both their peoples. The floor will then be open for questions & answers and discussion, giving the audience the opportunity to voice their own views and explore how students in the UK can be part of the driving force for a change in the status quo and an end to the conflict.

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Daniel Braune Friedman
Oxford/Oxford Brookes Jewish Chaplain

20th Anniversary of the Murders of 6 Jesuits, their houskeeper and her daughter, November 16th 1989

On November 16, 1989, six Jesuit priests – Ignacio Ellacuria, Segundo Montes, Ignacio Martin-Baro, Joaquin Lopez y Lopez, Juan Ramon Moreno, and Amado Lopez – were murdered by the Salvadoran military on the campus of the University of Central America (UCA) in San Salvador, El Salvador. Their housekeeper, Elba Ramos, and her daughter Celia Marisela Ramos, were murdered there as well. The Jesuits were labeled subversives by the Salvadoran Government for speaking out against the oppressive socioeconomic structure of Salvadoran society. Their assassinations were ordered for their unwavering defense of the poor.

The Jesuits were six of over 70,000 victims who died in El Salvador’s civil war which raged in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. The vast majority of these victims were civilians killed by El Salvador’s armed forces and paramilitary death squads. The death of the Jesuits brought international outrage and condemnation upon the Salvadoran Government and pressured them to negotiate an end to their country’s civil war. (From St. Peter’s College, New Jersey Website)

See also the McGovern Resolution in the US Congress from this September:

McGovernresolution

5th Week

A Catholic Response to Abortion

Please join OUPLS and the Newman Society at the Catholic Chaplaincy on Tuesday 10th November at 8.30pm.

Wednesday 11th November

Oxford Life Group AGM    Blackfriars 7:30

Andrea Minichiello Williams will speak on the topic, Cheap life – what price life in a consumerist society?

Tanzania Project

The Chaplaincy is developing a link to the Nyakahoja Primary School in Mwanza, Tanzania and has already sent students out there to teach this last Summer. We also want to raise money to help them build a new Secondary School. Information evening this Thurs 29th Oct at 8:00 pm at Pasta Plus

AGM of the Oxford Life Group

The Oxford Life Group AGM, to be held at Blackfriars, St Giles, Oxford on Wednesday 11nd November 2009 at 7.30pm.

We are very fortunate this year in having as our speaker Andrea Minichiello Williams, who will speak on the topic, Cheap life – what price life in a consumerist society? As you will see from the enclosed poster, Andrea is a barrister, and has been working as a Christian lobbyist in the Legal and Public Policy arena in the United Kingdom for over 10 years. She is Director of Christian Concern for our Nation (CCFON), and of the Christian Legal Centre (CLC), its sister organisation, which is involved in taking a number of high-profile Christian freedom and life cases. I should add that she is an extremely inspiring speaker, and in these times when the battle to legalise assisted dying and euthanasia is growing in intensity, the evening promises to be not just lively and stimulating, but also extremely challenging.

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