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Last update:
18 November 2008

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World Church and Mission : Latest News
 
News for Southern Synod Churches from the World Church
& Mission Committee

Two important decisions were made at the Southern Synod meeting on October 11 to strengthen our partnerships with the Rayalaseema Diocese and the Reformed Church of Sub-Carpathian Ukraine.  I hope that the representatives to the Southern Synod are reporting this decisions, but this news report is intended to re-inforce their reporting.

Loan for the Rayalaseema Diocese
The diocese is undertaking an ambitious scheme to set up shopping malls (which they are calling ‘Jesus Towers’) in four towns, starting with one in Kadapa.  When these are built the shops on the ground floor and offices on the upper floors will be let out in order to raise income for the diocese’s work.  This income will be used for medical and educational work and to help pay for presbyters’ salaries and pensions. However, in order to build these Jesus Towers the diocese has to borrow money and the Indian Overseas Bank is prepared to lend money for this purpose if it has the security of a ‘corpus fund’.   The Synod resolved to loan ?200,000 for three years as security for this purpose and has been promised interest at 8.75% by the Bank on this loan.

This ambitious scheme means that the diocese is taking very seriously its stewardship responsibility for the properties and institutions under its care left by the LMS and other mission agencies.  Much maintenance work is needed in the schools and hospitals.   It is expected that the diocese will be able to pay the presbyters a living salary and reasonable pension in place of the meagre amounts they receive now.  
Please pray for the success of these projects.

Grants to the Reformed Church of Sub-Carpathian Ukraine
Until now the partnership between the Southern Synod and the Reformed Church has been based on exchange visits, but the Reformed Church asked urgently for help in building a girls dormitory and refectory together with a gymnasium if possible to safeguard its school at Nagybereg.  This church-run school provides a high standard education for 15 to 17 year old boys and girls. 96% of the graduates go on to university and most of the Church’s leaders and pastors have been trained here in recent years.   The present girls dormitory and refectory are rented from the local Village Council which wants to take them back by 2011.  If the school cannot replace them its future is in jeopardy for it could be closed. The Church has land and has made plans for building the dormitory for 68 girls and refectory for 126 boys and girls and also a gymnasium  (12x24 metres) with dressing rooms etc which will add greatly to the school’s facilities and will be cheaper to erect if it can be built at the same time.

The Southern Synod resolved to make a grant of £100,000 in 2009 and £100,000 in 2010 so that the dormitory and refectory can be built.  It also issued a challenge to the churches of the Southern Synod to contribute an average of £500 per church for the building of the gymnasium.

Please pray for the successful erection of these buildings and raise whatever amount you can so that the whole scheme can be completed including the gymnasium.

Barrie Scopes,  Convener of World Church & Mission Committee

 
News from the meeting of the World Church & Mission Committee
 
February 11, 2008
 
This news is intended to be shared with churches of the Southern Synod. Please will you share it with others in your ACT or church.
 
At this meeting we considered two reports – one by The Revds Nigel Uden and Bryan Shirley of their visit to South India from January 12 to 28 and the other by Rev Bob Woods, his wife Maggie and Ben Rose of their visit to Ukraine from January 2 to 8.
 
After attending the CSI Synod at Vishakhapatnam (the equivalent of the URC General Assembly) Nigel and Bryan went on to the Rayalaseema Diocese. They were given the VIP treatment accorded to a Moderator of the Church and went about in a four by four accompanied by officers of the diocese in another such vehicle, and were garlanded and feted everywhere. The programme was so packed that they hardly had time to rest and reflect. They saw the Bishop’s residence in Kadapa which not only has accommodation for the bishop and his family, but offices and three dormitories for guests (which were occupied by 18 Koreans when they were there). Their tour included blessing churches built with the help of the Presbyterian Church of the Republic of Korea, wells dug with CWM money, and three parsonages under construction with the help of money from the Southern Synod. A presbyter came especially to see them astride his proudly-owned two wheeler bought with money from the Southern Synod. Ambitious plans were shared with them, particularly a plan to build four “Jesus Towers” in four towns – intended to be three or four storey buildings of shops and offices, the income from which will be used for the education, health and ministry work of the diocese. There was much to encourage through the togetherness of the diocese and the vision and energy with which plans are being made and carried out. Nigel’s and Bryan’s report comments that there is a wide range of projects to which the Synod could make well-deserved financial contributions, but it should be for the Diocese normally to have the right and responsibility of deciding where to spend money sent to them.
 
Three nurses and a secretary, all Elders of Southern Synod churches, have expressed an interest in being part of the team of four lay-women whom we are expecting to send to the Rayalaseema Diocese for three weeks from November 18. There is time for others to apply and then the applicants will have to be interviewed and chosen.
 
Bob introduced the other report of the visit to the Reformed Church of Sub-Carpathian Ukraine. Bishop Sandor zan Fabian is keen to continue the partnership with the Southern Synod and is expecting to come to Britain from March 10 to 20 with Pastor Geza Kacso as his interpreter. He will attend the Synod meeting on March 15, and address the Synod in the morning and speak again at one of the workshops in the afternoon. Plans were discussed for youth exchanges and the problems of obtaining visas were thoroughly discussed.
 
These two partnerships are the flag ships of the World Church & Mission Committee’s work. We are also concerned about supporting the new Ghanaian Minister to London, The Revd Sylvanus Tettey, who came in August and is settling into his work after a difficult period when it took time to prepare the house bought for him and his family to occupy.                                
Barrie Scopes – 11.2.2008