July 30, 2018

The excitement of Triennial has calmed to a joyous contentment this Monday as we head to the Diocese of Southern Malawi. Many of the Daughters who would have attended a special meeting had already met me at Triennial, so it is the Diocesan officers who meet us at the Bishop’s office. It is the Bishop’s day off so we do not meet him but are given a tour of the offices. Christine, his secretary and a Daughter herself, serves us tea and biscuits (cookies) as we chat about the history of the Anglican Church in Malawi, the history of Daughters in Malawi and service projects the Daughters have undertaken in the Diocese. One of the projects was a day-long gathering of women. The Daughters sponsored and organized this day of prayer and Bible study, inviting not just the women of the parish, but also inviting women of other denominations and women who belonged to no denomination. The day of prayer and study was well received.  To celebrate this special gathering, a day when all belonged to Jesus, the Daughters designed fabric for all participants to receive and wear as wrap skirts, in the tradition of fabric denoting membership in a group. This specially designed fabric was one of the gifts I received from the Daughters in the Diocese of Malawi.  

After tea, we drove to All Saints Anglican Church in Thyolo. The parish was established to care for the spiritual lives of the workers on the surrounding tea estates. As he gave us a tour of the main church (similar to the setup in Magomero, there is one main church and three satellite outstations), Father Scott, the parish priest, described for us an interfaith outreach project the Daughters in his parish organize. Other churches provide the funds for the project and the Daughters provide the hands as jointly breakfast five days a week and lunch once a month is provided to disadvantaged members in the village: 120 elderly, 80 children and 20 villagers infected with HIV-AIDS. Of note, the preacher from Sunday’s Closing Mass at Triennial is from this parish.

This has been a very special day for me. Amidst an outpouring of hospitality (including a dinner invitation to Agnes Salaka’s home), we shared learning and sightseeing experiences as we deepened our bonds of sisterhood in the Daughters of the King.