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Mission Angola
In November 2004, All Saints Fulham celebrated the start of an exciting new relationship with St Augustine’s in Viana, Angola.
Viana is a shanty town, and forms part of a massive urban sprawl about eight kilometres outside of Luanda, the capital city. It grew during the civil war because people hoped that sheltering close to the military base there would provide them with some protection. The inhabitants lost everything they had when they moved, and it is now thought that some 40,000 people live there.
The congregation of St Augustine’s started meeting under a tree in 1988 which, today, still dominates the open space behind the primary school. A plot of land was then bought and a small church built on it. This is currently being replaced by a larger one. Since the official consecration in 1993, the congregation has transformed into a wonderful church with over 500 members with its own officers and its own council. There is a powerful Mothers Union, a flourishing Youth Group, a Men’s Guild and the parish holds education workshops, and religious retreats. Like All Saints Fulham, St Augustine’s also has a church school in the parish and so our schools are linked too.
We have worked hard to build a real and lasting partnership. A group of four from All Saints Fulham visited St Augustine’s for a week in August 2005. A year later, four members of St Augustine’s arrived here in Fulham for a week’s stay. Most recently, there was a second visit to Viana in August 2007, led by Father Joe. We hope to visit them shortly and we recently sent them a substantial cheque to help to fund their work of over £5,000.00.
The link we have is very important to us at All Saints Fulham. Of course, we can and do raise much needed funds to support the parish. The churches are the most respected and influential institutions in Angola. So the Church is in a key position to help build the Angola of the future.
But we gain a lot too. By getting to know a community in a part of the world very different to our own, we can broaden our understanding of it and the world seems a smaller, more hopeful place. We share a common bond through Jesus and, through this relationship, we can refresh and deepen our faith.