The new Diocese of North Africa aims to plant forty new churches in the coming year in Chad.
That was the message delivered to the annual Synod of the Diocese held this year in Chad for the first time. At the moment they are on course, with an evangelism rate of two plants per month, and a plan to accelerate that. The Synod was followed by the first session of a course to equip church planters. There were twenty-seven attendees, and each will be expected to plant a church as part of the course.
The course is run in conjunction with Anglican Mission Africa, a Kenya-based organisation modelled on the Church Army, which is operating in eleven African countries presently, with more scheduled, including Chad. Many British Anglicans would recognise elements of the Healthy Churches programme, used by the Church Army UK among others, in their approach. In Africa, the model begins with discovering a social need that can be met with church help and resources, in a particular community.
In Klessoum, a village on the outskirts of the capital ‘Ndjamena, that meant financing a new water pump for a community that was having real problems in water supply. So they began their mission by boring!
There are numerical criteria in the Diocese for how a Christian community can be described and it only reaches ‘church’ status when there are a hundred on the electoral roll, and when there is an average of at least sixty adults at each Sunday service over a period of six months. Until then, it must be considered as a plant, or the more developed ‘mission centre.’ These determine what kind of leadership is offered and the level of representation on the Diocesan Synod. Klessoum is a plant related to St Paul’s Church in the city, where the final Synod Eucharist was held.
In Klessoum, Deacon Wilfred has been joined by Rev Pika, a serving policeman, to lead the congregation towards mission centre and church status. In addition to the adults, the congregation includes an average of over fifty children. They meet in a covered area which they are planning to extend. With evidence like this few would doubt that the Diocesan mission ambition will be met. When a minimum of seven parishes have churches which are self-financing, they can form a new Diocese. Watch this space!
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