A Shukuma Primary School pupil
with her mother and twin siblings –
youngsters like her are helped
through social outreach
programmes at the Diocese
with her mother and twin siblings –
youngsters like her are helped
through social outreach
programmes at the Diocese
On November 19, 2003, Bishop Dominic Walker of Monmouth and Bishop David Beetge of The Highveld, in South Africa, signed an agreement linking the two diocese for five years. Since then visitors have travelled between the dioceses and parishes have formed their own individual links – St Mary’s is twinned with the cathedral parish of St Dunstan’s in Benoni and a fact-finding mission visited South Africa in January 2008.
The Diocese of the Highveld came into being on the Feast of the Epiphany in January 1990. It extends from the eastern edge of the Metropolis of Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, to the borders of the Kingdom of Swaziland, an area the size of Belgium. Apart from the urban and industrial areas, forming what is known as the East Rand, in which most of its parishes are situated, much of the Diocese is rural farming land, falling within the Province of Mphumulanga. Apart from agriculture, there is limited additional in its three main industrial enterprises: mining (coal and gold), sasol 2 and 3 (coal to fuel conversion) and electricity generation (ESKOM).
But the level of unemployment remains extremely high, with many of the men, both young and old, migrating to the larger cities in the hope of finding employment, This results in the population (and therefore membership of parishes) comprising mainly children and women, with the men returning only over the Christmas period. Sadly the problem of unemployment applies not only to the rural areas, with significant levels of unemployment a reality in many parts of the East Rand area.
The Diocese has many social responsibility programmes and activities including soup kitchens; training and supporting child advocates, who provide a means, for instance, for orphaned children to get such basics as a birth certificate; adult education; the care of the elderly; and HIV/Aids counselling. They also help people to help themselves, for instance, through the agricultural seeds programme so that they can grow their own vegetables or through help to set up their own businesses.
Last year, we in Monmouth fasted for one day each week during Lent and sent over £30,000 to help feed starving children in the Highveld. This year, we did the same to raise funds to equip a room in the Diocesan
Offices to be used for the training of priests – fundamental to the well-being of the area and to the care of its people.
More information can be found here: www.diocesehighveld.org.za