Bishops worship under cashew tree, help in groundbreaking
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A UMNS photo by Stephen Drachler Missouri Bishop Robert Schnase lays the first blocks for a new church in Mozambique.
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United
Methodist Bishop Robert Schnase, Missouri area, lays the first blocks
for the new building for Catembe United Methodist Church outside of
Maputo, Mozambique during a worship service on Nov. 5. The Missouri
Annual (regional) Conference has had a special relationship with the
church in Mozambique since 1986. Following the denomination's Council of
Bishops meeting in Maputo, nearly 80 bishops from around the globe
worshipped with 16 Mozambique congregations that Sunday. A UMNS photo by
Stephen Drachler. Photo #061321. Accompanies UMNS story #672. 11/13/06 |
Nov. 13, 2006
By Stephen Drachler*
MAPUTO, Mozambique
(UMNS) -- Worshippers at Catembe United Methodist Church know that a
church is more than a building: they've never had one.
That will change in the next year or so. For years, the congregation has
worshipped beneath a big cashew tree. With three United Methodist
bishops participating in a service on Nov. 5, construction for a
building began when the congregation laid the first pressure-formed
building blocks into the ground.
Split into small groups, nearly 80 United Methodist bishops, accompanied
by spouses and others from around the globe, worshipped with 16
Mozambique congregations on Nov. 5. The bishops did not preach the
sermon, but took part in worship, offering greetings and prayers.
At Catembe, Missouri Bishop Robert Schnase, whose conference has had a
special relationship with Mozambique since 1986, had the honor of
lowering the first blocks into a trench dug by hand in the sandy soil.
The congregation worships in a poor neighborhood most easily accessed by
ferry and a bumpy ride over winding dirt roads less than 10 miles from
downtown Maputo.
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A UMNS photo by Stephen Drachler A large banner from Lafayette Park United Methodist Church in St. Louis, Mo. hangs from a cashew tree.
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A
large banner from Lafayette Park United Methodist Church in St. Louis,
Mo. hangs from a cashew tree, the current site of the Catembe United
Methodist Church outside Maputo, Mozambique. The Missouri Annual
(regional) Conference has had a special relationship with the church in
this southeastern Africa country. United Methodist Bishop Robert
Schnase, Missouri area, laid the first blocks for the new building for
Catembe during a worship service on Nov. 5 attended by three United
Methodist bishops in the country for the Council of Bishops Nov. 1-6
meeting. A UMNS photo by Stephen Drachler. Photo #061322. Accompanies
UMNS story #672. 11/13/06 |
A large banner from the Lafayette Park United Methodist Church in St.
Louis, Mo. proclaiming the spot as "Igreja Metodista Unida Catembe,"
(Catembe United Methodist Church) hung from limbs of the tree. The two
congregations are partners in the Missouri-Mozambique Initiative.
In St. Louis, a number of Lafayette Park members got up in the middle of
the night to pray for their partners in Mozambique. At 10 a.m., the
same time that Catembe United Methodist Church had worshipped in
Mozambique eight hours earlier, Lafayette Park saw its presence in
ministry half a world away through downloaded photographs.
Many of Catembe's worshippers live in wood and straw huts. They pump
water from community wells and most homes have no electricity. Goats
tied to trees and bushes graze on tall grass throughout the
neighborhood.
About two dozen women cooked a celebratory feast of goat, chicken,
prawns, rice, bean stew, vegetables, cassava and sadza, a bread-like
staple, on fires built in long trenches.
"We are moving from worshipping under this cashew tree to laying the
first stone today," said the church's pastor, the Rev. Paulo Saubino,
during the opening of the worship service. "I was happy when they told
me ‘let us go to the house of the Lord.'"
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A UMNS photo by Stephen Drachler Worshippers gather under a large cashew tree, site of Catembe United Methodist Church in Mozambique.
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Worshippers
gather under a large cashew tree, site of Catembe United Methodist
Church in Mozambique. United Methodist Bishop Robert Schnase, Missouri
area, laid the first blocks for the new building for Catembe during a
worship service on Nov. 5 attended by three United Methodist Bishops in
the country for the Council of Bishops meeting. The Missouri Annual
(regional) Conference has had a special relationship with the church in
this southeastern Africa country. A UMNS photo by Stephen Drachler.
Photo #061323. Accompanies UMNS story #672. 11/13/06 |
Looking at the bishops and other visitors sitting in blue and green
resin lawn chairs under the tarp, Saubino said "next time when you come,
we will have a church building. You will have a difficult time getting a
place to sit." He explained that every congregation in Mozambique has
two budgets: one for finances and one for saving souls.
Worshippers walked from beneath the tree to a nearby field for the
laying of the first construction blocks. After Schnase lowered the first
blocks into the trench, the Rev. Arlindo Romão, the district
superintendent, invited Bishops Max Whitfield of New Mexico and Alfred
Gwinn of North Carolina to shovel cement onto them. Then other visitors
and leaders of the congregation shoveled cement onto the blocks.
These blocks will serve as a cornerstone of sorts. A bible wrapped in
plastic was placed between the square of blocks. Romão said the square
will be beneath the church's floor as the building is built.
"This floor will be built on the book of God," he said through a translator.
*Drachler is the public information officer for the Council of Bishops.
News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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Resources
Mozambique Country Profile
Conference Mozambique Initiative
Episcopal Areas - Africa
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