Look What You've Done! Summer 2017 2-3Director.Qxp Layout 1 26/04/2017 14:13 Page 1
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1cover 2.qxp_Layout 1 26/04/2017 14:13 Page 3 Look what you've done! Summer 2017 2-3director.qxp_Layout 1 26/04/2017 14:13 Page 1 Featured The National highlights Director writes 6 Red Box 2016 his special edition of Mission Today is our opportunity to thank you for Find out more about your invaluable T your loyal and generous support of support Catholic communities throughout the world who really need our help. 8 A parish hall with a difference The Church is growing in Africa and Asia, as the statistics on the following pages Signs of hope in Myanmar (Burma) show. More Catholics needing more priests, catechists and religious to serve 18 them; new parishes needing churches, Walking through a minefield convents, children’s homes and schools. in the dark You will read how the national Enkindling faith amongst Kenya's youth contributions towards growing and urgent needs have increased overall 20 this year. Given the present economic A huge thank you and and political climate this is a huge congratulations! achievement. Priests and people, Local Secretaries and Promoters – Celebrating our amazing volunteers congratulations! Explore...donate...reflect at missio.org.uk Editorial Board: Fr Anthony Chantry Michelle Slater Stephen Davies Nicky Pisa Mission Today is the magazine for supporters of APF-Mill Hill. All material in this publication can be reproduced electronically and in print, for the purpose of mission. Please cite Missio – England and Wales as the source. Registered charity number 1056651. Cover: Young girls learning hairdressing and life skills in an APF-supported parish in Kenya. MISSION TODAY SUMMER 2017 2-3director.qxp_Layout 1 26/04/2017 14:13 Page 2 The Holy Father’s Prayer Intentions Join with the Holy Father in praying: JULY Lapsed Christians That through our prayer and witness to the Gospel, our brothers and sisters who have distanced themselves from the faith, may rediscover the merciful There are many examples of how your closeness of the Lord and the beauty contributions make a difference to of Christian life. people in need. In this edition you will read how Fr Francis Makuba MHM in AUGUST Nairobi, Kenya, is now able to help the Artists youth in his parish to make the world a That through their creativity, artists of better place. And during my recent visit our time may help everyone discover to Myanmar (Burma) I was privileged to the beauty of creation. visit the parish of Mine Lunn where you have helped to build a parish hall, SEPTEMBER something that takes on a whole new Parishes meaning in much of the world. That our parishes, animated by a The Mill Hill Missionaries share some missionary spirit, be places where faith of their good news and we welcome is communicated and charity is seen. Fr Jim O’Connell’s reflection on seeing the ‘face of God’. OCTOBER Workers and the unemployed This issue of Mission Today is dedicated That all workers may receive respect to you in a special way as a token of and protection of their rights, and that gratitude for all you are currently doing the unemployed may receive the and intend to do in the future. As opportunity to contribute to the missionary disciples, we are responding common good. to the call to proclaim the coming of God’s kingdom in this world. It is a mission as urgent today as it was 2,000 Be a missionary through prayer years ago. We accept it with joy. Whoever and wherever we are, we can all be missionary: joining together in prayer with the wider Yours in Christ, Church, volunteering for Missio or giving generously through the Red Box. These are all valuable ways to further the work of mission. Fr Anthony Chantry, National Director missio.org.uk 4-5innumbers.qxp_Layout 1 26/04/2017 14:14 Page 1 4 World news Our global family: The Church in numbers Each year the Vatican releases the latest statistics on our Church throughout the world. In over 1,000 missionary dioceses around the world which are too young or poor 53,277,784 to support themselves, the children and young people are being educated in: work of the Church continues thanks to your generosity and prayerful support 96,283 Catholic primary schools 46,339 7.2bn Catholic secondary schools people in the world; 1 in 6 are baptised Catholics MISSION TODAY SUMMER 2017 4-5innumbers.qxp_Layout 1 26/04/2017 14:14 Page 2 5 5,158 hospitals 16,523 9,492 dispensaries orphanages and clinics 612 15,679 care homes for homes for the people living with elderly, chronically leprosy ill, or disabled 116,843 seminarians in their final 4 years of study 415,656 priests 368,520 lay missionaries This includes an increase of 1,133 priests in Africa and an 3,264,768 additional 1,104 priests in catechists working with children, Asia compared with the young people and adults previous year to explore their faith missio.org.uk 6-7redbox.qxp_Layout 1 26/04/2017 14:14 Page 1 6 Thank you! Red Box 2016 Thank you for the positive difference you have made to millions of people in 2016 through your generous and prayerful support of the Red Box n 2016, over £3 million was raised Cardinal Otunga Girls I through the iconic Red Box. Empowerment Centre, Nairobi In England and Wales, you have supported the work of the Church in The Church relies on you to help people, 98 dioceses across the world. Amongst such as certain groups of impoverished other things, this year you have: young women in Kenya. Young girls living in extreme poverty are easily • Helped build 88 churches, chapels trapped into prostitution and sexual and convents exploitation in their efforts to earn a • Supported the training of 300 Mill meal or a meagre living. Vulnerable and Hill Missionaries destitute, many are orphans or come from abusive relationships at home. • Provided bicycles for catechists These young women have been rescued in 26 parishes in Uganda from such situations and are being • Assisted in the ordination of helped by the Missio-supported Mongolia’s first native priest Cardinal Maurice Otunga Girls Empowerment Centre in Nairobi. Money raised through the Red Box is The Home cares for up to thirty often used to help provide the ‘ordinary students at a time, aged between subsidy’ which goes to a bishop in a fourteen and twenty years. mission diocese. These are the dioceses which are too young or poor to support Many of the girls have never been to themselves. This money can then be used school. At the Centre they are taught for things that are often overlooked when English, reading and writing. The donations are made. Things such as a Assumption Sisters of Nairobi also diocesan office. Or electricity for a parish help them to regain their self-worth hall. Money from the Red Box also helps and self-respect by caring for them, specific projects, such as the Centre in and teaching them skills such as Nairobi you may have seen on the ‘thank housekeeping, nutrition and sewing. you’ poster at the back of church with After two years of training they are your parish’s Red Box total for 2016. able to earn a living using their newly MISSION TODAY SUMMER 2017 6-7redbox.qxp_Layout 1 26/04/2017 14:14 Page 2 7 Income from Red Boxes 2016 Diocese Income Income Increase/ Percentage 2016 2015 Decrease (–) change Arundel & Brighton £162,881 £173,873 –10,992 –6.32% Birmingham £300,143 £289,028 11,115 3.85% Brentwood £85,798 £87,014 –1,216 –1.40% Cardiff £95,316 £90,748 4,568 5.03% Clifton £123,376 £125,779 –2,403 –1.91% East Anglia £49,334 £49,226 108 0.22% Hallam £46,470 £45,153 1,317 2.92% Hexham & Newcastle £241,625 £242,325 –700 –0.29% Lancaster £92,742 £94,172 –1,430 –1.52% Leeds £94,874 £106,070 –11,196 –10.56% Liverpool £351,162 £353,193 –2,031 –0.58% Menevia £32,047 £29,356 2,691 9.17% Middlesbrough £75,724 £76,973 –1,249 –1.62% Northampton £65,508 £54,806 10,702 19.53% Nottingham £101,924 £97,496 4,428 4.54% Plymouth £104,617 £86,417 18,200 21.06% Portsmouth £151,870 £149,417 2,453 1.64% Salford £271,564 £270,997 567 0.21% Shrewsbury £129,374 £124,991 4,383 3.51% Southwark £204,869 £208,325 –3,456 –1.66% Westminster £219,575 £208,968 10,607 5.08% Wrexham £22,021 £22,511 –490 –2.18% Anonymous donations £16,717 £7,978 8,739 109.54% Totals £3,039,531 £2,994,816 44,715 1.49% acquired skills. Some go on to work in there. The hope is that through the tourism, hospitality and catering; others newly acquired skills they will become work as seamstresses in factories or in economically independent and not end up their own businesses. The Sisters continue back on the streets and slums of Nairobi. to look out for the girls for two years after they have left the Home to ensure they Your support has made a tremendous are able to get on their feet and stay difference. Thank you. missio.org.uk 8-9difference.qxp_Layout 1 26/04/2017 14:14 Page 1 8 Missio’s APF A parish hall with a difference hen is a parish hall not a parish hall?’ ‘W Missio’s National Director, is the kind of question I was asking myself on a visit to Mine Lunn parish in Fr Anthony Chantry, recently a remote area of Myanmar (Burma).