News from the Congo

By Susan Broaddus, ECW Student Work Chair

 

I heard from Bishop Bahati of the Diocese of Bukavu that our ECW/W2W transfer of $2,500 plus $695 from St. Paul's, Norfolk, has been gratefully received and spent! They bought eight sewing machines for the Cathedral Parish in the Essence neighborhood of Bukavu city, 10 machines for Katana village parish, and they will use the rest of the funds to buy spare parts for their machines.   This will help enormously as women learn the art of tailoring to become self-sufficient. The ECW set $10,000 as its December 2014 Outreach goal and, thanks to many donations from throughout the Diocese of Southern Virginia, we will easily achieve it!

Many thanks to various Southern Virginia clergy as well. Gifts large and small have amounted to the needed $4,400 for two scholarships to help the seminary in Bunia, D. R. Congo end this academic year. The funds were wired to the Vice Chancellor on June 3, and he is very grateful. Further grants of $300 are still needed for laptops for the advanced students.  The seminary has grown from a small group carried through their three years to one with concurrent classes and now to a university. The Anglican University of D.R. Congo has five areas of study but the School of Theology is the only one with resident students from the various nine dioceses.