The Church in Africa, especially in rural areas, is a lay church, where most worship, teaching and pastoral care is given voluntarily by a lay person in Malawi. In UMCA (Universities Mission to Central Africa) days at the end of the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries, the situation was partially met in the diocese by training and appointing teacher-catechists to look after both school and congregation. This came to a sudden end with independence in 1964. Teachers were now paid and appointed by government. Taking charge of a church was not part of the contract.
My personal questions about clergy and laity were older and deeper. I have always thought of Jesus as a carpenter and the twelve, as far as we know their trades, as fishermen and a tax-collector, Simon the Zealot, one of those who wanted to rid Judea of Roman rule by violence. Mediaeval painters might dress them up in court robes, but this was distorting the facts, however brilliant the artist.
The Quaker blood in my veins perhaps prompted the second theme of my enthronement ‘charge’ in Likoma Cathedral in 1962:
“I read with envy of the Diocese of Masasi in Tanzania where 900 members of the Brotherhood of St Andrew are week by week and without pay, teaching, preaching, praying with people and training choirs.”
In 1965 Chilema Lay Training Centre held its first conference: “Christian Laypeople in Malawi”. Half the lay participants were Presbyterian, half Anglican. Following a silent retreat on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday morning, Tom Colvin, a gifted and bold member of the Iona Community, opened a series of discussion on ‘God’s Frozen People’. “These”, says the report, “proved so absorbing that delegates needed considerable persuasion to break off for meals.” We ended on Easter morning with a joint Easter Eucharist in the open-air chapel, in the shade of a vast fig-tree, the top branches of which flowed over to touch the ground. Nothing like this had ever happened in the eighty years both churches had been working in Malawi.
We were fortunate in three wonderfully gifted laymen who joined the diocesan staff. The team of three – Justus Kishindo, Maxwell Zingani and Maxwell Maputwa – were the main agents for turning dreams, which they shared, into reality over the following years.
Justus Kishindo was the son of a priest in Mozambique and, like Maxwell Zingani, a teacher. There the resemblance ended.
They were the closest friends. I greatly valued their speaking the truth in love. Justus would make an appointment for an evening after dark and then Maxwell and he would come up to my office and tell me in the nicest possible way that I have put my foot in it. They were always right, but bishops in UMCA days had been above criticism, especially from lay people.
Justus Kishindo
Justus Kishindo was the son of a priest in Mozambique and an experienced teacher and headmaster. One of the first things I did in 1962 was to appoint him Education Secretary. He lost no time in convening an Education Sub-committee including representatives from the forty-five primary schools, Principal of Malosa Secondary School and Archdeacon Chipembere. Later in the year he was one of the diocesan representatives to Provincial Synod in Lusaka.
in January 1964 Justus began a year of studies in Birmingham from where he wrote: “Life at Woodbrooke College is not an idle one. There is so much to learn in a short time. The huge College and Selly Oak Colleges libraries with their thousands of volumes on every subject made my desire for reading greater than ever. Whenever I am free from lectures or other college duties, I sit there for hours reading. The thing that impresses me most at this college is its friendly and Christian atmosphere. There seems to be no class distinction between teacher and taught. Everyone seems to be a friend of the other.”
Justus was a caring, thoughtful man who several times wrote moving obituaries in Ecclesia, the diocesan newsletter. One was of his goddaughter, young Joy Zingani, killed in a road accident: “Being Joy’s godfather words fail me. Her tragic death has been a stunning blow. Standing by her deathbed and seeing her little body lying cold and motionless, I burst into tears and cried loudly like a woman for minutes. To the Zingani family such a sudden and untimely death is just immeasurable. But it is my sincere hope that, as the Archbishop said in his sermon, hope of seeing their little ‘Joy’ in the next world is great in their mind. May the risen Lord rest her little soul.
John Leake was a priest and assistant warden of Chilema Ecumenical Centre, following his sudden death in August 1974, Justus wrote in Ecclesia, “I came to know John intimately soon after I was elected Chairman of Chilema’s Board towards the end of 1965. From that time John and I became close friends, our friendship culminated in my becoming Martin Leake’s godfather. It is difficult to think of Chilema , of which he became Warden in 1969, without thinking of him also. He was quiet and shy kind and also loveable, popular with staff, students and visitors. John, Alison and their three children returned England in 1972.
John’s sudden death from a heart attack is premature and a shock for Alison and the children. There is nothing more shocking than to lose a lifelong partner and, for the children to realise they can no longer talk to their beloved Daddy.is something they will not be able to understand for some time. May he rest in peace!”
Justus was appointed Diocesan Secretary in 1975 and worked tirelessly visiting and encouraging people in parishes. He strongly supported a spiritual renewal campaign and followed that by taking part in a stewardship programme. Extracts from an interview for Ecclesia,
“What do you do in the parishes? First I discuss with the people about church council responsibilities. We also discuss self-reliance both from the administrative and from the financial point of view.
Do you think the situation will keep on improving now you have taught them? My experience as a teacher has taught me that no student will master anything without drilling. This programme needs repetition to sink into people’s minds.”
Donald, Bob Thupa, Justus Kishindo
Justus was highly regarded by everyone who knew him. He was Chairman of the Board of Chilema Lay Training Centre as well as Chairman of the Anglican Council of Malawi. Justus retired in 1980, having served the church in Malawi devotedly for thirty-nine years. He was a quiet, gentle man with immense wisdom, cared for by his wife Grace, especially during his severe migraine attacks. His family of ten children have continued to serve Malawi in a number of distinguished careers.
Maxwell Zingani
Maxwell, like Justus, was the son of a priest from Mozambique, who was teaching at the primary school at Mponda’s when, without being prompted, he started Mponda’s Christian Stewardship. I have no idea where his ideas came from, but they were good. To be a member of a team you needed to have sympathy, to belong to a united home and to be willing to meet twice a week. There you first prayed and then went out to visit Christians and Muslims. Mponda’s was a large Muslim village and Chief Mponda’s forebears had been deeply involved in the slave trade up to the 1890s. Archdeacon Habil Chipembere backed the campaign, saying that it showed what being a Christian meant.
The Province had been a little edgy about our link with Texas and in our last month in California we floated the idea of a Province-to-Province link between Province VIII, the Pacific Province and the Province of Central Africa. Our bishops accepted this idea and each diocese was asked to find someone to join a team to visit America. Our Diocesan Standing Committee chose Maxwell. In January 1965 the team set off on a two-month speaking tour, which took Maxwell to nine States, including Alaska. One of his messages was that the USA and Africa had complementary gifts – America had the gift of resources, Africa the gift of sympathy.
Back home, Maxwell was appointed a full-time member of the diocesan team, responsible for stewardship, literature and publicity, which included being editor of Eccelsia and later also for youth. He was tireless in visiting parishes throughout the diocese, encouraging each to elect effective councils, which should include a good number of women.
His sharing in the All Africa Conference of Churches in the Ivory Coast in 1969 was a major experience in his life. The presence of the Catholic Archbishop of West Africa, a doughty fighter for the openness of Vatican II, astonished him. “Despite our differences, we could talk, eat and pray together in brotherhood.” When he came back church unity was near the top of his agenda.
In the Central Region, the CCAP (Church of Central Africa Presbyterian) synod had a different tradition to that of Blantyre, which had been influenced by a team of dedicated missionaries belonging to the ecumenical Iona Community. Nkhoma Synod in the Central Region had been planted by missionaries of the South Africa Dutch Reformed Church who had grave doubts about Roman Catholics. Maxwell wrote in Ecclesia:
Rev Magombo of Nkhoma Synod CCAP said it was new for him to preach in a Roman Catholic church. Please pray hard for the guidance of the Holy Spirit that all the churches in Malawi may be one.
Stephen Makandanje, the Malawian priest I had known in Swaziland, visited Malawi for the first time since 1975. Maxwell was obviously moved by Stephen and I ordained him as a voluntary priest in 1979 just before he retired. The last page of the last number of Ecclesia / Mpingo, of which he had previously been editor, tells the story of his retiring to the little Muslim village of Chigonera, between Monkey Bay and Mtakataka where he and his wife Rhoda farmed and where we visited them in 2005.
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“When I retired to Chigonera we were four families totalling 15 people. They were planning to build a church. I joined them and the walls were finished but we had no grass to thatch it with till the next season. But only half would turn up for Sunday worship. So I started visiting and to my joy found another 10. Chigonera is predominantly Muslim. As I go round I talk to people to find out if they would accept Christ and join either the Roman Catholic or the Anglican church. We are now 70 Christians in All Saints church.”
Maxwell goes on to describe how other congregations began at Matapan’ombe, Kapiri, and Golomoti and how “Canon Martin Malasa (a retired priest who came from a Moslem family) although of ill health, is ‘a big light’. Six people came to see us and told us he is their spiritual and physical father and adviser.” Maxwell went on to start a branch of the Mothers’ Union and a choir. A few years later, when a group from England was staying at the nearby Kaphiridzinja lakeshore cottage, Maxwell brought his choir, who were excellent.
Maxwell was a gifted speaker with a great command of Chichewa and English, who captivated those listening to him through his vigour and sincerity. This made him an excellent interpreter and when the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, visited Malawi in the late 1980s, Maxwell was brought down to Blantyre to interpret for him.
Maxwell Maputwa
The third of the trio was Maxwell Maputwa who came at the beginning of 1964 from being headmaster of the vast primary school at Nkhotakota to teach at Malosa Secondary School. African music was a special interest and after a short course at Mindolo Ecumenical Training Centre in Zambia, he set out to find and popularise the Malawian hymns sung to traditional tunes which had been collected by Canon Hicks at Nkope.
In January 1966 Maxwell was asked to assist Majorie Francis, who was starting a chain of Sunday Schools. This was a vast operation involving training volunteers all over the diocese and keeping them supplied month by month with lessons in Nyanja and Yao. Maxwell then went for further training at the College of the Ascension at Selly Oak, Birmingham and in April 1968 came back with a Diploma in Education to take over from Marjorie.
From then on the two Maxwells worked hand-in-hand running joint courses in stewardship and religious education. Barnaba Chipanda, one of the liveliest and most dedicated young priests, reported on one such course for the churches on Likoma and Chizumulu islands:
“Mr Maputwa said we must take a keen interest in our children. They were our future hope. He told us of Our Lord’s teaching about young children and showed us how to use visual aids and bible pictures and how to make our own apparatus and lesson notes.”
Maxwell wrote about a visit to The Bar, a Muslim village on a sandbank at Mponda’s where Lake Malawi runs into the Shire River:
“After the service I asked them how they survived as a church. They said they believed in practical Christianity. I asked what they meant. They gave two examples:
- the church elder said they went with their catechist to build a house for a Muslim leper who was not being looked after by his own family. He was living in the new house.
- the women went to cultivate the garden of an old Muslim woman, too old to do it herself. They said, “We’re now looking round to see if there is anyone else we can help.”
The catechist told me that every week he receives Muslims who wish to become Christians because they see Christians here showing love and sympathy to anyone in need.”
Maxwell had the ability to recruit and inspire new volunteers. In 1973, after the division of the two dioceses, he reported that in almost every parish in Southern Malawi, lay people were visiting Sunday Schools and were using their own bicycles:
“In one parish in Mangochi the volunteer is a woman day-school teacher. She leaves her own children at home and cycles to various Sunday Schools, I found her cycling from Mponda’s to Mpinganjira, a distance of ten miles. I asked her, “How do you like work?” She replied and said, “It’s a call, and I am happy to respond. I very much enjoy it.”
In 1978, Maxwell was appointed Education Secretary-General of the Christian Council of Malawi, releasing his enthusiasm into a wider sphere but involving a move to Lilongwe. When I had the privilege of ordaining him as a voluntary deacon in April, many prominent Presbyterians took part. David Onaika took his place as Religious Education Adviser for the Southern Diocese. David was a former catechist of great ability, one of a group sent to Chilema for a year’s training to prepare them for priesthood.
In October 1979, Maxwell was sent to Jerusalem on a ten week course at St George’s College. Our monthly newssheet Ecclesia had by then been renamed Mpingo and printed Maxwell’s vivid account of nine days in the Sinai desert, part of which I quote:
“There was to be no recorded music, no radio and no contact with the rest of the world for nine days. We left behind money and important documents. It was an act of faith; we trusted in the experience and competence of the staff. We were beginning to understand the faith the Israelites needed to leave the security of slavery in Egypt and to venture into a new land. It is so easy for us to find false security by becoming slaves to so many things of minor importance.”
Maxwell was ordained as a voluntary priest by Bishop Peter Nyanja on 22 July 1979 in St Mary’s church at Biwi, where he was to serve the people of this traditional housing area of Lilongwe. To the great loss of the church in Malawi, Maxwell died in 1987.
MOTHERS’ UNION
Margaret Woodley
Margaret Woodley retired in 1968 after thirty years’ service initially as a nurse at Nkotakota, and from 1953 leading the Mother’s Union throughout the diocese. I was always grateful for her wisdom and experience.
Helen Jones
Helene Jones followed Margaret, she describes Easter morning at Matope, “When ninety adults are baptised at one service, people walk eighteen miles to make their Easter Communion and women come round the houses at 4.00a.m. singing the Good News, it leaves a lasting impression. After the Easter ceremonies, the people took the remains of the Paschal Fire into their homes to rekindle their cooking fires, this, for me, was most touching.”
Helene was enthusiastic and did a great job with the MU, also running courses for clergy wives, for a successful one in Nkhotakota she was joined by Joyce Nyirenda a midwife at St Anne’s Hospital who later succeeded her. Helene retired in 1971 after a time of ill health.
Joyce Nyirenda
Joyce Nyirenda, a daughter of Archdeacon Choo, (see ‘Developing a Malawian Church’) wrote in 1971 “As the Mother’s Union Worker I joined the Christian Education Team of the Diocese of Southern Malawi in April, we went round the diocese training councillors, church elders, Sunday School teachers and members of the Mothers’ Union. I must say I have been impressed by this training team.”
Joyce was a good encourager, she continues, “One encouraging thing is that younger women are showing great interest in the Mothers’ Union. May I ask that wherever this happens, these ladies should not be delayed. If they are not received they lose interest and change their mind. In the past new members waited for a long time and as a result they have been discouraged. Area Leaders should inform the priest about new members and ask him to do something. My appeal is that Area Leaders should be helped so that they may do their work properly.
May I ask that every PCC sees to it that they consider the Mothers’ Union group to be just as important as church elders and councillors and that they should help by seeing that each congregation has a strong and active group.”
Joyce was one of five representatives from Malawi, and the only Anglican, to a Women’s Leadership Training Seminar for Eastern and Central Africa held in Uganda in April 1972 attended by 75 women. After the seminar she stayed on to visit MU branches and wrote “I have seen that there is not much difference, except they have more workers. I noticed members are very interested in their work, making many crafts. Their organisations are very good, with committees and presidents in all branches.”
Joyce continued working in the diocese until 1978 when she moved to the Diocese of Lake Malawi continuing her work with the MU, living at Chinteche where she also helped at the clinic.
Elizabeth Ngoma
Elizabeth Ngoma became the MU Worker for urban parishes in and around Blantyre in March 1975, while Joyce covered the rest of the Diocese working from Mponda’s.
Elizabeth wrote of the MU at Christ the King church in Soche “we meet on Saturdays and have a number of things on our weekly programme. They often visit the sick at Queen Elizabeth Hospital and in homes, hold discussions, learn sewing and cooking, tidying up the church and its surroundings. I visited all parishes at least twice a year, especially in the remote areas.”
Before joining the Diocese, Elizabeth was a primary school teacher in a government school in Blantyre, prior to that she was a social worker in Zimbabwe, where she joined the MU.
Elizabeth attended a Pan African 6 month Women’s Leadership course at Mindolo Ecumenical Foundation in Zambia, from where she wrote “We are 14 women from nine African countries, all of us are interested in serving our sisters better. Our subjects included community leadership, planning programmes, economics, bible study, office practice. My room mate is Mary from Sierra Leone, an expert in tie and dying cloth, which I am interested to learn.”
The monthly diocesan paper Ecclesia reported on a four-day Women’s Leadership course held in April 1976 attended by twenty-five women from different parts of the Diocese run by Elizabeth. Subjects included human relations, child care, vegetable growing, the role of women in the church, sick visiting. Mrs Malango Banda was Chairman and Mrs Chikoko Secretary. The closing ceremony came up with some wonderful activities from the women on their role in the church. During the Mass the only man, the priest, conducted the service but the rest was done by the women, Mrs Ngoma preached while Mrs Chikoko administered the chalice.
The girls of St Agnes Guild and MU members were thanked for taking care of the participants during the course and the Archbishop was thanked for encouraging women by giving licenses to two women to administer the chalice.
With the growth in numbers and workload Alice Chilinkwambe was appointed a MU Worker for the urban areas in July 1977 and Elizabeth moved to live at Malosa the headquarters of the Diocese and wrote “I met so many challenges, looking after women’s work throughout the Diocese, representing women at many diocesan meetings, member of the Boards of Malosa and St Michael’s Secondary Schools and Chilema Chilema Training Centre.”
In September Elizabeth was joined by Joyce Nyirenda and Alice Chilinkwambe in running a very successful seven day MU conference at Chilema Ecumenical Training Centre. In the same year Elizabeth Chaired the committee of the WWDP (Women’s World day of Prayer) in Blantyre and was elected to the Christian Council of Malawi, the first woman member of the Council.
As Chairman of the WWDP Elizabeth attended an international conference in Lusaka in April 1978 attended by eighty representatives from forty-five countries. The conference was opened by the President Dr Kenneth Kaunda. Elizabeth wrote “I was highly impressed with what was discussed at the meeting, we made plans in advance up to 1984.”
For further development it was possible to arrange for Elizabeth to go to Birmingham in September 1978 for a year’s course on Mission, Social Studies and theology at the Selly Oak colleges. While there the MU asked her to join delegates from Central Africa to attend the Worldwide Conference in Brisbane Australia where she was able to meet my brother Felix.
True to form, in 1980 Elizabeth organised a creative five-day MU conference at Malosa Secondary School that I enjoyed opening, it included a retreat and biblical sessions led by my successor, Bishop Dunstan Ainani. The report added, “There were a number of other topics such as health education, home economics, pastoral care and a visit to St Luke’s hospital where we cheered the sick with hymns and prayers. We had forty-five from both rural and urban parishes, including working-class members (people in paid employment). A new Executive was elected at the Annual Council meeting with Georgina Chikoko as Chair, Elizabeth Secretary and Alice Chilinkwambe Vice Secretary.”
Elizabeth retired as MU Worker in 1988. She and her husband Peter went on to found a flourishing primary school in Bangwe township in Blantyre.
(Editor Elizabeth celebrated her 90th birthday in January 2023)
Alice Chilinkwambe MU Worker for urban areas wrote enthusiastically of a conference she organised in Matope Parish in November 1977 “ Since we had our courses at Chilema last year the women are rushing in doing their duty to God side by side just like men. Four women of the CCAP (Church of Central Africa Presbyterian) preached the word of God.
Fr Dunstan Ainani celebrated the closing Mass which was well organised by MU members, who read two lessons and for the first time the chalice was administered by a woman who possessed the Bishop’s licence. Both men and women Christians were happy to see and receive the Holy Communion from one in the Christian family without any hesitation. Praise the Lord.”
Alice made the most of a five month Leadership course at Mindolo Ecumenical Centre in Zambia in 1978, a three month Women’s Home-making course at Magomero and continued excellent work in the urban areas.