A taste of Africa!

Not everybody who goes on mission is young and energetic! Teresa Tagg is a grandmother and energetic! A Londoner, Teresa has spent many years working voluntarily in the Southwark Archdiocese as a Missio Local Secretary and lay appealer. This year, after working for so long and with such generosity, she and others had a chance to visit Ghana.

At last! My dearest wish has been to visit Africa, to see for myself this Continent with its spectacular scenery, music, dance and fine athletes, and this year it has been fulfilled when with two more APF lay appealers, Eileen and Pat and the Southwark APF Diocesan Director, Tom Kavanah, we were invited to visit Ghana and see some of the projects supported by our little red mission boxes and annual donations.

On the first day we visited the papal nuncio to Ghana, his Archbishop Leon B. Kalenga who told us of the rich culture, hospitality and the readiness of the people of Ghana to support any worthy cause like Missio.

Next we visited the metropolitan archbishop of Accra, Charles Palmer- Buckle who mentioned that Ghana has a population of approx 22 million. The Catholic Church runs 11 of the 38 colleges of education, 27% of the country’s educational institutions, and 30% of Ghana’s health service.

After lunch we visited St Paul’s Major Seminary, meeting both the staff and seminarians, looking at some projects partly sponsored by the APF, including a library and beautiful chapel where we joined the staff and seminarians for evening prayer, followed by a picnic under the stars celebrating the birthday of a member of staff.

In Techiman (which is a very new diocese), we stopped to see a parish that had dug a bore hole and built a factory to purify and package the water, which would then go on sale. This provided the village with 30 jobs and better health and gave the parish an income.

The next day we saw many projects starting with Mount Carmel Girls’ High School, which is very new, very basic and needing lots of help, but where the girls are very happy to be given the opportunity to improve their lives.

We visited the Our Lady of Calvary Grotto where we have helped with several projects including a bore hole to provide safe drinking water to the many pilgrimage and retreat groups.

The next project was very exciting as the parish in Abourso village had begun to build a church. The walls were up and the money from the APF had paid for the roof. Although the building was not finished and still has no doors or windows, nor a permanent altar, the Sunday Mass is attended by over 1,300 people.

In the afternoon we visited a minor seminary where we saw some projects that APF have helped to fund: a library, chapel renovations and expansion to the dining hall. Off to Kumasi archdiocese where we met the metropolitan Archbishop Thomas K. Mensah, who had just returned from confirming 100 candidates at one of his parishes.

All churches have a second collection for the Church in Ghana. The Sunday closest to the Presentation of the Lord is the feast day for Holy Childhood (known as Mission Together in England and Wales). The fourth Sunday of Easter is for SPA- Vocations Sunday-, the last but one Sunday in October is for APF, Mission Sunday.