Minchinhampton has been associated with the Diocese of Masasi in Tanzania since 1959 with the arrival in Minchinhampton rectory of John & Benita Cornwall who had earlier met as missionaries in this African Diocese.
Over the years the Masasi Diocese has received much financial support from the people of Minchinhampton to help with pressing needs, and in return they have been blessed with visits from some of its Bishops and people who worked in the Diocese.
The support which has been given has been channelled through the church offices and has benefited not only church congregations, but ordinary people of different faiths in the Diocese.

The Passover meal, held on the evening before Palm Sunday, was attended by 41 people and was to raise money for the Lent project - famine relief in Masasi.
The ceremonial part of the evening, introduced by Fanny Wright who read a prayer in Hebrew, led the guests through the passover meal: the eating of parsley dipped in salt water, lettuce with horseradish, charouset and matzoh bread (each of these symbolising an aspect of the Israelites escape from Egypt) and interspersed with the drinking of sips of wine, psalms and ceremonial prayers. Next, all enjoyed a meal of lamb or vegetable stew with couscous and beans followed by special cake - cooked to Jewish recipes.
Thanks go especially to June Sidwell who researched and planned the whole evening, but also to Fanny for her advice and to all those who cooked the wonderful food, bought the wine and helped bring everything together so successfully on the night.
Angie Ayling

2009 marks 50 years of friendship between Minchinhampton and the Diocese of Masasi. In 1959 the Revd. Canon John Cornwall became Rector of Minchinhampton and moved into the Rectory with his wife, Benita and 2 small children (soon to become 4). He and Benita had both worked in Masasi – he for over 20 years as a priest and missionary, she as a Maths teacher for 5 years. They had both worked for UMCA (later to become USPG) and had met at the Anglican school in Chidya.

Bishop Patrick Mwachiko and his wife Emmie came to England to attend the Lambeth Conference in June/July 2008. We were sorry that their schedule didn’t allow a visit here, but 5 of us from Minchinhampton met them at a Masasi gathering in London. We did have the good fortune to entertain, for a couple of days, Basil Mkarta and Geoffry Patrick who administer Health and Development Projects in Masasi. They were sponsored by UK friends so that they could spend 2 weeks here giving a fuller picture of the team work of the diocese. It was special that they were able to attend the farewell party for our departing rector, Michael Irving.

On 29th March 2008 some 40 friends from many parts of the UK gathered to share insights about Masasi and to pool ideas about the most effective ways of supporting Bishop Patrick and his staff in their ministry to that huge diocese. We heard stories from nurses; doctors and teachers and priests who like John and Benita Cornwall had served there for many years. We are planning a similar gathering on 11th July 2009 and our own parish members are cordially invited along with all other friends who are interested in our Masasi link.

Masasi Diocese (roughly the size of Wales) is one of the poorest areas of Tanzania, which in turn is the 16th poorest country in the world. The arid nature of the land combined with basic agriculture methods; make it prone to food poverty. It is estimated that 40% of the population is chronically malnourished. But drought in the 2008 planting season has caused very serious hunger. We sent £2500 from Minchinhampton in February this year and another £1722 in April as a result of Lenten giving and money raised from our Seder meal. It also included £100 raised by our Mother’s Union from the all day breakfast with panckes on Shrove Tuesday. This will go to Masasi’s MU, who are very active in community work. The Masasi diocese aim is to provide 2 meals a day of nourishing porridge to 4000 schoolchildren during the hungry season. Sadly we hear that the rains have been very poor again in the recent planting season and seeds have withered in the ground. There now seems to be a pattern of poor harvests – climate change in action.

The diocese runs 3 rural dispensaries. We were particularly concerned on our visits at the poor state of Rondo’s dispensary and maternity ward. It is housed in a couple of cramped huts which have termite damage. There are also problems of staff retention as the diocese cannot afford to pay the level of salaries offered by local government. We are having conversations with other supporters of Masasi and hope to jointly offer a plan of support and a rebuilding programme.

This former colonial logging settlement, set high on a spectacular plateau, was converted into a school and seminary when Trevor Huddleston was bishop of Masasi. There are many logistical problems because of Rondo’s isolated position. A generator provides only a limited electricity supply (normally 2 hours a day) and water is caught from rainfall or brought up a tortuous, steep road in a bowser from the river below - the tractor donated by Minchinhampton is very useful here. Many of the buildings are wooden and subject to termite damage including the beautiful chapel built in the 1960’s. The wooden frames of the remarkable stained glass windows depicting the creation are also endangered. There is a local connection, in that they were designed by John Kingdon whose son owns the Pangolin Gallery near Stroud.

This project has run as planned over 3 years, and finished in September 2008. One of the team left after a year to become a teacher, but hopefully passing on the knowledge he had gained in his new profession. The other 8 young team members went on to accomplish a great deal in raising awareness in villages and schools; counteracting myths; reducing stigma and giving guidance for prevention. There were follow up visits from the Minchinhampton team in 2006 and 2007 to monitor progress and to give further training. Thankfully over these same 3 years, there has been an expansion of testing and treatment programmes with anti- retroviral drugs centred at Mkomiando Hospital near Masasi, but with some outreach clinics to rural areas. There is optimism that more lives will be saved in the future from this pandemic which has wiped out so many from the working age population.