March 27, 2008 by Stephen Day.

Happy Easter! In the past week it has rained more days than it hasn’t. This is pretty amazing since the rainy season is supposed to be over by now (it started in December). In fact, it has rained for the past five hours or so. This is very good news for Tanzania… the shambas (farms) have been hurting because there has not been much rain this year. Also, most of the electricity in Tanzania is hydroelectric so, rainfall is very important.

In other news, in less than 300 days the United States will have a new president. I don’t mean to get partisan, but that is good news for the US and for the world. Countdown status: 299 days, 10 hours, and 5 minutes.

I have spent the last week and a half grading quizzes, planning the rest of the semester and fixing some computer problems. At the beginning of last week the computers here decided to stop working with the internet, which has caused some problems. I was not able to figure out the origin of the problem until Tuesday of this week. It was the DNS server settings… for the fellow geeks out there. Well, I better get back to work. I would ask for your prayers for the Commission on Ministry and the Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia over the next three days - they are meeting and discussing many important things. Also, please pray for Msalato’s students as they return from their short break.

Bye for now.

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March 16, 2008 by Stephen Day.

Greetings on this Palm Sunday. Things are settling down at Msalato — on Friday Fall/Easter Break began. This will be a two week break during which students will return to their villages to celebrate Easter and hopefully find some money for their school fees. I will be using this time to take care of some computer work and also to plan out what I will be teaching during the remainder of the semester, which ends in mid June.

I am glad to have a break right now because it has been a very busy month or so since the campus woke up from its long break. One of my first priorities is to produce a newsletter covering everything since the new year. It has just been a very busy couple of months and I have also been trying to learn my new computer and the Mac OS. I will get out the newsletter before the end of the month and perhaps before Easter.

Well, I wanted to take this opportunity to share a few tidbits about life here. First, I am pleased to announce that the Anglican Church of Tanzania has elected a new archbishop and primate. I have nothing against the current primate, but I know that he was adamantly opposed to my Church, The Episcopal Church (TEC) or Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA). He has refused to accept any money for the US Church for some time, which limits some of the work my church can do here. The new archbishop and primate of this church will be Bishop Valentino L. Mokiwa of the Diocese of Dar es Salaam. I have heard very little about him, but I know that he comes from the part of the Tanzanian Church that is considered to be “high church” liturgically and that he is opposed to women’s ordination (I will talk about that a little later). The new archbishop will be installed on May 25 at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, here in Dodoma. The cathedral is just the diocesan cathedral and, to my knowledge, holds no special significance to the province as a whole. I assume that it was chosen simply because Dodoma is basically the center of the country and easier to get to for more people than Dar es Salaam. There is some hope that the new archbishop might restore relations with The Episcopal Church.

So women’s ordination… yes there are ordained Tanzanian women serving in the Anglican Church of Tanzania. I think there are only about a dozen or fewer in the Diocese of Central Tanzania, which has over three hundred parish priests, but that is more than I would have thought. There are a few other diocese in this Church that have ordained women, but they are few. This new archbishop wants this to stop, but supposedly his power does not allow him to prevent this at this point.

A slight correction about my previous post and the shift in the future of missionaries in the Episcopal Church. After further reading of the announcement that came from the Mission Personnel Office of The Episcopal Church, I have come to some different conclusions. So before this announcement the Church had three different missionary programs - the Young Adult Service Corps (which I am part of and is a one-year program for people from 18 to 30 years old, Volunteers for Mission (who got logistical support from The Episcopal Church but were largely responsible for all of their funding) and Appointed Missionaries (who got most of their funding directly from the Church and were appointed for three year terms). The new plan for missionary work has just two programs YASC (which will continue unaffected because it has funding under two different programs) and Missionaries. The former Appointed Missionaries and Volunteers for Mission are now one program. Everyone in this new program will get health insurance and pension contributions, but beyond that… not much else. This is an increase for former volunteers but a dramatic cut for former appointed missionaries who will now have to find funding for living expenses, language training, and transportation to and from their post. This is a dramatic shift and a sad one. Other Churches and missionary organizations provide a great deal more funding and provide for four months of language training and cars and many other things. I encourage each of you to ponder these shifts in policy and consider the best actions to take.

Well, I need to go into work and take care of a few things and then hopefully get a haircut. I hope that all of you have a blessed and special Holy Week. Thank you for your continued prayers and support.

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March 9, 2008 by Stephen Day.

Greetings from Africa!

It has been a while since I have been able to post and this is mostly due to my busy schedule in the past two weeks. Things have changed dramatically since my first three months here when I had little to do. I am quite busy now and like it! I have been teaching now for two full weeks, although classes have been meeting for three weeks (the first week there were few students and my main goal was just to get to know them and find out where their previous Church History courses had left off. In my Church History II course for Diploma I students I have covered the Great Schism (the split between the Eastern and Western Churches) and the Crusades. The other course I am teaching, Church History IV for Diploma II, has been focusing on the Church at the dawn of the nineteenth century and missionary efforts during that time. At the end of next week I will be giving my students their first test/quiz. Also, at the end of this coming week the school will be going on an Easter Break for two weeks. During that time I hope to figure out what I will be teaching throughout the rest of the semester and work on my lecture notes.

On a different matter altogether… I recently got an email from the Mission Personnel Officer of the Episcopal Church. His email informed the missionaries of the Church of some recent changes that resulted from a recent meeting of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church. The email first explained that the Church had finally agreed to provide a pension fund for lay missionaries for the Church (ordained missionaries had been part of the Church Pension Fund for some time). However, the email continued by stating that because of the financial situation in the Church and the new expense of providing pension funding for lay missionaries, the compensation for appointed missionaries of the Church will be changed. The new compensation package provides for participation in the Church Pension Fund and health insurance. That is all. Appointed missionaries will now be responsible for finding their own funding for living expenses, travel expenses, language training, immunizations, and everything else. This is a dramatic shift and a sad one. The program that I am part of, the Young Adult Service Corps, is not affected by this change because its funding comes jointly from the Mission Personnel Office and the Office of College and Young Adult Ministries. I am not seeking to speak out against the Church that I proudly represent, my goal is simply to draw attention to the state of the Church. The Episcopal Church has been in some financial trouble ever since the events of the 2003 General Convention, after which several dioceses and many parishes decided to end their financial support of the “national” Church. This lack of support has had a direct impact on the Church’s ability to “seek and serve Christ in all people” as the Baptismal Covenant requires us to do. Now, more than ever, it is essential for the Episcopal Church to have a presence throughout the Anglican Communion. One of the key ways that this is done is by sending out missionaries, where invited, to help to build up the body of Christ. I encourage all of you who might agree with me to pray for a change in the priorities of the Church and for improved funding for missionary work. Also, if you know or happen to be a delegate to a diocesan convention/council or the General Convention of the Episcopal Church I encourage you to speak out and act on this issue. Thank you for your continued prayers and support.

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