First Eucharistic Celebration at St Teresa of Calcutta Prayer Centre
By Benjamin Msowoya
On Sunday, 18 February 2018, the Parish Priest of St Mary’s, Fr. Joseph Sikwese, presided over the first Eucharistic Celebration at the newly established sub-station of St Teresa of Calcutta in St Mary’s Parish. This was done in order to allow the faithful of St. Teresa Calcutta Community to start using the new Church.
Even though construction work has not yet finished, the lay faithful have started using the Church in order to reduce the distance they to travel to St Mary’s Parish Centre for liturgical celebrations.
On the first day, the church was filled to capacity. Many very elderly men and women who could not walk to St Mary’s Parish openly expressed their joy to have the Church near their houses and asked God to bless the benefactor and the Bishop Martin Mtumbuka who made construction of their Church possible.
The Parish Priest said that he was very encouraged by the good beginning as people had gathered for Mass in large numbers, and urged the community of St. Teresa of Calcutta to continue worshipping together at their new Church and in their small Christian communities. He also urged members of the St. Teresa Local Church Council to work together as a team.
St Teresa of Calcutta Church has been built with financial support from Joe Ellul Mattei, through Missio Malta. Mr. Mattei donated 17200 Euro for the construction of the Church, but due to fluctuation of the Malawi Kwacha which led to the rise in prices of construction materials, construction has not been completed. The work which is yet to be done is: flooring, plastering, painting, fixing of windows and doors. This will cost the Diocese around 6,000 Euro (US$7,000).
First Mass in Pictures
