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Mission and Overseas Development
The parish has two main on-going involvements in mission overseas:
- Christian Aid
- Church Mission Society (CMS), and particularly our link Partner in Mission in Nigeria
An agency of the churches in the UK and Ireland, Christian Aid works wherever the need is greatest, irrespective of religion. It supports local organisations, which are best placed to understand local needs, as well as giving help on the ground through 16 overseas offices.
Christian Aid believes in strengthening people to find their own solutions to the problems they face. It strives for a new world transformed by an end to poverty and campaigns to change the rules that keep people poor.
Out of every pound received, 75p is spent on tackling poverty on behalf of the poorest people in the world; 11p is spent on campaigning and education, to change the structures of inequality that keep people poor; 12p is spent on fundraising; 2p is spent on administration.
More information may be found on the Christian Aid Home Page
CMS is a mission agency working in partnership with churches in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Established in 1799, the Society's goal remains the same - to spread the Gospel to every part of the world.
CMS six main priorities are:
- leadership training and theological education;
- support for small and struggling churches;
- evangelism and church planting;
- dialogue and witness with people of other faiths;
- community development and health care;
- work among refugees and migrant peoples.
You can lean more about CMS at the CMS web page.
Susan Essam, our Link Partner in Mission
Deaconess Susan C Essam Susan has been working in Jos since her arrival in Nigeria in December 1983. For some eight years Susan travelled widely, teaching and preaching and leading TEE (Theological Education by Extension). When the Rt. Rev Dr Benjamin A Kwashi was consecrated and enthroned in February 1992 as Bishop of Jos, he asked Susan to work with him. Under his leadership the church has taken on a new lease of life, and God can be seen working in and through his people in amazing ways.
Susan is the Bishop’s Administrative Chaplain and also finds herself involved in many aspects of church life including teaching, preaching, writing and editing. Music has come to the fore again in recent years and she is Director of Music at St Luke’s Cathedral, and Head of the School of Music at the Diocesan Christian Institute. Since February 2000 she has also been Acting Dean of the Christian Institute.
Susan was born and brought up in Northamptonshire. She read music and gained her teaching qualifications at Southampton University. On leaving University she taught in Norfolk. From there Susan went to Lincoln Theological College, and later worked in the Diocese of Worcester, becoming an ordained deaconess in 1980.
The CMS Link Scheme connects congregations in Britain with world-wide mission through a CMS Partner in Mission. It brings British churches into closer partnership with churches in another culture. It also brings the experiences of Christians of other cultures into our worship and witness here in Britain.
Through our link with Susan, we gain a greater understanding of God’s work in the Jos Diocese of Nigeria, a very different culture from the Diocese of Coventry! We contribute to that work through prayer, letters and financial support. We are challenged in our own mission and learn much from Susan and her colleagues through both Susan’s letters and her occasional visits to the parish.
The Rt. Rev Dr Benjamin A Kwashi is now Archbishop of Jos.
This is Susan’s latest newsletter…….
Advent 2015
Dear Friends,
Christmas and New Year greetings from Jos, Nigeria. It sounds ridiculous to say again that I don’t know where this year has gone to, but honestly each week has scarcely begun when it’s already finished! Whether that is a mark of getting older or of enjoying oneself . . . but we are all getting old at the same rate!
I am privileged to continue my work here as Archbishop’s Administrative Chaplain and as Dean of the Christian Institute. The Christian Institute brings excitement, hard work and much joy as well as humility to my heart. This academic year we have more students than ever before: 42 part-time and 110 full time. More candidates applied but there has to be a limit as to how many beds can be squeezed into one room! The part-time are all studying theology, but the full time are almost equally divided between theology and community / environmental health programmes. The vast majority are under 30 years of age, and come from a large variety of backgrounds, so there is a big challenge as well a big joy in teaching, training and helping them to become (hopefully!) young leaders of their families, communities and churches who will stand firm for truth, righteousness, justice and the gospel of Christ. Not only Nigeria needs such young people!
One significant academic advance this year is that we have just begun a Master’s degree programme with 4 students on the pilot scheme. Trinity School for Ministry (Pittsburgh, USA) has chosen us to be their base in Nigeria for their online M.A. programme.
Such growth requires a comparable growth in buildings, and thanks to the great generosity of friends and churches in UK and USA we are able to push on with a large structure for married Quarters and staff flats, and also a new clinic building and other staff housing. The last two are to be built not with cement blocks, but with local mud blocks which the students are making. This week has been declared free of lectures and full of practical work – we need about 10,000 mud blocks! I am hoping I can attach some photos of this activity! We are so very grateful to all our many friends who have given so generously to help us. May God bless you all and reward you as only he can do.
We are truly thankful that despite the elections the year has been relatively peaceful on Jos city. Many people were afraid that there would be much violence and bloodshed during elections, but God brought us through. The government of both this State and of the nation has changed, and we wait to see how it will all work out. There were bombs in Jos in February, but at the moment when they were being thrown at the gate of the University, there was a big and totally out-of-season downpour, which meant that the students who should have been pouring out of the exam hall and through the gate, were held back inside to shelter from the rain. A major loss of life was thereby averted. That was surely God’s miracle! Sadly, some of the surrounding villages have seen too many attacks, raids, killings and destruction, and there have been many deaths and much devastation in the far north-east. Thousands of internally displaced persons have come to Jos. The Christian Institute has given an additional six free places to students from crisis areas.
It was a joy to come to England this year, albeit very fleetingly. My heartfelt thanks again for all your love, care and concern, and especially for your prayers. I miss you all, but I am grateful to God for the privilege of working here. My greatest wish for you is not only that you have a happy, joyous, wonderful Christmas and a great New Year, but that you too might know the joy and the true peace which comes only from Jesus Christ, and from knowing and following him. That’s the only way life makes sense!
With my love to you as always,
Sue / Susan