The Diocese of Leicester is linked with four other Anglican dioceses overseas.
These are: Kiteto inTanzania, Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Trichy in South India and Wyoming in the USA.
A key part of this partnership in mission is the meetings of bishops from all our linked dioceses that take place every year or so. Recent meetings have been found to be enriching, inspiring, challenging and a time of sensing the movement of the Holy Spirit.
In gathering together from our four culturally diverse continents, the bishops consciously seek to model difference without division within the Anglican Communion. Further to the conversations, the five bishops agreed affirmations, commitments and resolutions for working together. You can view and download more detail here.
Kiteto and Kilimanjaro - Tanzania
The Diocese of Leicester has been linked with the Anglican dioceses of Kiteto and Mount Kilimanjaro since 1982.
The Tanzanian Link Committee is chaired by Revd Micheal Broadley.
Originally, they were together as one whole diocese corresponding to the administrative regions of Arusha, Kilimanjaro and Manyara. This is largely savannah grassland which is at the mercy of two rainy seasons. In the south, in the Masai Steppe, the rains are much less reliable and the area is vulnerable to severe drought and starvation.
Since Kiteto became a separate diocese in recent years, the Diocese of Mount Kilimanjaro (DMK) covers Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions and Kiteto diocese comprises the districts of Manyara Region, Simanjiro and Kiteto, the Masai Steppe.
Kibaya, in Kiteto, is at the heart of the diocese. The whole district is rural and populatld mainly by the Masai. It is also one of the poorest and driest areas in Tanzania.
Leicester partners with the Tanzania dioceses in numerous ways:
- Support for Kiteto Diocese in expanding the provision of education through Kiteto Christian College, particularly ensuring greater educational opportunities for girls.
- Partnership with DMK in its current programme of planting 300 new churches.
- Support for Munguishi Bible College in training new [pastors and evangelists.
- Regular financial support by giving to three priorities agreed by our bishops: training; church planting and a fund for emergencies arising from natural causes such as lack of rain.
Trichy - South India
The link with the Diocese of Trichy-Tanjore in South India is an ecumenical linkmanaged by a committee within Churches Together in Leicestershire.
The committee members are passionate about developing the link, and have often visited Trichy themselves. They’re eager to enable others to have that experience too.
Trichy, which is short for Tiruchirappalli, is a city of about a million people, in the state of Tamil Nadu, about 200 miles north of the southern tip of India, situated on the R. Cauvery.
Most people are Hindu, although there are many Muslims and Christians in about equal numbers. People speak Tamil, but as a legacy of colonial rule, English is also widely spoken.
Download the introductory leaflet here for more information and photos, or contact Jonathan.Kerry@LeicesterCofE.org who would be pleased to help with queries and questions.
Wyoming
The Diocese of Wyoming, USA, has a link with the same overseas diocese as Leicester, (in Kitato, Tanzania) so it was natural for Leicester and Wyoming to forge a link of their own.
The link officer with the Diocese of Wyoming is Liz.Rawlings@LeicesterCofE.org
The link with Wyoming has specific areas of shared interest, learning and mutual support with the Diocese of Leicester, including fresh expressions of Church, social action, leadership, vocation and training, rural ministry and discipleship.
Liz visited Wyoming in June 2019 and you can download a report which gives more details of the link, the context and Liz's experience here.