Warmest greetings to you all on this wonderful festive day
as we celebrate together the centenary of MANNA.
I would like to begin by greeting you in the name of our
Triune God who has so richly blessed us over these past 100 years.
It is indeed a pleasure to be here with you today and I thank Rev
Ken Hewitt and the Board of Trustees for their kind invitation to
participate in the celebration with you.
I also bring greetings from my wife, Helen, a former General
Secretary of Manna, my children and all of the people and clergy of
the diocese of Niassa in Mozambique. Although they could not be here
today in person, they are present in spirit and I pray that a portion
of their enthusiasm and appreciation might be seen and heard in my
presence and words today.
In preparing my talk, I asked myself the question, 'What
does MANNA mean to us in Niassa?' I believe it is a very good question
and indeed, it is one that has been asked before. For the Hebrew word
MANNA actually means what? Or what is it? And of course the first
reference of MANNA comes from the Old Testament account of God providing
sustenance for his people in the wilderness on their way to the Promised
Land:
In Exodus 16:31, we read, "The people of Israel called
the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like
a wafer made with honey".
Sounds very good indeed. And so it was for the people of
Israel and so it has been for over 100 years for us in Mozambique
and Angola.
Tasty.
Nutritious.
Sweet as honey
A source of nourishment for the Church in Mozambique and
Angola to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ these past 100 years.
By the time MANNA began to provide nourishment in northern Mozambique,
six pioneering Bishops of the people of Lake Niassa and the lower
Shire valley, as was their original charge, had either died or were
invalid: MacKenzie, Tozer, Steere, Smythies, Maples and Hine. And
despite the many setbacks, a Christian presence in Niassa had been
In 1906, Bishop Gerard Trower held the See in Likoma and
there was indeed a great need for MANNA nourishment from heaven. For
the establishment of the Christian faith in Niassa had been fraught
with danger and difficulty. It was an isolated and difficult terrain;
attacks, violence and the threat of war were commonplace; and killing
diseases were an ever-present reality.
And yet God provided.
For the Church of God in Niassa was sown with martyr's blood
and nourished with heavenly bread, a very rich and fertile mixture
that continues to render fruitful harvests to this day.
Over the years, this sweet MANNA that fell from heaven blessed
Niassa in so many ways; Together we
. Built church buildings
. Equipped the clergy
. Bestowed Bibles and Prayer Books
. Constructed and repaired clergy homes
. Taught lay workers
. Made transportation available
. Sent out evangelists
. Encouraged the Youth
. Taught women to read and write
. Supplied clean water in villages
. Vaccinated children
. Robed priests
. Set up offices
. Provided supplies
. Feed the hungry
So that today, there are 40 clergy, 300 congregations, 600
lay ministers and 45,000 Anglicans in Niassa.
God is Good
All the time
All the time
God is Good.
To truly appreciate just how difficult it was to establish
the Christian Church in Niassa, we must turn again to Scripture. In
the book of Exodus 16.35, we read, "The Israelites ate manna
forty years, until they came to a land that was settled." So
we see that God saw fit to feed the people of Israel with MANNA for
a mere 40 years, but we in Niassa have been benefiting from MANNA
for 100 years and counting and still have not reached The Promised
Land!
But, humans are fickle creatures and even good and tasty
things can lose their appeal. We read in the Book of Numbers 11.6,
". . . we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this
manna!" Here I would like to pause and assure the Board of Trustees
of Manna, that we in Niassa, unlike the People of Israel, retain a
healthy appetite for the sweet bread of heaven. We are still hungry
for MANNA and earnestly desire our relationship to continue.
Nevertheless, it is important to think about the future,
and these celebrations of the past 100 years offer us a unique opportunity
to reflect and pray for God's guidance in this respect. Indeed, we
are challenged by the words of the Gospel of St John (5:12), which
says, 'Your forefathers ate manna and they died'.
Therefore, I think we should take note of the biblical account
of Manna and draw some lessons:
It is from God
It is good and sweet, like honey
It sustains
It comes to an end
Firstly, we must clearly and loudly proclaim that this goodness
is from God. For truly, God is the great giver: the overwhelming,
exuberant, ever generous, big-hearted, open-handed, charitable, loving
God our Father, our Mother our Creator and our Redeemer. It is God
who has gifted us MANNA - this bread of heaven.
Secondly, the sweetness of MANNA over the past 100 years
must be measured not in pounds and cents, but in the flavour of relationships.
Person to person encounters fellowship communion with each other in
our living Lord. This is the true taste of the sweet bread of heaven;
this is what lasts: God's sweet, sweet Holy Spirit connecting us across
the thousands of miles, between different cultures and languages;
across barriers of race and gender to be one People in the Lord.
Thirdly, Manna sustains life. It nourishes and builds. It
encourages and strengthens. It fills the hungry with good things.
It enables us to keep going when we feel tired and lonely. It is life-giving.
And like all living gifts of love, it grows. For the more it is given
away, the greater it becomes, both for the giver and the receiver.
For in love, there is no rich or poor, white or black, north or south
but we are all one, for we all partake of the one bread.
Finally, the manna came to an end; for as it is written in
Joshua 5.12 "The manna stopped the day after they entered the
Promised Land"; it came to an end not because it was no longer
life-giving or nutritious, but because God had something better in
store. SOMEONE better in store: JESUS. "I am the Bread of Life",
says Jesus, "he who feeds on this bread will live forever."
John 6.51
Manna, the bread of heaven, is meant to build up the body,
to strengthen us and to nourish us.
Jesus gives us life.
And it is when we re-root ourselves, our dioceses, our Anglican
Communion our very lives again and again in that sweet, rich soil
of life that is Jesus, that we truly partake of life and life abundantly.
Today we pay tribute to the people who have served and provided
MANNA for 100 years; to the people who have selflessly dedicated themselves
to bring the sweet, sweet Good News of Jesus Christ to the peoples
of Mozambique and Angola. Today we give thanks to God for this great
and generous gift from heaven. And today, we pray that this Bread
of Heaven might continue to sustain us until we all enter into that
Promised Land.
Amen.
