๐๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ด๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ต๐ช๐ฏ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐๐ต ๐๐ฆ๐ท ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ดโ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ต๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ข๐ด ๐๐ช๐ด๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฑ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ช๐ฐ๐ค๐ฆ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ข๐ฉ๐ข๐ซ๐ข๐ฏ๐จ๐ข.
๐๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฎ๐ข๐บ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฉ๐ข๐ด ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐๐ช๐ด๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฑ ๐๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ธ๐ช๐ง๐ฆ, ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ข๐ฉ, ๐ด๐ช๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ช๐ด๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฑ’๐ด ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฏ ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ ๐ข๐ต ๐๐ข๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ. ๐๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐น๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ฎ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฅ๐ซ๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ญ๐ช๐ท๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฐ๐จ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ข๐ง๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ต. ๐๐ณ๐ด ๐๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ด๐ข๐บ๐ด ๐ข ๐ง๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ค๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ญ๐บ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ‘๐ข๐ฅ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ’ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ‘๐๐ฅ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต’ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฏ ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ต. “๐๐ข๐ค๐ฉ ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ,” ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ข๐ฉ ๐ด๐ข๐บ๐ด, “๐ช๐ด ๐ข ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ธ ๐ข๐ฅ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ.”
๐ ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ ๐๐ช๐ด๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฑ ๐๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด’ ๐ญ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ด๐ต โ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฃ๐ข๐ฃ๐ญ๐บ ๐ญ๐ข๐ด๐ต โ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ต๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ.
Arriving back in England just in time for Easter certainly was jumping in at the deep end adjusting to family, church and climate. It was a great joy to have twelve of the family at lunch on Easter day. My body, having acclimatised perfectly to the heat of Mahajanga, seems not to be prepared to adjust back again and I shall go to the grave moaning about the cold.
On my first week back the Bishop of Lincoln invited me to be an honorary assistant bishop of Lincoln. Nine months later the legal papers have not been processed to the point where they can be signed by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Safeguarding procedures and learning a new vocabulary of church terminology (key mission/festival/resource/hub churches, Mission Partnershipsโฆ) have been quite a learning curve.
The first news from Madagascar at Easter was extremely sad. Sister Jacqueline, the leader of our Anglican Sisters, died of cancer. This was a hard blow to the Community as her predecessor had died of Covid. Both were vivacious and extremely capable, outgoing and loving Christian women.
With my departure from Mahajanga all bishopโs scholarships and handouts ceased abruptly which many recipients didnโt believe would happen although there was plenty of advance notice. The Malagasy are extreme optimists! Unfortunately, so also did some building projects and I have been trying to get them going again. I have given priority to the work at Port Bergรฉ. There, thanks to those of you who have sent donations (especially St John the Baptist, Barnet) we are just completing the roof of the new church and continuing with school buildings. The diocese of Canterbury had given a generous grant for the church but the Archdeacon doubled the size of the church I had envisaged and so ran out of money! The school at Port Bergรฉ is a great success story. There are now 756 pupils with the result that it is desperately short of classrooms and desks. I have weekly (at least) phone calls keeping me in the picture in the hope that I will wave my magic wand.
Soon after I left Madagascar the election of a new bishop took place. For various reasons this was annulled and the process restarted with the Archbishop of the Indian Oceanโs candidate being elected. He is the Ven Darrell Critch of the breakaway Anglican Church of North America. Archbishop James Wong has been the spokesman of GAFCON and all those who do not accept the role of Canterbury in the Anglican Communion. The new bishop will be consecrated and installed on Sunday, 15th December. Both Archbishops (Canterbury and Indian Ocean) leave office in January.
Far away from these church politics I now enjoy ministering to small rural congregations in glorious, but cold, ancient churches in our nearby villages on Sunday while Sarah continues to worship at Bourne Abbey. In many ways it seems like โold timesโ and it is hard to believe I was travelling by dugout canoe earlier this year!
Thank you to all who have read Our Mad Life for the last five years, and contributed and prayed for my diocese in Madagascar. I could not have completed any projects without you.
May we all have a peaceful and merry Christmas spreading the message of love and goodwill to this divided and torn but beautiful world.
God bless you and yours,
+Hall