Mid-Argyll Churches Twinning with Kasamba Congregation, Lilongwe, Malawi
The connection between Lochgilphead and the country that is now Malawi goes back to 1896 when Rev. Donald Fraser, who was born and raised in Lochgilphead, arrived in the country.
He was born in 1870, the son of the Free Church minister of Lochgilphead. He left the then Nyasaland in 1925, after working for 23 years in Loudon Mission, Embangweni, in the Northern Region of the country. Donald Fraseer’s ashes are buried in Loudon and there is a plaque commemorating him in Lochgilphead Parish Church.
In recent years the number of Scottish mission partners serving in Africa, the Caribbean and the Indian Sub-Continent, who also had links with congregations in Scotland, has declined. Twinning between Scottish congregations and communities and congregations and communities abroad has been replacing the old form of partnership.
The Mid-Argyll Churches involved in the Twinning are Ardrishaig and South Knapdale, Lochgilphead, Cumlodden, Lochfyneside and Lochgair, Glassary, Kilmartin and Ford and North Knapdale. Our twinning partner is Kasamba Congregation of the Synod of Livingstonia of the Church of Central Africa, Presbyterian (CCAP), in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, which is situated in the Central Region.
Kasamba Congregation Men's Guild
There are three Synods of the CCAP in Malawi, the Synod of Livingstonia in the Northern Region, the Synod of Nkhoma in the Central Region and the Synod of Blantyre in the Southern Region.
Kasamba Congregation Women's Guild
The most widely spoken language in the Central and Southern Regions is Chichewa (still known as Chinyanja in many African countries) while the dominant language in the less heavily populated north is Chitumbuka. Culturally Kasamaba is comparable to the Scottish Kirks in London, while, in terms of language, it is like the Gaelic congregations in Glasgow.
Youth Fellowship
Kasamba Congregation has 1,663 members and, because of its fast growth has ten Vestries or Prayer Houses. It has Men’s, Women’s and Youth Fellowships, Mission Outreach Teams and a HIV/AIDS Committee.
We have a Malawi Twinning Group, consisting of representatives of the congregations, which has met regularly in recent months. Our Treasurer, Mrs. Liz Lees of North Knapdale, has a link with Malawi. Her late father, Mr. Eric Christie, was born in the then Nyasaland and baptised by another distinguished Scottish missionary, Rev. Alexander Hetherwick, who served for many years in Blantyre in the Southern Region.
Several of us have made e-mail contact with Mr. Joel Kandodo-Phiri and Ms. Desiree Mhango. The next stages in the twinning would be involving the community, visits and the signing of a twinning agreement. The Twinning is commended to your prayers.
This land has been recently acquired for the Kasamba Congregation to build their church.
Hello, I have been doing some work on fair trade and social enterprise with schools, primarily in Kintyre. One of the things we have done is sourced some fairly traded cotton direct from Malawi and the young people will be designing shopper bags. If this is something that you think the schools in Mid Argyll and Furnace would be interested in I would be happy to run some sessions there (seeing as I’m from Lochgilphead and my folks are all in Furnace). The school group in Kintyre sell their fairly traded goods at parents nights and their profits are shared between educational activities and ‘Mary’s Meals’ who they visited in Dalmally.
Let me know if you would like to make links, cheers, Ailsa