As one way of building the church culture, christians at Saint Matthias Parish Roman Catholic church in Lumbadzi under the archidiocese of Lilongwe have on Sunday, July 31, 2022 celebrated 35 years of its anniversary.
The anniversary kick-started with Holy mass and Eucharistic celebrations
with the readings/sermons from the books of Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:21-23, Psalms 94 or 95 (the first reading), the book of Corinthians 3:1-5 + 9-11 (the second reading)
and the book of Luke 12:13-21 (the reading of the gospel).
Reverend Father Christopher Losi M’ndala, a visiting priest from Mwanza Parish in the archidiocese of Blantyre emphasized much of his preaching on vanity of vanities. On this, he urged the gathering to thank God for blessing them with different gifts such as; life, families, jobs, businesses just to mention but a few.
Father M’ndala quoted the letter of Paul by reminding christians to praise God through supporting church activities and other needy people.
During the ceremony, a minute of silence was observed as a sign of remembering the lives of the first church priests and christians who died way back.
Several activities were lined up to spice up the event and these include; fundraising/paper sunday, poem recitation, choir festival, live music performances by the burning woods band (from Ntchisi), traditional/religional dances and many more displays.
Minister of gender, children and social welfare Honourable Patricia Kaliati doubled as the guest of honour and mistress of ceremony during the fundraising paper sunday.
Kaliati utilized the platform in teaching against sexual related and domestic violence. She urged christians to love their spouses and family members.
On his part Father Augustine Kaliwu hailed the Honourable minister Patricia Kaliati for gracing the event and gifts she has presented to the church. Kaliwu further urged the minister to make more visits to the church.
Saint Matthias Parish was established on 26 July in 1987.
Felix Kwinyani – Lumbadzi contributor