"It is the responsibility of the Bishop, who has been entrusted with the care of a particular Church, to dedicate to God new churches built in his diocese." (Rite of a dedication of a church")
Having been appointed bishop of the diocese of Manzini in January 2014, I started visiting each one of the 120 communities we have in the Kingdom of Eswatini. Among the first ones was a church built in Dwaleni and was, at that time, an outstation of the Cathedral.
The church looked basically finished but had never been dedicated. It was finally done on Saturday 24 November. In the meantime (two years' ago) "Dwaleni" had become an outstation of the new St Peter & Paul Parish (Kwaluseni).
People from different parishes in our diocese attended the celebration together with a number of non-Catholics from the area and pastors from other Christian Churches.
During the final speeches there was a particular moment. Blankets had been donated to the Church by one of His Majesty's wives who comes from that area and was baptised in the Catholic Church. The Church's local committee decided to offer them to ministers of the other Christian churches present so that they could too help the poorest in their community.
It seemed to me that our prayer had been heard. The prayer of dedication of the Church says:
Here may your faithful, gathered around the table of the altar, celebrate the memorial of the Paschal Mystery and be refreshed by the banquet of Christ's Word and his Body.
Here may the poor find mercy, the oppressed attain true freedom, and all people be clothed with the dignity of your children, until they come exultant to the Jerusalem which is above.
While the Banquet of Christ's Word and Body is always present at our celebrations, the care for the poor might not always be. The presence of all three on this special day was a beautiful sign for the day and for the future celebrations.
The following day I presided the celebration of confirmations at St Mary's (Lobamba). The new church was dedicated in 2016. It is big and beautiful.
At the end of the Mass of dedication, Fr Ncamiso Vilakati who was at that time the priest-in-charge, shared a Powerpoint with the history of the building project. The last slide was not: "the end" or "we've done it" but "to be continued" and showed two old and fragile buildings in the outstations.
The message was clear: this is done, now we need to think of them. The community remained committed. After the two-hour confirmation Mass on Sunday, we had a one-and-a-half hour fundraising event where no one remained seated (not even the priest or the bishop!). They do it regularly and they are always extremely generous.
It started by showing the progress from that day at the end of July when we gathered at Dzabe to bless the place where the church would be built until today. Soon, also that church will be ready.
