St. Matia Mulumba, Irundu, Uganda

Our friendship with Irundu began in 2005 with a suggestion that we find a parish with which to twin in Africa. In 2006 three parishioners went to Uganda to find a suitable parish and one that was willing to twin with us. They decided on Irundu, a parish of 2000 square miles and 36000 parishioners in the east of Uganda in Jinja Diocese.

So there are six major centres and thirty-six sub-centres where Sunday worship is offered without clergy; in addition, there are over a hundred house groups meeting for prayer, scripture study and economic cooperation.

Our Vision for this Friendship

Fr. James saying farewell to Fr. Stephen October 2007		The Vision for the Worth-Irundu Friendship Worth Abbey Parish wishes to live its faith fully, and since God has called all people to be one in Christ, we reach out to those of different race and culture, and especially the poor. Therefore, we hold out our hands in loving friendship to our sister Parish of St. Matia Mulumba in Irundu, Uganda. Learning – We wish to learn from our sister Parish. St. Matia has a vibrant faith and much to teach us, especially about liturgy, catechesis, social care and lay leadership. We will bring back to our own Parish the lessons we learn through our relationship. Offering – In a spirit of sharing and with true Christian love we offer our sister church our friendship, time, skills and material help. Receiving – We look forward to receiving many blessings from our friendship. By our participation in different ways, all of us will benefit; and in particular our young people will find inspiration for their own faith journeys.

What Is Happening Right Now


We have a common prayer (see below) which both our parishes are using to pray for each other

The Friendship House has been completed and was blessed by the Bishop after Mass on March 1st. It was used immediately and is both comfortable and spacious. Worth parishioners now have a lovely place to stay when visiting

Another kind donor has made it possible to start work converting the Parish Hall into a seven-bedded Pre and Post Operative and Physio Centre. This will provide a vital facility for so many in the parish. Sue Garner ran the London Marathon raising £2000 for physio equipment for the Centre

A number of micro-credit schemes are now up and running including start-up loans, business loans and ox-plough loans. All are working well and helping the people of the parish to help themselves.

After the hugely successful collection just before Christmas we were able to buy 700 mosquito nets for the parish which are making a significant difference

Our 'Change for Irundu' scheme continues to raise money for school benches. To date the scheme has funded 100 benches, so keep on filling those tins

Sponsoring an orphan for a vocational course is the latest scheme which will help lift young people out of poverty. The initial response from Worth parishioners has been very encouraging and it is heartening to see how willing the Worth Parish community is to help our Friendship Parish

The women of Irundu Parish continue to make the lovely necklaces which Jenny Harrison is selling so successfully. So far she has raised over £450 to enable parishioners to have life changing surgery



Worth-Irundu Friendship House financed by an anonymous Worth donor

The Worth-Irundu Friendship Prayer

God our Father,
Our refuge in adversity,
Our strength in weakness,
Our comfort in sorrow,
Be merciful to your people.

Keep the churches of Worth and Irundu in your special care.
Increase our faith,
Give us this day our daily bread,
And help us to keep learning from each other,
Offering to each other
And receiving from each other.

We make this prayer through Christ our Lord, Amen

Tenth Anniversary Celebration of St Matia Malumba Church

There was a celebration Mass at Worth on Saturday, December 5th at 
5.15 pm for the 10th anniversary of St Matia Malumba Church. At the 
end of the Mass Charlotte Sharpe read the following words from Father
Stephen:
 
"Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We thank you for joining us as we celebrate our tenth anniversary.
We are grateful to God for having us as his children to dwell here in Irundu.
We are grateful to the bishop who gave us permission to restart the
parish, to all the priests who have worked here over the years, to the
laity, the catechists, the sisters, the support staff and to our benefactors
who have contributed to support our pastoral work. Last, but not least,
we thank God for our brothers and sisters at Worth who are joining their
hands with ours to build the Kingdom of God. God bless you".

Finally Father Stephen asked for an extract from St Paul's First Letter to
the Corinthians, 3: 10-15 to be read:

'By the grace God gave me, I succeeded as an architect and laid the
foundations, on which someone else is doing the building. Everyone doing
the building must work carefully. For the foundation, nobody can lay any
other than the one which has already been laid, that is Jesus Christ. On
this foundation you can build in gold, silver and jewels, or in wood, grass
and straw, but whatever the material, the work of each builder is going
to be clearly revealed when the day comes. That day will begin with fire, and
the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If his structure stands up
to it, he will get his wages; if it is burnt down, he will be the loser, and
though he is saved himself, it will be as one who has gone through fire'.



A slideshow of Irundu photographs taken during the December 2009 Visit