Getting to Know Botswana

[The Diocese of Botswana and the Diocese of North Carolina are now companion dioceses. In the coming weeks, information about what this means, about the Anglican Diocese of Botswana and the country itself will be shared with the people of the Church of the Good Shepherd by Lisa Towle, a parishioner of CGS as well as a member of the North Carolina-Botswana Companion Link Committee.]

In January of 2008, at the annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, a contract was signed by the Rt. Rev. Michael Curry, Bishop of North Carolina and the Rt. Rev. Trevor Mwamba, Bishop of Botswana. This agreement put their respective dioceses into a companion relationship for a minimum of five years. Companion Diocese programs are common in the worldwide Anglican Communion (North Carolina is also in an on-going companion relationship with Costa Rica, having entered a second five-year
commitment with that diocese in 2005.)

Companion relationships have two broad goals: (A) To help strengthen the Anglican Communion through the direct experience of interdependence across cultural and geographical boundaries, and (B) To strengthen one another for mission by building a relationship in which each partner is both give and receiver.

The dioeses of North Carolina and Botswana have promised each other the following:

1. We will support our life and ministries together through prayer;
2. We will create opportunities for mutual ministry to and with our children and our youth. We will also strengthen our initiatives with respect to Christian-based education within the Anglican tradition.
3. We will explore means for the formation and support of clergy; and encourage and support the development of lay leadership and ministry.
4. We will support the ministries offered together by the Mothers' Union of Botswana and the Episcopal Church Women of North Carolina;
5. We will establish congregational connections between parishes in Botswana and convocations in North Carolina;
6. We will support ministries to and for persons with HIV/AIDS and to their families. Special attention will be given to those [children and youth] who have lost their parents, and to the development of caregiving ministries to those who are actively dying.
7. We will explore ways to foster development for the economically marginalized in Botswana and North Carolina in ways that are consistent with goals of our dioceses.

How the dioceses are already starting to address these points will be addressed in the next issue.