February 2006 Edition Archive
chikuni
FORTY YEARS ON

MAINTAINING THE ZAMBIAN LINK

Fr Paul Swarbrick

FrPaulSwarbrick
Fr Paul on the radio mast. The photo was taken by Fr Jerome Ainsworth who himself has worked in Monze diocese.
That's me in the picture, 85 feet up a radio mast in Zambia, East Africa. We used to call it Northern Rhodesia. Behind me is Chikuni. There in 1905, the Jesuit priest Fr Joseph Moreau started his Catholic Mission; the second attempt to bring the good news about Jesus to this part of Africa.
Around the time I was making my First Holy Communion in Garstang, our Bishop at that time, Bishop B.C. Foley was attending the Second Vatican Council. There he met and became friends with James Corboy S.J. the then Bishop of the diocese of Monze in Zambia. Bishop Corboy spoke of his great need for priests and Bishop Foley responded. In the forty years since ten priests and one Deacon from this diocese have served in Monze. The first four were Frs Gerry Muir, Eddie McPartland, Tim Sullivan and Bert Taylor and I am the last. In between there has been Deacon Peter Williams, Frs Michael Brown, John Baron, John Walsh, Norman Johnston, Tony Gaskin, and Jerome Ainsworth.
Although I am not to be replaced, our diocese dearly wishes to maintain links with the Monze in Zambia. We already have a link through the work being done on building a water scheme by Harry Whiteside from Kirkby Lonsdale. In The Zambian Link, Looking Back and Slowly, Slowly, Comes The Water, Fr Tim Sullivan, one of the original four, and Harry Whiteside give a fuller picture of what has been done and what plans there are for the future. You may wish to join us in maintaining the Zambian Link.

KathrynTickell
Kathryn Tickell, BBC Musician of the year, at the Cathedral on Thursday 4 May, see here
HIS VOICE IN YOUR EAR: HIS WORD IN YOUR HEART