letter from Sierra Leone
Two men, recommended to one another four years prior, finally met in Nairobi in March this year.
One was Thomas Wilson, Anglican Bishop of Freetown, Sierra Leone, who had become increasingly anxious about the state of his church. Freetown is one of the fastest growing cities in West Africa, yet the Anglican church was unable to keep pace. Pentecostal churches were attracting the young with contemporary music and dynamic services, but his diocese was failing to adapt. His clergy were too focused on tradition and the liturgy, and were reluctant to upset the church’s older, more conservative members.
The other was Canon Richard Mayabi, Executive Director of Anglican Missions Africa. He had recognised Bishop Thomas’s problem was in fact a continent-wide issue back in 2015 while working for the Council of Provinces in Africa. Richard had been commissioned to conduct an audit of the Anglican church which revealed it was not only in decline, but in some provinces steep decline. The findings were presented at a meeting of African Archbishops in Rwanda who admitted the church was “sick and needed to be healed”.
They asked Canon Richard to use his gifts as an evangelist to develop a training programme for bishops to be mission-minded and so, in 2019, after piloting a course in Rwanda, Anglican Missions Africa (AMA) was formed.
After several failed attempts to make proper contact, Bishop Thomas flew to meet Canon Richard in Nairobi earlier this year. They immediately hit it off. Richard recognised in Thomas a bishop prepared to face the realities of his stagnating diocese and determined to address the problem before it became too late. At All Saints Cathedral he showed the bishop how modern, vibrant, African-style worship could be blended with the church’s rich Anglican heritage, enabling young and old to feel equally at ease in the church family.
Fast-forward to mid-May and Richard has brought a team to Sierra Leone to train 28 clergy, carefully chosen by Bishop Thomas, how to build and sustain a healthy church. The five-day course was held at the Mount Zion training centre in the hills beyond the city and involved classroom work in the mornings, door-to-door evangelism in the afternoon, and culminated in a crusade on Saturday with an invitation to join a church service on Sunday.
John Foday, an energetic young deacon chosen by the bishop to be the diocese’s Mission Coordinator, arranged delegates into pairs for local outreach. Many of the dwellings visited were occupied by caretakers living in partially constructed buildings but, despite Freetown being majority Muslim, the local inhabitants were generally receptive.
However, the Saturday crusade got off to a shaky start. At 5pm, the advertised start time, I was waiting alone at the agreed meeting area. Schoolboy error! This is Africa. Eventually the team arrived carrying a generator and keyboard and began to set up, but the generator failed to start. Meanwhile a nearby football match remained the focus of attention. Eventually a replacement generator was found and as the singing and dancing began, so a steady stream of inquisitive locals arrived until a good crowd had formed to hear Joseph, Richard’s apprentice evangelist, preach on the Good Samaritan; after which Richard invited those assembled to come forward and commit their lives to Christ.
The course closed having evangelised 375 locals, with initial interest expressed by almost 200. Each delegate committed to train ten congregants to form teams focused on mission and church planting and 11 locations were identified for the creation of new churches by the end of 2026. And crucially, Bishop Thomas will insist that all 56 parishes produce a dedicated budget for Sunday School and the youth ministry.
