New women’s college to mark anniversary
SIX ARMED men terrorised a Nigerian town on the evening of 8 November, robbing an Anglican Church and hospital before kidnapping a 16-year-old girl.
The Vanguard newspaper reported the thieves drove into Amanuke in the Awka North area of Anambra State in southeastern Nigeria with guns blazing.
They entered St Anthony’s Hospital and Maternity, taking hospital equipment, mobile telephones and cash from patients and staff, and then moved to Holy Trinity Anglican Church where they stole the day’s collection and church plate.
The vicar of Holy Trinity, the Rev Canon Nehemiah Ugoagu, told The Vanguard: “They took my two phones, my wife’s jewellery and other things and then commanded me, at gunpoint, to pray for them so that they would have a smooth operation.”
As they left the town, the thieves stopped at a farm. Finding no cash, they took a 16-year-old girl with them. Her whereabouts are still unknown. TO MARK the 34th anniversary of its foundation, the Diocese of Manicaland in Eastern Zimbabwe has broken ground on the construction of a new college for women.
At a fundraising dinner held on 7 November, the Rt Rev Erick Ruwona announced the diocese had raised approximately £50,000 towards the construction of St Catherine’s Anglican Girls College in Rusape.
Bishop Ruwona noted: “This day will go to waste if we believe in sitting like Bartimeaus on the streets of Great Britain, Canada and the USA with a begging bowl and we do nothing and expect the donors and our friends from overseas to do everything for us.
“We have to take our calling seriously and offer to God something acceptable, not blemished. As Christians gathered here we have to spare something in cash or kind towards the construction of this college.”
He urged Zimbabweans to “offer generously to God from today and not from tomorrow. In giving to God, we accept that we are bringing back to God what is due to him, therefore we should sow on this fertile soil that the Lord has given us, the girls’ college.”
The college will open its doors in February 2016, he said and is expected to enrol 800 girls.