The Bishop of our partner Diocese of Dornakal in India, the Rt Revd Padma Rao has just visited the Diocese of Gloucester and King’s School with a delegation from the diocese’s churches and schools. Dornakal is a rural diocese.
The visit was led by Canon Gary Grady and Penny Fayter , the two Diocesan link officers for Karnataka Central Diocese and the Diocese of Dornakal.
Accompanying the Bishop were his wife, the Revd Vijaya Rao; the Dornakal Link Officer, the Revd Abhijith Bhimala and two teachers from the Dornakal English Medium School, Mr Arun Mendu and Mr Shyam Mesa. A 14 year old student Mahitha also accompanied the group.
There were many highlights during their visit including spending time with their host families and visiting different areas of the Cotswolds including the Lechlade Benefice and Cranham School and Ann Edwards School. The guests were very impressed by the open way pupils are encouraged to learn. They loved the art and drama, subjects which are not taught in their schools. Another of the highlights was the trip to the food bank in Gloucester because it had such a huge impact on our visitors.
The Revd Abijith has been inspired to try to set up a clothing bank in his own church on his return home. He spoke at length to Fiona Jarvis who was one of the managers at the food bank, asking in detail about how the scheme operated.
Penny explained, “Abhijith said that in India people tend not to recycle clothes and don’t like to buy second hand as there is a stigma attached to that, but that they love clothes, with some women having up to 100 saris at home.
“Abhijith hoped that if he could get the 2,000 families who are members of his church on board with a clothing bank, it could save people a lot of money and cut a lot of waste. If more affluent people helped to make it more socially acceptable to use second hand clothes, this could help less well off people to access clothing too. The poorest people in their communities cannot afford a doctor and don’t have a birth certificate, so initiatives like a clothing bank could help many people.”
The impact of a clothing project like this could be huge, as there are around 1,500 churches in the Diocese of Dornakal, all with large numbers of families on roll.
As well as the big ideas and shared learning, small moments of connection really helped to make the trip special. Abhijith’s children spoke to Penny’s granddaughter on WhatsApp. King’s School put on a special celebration banquet, and they also had the chance to meet the Revd Naftali Nikika who was visiting from our partner Diocese of Western Tanganyika in Tanzania.
Although there are many shared challenges, some aspects of life are very different in India compared to the UK.
Senior Youth Connector Barrie Voyce shared his experiences of the difficulties young people experienced through social media use. The visitors explained that in rural India, social media is not yet an issue as very few young people have mobiles. The Indian young people tend to go on retreats every half term for worship which their church provides and enjoy Bible reading studies. They spend much more of their lives outside of school in church-based activities.
Penny said, “It was a very successful visit and I was struck by how observant our visitors were. We found that there were good things in both Dioceses that we were able to share and learn from. I have since had a letter from Shyam, one of the teachers saying how sad he was not to be in England anymore. We loved having them with us and felt it to be a really valuable and enjoyable visit.”
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