Special visitors from Sudan have arrived in our diocese to help build stronger links with our schools and churches.
As part of our Diocesan Link with Sudan, Archbishop Ezekiel of Khartoum was asked to nominate people to make the journey and he chose Mothers’ Union leaders, Mama Hewaya, Sudan’s Provincial MU Coordinator and Mama Samira, its provincial MU Leader.
Both are key national leaders of work with women and are based in Khartoum.
Arriving in the UK, they met Archbishop Justin Welby and his wife, Caroline, at Lambeth and had a meeting at the MU headquarters, Mary Sumner House, in London before travelling to Yorkshire.
“Mama Hewaya and Mama Samira are with us in the diocese until October 9,” said our MU President Jean Thurman, pictured with them (right and left, respectively) at Leeds Minster, together with MU members.
"We want to get to know our visitors so that we can offer prayer support and they can take back to Sudan an understanding of our churches and what we do to engage in mission and ministry," Jean said.
“They have already shared their prayer requests with us and we realise how different our lives are, but we are all sisters in Christ.”
“The Mothers’ Union here want to connect with them and share how we work in this Diocese and how we can learn from them.”
One of the couple's visits included learning about the rural heritage of St Leonard's, Chapel le Dale, and its role during the building of the Ribblehead viaduct (pictured left).