St.Joseph's Church, Mbangamao Parish

St. Joseph's Church Mbangmao is one of the twenty five parishes in the diocese of Mbinga which is situated in the southern part of Tanzania, bordering Malawi and Mozambique. The Bishop of the diocese, Rt. Rev. Emmanuel Mapunda, is the first bishop of Mbinga. The diocese has 61 priest and 367,754 faithful spread over 11,400 km2. The Mbangamao parish has a catholic population of 10,078. The people are belonged to Matengo tribe. The Name Mbangamao is originated from the term “Mbanga-amabu” which is kimatengo a dialect spoken among this tribe. The literal meaning of the term “Mbangamao “ is “ Mother is Better”.

The people of this area are farmers and their cultivation is mainly depends on the rain. It’s a mountainous area and people prefers to live scattered. Mbangamao parish has seven substations . They are namely , “Njomlolee, Uzena ,Lifakara, Ilela, Makatani , Kagugu and Mahanagana. The furthest village is some 20 Km far away from the parish church And the nearest one is only seven kilometers.

The Mbangmao parish was officially entrusted to the care of vincentians in 1997 and it was also the place of formation of our vincentian candidates who wished to join the congregation until 2002. Fr.Jonson Nedungadan C.M was the first Vincentian to be in charge of this Parish. He was assisted by Frs. José and Jacob in different occasions. In 2000 Fr.James K.Thomas was appointed as the Parish priest and Fr.jaimy Moonjely was assisting him as well as taking care of the seminarians.

Fr.Varghese Ayyampilly the present father in charge and the Parish priest of Mbangamao Parish arrived Mbangamao in 2002 and was assisting then Parish priest Fr.James K.Thomas and later in 2005 he was appointed as the parish priest. All the vincentionm missionaries who were in this Parish one time or other have significantly contributed and worked hard to bring up the parish both spiritually and materially.

The main activity in the Parish is to take care of the spiritual needs of the faithful. Every alternative Sundays people from all seven substations gather in the parish church for the Eucharistic celebration. Other Sundays the catechist conduct prayers in the village chapels. All the substations gets at least one each mass in a month. During the raining season the roads are so dangerous as the mud is so slippery and all the bridges are made of wooden planks. At present the Mbangamao parish has six kindergarten and one tailoring school. We also have an AIDS awareness programme which is very active. Also through the instrumentality of the congregation nearly 100 children from this parish are assisted for their education.

The attendance for the mass in ordinary days are very few as many of them go their field early morning and some others have to walk a long distance to reach the church. But Sundays and the feast days there will be a huge congregation of faithful. Every year we baptize nearly 600-700 catechumens which includes both adults and infants. The local customs are so deep rooted that 99.8% of the marriages are rectified after many years of living together. Polygamy is still prevent among this tribe though the number of the polygamist have come down considerably in the recent years. The AIDS epidemic is spreading like a wild fire in Mbangamao parish like any other parts of Africa. The greatest challenge of the Local church is to tackle this human catastrophe.

Fr.Varghese Ayyampilly C.M

Father in charge and the Parish priest St.Joseph Church, Mbangamao.