RENEW Africa The RENEW International office in South Africa felt the impact of the COVID pandemic when a severe lockdown in the country prevented small groups from gathering for six months. As of fall 2020 conditions are only beginning to reach a level at which people can meet again. The office is directed by Father Jerry Browne with the assistance of Charmaine Woolard. Sister à ine Hughes works with small communities in the Archdiocese of Pretoria and the Diocese of Klerksdorp. Over the past year, the team continued to run workshops for Diocesan Core Community coordinators, Parish Core The enthusiasm is evident among participants in a LIVE LENT! Community coordinators, and Small-Community Leaders. workshop in February 2020 at St. Martin de Porres Parish in Before the lockdown, the office held over 25 workshops East London, South Africa. in the Diocese of Port Elizabeth, promoting Book 3 of Matthew: Come, Follow Me from the RENEW Scripture Series. The series has been translated into the languages of the area—English, isiXhosa, and Afrikaans. The prospect was that Matthew would be used during Lent, but about halfway through that season communities were no longer able to meet because of the pandemic. The South Africa team presented workshops focusing on LIVE LENT! for liturgical year A in East London and to the leadership teams in the archdioceses of Johannesburg and Pretoria. These archdioceses are also using Why Catholic? with different groups that joined the small Christian community process at a later stage. The Diocese of Manzini in the Kingdom of Swaziland and the Diocese of Klerksdorp in South Africa are continuing with the RENEW Africa series. In January, the Loyola Foundation approved a $10,000 grant for the cost of translating, printing, and distributing RENEW Africa books and resource materials for program participants in these dioceses. The grant enables RENEW to bring its resources to parishes with limited financial means.
Participants are in deep discussion during a workshop in February 2020 for Book 3 of Matthew: Come, Follow Me, at St. John the Baptist Church in Bedford, South Africa.
In addition to English, RENEW small-group materials are translated into siSwati, Setswana, Afrikaans, and isiXhosa. Members of the staff of Masinyusane, an organization that assists the poorest Port Elizabeth students, wait for parents to pick up food parcels. School is the only source of food for most of those children, and Masinyusane joined Caritas in collecting food and distributing it to affected families. RENEW contributed to this program, which has fed thousands of families. IMPACT Report 2020
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