Link Murang'a - linking Meldreth and Melbourn with Murang'a, Kenya
Link Murang'a is a group that is a part of the PCCs of both Holy Trinity Church in Meldreth and All Saints in Melbourn. It is quite simply a link, a fellowship between those two parishes and the Diocese of Mt. Kenya Central in Kenya, which is run by a small committee answerable to the PCCs. Mt. Kenya Central has recently been divided into two – a Central Diocese and Murang'a South Diocese and the team continues to work with both. Link Murang'a came into being in 1998 following a stay in Meldreth by the Bishop, Dr. Julius Gachuche, prior to his attending the Lambeth Conference.
While the main purpose and raison d'etre of Link Murang'a is to maintain contact and fellowship with the diocese, it is also there to support the community work done by the church in that part of Kenya. Our original aim was to sponsor a number of young women through a three-year motor mechanics training course being run by the church, but over the years we have expanded our brief and have funded the building of a water tank at the training institute and the building of two teachers' houses there, together with a borehole, pump and water tanks in a very arid part of the diocese where the only water supply was a river some two hours' walk away for many of the villagers. The team are currently fundraising for a new dispensary in a remote village community called Kambiti. There are several challenging health issues for the local people including malaria and typhoid. Pre and post natal care is limited. The villagers are building the dispensary themselves, whenever they have sufficient materials.
In 2010 the current Bishop, Isaac Ngang'a, came over to the UK specifically to visit our parishes, and spent ten days here, meeting folk, giving talks, preaching and visiting Cambridge and Ely Cathedral. There have been several visits to Kenya over the past few years by locals from Melbourn and Meldreth. They have visited Murang'a, the town in which the diocese is centred, thus consolidating and strengthening the link and the fellowship. These visits have also enabled us to see how the money we have sent out has been used, and to appreciate the impact such help has had on the local communities.
For further information on Link Murang'a, please contact the following: