Birmingham: memorial service for Mgr Patrick Kalilombe MAfr

Mgr Patrick Kalilombe MAfr

There will be an ecumenical memorial service in Selly Oak Methodist Church in Birmingham on Saturday, 3 November at 2pm in memory of Rt Rev Dr Patrick Augustine Kalilombe MAfr, an inspiring church leader and teacher, who died on Wednesday, 24 September in Malawi.

Bishop Patrick was the first Malawian to join the White Fathers, now Missionaries of Africa. A biblical scholar, he was the first Malawian to be appointed lecturer at Kachebere seminary and then its first Malawian Rector. As Bishop of Lilongwe from 1972, his diocesan mini-synod proposed the revolutionary idea of a “self-ministering”, “self-propagating”, and “self-reliant” Church in the spirit of Vatican II; which was seen as a threat to the government and church.

He had to leave Malawi in 1976, but it was in his exile in USA and Europe that he found the fulfilment of his missionary vocation. Teaching in the Selly Oak colleges he had become the missionary that he had felt God’s call to be. He taught Third World Theology and Primal World Views to protestant missionaries in training, and then became Director of the Centre for Black and White Christian Partnership, working with people from mainline and independent churches in Britain. He was also a founder member of EATWOT – the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians - and active in many other church and academic societies. We thank God for the richness of his ministry in UK and in Malawi.