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Profile

St Charles

The parish was establised ......

Mission Profile

To be a Catholic Church living in communion and participating in the Mission of Christ for the salvation of all.

The History of St Charles Lwanga Parish

This is simply an attempt to document the History of St Charles Lwanga Parish. However, the endeavor is made all the more difficult because some of the actors are no longer present to authenticate the recorded information. Therefore, the authors; had to rely mainly on oral evidence, The aim is to trace the developmental path followed by the church from its inception to the present day. We will attempt to highlight on issues of the origins of the worshiping at the Municipal Hall, the efforts at securing the stand(s) to build the church and finally the governance (modus operandi) of the Parish. St Charles Lwanga Parish is a place of worship under the Catholic Diocese of Gweru. It started as an outstation of St Mary's Parish which was serving Amaveni Commmity and the place of worship then was at the Municipal Hall. And in 1961 with the assistance of Rev Fr Kalfman the parish managed to acquire a stand to build a church. The parishioners relocated from the Municipal Hall and constructed a grass-thatched shed first opposite the present church gate. The Parish Executive was under the chairmanship of Mr Zacchariah and Mr Ziki was his secretary. It is during that same year 1961 that parishioners mobilized themselves and started the construction of the present day church hall. And also, it was during that same period that the parish was changed from being an outstation to become a Parish. It was first named St Zacharias. During the period 1965 to 1966, parishioners once again mobilized themselves to construct the bigger church and through the stop order system, members of the church who were employees of Zisco Steel persuaded their employer to deduct funds from their salaries to mobilize the funds for the construction of the present day church. On June 7 1966, Bishop Rt Rev. Alois Haene officially opened St Zacharias. The Parish Priest then was Rev. Fr. Victor Diars who was then replaced by Rev. Fr Janine in 1972. Still, the Parish executive was led by Mr Zaccaria who was to be replaced by Mr Mupeta in 1976 during which period the construction of the church house was underway. In 1980, the church was renamed from St Zacharias to St Charles Lwanga and Rev. Fr. Machona was the Priest in Charge. He led to the construction of the ablution block and the constructor was Mr E. Matorino in 1984. Rev. Fr Machona together with Rev. Fr Stoffel introduced St John as one of the St Charles Lwanga outstations. In 1984 the two Priests introduced St Peter and Holy Childhood Guilds. They also introduced St Joseph's Guild in 1985. The Parish Executive was led by Mr Stephano Phiri until 1992 when he was replaced by Mr A. Matorino. In 1992 Frs Machona and Stoffel were replaced by Rev Fr. Kiltchman and that saw the first batch of benches which were sourced from outside our borders and the construction of the durawall. In 2006, Rev. Fr. A. Mapftuno became the Priest In Charge and led to the construction of the Grotto. In 2014, that saw the arrival of Rev. Fr. B'asvi Mavuto and the subsequent elevation of St Charles Lwanga to become a Mission. This heralded the reconstruction of the Priest's house and two more guilds, namely Moyo Musande and Hosi Yedenga were introduced to the fora. With the assistance of the Priest, members of a women's group managed to form a pre-school at the Church. They called the name of the pre-school; Good Hope. This also heralded the introduction of other outstations like St Luke at Nkululeko, St Kizito at Grasslands, St Andrews and St James which is some 45 kilometers outside Redcliff The roads to all the outstations are deplorable, but as a man of the cloth there is 00 other way except to reach. out to the innocent souls in those places. He has devoted to endure these harsh conditions to preach the word of God. Today the church can find pride in that they have managed to secure a stand for the construction of a primary school in Torwood, just adjacent to the church premise. Redcliff as a community has acute water challenges. We realized that as a parish and with the assistance of our priest we managed to mobilise funds and sank a borehole at the church. We now have safe and clean water at the church thanks to the priest Fr. D. Mavuto for assisting us in this project. Again we are in the process of till the church and the project is being spearheaded by St Anne’s guild whilst St Joseph’s guid is also leading in the construction of the parish kitchen and the ceiling of the parish hall. Our youths are taking advantage of the availability of water and are making sure the church environment are green.