Profile of the Very Revd. David Njovu 

Dean of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross

The Dean of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross is the Very Reverend David Njovu. He was born on 31st October 1961 in Lusaka Zambia. He is married to Noreen and has four children one girl and three boys. He was appointed Dean on 11th July 1999. He also serves as the Synod Secretary of the Anglican Diocese of Lusaka, is a member of the Zambia Anglican Council, is a Board Member of the Waddington Community Centre and the Kasenga Mission Project and is also a patron of the Chainda Orphanage Project. The Dean also takes part in other voluntary activities. He is an HIV/AIDS Councillor with the Home Based Care Team at the University Teaching Hospital, a Psycho-social Councillor with the National Legal Aid Clinic for Women, member of the Christian Initiative for Refugees in Prison, and is a member of the Ecumenical Steering Committee of Jubilee 2000.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Social Work from the University of Zambia (1992), a Diploma in Theology from the National Anglican Theological College of Zimbabwe (1993), a Diploma in Religious Studies from the University of Zimbabwe, a Certificate in Micro- Computing from the University of Zimbabwe, a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) Degree in Religious Studies from the University of Zimbabwe, and an MA Degree in Religious Studies from the University of South Africa.

He worked as a Senior Project Administrator at Makeni Social Services Centre from 1982 to 1989 when he resigned to join full time church ministry.

Profile of  Bishop John Osmers

Bishop John Osmers who is now an assistant to the Dean at Holy Cross Cathedral remembers his first visits to the Cathedral as far back as the 1970’s, when he used to visit Lusaka from Lesotho, as member of the ANC (South Africa) Religious Affairs and Interfaith Committee. Dean John Klyberg, who in those days was also parish priest of the Lusaka churches, always warmly welcomed him and the Deanery was the communications center for the diocese.

Bishop John was born in 1935, and educated in New Zealand, and first visited South Africa (SA) in 1958 when he found his vocation to the priesthood.  After studying at the College of the Resurrection at Mirfield in the UK, and three years in a Yorkshire working class parish, he has spent the remainder of his ministry in Africa. He first worked for 15 years in Lesotho in two parishes traveling most of the time by horseback to remote mountain congregations.  He also assisted for ten years as secretary of the Student Christian Movement, covering 25 secondary and high schools, and in the Christian Council Refugee Committee, assisting exiles from South Africa. That particular ministry brought him into conflict with the apartheid SA Security police, and after an attempt on his life on 1979 he had to leave Lesotho in 1980 under pressure from the apartheid SA Government.

That same year he was invited to Botswana by the then Archbishop, Khotso  Makhulu, and worked in Molopolole near Gaborone for eight years until death threats from the  SA Security forces obliged him to move to Lusaka in 1988. There he worked for five years as chaplain of the African National Congress, making friends with many who are now in the South African leadership. He was invited by Bishop Mumba to assist in Lusaka diocese as treasurer, and later as training chaplain, and when ANC cadres returned to SA in 1993 Bishop John decided to remain in Zambia, especially because of the shortage of senior educated priests in the ministry of the church.

As training chaplain, Bishop John made twice-yearly visits to the seven parishes of the Eastern province, then a largely neglected part of Lusaka Diocese. On some of these visits the present Dean of Lusaka then an ordinand, accompanied him.   In the   Eastern Province Bishop John found congregations, which were seldom visited by their parish priest, most of whom had to move around by foot, but congregations still very alive and active through dedicated lay leaders, an active Mothers’ Union, and flourishing youth choirs.  In 1995 that part of Lusaka Diocese became a new diocese and Bishop John was the sole choice to be elected their first bishop.

The following eight years were very challenging ones, to build a new Diocese with few resources, though with people with strong faith and a long church tradition going back to Leonard Kamungu who came to Msoro in 1910. The new diocese began with three deacons and three elderly priests, and one of the first tasks was to improve the lapidated parish houses, and to provide Honda motorbikes for transport.  The hope was that each congregation should receive the Blessed Sacrament once a month or every two months; for better pastoral care the seven parishes have since been increased to eleven, and five Evangelists now assist nine priests with the Sacraments and pastoral care.

Being in a province of peasant subsistence farmers, with a very poor marketing system for maize and other crops, the Diocesan income from the people is less than $3000 a year, and there is the need for ongoing lessons on stewardship.  The Diocese has benefited greatly from monthly grants from the Zambia Anglican Council, which enable the clergy to be paid on time, and friends in NZ and the UK, especially in the link Diocese of Bath and Wells and the States of Jersey who have a long term relationship with the schools and clinic of Msoro, and St Francis Hospital Katete.   The hospital is the largest church hospital in Zambia of which the national church may be justly proud, and is run by co-management with the Catholic Diocese of Chipata with which the Anglican diocese has always had a close relationship.

 Bishop John resigned as Bishop in February for retirement, but is delighted to be back in Lusaka. One of his current concerns is the constraint placed on urban refugees, and he continues to have a ministry to Rwandan and Burundian refugees, most recently being made chaplain to the Burundian Drummers’ Association.   He is also grateful to Bishop Mwenda for accepting him to be an assistant bishop in Lusaka diocese, and Dean David who has, he says, welcomed back the “prodigal son.” 

Profile of Revd. Emmanuel Chikoya

Revd. Emmanuel Chikoya is the Curate of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. He was priested on 30^th June 2002 in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, in Lusaka. He was born of Father Peter Jonathan Chikoya and his wife Juliet on 27^th November 1969 at Kafue Mission Hospital in Kafue District. Father Peter Chikoya passed on in 1988. Revd. Emmanuel Chikoya is the first in a family of nine children. He got married in 1991 and has three children; all boys.

 He completed his secondary school education at Matero Boys Secondary School in 1989 before preceding for his theological studies at St. Johns the Evangelist an Anglican seminary in 1998. In 2001 he graduated with a University of Cambridge Diploma in Religious Studies. He also obtained a Seminary Certificate in Theology and a TEEZ Tutor’s Certificate. On July 1^st 2001 he was ordained Deacon.

Revd.  Emmanuel has quite a rich religious background having been born in a Christian family. He was baptized as an infant in 1970 at St. Mary the Virgin, Chinika (now New Kanyama), in Lusaka. In 1983 the late Bishop Steven Mumba confirmed him at St. Philips in Matero. From 1982 he has been actively involved in various church activities and Christian ministries such as Altar serving and singing in the choir. He also served as Congregational Youth Chairman, Choir Chairman, Secretary, Diocesan Youth Treasurer, Vice Treasurer for the Anglican Evangelical ministries and Parish Secretary.  Ecumenically, he served as the Vice Chairman for the local Christian Council of Zambia Youth Committee.

 Before proceeding to undertake his theological studies he worked for the National Airports in 1991 as a Telephone Operator. In1998 he joined the Zambia National Commercial Bank as a clerk in the Accounting and Finance Department where he rose up to supervisor, and thereafter left for his theological studies.

Profile of Revd. Samuel Zulu

Reverend Samuel Zulu is a Deacon at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. He was made Deacon on December 22 2002 after completing his studies at St John The Evangelist Anglican Seminary in Kitwe. He was born of Mr. Robert Zulu and his wife Mary Daka Zulu on 2^nd January 1981 at Matero Health Reference Centre in Lusaka. He is the fourth born in a family of ten children, and is single.

He completed his secondary education at Matero Boys Secondary School in 1996. He later taught at Community Youth Concern as an untrained teacher at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Matero in 1998, Queen Elizabeth Memorial School in Chazanga Compound in 1999 before answering to the call of God to attend theological studies at St John The Evangelist Anglican Seminary in Kitwe in 2000.

In 2002 he graduated from the seminary with a Diploma in Religious Studies from University of Cambridge and a Diploma in Theology from the Seminary. On December 22 2002 he was ordained as Deacon in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.

Reverend Zulu was baptized as an infant at St Philips Matero and confirmed in 1993. He served as  a Sunday school teacher at Matero and Mandevu parishes, and as a Congregation Secretary at St Mark’s Anglican Church from 1999 –2000. He also served as a Councillor in the Mandevu Parish Council from 1999-2000.