MALAWI: Saint Rita Women’s Choir Honours Patron with a 20th Anniversary
Sam Kalimba
A women’s choir from the Catholic Parish of St. Andrew Kaggwa in the Archdiocese of Lilongwe has honoured its patron saint in style as the choir celebrated its 20th anniversary on May 25, 2024.
Since the feast of St. Rita of Cascia is normally marked on May 22, 2024, the choir shifted the celebrations to a Saturday of Saturday, May 25.
Chairlady of the choir Mrs. Grace Ussi told this reporter that they chose to celebrate their 20th anniversary together with the feast of St. Rita because that was the only way they would honour their patron saint and seek for her continued intercessions.
“Our Choir is named after St. Rita and we pray to God through her intercession as we sing. Her feast was on a week day and we thought of shifting our customised celebration to a Saturday. We started with Mass in thanksgiving to God almighty for the life of the choir. In the 20 years of singing for the Lord, we lost some members who led us to the father and we prayed for the repose of their souls. We managed to produce two Albums within the period of 20 years and we made several exchange visits to various parishes and dioceses. After the prayers we invited all our guests to a luncheon and a social gathering,” said Mrs. Grace Ussi.
Spicing the occasion was the presence of members from a less than one year old Small Christian Community from the same Parish, which shares a name with the choir. Mr. Dominic Meleke is the Chairperson of Saint. Rita Small Christian Community and read the history of the life and sainthood of St. Rita of Cascia before the mass started. In an interview with this reporter, he said that his Small Christian Community is indebted to Saint. Rita Choir because of the support the choir rendered during the inauguration of their community last year. He said that St. Rita Small Christian Community is having a double celebration of the first anniversary and feast day of their patron saint on Saturday June 1, 2024 and that St. Rita Choir has already accepted to animate the Mass.
Saint. Rita Choir was born out of leisure among a group of Catholic women who undertook an exchange religious visit to a Catholic Diocese of Mangochi in 2004. Diocese of Mangochi is found in the eastern part of Malawi while Archdiocese of Lilongwe in in the Central Malawi and for the sake of the distance in between, the women had to travel on a Friday and return on a Sunday.
“One of the roles we were asked to play was to animate the liturgy of that Sunday’s Mass, which included leading in singing. We took the challenge, got organised and practiced in a distant land. It was for the first time and so we had to forego some leisure to ensure that we animate the Mass with dignity that it deserves. We were surprised by our own animation and when the parishioners approved of our choice of songs and what they described as euphonious singing, we agreed to set a mission. The mission was to go back home and request for a permission to establish ourselves as a choir. We were very luck that our request was accepted and here we are celebrating 20 years,” recalled one longest serving member of the Choir a Mrs. Joyce Chibwira.
St. Andrew Kaggwa Parish was commissioned in around 1992 and was under the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin until around 2015 when the Parish was taken over by the diocesan authorities.
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