Worked with Sudan refugees and enabled church growth
The Rt Revd Andrew Proud has been appointed as the new Bishop of Reading, and will be installed on 16 April.
Andrew and his wife Janice have been working with the Anglican Church in Ethiopia since 2002. Initially Andrew served as the chaplain of St Matthew’s Church in the capital Addis Ababa. Then, in 2007, he was appointed to the newly created post of Area Bishop for the Horn of Africa (an area within the Diocese of Egypt that includes Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somaliland and Somalia).
Andrew said of his nine years in Ethiopia: ‘These have been hugely formative years. I would say that Ethiopia took me right out of my skin and made me see the world – and the church – in a different light; insights I hope to bring to my new role.’
In Ethiopia, Andrew and Janice helped to set up a wide-range of community initiatives, including libraries for schoolchildren and the provision of food aid. In the remote region of Gambella, in western Ethiopia, Andrew saw Anglican churches grow from eight in 2002 to 53 today.
He also helped to establish the Gambella Anglican Centre, which opened last year and is already providing literacy courses for 60 women’s group, as well as running health and agricultural programmes to local people, irrespective of religious background. During their early years in Ethiopia, much of the Prouds’ work involved supporting refugees who had fled a two-decade civil war in Sudan that ended in 2005. Baptisms in crocodile-inhabited rivers Andrew held baptisms in crocodile-inhabited rivers and trekked through a machete-cleared path to deliver a Christmas sermon to a remote village community.
He said: ‘I have been living in a country where every year there’s an expectation that 6 million people will go hungry – and last year the actual figure was 16 million. As well as hunger there is high infant mortality, diseases and tribal conflicts. With all these hardships, people work really hard to pull themselves out of poverty. And that’s really made me look at the relatively minor things I was being anxious about and put them in perspective, and live a much more simple and grateful life, and live for the good.’
It could take up to 18 months to find a replacement for Andrew.
In the meantime, Andrew said the Anglican Church in Ethiopia was in the hands of teams of committed and capable local staff, with the addition of two overseas priests: the Revd Colin Hodgetts, from Exeter, based in Gambella, and the Revd Roger Kay, from Australia, in Addis Ababa.
USPG General Secretary Bishop Michael Doe said: ‘Ten years ago Andrew offered himself for service with USPG, going to the Diocese of Egypt as one of our Mission Companions to serve in Ethiopia. He has exercised his gifts as a leader and teacher, first as a parish priest and latterly as Area Bishop, building up the church and initiating a number of Development projects. We are delighted that he now brings these gifts, and his experience of the world church, to the ministry of a bishop in the Church of England.’