From N15 to SW19 via Nine Airplanes
Fr Tim Curtis has now taken up his post as the new Director for Jesuit Missions. He was himself a missionary for many years in Guyana, but for the last seven years he has been Parish Priest of St Ignatius, Stamford Hill, London. He began his new job on 15th January. Our reporter recently caught up with him and ask him about his new job.
J&F Reporter:
Fr Tim, congratulations on your new post. What is it like leaving a busy parish and moving into the Mission Office?
Fr Tim:
Well, it’s certainly different. At Jesuit Missions I have so much to find out. Getting to know more Jesuits is certainly my priority, but there are other things to discover. I now know where we keep the biscuits.
J&F:
I understand that you have recently been on your travels?
FT:
That’s right. After finishing in the parish I had a five-week tour of some of our works in Africa. I was able to visit Zambia, Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa. It was a wonderful experience - being able to get to know our men and our works. Everyone was very generous to me with their time and it was a great privilege for me to be able to accompany them.
J&F:
What were your impressions of Africa?
FT:
First off, it’s very big! It’s hard to get one's mind round the huge amounts of space. When God made Africa he made plenty of it! Then there is the different rhythm of life. People feel that there is plenty of time for everything and they just cannot understand why anyone should be in a hurry. Finally, there is an indifference to what fate might have in store. While I was in Zambia, each day we would pray very hard for rain (I understand that the rains came as soon as I left). There is a certain precariousness to life, which people have to live with. I feel that we in the UK are too bound up with our security.
J&F
Which places touched you most?
FT:
There were many, so it’s hard to know where to begin. I was struck by the work of the agricultural college at Kasisi in Zambia, where they are investigating organic ways of growing things - not just a health fad, but so as to free indigenous agriculture from expensive western imports of things such as fertiliser. In Lusaka, Peter Henriott SJ makes a contribution to the rebuilding of the country on Christian lines through the Centre for Theological Reflection.
Nairobi seemed very disorganised, with most people walking as their principal means of transport. I was impressed by the team at the Hakimani Centre preparing for the World Social Fund and the meeting of the Ignatian Family that preceded it.
Zimbabwe was heart-rending because of the collapse of the economy and the way it has devastated so many lives. Seeing the destruction of so many good homes in the ‘Murambatsvina Campaign’ made me mad. My contemporary, Steve Buckland SJ, is doing a great job at Arrupe College, with the formation of so many young and enthusiastic Jesuits. I was touched to visit the graves of the martyrs in Chishawasha and see Musami, the place where they were shot.
In South Africa, the Jesuits are also trying to make a contribution to the life of the country through the recently formed Institute. Fr David Smolira, our former Provincial, is already making an impact. My heart-strings were also tugged when I visited Nelson Mandela’s house in Soweto. It was a connection to the most formative part of the history of the country.
J&F:
Were you able to see any of the schools which are twinned with schools in the UK?
FT:
Oh yes, that was very exciting. In Zambia, our Mount St Mary’s College in Spinkhill is twinned with Chikuni Mission, and they have helped with the AIDS Outreach Project by providing a vehicle for home-based care. Also their secondary school, Canisius High, is looking for a partner school here in the UK. In Zimbabwe, I visited St Peter’s, Kubatana - twinned with Stonyhurst College; St Rupert’s - twinned with St John’s Beaumont; Musami Primary School - twinned with St Mary’s Hall, Stonyhurst; and Makumbi Primary School - twinned with Barlborough Hall, Spinkhill. In each place, work from the children was proudly displayed in the classrooms. Unfortunately I did not manage to see St Mary’s, Nyanga in South Africa, which is twinned with Donhead School, Wimbledon.
J&F
Did you get to meet any of our Xavier Volunteer Programme (XVP) volunteers?
FT:
Yes, I met Rob Parkinson at Chikuni, working alongside an AIDS outreach volunteer. He seemed very happy. Unfortunately, I went in December and most of the other volunteers would not arrive until January.
J&F:
So what is life like at the Jesuit Missions Office in Wimbledon?
FT:
I must say that I have inherited a wonderful team. Alan Fernandes, who has been Acting Director since Tony Montfort retired in 2005, will be staying on as Assistant Director. We have Ashleigh Callow, our Schools’ Development Office, plus Anna Sayan and Edmund O’Donovan who deal with all of the administration. It is a young staff, and a staff who are eager to learn. I feel that working as a team we can begin to implement the Provincial’s dream to turn our ‘office’ into an ‘agency’.
J&F
Finally, name one thing that you have changed since taking up your new job?
FT:
Before I arrived Alan had done a great job reorganising the office space, so we now have a comfortable working environment. I think that just being a Jesuit has made a difference. I see the future job of Jesuit Missions as being of crucial help to the Jesuit Provinces and Regions as they seek to implement - each from their own perspectives - our call to proclaim ‘a faith that does justice.’
