Bishop of Ho gets to know New Brunswick
by Ana Watts
Bishop Matthias Medadues-Badohu of our new Companion Diocese of Ho in East Ghana will know New Brunswick pretty well by the time he and our Bishop Claude Miller of Fredericton sign the Companion Diocese Covenant during the opening service of our 129th Synod on Thursday evening (June 7).
On May 28, shortly after his arrival in the diocese, Bishop Matthias attended a Bishops Counsel meeting held in the Parish of New Bandon, near Bathurst on New Brunswick’s north shore. He spent some time at Bishop’s Court in Fredericton on the beautiful St. John River, attended some sessions at the Atlantic Theological Conference at Christ Church Cathedral, and was amazed by the selection of electronics available at Future Shop.
He spent Friday, June 1, in the Parish of St. George on the Bay of Fundy coast then went on to spend the weekend in the Parish of Hampton on the Kennebecasis River.
In Hampton he attended the parish’s annual Salmon supper and the Mothers’ Union (MU) closing banquet (he is MU chaplain in his diocese and the Rev. Leo Martin is MU chaplain for this diocese). He also preached at both Sunday morning services in St. Paul’s. Parishioner and seamstress extraordinaire Betty Kennett offered to make him a new cassock and a preaching stole. She hopes to find a suitable digitized version of Ghana’s MU emblem so she can include it as well as the Canadian MU emblem on the stole.
Bishop Matthias was a dinner guest at Rothesay Netherwood School on Sunday evening, then went on to attend a Deanery Evensong at St. James’ Lakewood, in Saint John, as part of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Diocesan Choir School.
On Monday he left for a three-day visit to Miramichi, on one of the best Salmon fishing rivers in the world. On Thursday he will sign the covenant at the opening synod service at Christ Church Cathedral and be in attendance for the meetings on Friday and Saturday in the Aitken Centre on the University of New Brunswick Fredericton campus. On Sunday he will preach at the 10 o'clock service at Christ Church Cathedral.
