Saint Joseph the WorkerUpper Kitete, Tanzania

Recorded at the parish by Prince and Fr. Vicent. The still above is a frame from the film.

Upper Kitete, Tanzania

They raised the arches.
The roof is what is left.

Saint Joseph the Worker Parish built its own church from fired brick and cut stone. Fr. Vicent Mbusa walks you through what is finished and what is not.

Give toward the roof Follow the build on Facebook

The online giving link is being set up. Until it is live you can write to Mariano, or send a check.

The parish
Saint Joseph the Worker, Upper Kitete, Tanzania
Pastor
Fr. Vicent Mbusa, CSC, Congregation of Holy Cross
Organized by
Mariano Pimentel, volunteer, North Easton, Massachusetts

Why a roof

The one thing they cannot make from the ground it stands on.

The building the parish uses now is timber, sticks and packed earth under sheets of corrugated metal. Inside it is dark. A candle burns on the altar table in the middle of the day, because the light comes from two small openings cut in the wall. On a Sunday the room fills, then the doorway fills, and the rest stand outside in the dirt and follow the Mass from there.

On the same ground, a second church has been going up. Brick, with turned arches over every window, set on a foundation of cut stone, wide enough to hold the parish and the people who cannot fit into it now. The walls are finished. The arches are closed. Someone has rigged a temporary roof of poles and sheeting across part of the span so the building can be used at all.

Brick and stone they have managed. The roof has to be bought.

Roofing steel, timber for the trusses, fixings, and hands that know how to set a span that size true and square. These are the parts of a church that cannot be made from the ground it stands on, and they are the parts a rural parish cannot cover on its own.

Until the roof is on, the new church stays unfinished, and rain goes where it likes inside it.

The parish

Upper Kitete, photographed.

Every frame here was made at the parish or on its grounds, by the parish and by the people who have visited it.

The church holds a fraction of the people who come, so the rest gather in the open ground outside it.
SundayThe church holds a fraction of the people who come, so the rest gather in the open ground outside it.
Earth walls, a corrugated roof, and a candle lit on the altar table in the middle of the day. The light comes from two openings cut in the wall.
InsideEarth walls, a corrugated roof, and a candle lit on the altar table in the middle of the day. The light comes from two openings cut in the wall.
The new church on its cut stone foundation. The figure standing at the wall gives the scale of the building.
What they builtThe new church on its cut stone foundation. The figure standing at the wall gives the scale of the building.
Every arch is turned and closed. Above them there is sky where the roof belongs.
What is missingEvery arch is turned and closed. Above them there is sky where the roof belongs.
Dusk inside the new church. A temporary roof of poles and metal sheeting covers part of the span, and three men sit on the top of the finished wall.
For nowDusk inside the new church. A temporary roof of poles and metal sheeting covers part of the span, and three men sit on the top of the finished wall.
A young boy looking into the camera outside the timber church, parishioners gathered behind him.
Every SundayOutside the church the parish uses now, built from timber and sticks.

The ask

A roof across a building that is otherwise finished.

Give toward the roof

Where the money goes

What it buys
Timber trusses, roofing steel, fixings, and the skilled labor to set a span that size true and square. Materials and installation only.
Who receives it
Saint Joseph the Worker Parish, Upper Kitete, through Fr. Vicent Mbusa, CSC.
Held in the US by
Holy Cross Family Ministries, North Easton, Massachusetts.
Not yet confirmed
An itemized cost for the roof.

Who is accountable

Named people you can write to before you give.

Father Vicent Mbusa, CSC, in purple vestments, his congregation gathered under the trees behind him.
Fr. Vicent Mbusa, CSC, pastor of the parish.
The parish
Saint Joseph the Worker, Upper Kitete, Tanzania. A Catholic parish served by the Congregation of Holy Cross.
The pastor
Fr. Vicent Mbusa, CSC. He appears in the film above, recorded at the church.
The organizer
Mariano Pimentel, Director of Human Resources at Holy Cross Family Ministries, acting as a volunteer. Write to him at mpimentel@hcfm.org before you give if you want to ask anything.
Where gifts are received
Holy Cross Family Ministries
518 Washington St
North Easton
MA 02356
Following the work
Progress is posted to the Facebook group. As the roof goes up the photographs here get replaced with newer ones.

Before you give

Questions people ask.

Is this an official Holy Cross Family Ministries campaign?
No, and it matters that you know it. This is a personal effort by one of their staff members. Holy Cross Family Ministries has agreed to receive gifts for the parish, but the appeal is not an HCFM program and HCFM does not run the building project.
Then why is Holy Cross involved at all?
Father Vicent Mbusa is a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross, the letters CSC after his name. That is the same religious congregation Father Patrick Peyton belonged to, and the congregation that founded Holy Cross Family Ministries. The link between the parish and the people raising money for it runs through that shared congregation.
How do I know this is real?
Every photograph here was taken at the parish and the film was shot there. The pastor is named and so is the organizer, with an email address that reaches a real person at a real ministry in Massachusetts. The Facebook group carries the same photographs and is updated as the work goes on. Write to Mariano before you give, and he will answer.
How much does the roof cost?
That figure is still being confirmed with the parish, and this page will not publish one until it is. When the cost is known it will appear here and in the Facebook group.
Where does my money actually go?
To roofing materials and the skilled labor to install them, for Saint Joseph the Worker Parish in Upper Kitete.
Where is Upper Kitete?
A rural community in Tanzania. The parish serves the Catholic families in and around it, and the nearest thing it has to a parish hall is the ground under the trees beside the church.
Can I help without giving money?
Yes, and it is worth as much. The organizer is looking for people willing to bring this appeal to their own parish or group. If you can make an introduction or arrange a talk, write to mpimentel@hcfm.org.

How to give

Send a gift to the roof.

The online giving link is being set up

Mariano Pimentel is finishing the online giving page. Until it is live, write to him and he will tell you exactly how to send a gift, or send a check using the details below.

Email Mariano about giving

Giving $1,000 or more, or arranging a parish second collection or a Knights of Columbus donation? Write to Mariano at mpimentel@hcfm.org and he will handle it personally.

By check

Payable to Holy Cross Family Ministries
518 Washington St
North Easton
MA 02356

Before mailing a check, write to mpimentel@hcfm.org for the memo line that routes it to this appeal.

Raise the RoofSaint Joseph the Worker, Upper Kitete

Give toward the roof