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05/05/2017 GMT

BBC World Service - Heart and Soul, The Big Brief

A journey with Dickson Chilongani, Bishop of the world's largest Anglican diocese.

What is it like to be the Bishop with the biggest brief in the world? Meet Dickson Chilongani, Bishop of Central Tanganyika in Tanzania. This is the largest Anglican diocese in the world. It has 700,000 Christians in 265 parishes. It is also one of the most forward-looking dioceses in Africa - the first diocese in Tanzania to ordain women and a key player in training priests who can lead their local community as well as preach the gospel.
 
Zita Adamson listens in to Bishop Dickson as he goes about his work ministering to both the spiritual and practical needs of his many parishioners. What is it about this modest, unassuming man that won him a landslide victory in a country where Episcopal victories are normally hotly contested? And why did he lose all his friends on the day he became bishop?
 
The journey takes us to Tanzania's first school for the blind at Buigiri. We also visit Msalato Theological College where a female student describes how villagers thought she was too young and thin to be a priest. And we squeeze into the crowded church in the village of Samaria where people affected by leprosy tell the bishop that their children are thrown out of primary school because they can't afford uniforms and exercise books. We also meet Dickson the family man and Dickson the Man U supporter. We call in on his mother who can't read or write or even speak much Swahili. We hear why Bishop Dickson's son prayed that his father would not get the top job.  And along the way we discover just why it's so important to the bishop to get his hands dirty on the farm after a long day in the office.

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