Fr. Toby Collins, CR visits Morogoro - Part 3 - Congregation of the Resurrection 2025

Fr. Toby was only here for two weeks, but he made a lasting impression on the people in the Formation House in Morogoro. It was great for me also to spend time with Fr. Toby and to catch up on things going on in the Canadian Province.

Watching the guys cook the meat on the barbeque made me think that I need to bring some gloves and barbeque utensils back with me after I visit North America in the late summer-early fall. That meat is too hot for hands!

Fr. Toby slipped into my role as ice cream distributor quite nicely! I think I have mentioned this before, but the ice cream here is good.

There was some good-natured teasing going on. I asked some seminarians if I should go back to Canada and Fr. Toby could become the new rector. They did not know what the “correct” answer was, so they said it was okay if that is what I wanted! Very diplomatic. Seriously, I don’t know how many times I heard a seminarian ask Fr. Toby when he would return. He really made a great impression upon them. As a parting gift, we gave Fr. Toby some carved animals, including these 3 giraffes (“twiga” in Swahili), one for him, one for Fr. Raphael, and one for Fr. Pavel, all of whom minister together at St. Mary’s Parish in Kitchener, Ontario.

In order for Fr. Toby to have the “full experience” in Tanzania, I invited him to the liturgy at Jordan University College when 5 of our theology seminarians received the Ministry of Lector and 2 of our theology seminarians received the Ministry of Acolyte. Here, Fr. Toby is in the sacristy getting ready for Mass.

I did warn Fr. Toby that the liturgies were long here, and true to form, this one came in over five hours long! Fr. Toby said that he began to “lose focus” after 2 hours. Rookie!

Here is Mario (2^nd Theology) receiving the Ministry of Lector from the bishop of Morogoro, Bishop Lazarus.

To the left is Gervas (1^st Theology) who received the Ministry of Lector and to the right is Brayan (2^nd Theology) who received the Ministry of Acolyte.

Peter (1^st Theology) received the Ministry of Lector.

Selestine (1^st Theology) received the Ministry of Lector.

Francis (1^st Theology) received the Ministry of Lector.

Fr. Toby was able to congratulate Emmanuel who was given a special award for his role as chairperson for the liturgy committee for 2022-2023. He will likely receive another award next year because he is serving in the same capacity this year as well.