Our confrere Fr John Slinger passed away peacefully and unexpectedly 2 days ago in Mwanza, Tanzania after having prepared the altar for morning Mass.
We will publish more about John, his life and his death later. However since there will be a Mass for him today in Mwanza and his requiem and burial tomorrow, it is important that those who know and care about him be informed as quickly as possible.
From Fr Oswald Mallya, We will have a requeim Mass for John tomorrow Sunday 22/12/24 starting from 17h East African time (2pm GMT) in Nyakato parish in Mwanza where John has served and where he was booked for Mass on the same Sunday morning. The funeral Mass will be celebrated on Monday 23/12/24 at 10 a.m (7am GMT) East African time in Nyakato and it'll be presided by the archbishop of Mwanza and another bishop. After the Mass, the body of John will be brought for burial in Nyegezi cemetery where the other Missionaries of Africa and diocesan priests are buried. The cemetery is near our community of Nyegezi in Mwanza.
Dear Father Hugh and Father Oswald Mallya,
Thank you very much for reading our message to John. We loved and will continue to love him very much. We are sad that we were not able to get flights in time for his funeral but we hope to visit his place of rest soon. Please could you kindly send us the link to the live streaming when and if it becomes available. Thank you once again for everyone’s support. Please let us know if we can contribute in any way at all. Thank you.
From John Slinger’s niece, Annie
The eulogy to be read at John’s funeral.
Our Great Uncle John touched the lives of so many people. He was full of life and was the heart and soul of many gatherings. He lived life to the full and remained young in his heart always. We are all truly shocked to learn of his passing. He maintained his fitness throughout his life and shamefully, we could never quite keep up with him! To us, his mind was his youth, he had the most positive outlook on life, and that positivity was a gift he shared with everyone around him. He was happy to share, happy to listen, happy to help, happy to teach, happy to learn and happy to love every one. He embraced all walks of life, all religions and always did his best to remember everybody.
We loved hearing all about his life, and when he was in Africa he would think of all his friends and family outside of Africa and when he was here with us, he would remember all of his friends and family in Africa. He never forgot any of us and we will never forget our Great Uncle John. He has always said that Africa is his home. It was his wish that he would remain in Africa should anything ever happen to him and we are glad that his wish can be fulfilled.
We are grateful that he has lived a beautiful life but grieve with extreme sadness that we cannot speak with him again. We know he would say “Don’t Worry! Everything will be ok!” but we will miss him, today, tomorrow and for the rest of our lives. We are blessed because John loved to take photographs and share videos and we can continue to see him playing the guitar and hear him singing songs and he will continue to live in our hearts.
Our Great Uncle John was not only Great because he was our daughters’ Great Uncle but because he was a Great person who loved all people, animals - especially cats, Everton football club, playing his guitar, Guinness and above all, God. He is an exceptional person and God has called our Great Uncle John to join them in Heaven and we pray that we may laugh with him again someday.
We love you Great Uncle John, thank you for loving us and thank you Africa for being the home of our beloved Great Uncle John.
This is one of our favourite moments with our Great Uncle John as this photo captures the adoration that we have for him. The light that he brings to our hearts and how natural he is with every one. He is playing with his great niece and joy and happiness radiates from their interaction and this moment sums up our love for John.
The events will be livestreamed from this Facebook page
https://m.facebook.com/MissioPastoralis/