Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
At a time when the Catholic Church in Eastern Africa is growing in number and deepening of faith, a group of six Catholics from Germany and Switzerland visited some Small Christian Communities (SCCs) in Kenya to learn how SCC meetings are conducted so as to learn from them and be able to improve the spiritual life of their people back home.
“The situation in Germany is troubling us. There are many challenges especially the decreasing number of Catholic faithful’s which is a concern for us,” Mr. Johannes Duwe in charge of accompanying pastoral development processes and works for Missio Aachen said in an interview Tuesday, February 18.
“We intended to seek new ways to reach people who have lost faith and those who have left the Church and we realized that the Church model of Small Christian Communities is one of the practical ways working in the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA) region where we can learn how to reach out to people in their neighborhood to share the Gospel,” Mr. Duwe.
Missio Aachen is an International Catholic Mission Society“whose task among others is to raise and strengthen the missionary awareness of the faithful as a community of learning, prayer, and solidarity in Germany.”
Explaining the situation in Switzerland that triggered his visit to the AMECEA region, the cleric in charge of two parishes in Switzerland’s Basel Diocese Fr. Raimund Obrist said, “My situation may even be worse, many people are leaving the Church.”
“My intention therefore was to see how Small Christian Communities are working, how they are organized and then reflect with others how I can implement the ideas from Kenya,” Fr. Obrist who is responsible for building pastoral unity in his two parishes disclosed and narrated further, “It is surprising that in the 1940’s and 1950’s missionaries came to Africa to bring the faith, and now the movement is from Africa to our countries.”
On his part, Missio Coordinator of Germany’s Rottenburg-Stuttgart diocesan Mr. Philip Schroder, acknowledged that his visit was mainly to be enthused and grasp how the Church is significant to the people.
“My personal motivation to visit Kenya was to get inspired on how the Church can once again be meaningful to people because that is what is lacking in Germany,” Mr. Schroder said and added, “The Gospel is no longer influential in the private life of the people.”
The week-long visit which commenced Wednesday, February 12 saw participants visit two SCCs, one in the ArchDiocese of Nairobi and the other in Kenya’s Meru Diocese where they also met with a group of coordinators from other SCCs.
In their analysis, the faith of Catholics has been deteriorating in Western Europe due to abuses that arose in the Church and the wealth aspect in Germany.
“Sexual abuse by Church ministers that came up in 2010 has led many Catholics to leave the Church and this is a very difficult issue we are facing,” Mr. Duwe disclosed and continued, wealth also make people not think of God, in fact about 40% of German population are atheist and they do not believe in God.”
The participants in the eight-day visit to Kenya appreciated what they learnt from the Christians highlighting the importance of open sharing, trust, unity, family bond and sense of belonging.
“I learnt the strength of communities, members of Small Christian Communities are quite open and ready to share their experiences about daily life,” Missio Coordinator of Germany’s Erfurt Diocese Ms. Monika Konig shared during the evaluation of the visit and added, “Members have the feeling that Small Christian Communities belong to them and this is a motivating aspect.”
“The sense of family is very strong and this is touching us, this is what we lack in Germany. The family is at the center and this is key in community living,” Mr. Duwe expressed and continued, “They are sharing freely about their different situations, about their challenges and how they are touched with the word of God, I loved it.”
Expressing their willingness to strategize on how to implement what they have learnt, the participants came up with ideas on what may be applicable in the Western Europe context hoping in the long run, their visit to Kenya will bear fruit.
“We do have denary meetings with the priests, pastoral coordinators and caritas every three months. I think this would be a good opportunity to talk about this new idea of Small Christian Communities because we all feel frustrated with what is going on in our parishes,” a parish worker from Germany’s Dresden- Meissen Diocese, Mr. Matthias Demmich shared his take when he goes back to his Diocese.
He added, “At times, I am invited in some groups to conduct a spiritual opening prayer and I feel this could be a good opportunity to also introduce Bible sharing and hopefully step by step this could work.”
“I will try to talk to people about formation programs in the parishes. Coordinating with the parish administrator to start formation in the parishes,” Coordinator for pastoral development processes in Germany’s Dresden-Meissen Diocese Mr. Steffen Hollmann shared his plans and added, “This requires a good relationship between the priests and pastoral coordinators.”
While appreciating the strong faith of Catholic faithful in Kenya and making proposals on what to implement when back in their countries, AMECEA pastoral coordinator Fr. Emmanuel Chimombo encouraged them in the steps they are to make saying, “Whichever strategy you try to apply don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t work. When you realize it is not applicable, change and identify another model.” He added.
“My advice to you is ‘follow up,” Fr. Joseph Healey of the Maryknoll Missionaries who animates SCCs within the AMECEA region advised and added, “Combine a physical SCC gathering and an online SCC gathering using social media.”
According to Fr. Healey, there are approximately 180,000 SCCs in the nine AMECEA countries.