KENYA: ‘Participate Fully in Synod Process’: Religious Called

Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA

Men Superiors under the auspices of the Religious Superiors’ Conference of Kenya (RSCK), have called on all Religious men and women in the country, as the Church marks the 26^th World Day for Consecrated Life, to remember in prayers the first missionary evangelizers who proclaimed the Word of God to the people, and at the same time be part of the ongoing process on Synod of Synodality to be culminated in 2023.

“Inourcelebrationsletusprayfortheconsecrated personswhowerethefirsttopreachtheGospelofJesusChristin Kenyaasmissionaries,” members of RSCK said in a statement signed by the chairman Fr. Robert Karanja Ireri, adding that“Many ofthem (Missionaries)wentthrough different formsofsufferingsandtribulations inordertobringthe good news to us.”

“Now it isour time tocontinue the good work they begun and even become missionariestoevangelize andevenre-evangelizeindifferent partsoftheworld,” the superiors representing 79 male Congregations who are members of RSCK appealed to the Religious in a statement released Saturday, January 29 ahead of the celebration. 

The feast which is celebrated annually on February 2 and is attached to the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, was instituted by Pope St. John Paul II in 1997 to pray for women and men who have consecrated their lives to God’s service in particular Religious Orders and Societies of Apostolic Life.

In the statement, the superiors have asked all Religious men and women to be part of the ongoing two-year preparation of the Synod of bishops where all “Christians as well as Religious have been called to “pray, reflect, discuss and share their experiences, insights, desires and to be open to the challenge offered by the three significant words of the Synod theme: communion, participation and mission.”

“This yearwecelebrate ata timewhentheMother Churchhas invitedustojourneytogetherforasynodalChurchthroughCommunion, Participation and Mission.Asconsecrated persons we are invited toparticipate fully inthisprocess where we are called to pray, listed analyze, dialogue discern and offer advice onmaking pastoral decisions which correspond as closelyas possible to God's will,” reads part of the statement.

“Let usdothe best in the vineyard ofthe Lord asper the abilityGod hasgranted usandwhatever isbeyond uswelift ituptoGodthroughprayer,” concludes the statement.