Let’s Keep Membership of Small Christian Communities “small enough” for Closer Interpersonal Encounters: AMECEA Chairman

Bishop Kasonde’s sentiments were echoed by Archbishop Maurice Muhatia Makumba, the President of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB), who recalled the message at the 1994 synod of African Bishops, about the need to have SCCs.

“The first special assembly of Africa of the Synod of Bishops recognized that the Church as family cannot reach her full potential as Church unless it is divided into communities, small enough to foster close human relationships,” Archbishop Muhatia said.

“This is how I look at the Small Christian Community,” the Archbishop of Kenya’s Catholic Archdiocese of Kisumu said, and added, “It is living our faith in the neighborhood where people know each other, and share each other’s joys and sorrows.”

Archbishop Maurice Muhatia Makumba at Subukia National Marian Shrine on Saturday, 5 October 2024 Credit: ACI Africa

In SCCs, members “participate in the life of each other,” he said during the October 5 celebration that was realized under the theme, “Journeying together in Integrity as a Family of God through Small Christian Communities.”

Archbishop Muhatia observed that the Church as family especially in the AMECEA region is expressed in the SCCs. “This in itself is consistent with most African communities, especially those that are not yet fully urbanized. These communities primarily are places engaged in evangelizing themselves so that subsequently they can bring the good news to others,” the Chairman of KCCB said. 

He said that SCCs should be communities, which pray and listen to God’s word and encourage the members themselves to take on responsibility, learn to live an ecclesial life, and reflect on different human problems of the life of the Gospel.

Urging the over 50,000 pilgrims who gathered for prayers at the Marian Shrine to join SCCs, Archbishop Muhatia said, “There is something wrong for Catholics in the AMECEA region who do not belong to SCCs.”

Pilgrims at Subukia National Marian Shrine on Saturday, 5 October 2024. Credit: ACI Africa

“AMECEA rightly puts it that Small Christian Communities are the way of being Church in this region,” he said, and added, “Those who do not belong to any SCC should ask themselves where they are headed.”

In his address at the event, the Chairman of AMECEA outlined the history of SCCs in the Eastern Africa region, noting that the 1994 synod that saw African Bishops meeting for a special assembly was not the first time for the continent to interact with SCCs.

Bishop Kasonde recalled the founding of AMECEA in 1961 by Bishops in Eastern Africa, who he said had the desire to inspire the African cultures with the message of the Gospel through an Ecclesial model that they wanted to be “truly local, self-reliant, self-ministering, and self-propagating.”

“In the AMECEA Assembly that was held in Nairobi in 1973, the key statement was that ‘We are convinced in the Eastern countries of Africa, it is time for the Church to become truly local’. Since that time, the Bishops of AMECEA resolved that every Diocese within the AMECEA region should form Small Christian Communities at various levels as a pastoral tool for evangelization,” the Zambian Catholic Bishop said.

Pilgrims at Subukia National Marian Shrine on Saturday, 5 October 2024. Credit: ACI Africa

He said that since their meeting in Nairobi, then, Catholic Bishops in AMECEA have remained committed to the building of the Church around SCCs.

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The AMECEA Bishops have also emphasized that SCCs “should not remain optional, but rather be central to the life of faith, and life of ministry for all agents of evangelization,” Bishop Kasonde said.

To date, he went on to say, SCCs have been a key pastoral tool for AMECEA, making five decades of existence.

The AMECEA chair noted that this year’s celebration of the SCCs 50 years coincides with the ongoing Synod on Synodality, which he said “can be seen as an expression of the same spirit embodied in small Christian Communities.”

Pilgrims at Subukia National Marian Shrine on Saturday, 5 October 2024. Credit: ACI Africa

Bishop Kasonde said that moving forward SCCs must be places of nourishment rooted in the Word of God.

Additionally, SCCs should be places for promoting prayer life, where members are nourished by the Word of God, he said, and explained, “Every Christian should have a personal Bible for consultation and reflection. Let us use our Bibles regularly.”

SCCs, the Catholic Bishop said, should be places for nurturing vocations and ministries, and where integral development of the entire human person is promoted.

At the event, Bishop Joseph Maluki Mwongela of the Catholic Diocese of Kitui who also serves as the Chairman of KCCB’s Commission for Pastoral and Lay Apostolate challenged SCCs in the AMECEA region to foster the spirit of sharing among themselves.

Bishop Joseph Maluki Mwongela of the Catholic Diocese of Kitui who also serves as the Chairman of KCCB’s Commission for Pastoral and Lay Apostolate at Subukia National Marian Shrine on Saturday, 5 October 2024. Credit: ACI Africa

“As we journey together as a people of God in our Small Christian Communities, let us pray that we may learn as a country, as a people that many are the times when small is much,” the Kenyan Catholic Bishop said.

He added, “In our Small Christian communities, let us not seek to have everything for ourselves, but have something for everyone and be contented.”