Religious Sisters Participate In SCCs Programs in Kenya

By Francis Njuguna

The contribution of Religious Sisters (Catholic nuns) in Small Christian Communities (SCCs), a pastoral program of Catholic Church in Eastern Africa, is clearly being witnessed today. In some parishes and dioceses in Kenya the number of nuns involved in SCCs programs is on the increase. The nuns are participating in various ways such as animating SCCs, promoting SCCs or simply being an active member in a given SCC.

According to Father Joseph Healey, a renowned SCCs promoter in the Eastern African region, there are an estimated 120,000 SCCs in the region, of which an estimated 45,000 are in Kenya. The missionary priest, a member of the Maryknoll Society of Fathers and Brothers from America, also says the Catholic Diocese of Machakos is leading the other dioceses in the country with 5,000 SCCs, followed by the Archdiocese of Nairobi with an estimated 4,500 SCCs.

Kenyan Catholic nun, Sister Mary Frances Wangari, a member of the Little Sisters of Saint Joseph, is one such Religious Sister. She has just finished a ministry of being in charge of the Good Governance and Schools Project and Acting Coordinator of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Association of Sisterhoods of Kenya (JPC-AOSK).  Wangari regularly takes time off to participate in various SCCs activities in the parishes of Ruai, Kayole and Guadalupe in the Archdiocese of Nairobi. “Sometimes I also find myself taking time off to attend SCCs activities in my home parish of Saint Jude, Kerugoya Parish in Kirinyaga Country,” she emphasized. “Here I find myself actively involved in various SCCs activities such as participating as a simple member, animating or simply teaching about SCCs,” she explained during a recent interview with this writer.

Other SCCs activities include prayers on community, family, nation and individual needs, material contribution to needy cases in the community, saying the rosary and community’s support on matters pertaining to funerals/burials and marriages/weddings. “I find these SCCs activities quite encouraging,” says Wangari. She adds, “I have a passion for SCCs. As such I spend much of my Sundays on various matters relating to SCCs.”  “My very strong belief about the SCCs is that we, as Christians, should own this pastoral program fully. Each one of us, the clergy, religious men and women as well as the laity must ensure we all participate in nurturing this SCC pastoral priority,” added Wangari.

She says her first encounter with SCCs was at Moshi, Tanzania, while pursuing her theological and pastoral course there between 1994-1996. “Since then I have embraced this pastoral program as a way of life and when I came back to Kenya from Tanzania in 2001, I made sure that I got engaged in the SCCs work outside my other duties. This is how I got hooked into SCCs and in a particular way in the parishes of Ruai,  Kayole, and Guadalupe” explained Wangari. “Tanzania really gave me the first chance to encounter SCCs, first in the classroom, then in the field and finally practically experiencing it,” said Wangari during the interview. “The country of Tanzania really gave me a rare chance to learn, practice and live the whole concept of SCCs,” she added. “This is where I learnt about the SCCs in the class, did fieldwork on it and equally lived it. This I did in the parish of Mto wa Mbu in the Archdiocese of Arusha,” added Wangari. “Here I was able to work among the parishioners on various SCCs activities among various Catholic communities. I worked among 32 SCCs, ten of which I assisted to revive,” explained Wangari.

She sees SCCs as an effective way to build a strong Church as Family on different community levels. She suggests that SCCs should be introduced and taught in all formation houses. “Effective building and promotion of strong SCCs would result in a strong Catholic faith at the family, local church and community levels,” stressed Wangari. Apart from assisting the faithful create a forum for deepening their faith through Bible-reading and sharing, for example, the SCCs are effective in helping the Christians assist the Catholic Church to articulate some of its pastoral teachings in messages such as the Bishops’ annual Kenya Lenten Campaigns. “On this point the SCCs in Kenya country have become quite effective in articulating the Bishops’ teachings on issues such as the country’s 2013 General Elections. This I can attest without any fear of contradiction since I have been associated with the preparatory work on those messages,” added Wangari.

Sister Wangari singles out Father Joseph Healey, a member of the Maryknoll Missionary Society of Fathers and Brothers for commendation for his role in promoting  SCCs in Kenya and the rest of the Eastern African region under the Catholic Bishops’ regional body of AMECEA (Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa). AMECEA was founded in 1961 and currently groups together the Catholic Bishops’ Conferences in the nine African countries of Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia. “He is my mentor. He has done a lot in this field. He deserves commendation. No wonder some of us refer him as Mwanajumuiya, the Kiswahili word for a member of SCC,” she says.

The priest has recently published a book on SCCs: Building the Church as Family of God: Evaluation of Small Christian Communities in Eastern Africa. The new book, 163 pages. is published by the CUEA (Catholic University of Eastern Africa) Press and appears as No. 199-200 in the AMECEA Gaba Publications Spearhead Series. Healey recommends among other things the need to encourage the active participation of priests in animating, facilitating and coordinating the SCCs and the formation of SCCs among African youth. Another recommendation talks of the need for the Church to encourage the members of the SCCs to use the new media/social media in pastoral and missionary activities as well as to promote Youth SCCs that use social networking.

The Ebook (Electronic Book) version is posted on the Small Christian Communities Global Collaborative Website (www.smallchristiancommunities.org). This online version is updated every month with new statistics, quotations, stories and examples. The latest version as of 17 August 2012 has 6350 hits (visits) as of 10 September, 2012.

Mr. Francis Oswin Njuguna
Catholic Information Service for Africa (CISA)
Nairobi, Kenya
Email: osnjuguna@yahoo.com

Cellphone: 0720-434819

 

 

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