INTRODUCTION

In 1976 the AMECEA (Association of Member Episcopal Conferences of Eastern Africa) bishops made the establishment of Small Christian Communities (SCCs) a priority in the AMECEA countries. Since then many SCCs have sprung up, among these is the St. Joseph SCC of the Deaf in Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, Nairobi, Kenya. This community, as one of the organs of Guadalupe Parish, contributes to the parish’s mission, but in the process it meets challenges. In this paper I will give a definition of a Small Christian Community, describe briefly the SCC of St. Joseph and then go further to present its contributions to the mission of Guadalupe Parish and the challenges the members meet.

WHAT IS A SMALL CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY?

Kieran Flynn defines a Small Christian Community as “a manageable group of about ten or twenty adults living within each other’s neighborhood.”[1] But when we consider the case of St. Joseph where the members come from different places, the definition of Kieran becomes limited. Of course in many cases closeness of homes usually becomes a point for consideration when forming a SCC, but it is not always the case. There are exceptions as in the case of St. Joseph SCC for the deaf which gathers deaf and hearing people from different places in Kenya and outside Kenya. So it is better to understand a SCC as a group of people who seek to form a faith community with each other through weekly or regular common prayer, reflection and mutual action. This community should continually enhance the members’ commitment to the Church and to each other through caring and loving relationships. As Patrick Kalilombe puts it, in a SCC, the faithful “come to know one another sufficiently, to have a feeling of spiritual togetherness, can pray together, can experience together joys, sorrows, successes, failures and meet problems together and find solutions for them in ordinary Christian and human mission.”[2]

ST. JOSEPH SCC OF THE DEAF

St. Joseph SCC is one of the communities in Guadalupe Parish. It is a community for the deaf and it aims at creating an inclusive Christian Community whereby, the hearing impaired (deaf) constitute part of the whole family of God. One key mission of this community is to nurture the culture of inclusiveness by enabling the deaf members to read, understand and preach the Word of God, and in this way nourish their faith. The members of St. Joseph SCC of the Deaf are both hearing impaired and hearing bound by the same culture.

It was founded in 2008 by Joseph Guadalupe of Guadalupe Missionaries, by then a theology student at Hekima College. Inspired by his faith and his theological training, Joseph realized a need to have the deaf fully included in the Christian acts of worship. He discussed his interests with the parish priest Father John Joseph and his assistant Father Eduardo who were very supportive and encouraged the founding of the group. The St. Joseph SCC of the Deaf meets every Sunday morning before mass to read and reflect on the Sunday readings and share common interests. At the moment it has 25 active members. At times interpretation is provided, when needed, in order to facilitate the flow of interaction among the members and visitors. The SCC of St. Joseph in their ordinary gathering follow the structure of the Bible sharing (Opening Prayer, songs of praise, reading the Word of God, sharing, contributions, Closing Prayer and sign of peace).

THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF ST. JOSEPH SCC TO THE MISSION OF GUADALUPE PARISH

Since the St. Joseph SCC started many deaf members in Guadalupe Parish have been instructed in the Christian faith and have been baptized and others confirmed, a thing that was rare in the past. The community has trained deaf catechists who help in this work. This SCC has formed its members in a spirit of prayerfulness whereby every Sunday the members gather and pray as a community and at times they organize retreats. Furthermore the deaf are now enabled to listen to the Word of God and to participate actively in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread with the help of an interpreter. They also work hand in hand with other Christians in animating mass and making the liturgy very lively.

The community has brought peace, joy, hope to the usually excluded group. The members do support each other in their troubles like death, rape, economic constraints, neglect in their homes and so on so they feel supported by the group. Because of such support the group has enhanced the realization of the dignity of those who are usually made to feel that they do not fully belong to the family of the people of God. They also plan practical activities that involve mutual support and social outreach within the communities such as visiting the sick, burying the dead and mediating possible conflicts. They have a plan for self help projects with the aim of generating income for the self reliance of the SCC. They also prepare seminars on development, leadership training and awareness programmes and this helps members to have basic skills necessary for the promotion of life of the group. This SCC is also a center of evangelization. For example, members go to other Churches to evangelize to their fellow deaf.

THE CHALLENGES OF ST. JOSEPH SCC

Unemployment is one of the biggest problems that affect the members of St. Joseph SCC for almost all of the members have no jobs. The reason for this is that the society has for a long time thought of deaf people as persons who are incapable of doing anything. As a result many of the members live under poor conditions. Some even struggle to get food so during the SCC meeting some are very hungry and their attention minimal. This also makes the group to lack funds for buying stationery and other necessary materials. The members who come from other parishes outside Guadalupe Parish some times don’t show up due to lack of money for transport.

Segregation is another problem that the members of St. Joseph SCC face. Being deaf, many people tend to isolate them not allowing them to freely integrate with other Christians. For example there was an incident in Guadalupe Parish on 6 February 2011. One of the deaf members wanted to baptize her child. According to the tradition of that parish, parents who want to baptize their children are supposed to be instructed on the importance of baptism and the duty parents have on their children. When this lady approached the instructor with the help of an interpreter, the instructor showed some resistance in allowing her to join other hearing parents. But we had to insist and the instructor accepted her in his class. This shows how the deaf are discriminated against and this makes them feel bad and sometimes they end up committing suicide as it happened on 25 December 2010 with one of our deaf members. Rape is another challenge that affects the group because so far we have got two cases of two girls of our SCC community who have got young children due to rape.

CONCLUSION

To sum it up, St. Joseph Small Christian Community contributes in a very unique way to the mission of Guadalupe Parish. It has got to be encouraged to keep on the good work being done. However, this SCC has got very challenging hardships as we have seen above and these call for a response from the Church and the government to bring an end to these problems.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Flynn, Kieran. Communities for the Kingdom: A Handbook for Small Christian Community Leaders. Eldoret, Kenya: AMECEA Gaba Publications, 2007.

Ishengoma, Rita. Akamwani: The Challenges of Bible Sharing in Small Christian Communities. Old East Africa Ltd, 2009.

Kalilombe, Patrick. “An Overall View of Building Christian Communities,” AMECEA Plenary 1976; Building Christian Communities. AFER, Vol.18, No.5. Eldoret: AMECEA Gaba Publication, 1976.

Lee, Bernard. The Catholic Experience of Small Christian Communities. New York: Paulist Press, 2000.

O’Halloran, James. Living Cells: Developing Small Christian Community. New York: Orbis Books Maryknoll, 1984.

David Niwagaba is a Ugandan. He now lives in Nairobi, Kenya. He is a theology student at Hekima College. He belongs to the Montfort Missionaries.This article is adapted from a “SCCs Course Paper" in the 2011 course “Small Christian Communities as a New Model of Church in Africa Today (TE14)” at Hekima College (the Jesuit School of Theology), a Constituent College of the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA), in Nairobi, Kenya.

Here are four photos showing how the SCC is bringing joy to the members by visiting one another and having meals together.