UGANDA: Participants want the Formation of SCCs Co-ordinating and Training Teams at Diocesan and Parish levels

Participants

Participants at the Workshop on “Building
Small Christian Communities for Grassroots Evangelization” have recommended that
the establishment of SCCs Co-ordinating and
Training Teams (at diocese and parish levels) is important for effective management
and dynamic growth of SCCs. The Co-ordinating and Training Teams will be able
to nourish and sustain the building of Parish-based SCCs.  

 

In order to promote the involvement of
young people in SCCs, the Workshops recommended the establishment of Youth SCCs
(YSCCs) as one of the priorities. They are also recommended the involvement of
SCC members in the social media and the internet especially to attract youth
and arrange training for the pastoral coordinators on SCCs.

 

The Workshop went further to recommend that the training
team should work at preparing and producing a Small Christian Communities Training Manual as Facilitators Guide. This will be both in print and
electronic formats by next year. On issues of finances, it was observed that
some of the SCCs are dominated by fundraising activities at the expense of
their primary mission of sharing the Word of God. The delegates recommended the
promotion on the centrality of the Word of God in the life and mission of SCCs.
 

 

The workshop, which was for Tororo Metropolitan (Ecclesiastical Province), was held at the Benedictine Sisters Priory and St. Peter’s
College in Tororo,
Uganda from 4 to 7 May, 2015. It was attended by 44
delegates, from two dioceses in eastern Uganda (Tororo Archdiocese and
Jinja Diocese): one archbishop, 16 priests, 24 laymen (especially catechists)
and three laywomen. 

 

During
the Workshop, participants narrated on how the different models, and even
names, of SCCs emerged in Uganda. The name SCCs was popular in Central, Western
and Northern Uganda. While the term Basic Christian Communities (BCCs) was used
in the eastern part of the country.

 

Speaking to AMECEA Online News, the AMECEA Pastoral Department Coordinator, Rev
Fr Febian

One to one sharing of the word of God

Pikiti said that the workshop focused on a participatory learning
process that included four small groups by diocese and the formation of six
mixed SCCs. “This is the ‘learning by doing’ style, which showed how we can be
enriched by each other’s grassroots SCC experiences as seen in the Ugandan
proverb One hand washes the other,” he said.

 

In his
opening remarks the Archbishop of Tororo, Most Rev Emmanuel Obbo emphasized
that ‘the success of SCCs will be the
success of the Local Church in Africa.’ In expouding on SCCs as a new way
of being Church he said, “SCCs are not a project but a life for our Catholic
people.” He emphasized the importance of Word of God, but said that Catholics
have not yet taken the Bible as their
book. “When we see people carrying the Bible
on the streets in the country we say “there go the Born Again Pentecostals,”
he said.

 

Speaking
at the workshop, Fr. Joe Healey talked about the historical factors that became
a hindrance to the growth of SCCs in Uganda. He referred to the word of Archbishop
Emeritus James Odongo who said, “For almost 23 years gatherings or meetings
were virtually banned. The climate was too hostile for any meaningful
apostolate… By the beginning of 1993, relative peace was restored in our
country. Our Pastoral Council had its first meeting in almost 20 years. We all
complained that the history of our country had hindered our own pastoral
progress for almost those same 20 years,” he said.

 

Scholarships have been awarded to three
leaders (priest, catechist, young person) from the Tororo Archdiocese to attend
the Lumko Course that will take place in September, 2015, in Nairobi, Kenya.

 

The workshop was sponsored by the
Pastoral Department of Tororo Archdiocese on behalf of the Tororo Metropolitan (Ecclesiastical Province) and the Uganda Episcopal
Conference in conjunction with the AMECEA Pastoral
Department. 

 

This workshop in Tororo Metropolitan
(Ecclesiastical Province) was the fifth of
a series of national and metropolitan SCCs workshops that have been conducted in
the nine AMECEA countries by the Pastoral Department.