KENYA: Secretaries General urged to own the Mission and Vision of AMECEA
The Metropolitan Archbishop of Nairobi, His Eminence John Cardinal Njue, has challenged the Secretaries General from AMECEA Member Conferences to ensure that the structures and institutions of AMECEA which are instrumental to the work of Evangelization are kept up and running.
The Cardinal spoke on 9th, February, 2018 when he paid a courtesy call to the Secretaries General who were meeting in Nairobi to evaluate the implementation of the Resolutions of the 18th AMECEA Plenary Assembly by both AMECEA Secretariat and the conferences.
According to Cardinal Njue, one of the main reasons for establishment of AMECEA, was to ensure that the seed of Evangelization planted by the Missionaries in the region is well taken care of. He therefore expressed that planting the seed is not as difficult as watering and then weeding it and that when AMECEA was formed, the founding fathers ensured that there were structures to be used to facilitate the watering and weeding of the seed.
Cardinal Njue reiterated the fact that Secretaries General of Conferences are closer to the decision making authorities and therefore bear responsibility of ensuring that things are moving to the right directions.
“In the place where I came from, we say that it is the person sitting under a tree who knows what the ants are eating. As Secretaries General, I think you are sitting under the tree and therefore your coming together in such a forum gives you opportunity to identify exactly where problems are and deliberate on how they can be approached or if there are successes then how can they be made better,” he said.
He further said, “Take courage and do whatever you can, we want to see that the responsibility imparted in you is fully utilized because what is most important is not the name but somewhere along the line, there is a mission entrusted under your care.”
His Eminence reminded them that there will always be challenges and difficulties along the way, but that must not deter them from doing whatever it takes to succeed in their endeavours.
“Remember that there is no challenge and there is no difficulty which is greater than you. I always believe that myself. So mine is to encourage you and to tell you that please do whatever it takes to see to it that this gift that was left to us by our forefathers is well taken care of, to the end,” he said.
Finally, he reminded Secretaries General of the need to take the issue of ownership of the structures and institutions of AMECEA seriously. “It would be a pity if some of these projects that have taken great effort to build are left to collapse,” he said.
“Such unfortunate eventualities can be avoided if every conference has a sense of ownership. Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) for instance is our university as AMECEA; even if it is here in Kenya, it belongs to all of us members of the Association,” he said adding that if some of the projects the Association has worked so hard to establish are left to degenerate, then the greatest losers would not even be the conferences where the projects are situated but rather the people for whom they were intended.
He therefore urged the Secretaries General to take to heart the issues they discussed at the meeting and share them with the relevant competent authorities as well as Bishops from their respective conferences to ensure that the Association achieves more of it mandates.
∽End∽
Pamela Adinda, AMECEA Online News
