KENYA: AMECEA Taking Small Christian Community Trainings to the Major seminaries

Christ The King Major Seminary in the Archdiocese of Nyeri-Kenya becomes the second Seminary in AMECEA Region to benefit from the AMECEA training on small Christian Communities. Apostles of Jesus Major Seminary in the Archdiocese of Nairobi was the first to receive the training which is part of AMECEA’s initiative to expand the program of train personnel to run Small Christian Communities (SCCs) in the region using the methodology provided in the AMECEA Small Christian Community Training Handbook for facilitators which was published in May 2017.

In an interview with AMECEA online news, the AMECEA Pastoral Coordinator Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Chimombo, said that his department was striving towards establishing a uniform model of conducting Small Christian Community activities in the region expressing the need to train agents of evangelization using a standardised model. “This standardised model has been developed in the AMECEA Small Christian Community Training Handbook for facilitators,” he said.

Seminarians from Christ the King Major Seminary-Nyeri with Facilitators of Small Christian Community Training — Seminarians from Christ the King Major Seminary-Nyeri
with Facilitators of Small Christian Community Training

Fr. Chimombo explained that previously, the agents of evangelization were conducting Small Christian Community activities according to their own ways which did not conform to any guidelines; a trend he said is set to change adding that it is the main reason for training the seminarians who will need the skills when they are sent out to do pastoral activities.

Meanwhile, the Rector of Christ the King Major Seminar Very Rev. Fr. Peter Mutune, emphasised that the training was very timely announcing that soon the institution will be sending out Seminarians for three-month Pastoral experience in various parishes and institutions in Kenya with the mandate to strengthen the Church through small Christian Communities.

The trainings are meant to promote new and deeper evangelization through revitalization and utilization of Small Christian Communities (SCC) as a model of evangelization at the grassroots level. This is one of the goals of AMECEA 10-Year Pastoral Strategic Plan for 2014-2024 and it targets the clergy, religious and the lay leaders.

At Christ the King Major Seminary, a total of 307 seminarians covering eight years of Priest Formation were trained. These included those in Spirituality, Philosophy and Theology years. This number according to Fr. Chimombo is the largest team to ever to be trained, something the facilitators were extremely impressed about.

The training which took place between 22^nd – 25^th February, 2018 were facilitated by Rev. Fr. Moses Muriira, Rev. Fr. Joseph Healey, MM and Mr. Alphonse Omolo. In attendance were Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Chimombo of AMECEA and Dr. Miriam Leidinger from Missio who came to learn about the operations of Small Christian Communities with an aim of adopting the model for the Church in Germany.

Rev. Fr. Joseph Healey, MM who led the facilitation team reported that they very impressed by the 14 House SCCs at Christ the King Seminary in Nyeri located in the dormitories or residence halls covering eight years of theology – Spiritual Year, three years of philosophy and four years of theology. “These House SCCs of seminarians meet on Tuesday for a SCC Mass (Jumuiya Mass) and on Sunday afternoon for a prayer session in their respective halls,” he said.

Fr. Healey added that the model used in Njeri was a good one and could be used as an example for all the Major Seminaries in Kenya and in the entire AMECEA Region.

Facilitators of SCCs Workshop Training in Nyeri From Left Rev. Fr. Joseph Healey, MM, Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Chimombo AMECEA Pastoral Coordinator, Dr. Miriam Leidinger from Missio Germany, Rev. Fr. Moses Muriira and Mr. Alphonse Omollo — Facilitators of SCCs Workshop Training in Nyeri From Left
Rev. Fr. Joseph Healey, MM, Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Chimombo
AMECEA Pastoral Coordinator, Dr. Miriam Leidinger
from Missio Germany, Rev. Fr. Moses Muriira
and Mr. Alphonse Omollo

The facilitation team also had an opportunity in the afternoon of Sunday 25, February to visit one of the St. Samuel Small Christian Community at St. Joseph Parish in the Archdiocese of Nyeri where they had a learning experience.

Prior to the training workshop in Nyeri, similar workshops have been held in Malawi, Ethiopia, Tanzania (Mwanza Metropolitan) and Uganda (Tororo Archdiocese and Jinja Diocese).

Some Bishops having learnt of the importance of these trainings have made request to have their priests trained. Examples include the Diocese of Kakamega, Kenya, which benefited from the training in May 2017 and the Archdiocese of Kisumu where similar trainings were conducted respectively.

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By Pamela Adinda, AMECEA Online News