UGANDA: AMECEA Trains over 300 Seminarians on Small Christian Community

This has been the biggest number so far of agents of evangelizations trained on promotion and animation of Small Christian Communities (SCC) in the region. The trainings organized by AMECEA Pastoral department are geared towards establishing a uniform model of conducting SCC activities in the region using the AMECEA Small Christian Community Training Handbook for facilitators.

The workshop which started on Wednesday, February 28 and ends on Sunday March 4, is being conducted at St. Mary’s National Major Seminary, Ggaba and students from the institution together with their neighbors from St. Mbaaga Major Seminary of the Archdiocese of Kampala are beneficiaries. From St. Mary’s National Major Seminary all the 212 students are benefitting while from St. Mbaaga Major Seminary, the number is 183, excluding the lecturers and other staff members who are also participating.

Fr. Emmanuel Chimombo, AMECEA Pastoral Department Coordinator underscored the training of seminarians saying that as future priests they need to be fully equipped in order to to minister to the communities they will be assigned.

“SCCs are not programs or projects but a way of life for all baptised Catholics. They are best described as the Church in the neighbourhood because they transform the parish into a communion of small communities,” Fr. Chimombo explained, adding that the ideal number should be 15 and that the centrality of the community is the Word of God as members meet at least weekly to reflect on the Word of God, especially the Gospel of the following Sunday and connect it to their daily life.

According to Rev. Fr. John Baptist Kaganda, National Pastoral Coordinator for Uganda Episcopal Conference (UEC), since 1973 subsequent AMECEA Plenary Assembly meetings have discussed and confirmed the SCCs as a way forward for the Church to become really local, that is Self-ministering, Self-propagating and Self Supporting.

He regrettably noted that at least in Uganda, there are still some dioceses in Uganda where SCCs have not yet developed. Therefore, there is still a great need to re-enkindle the establishment of SCCs as a pastoral priority program.

“We should create structures and concrete means necessary to implement Small Christian Communities and extend the initiative to all dioceses as this is where each one of us is called to play an active role beginning from their local Church,” Fr. Kaganda suggested.

So far AMECEA has conducted similar trainings to seminarians in the archdioceses of Nairobi and Nyeri, both in Kenya. The training is supported by Ggaba National Seminary, AMECEA Pastoral Department and Private benefactors. The trainings are often on request from the seminaries.

Apart from the seminaries, other trainings have been conducted in dioceses based on requests from bishops. In Uganda, the AMECEA Pastoral Department has conducted similar trainings in the Archdiocese of Tororo and the refugee camps from Arua Diocese and Gulu Archdiocese.

~End~

By Pamela Adinda, AMECEA Online News